The BEST friends ever!

I'm almost done with the writing, and I hope to have it wrapped up by tomorrow morning! That will be a relief, and I MUST NOT let the deadline creep up on me in the future. I say this every time, and every time it happens again, and that is NOT responsible of me as it affects other people. I'm always yakking about respect, and I need to follow my own guidelines!

OK -- can I just stop here a second and brag about my friends? I have the BEST friends in the world. They are smart, they are intelligent, they are creative, we have some very stimulating conversations, and dare I say -- I'm a bit passionate about some of those discussions! DH and I have a review at the end of the day -- who was more passionate in their work! Sometimes it's him, and sometimes it's me! We just remind each other to tone it down if necessary!

If quilters ruled the world! Kidding, but I swear my friends have bailed me out on more than one occasion, and yesterday was no exception. I was searching for a particular item, which I won't share with you just yet. I looked high and low on the internet. Well, can you believe one of my friends bought the same item? The minute she chimed into the conversation, I knew she had purchased the same thing, and sure enough, she showed us the box! 

Hmm --- of course, she bought it several weeks ago! Not the last minute like myself. I was tempted to pay her a visit and steal the item, but that wouldn't be nice. Then another friend managed to find the item in question in a store in Quebec. This store did NOT come up in my search, so I immediately purchased the item, and let's hope it comes by December 1. By the way - that's a clue!

We don't thank people enough for doing favors for us, and I try to acknowledge them because I appreciate them taking a bit of time to help. So THANK YOU (you know who you are) who rescued me yesterday! And NO -- I won't have to resort to stealing! 

So for those friends who love to watch Yellowstone (I've no idea what's it about -- something about cowboys and mafia? - mafia on horseback? - whatever), I spotted this at Indigo yesterday. Just saying if you need a stocking stuffer!

A Guide to Yellowstone

Although it was warm yesterday, it was pretty windy, so I decided to bring out my Patagonia jacket. The one that was repaired for FREE. I love this company and can't say enough about them and their repair policy. This is my main winter jacket, and I've worn it for many years. The zipper went last year, and I returned it to Patagonia, and they fixed it. Not only did they fix the zipper, but some of the fabric was wearing on the inside of the elbows, and the down was coming out. 

The sleeve of my winter jacket

To look at the sleeve, you have no idea how they fixed that. They attached a new bottom of the sleeve to my jacket! On both sleeves!

The repair

Seriously??? I had NO IDEA until I saw it hanging in the closet and noticed that the coloring was SLIGHTLY off. I looked closer and realized what they had done. Brilliant!!!! You can't tell, and like I said, this jacket has been worn for many years. It's like a brand-new jacket! And the next time something goes, I might buy a new one. THANK YOU, Patagonia, for all that you do for the planet and all the fantastic products you make!! How did they match that color so well? 

I didn't need the jacket -- I was sweating as I walked. The wind was blustery, but it was a gorgeous day!

I also noticed that if you are getting a new dog, Corgis seem to be popular. It even made the cover of a magazine. Do you think that's to honor the queen? One of our neighbors recently got a Corgi! 

Corgi on the cover!

Speaking of dogs, my two are always up to no good! Murphy has always moved the big dog bed; now she moves the small one as well and has no issue with them being in the middle of the floor.

Don't mind me -- just rearranging the furniture to my liking

 Look at her! What a goof! 

MOM -- this new toy is great

And why is her butt in the air? 

MOM -- a little busy here! 

She was NOT interested in watching soccer! But it looked like she had pulled her bed over to be closer to the TV. 

I swear I spend a lot of time watching the two goof around. Imagine if they were puppies  - I would get NOTHING done. 

I need two or possibly three black buttons. Can you imagine, in all that mess, that I have no large black buttons? Certainly not three that match! I might be off today to buy buttons. 

Buttons! 

I got an e-mail from my favorite book site owned by my favorite online store. For the record, I bought something from them recently, because I couldn't find it elsewhere! Don't judge me! I'm a hypocrite, and I'm OK with that! I never said not to shop there; just be mindful of what and how often you buy from them! 

The e-mail was about voting for the top books (on their site) for 2022. Naturally, I went to the mystery and thriller section and was dismayed that I had read only ONE of the twenty books listed. Seriously??? How can that be? Granted, some of them are in series, and I haven't got there yet; about half are on my "want to read" list, and I have one other sitting on the floor waiting for me to start it. 

I was not the only one who reviewed a few of these top lists. Another friend had gone through five different categories and had only read one or two from each, and she's also a voracious reader! 

Top twenty books (Thriller and Mystery) on Goodreads

How many have you read?? 

So I got to looking and found an easy way to add the unread ones to my "want to read" list. Then I realized they had their top 20 books for each year back to 2011, so I added all those I haven't read to my list. Why not? With over 300 books on that "want to read" list, I think I'm good for a long time! And that doesn't count many of the series I'm reading, and way behind! Since I read about 50 novels a year, I'm good!

I think that's hilarious, but comforting to know that I won't ever run out of reading material. OH -- and I got a new book series recommended to me yesterday (by another good friend!), and there are seven books. Those are not added yet! This is from a kid (me) who said they would read every book in the world when I was about 6 or 7! Little did I know! 

Well, that's it for me! I've got a Zoom presentation this morning, and then back to the sewing machine and the computer! I want this done today! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Thank you Patagonia!

OMG --- I LOVE my blog. That's a pretty narcissistic comment, but seriously -- I just went to search for something, and well, each of the posts has something cool that I remember. OK -- that's not exactly true as some days are boring as ever, but other days - well! 

But the underlying theme remains the same! Here's the link to a post from January 7, 2012. You'll see why I'm sending you there in one second. But the title of that post is Learning Never Stops. That's hilarious! And it's nice to see that I'm true to myself, not only in the learning aspect but in my favorite color. 

That was the day I visited the Patagonia store and fell in love with my down sweater. I'm not sure when I actually found the right color and purchased it, but let's just say that the jacket is now 10 years old. 

My down sweater

There's the label! 

Patagonia products ROCK!

I've worn that jacket everywhere - I wore it in the evening or on cool days on my bike trip across Canada and other places. It's super lightweight, and it's warm! It packs up into a tiny ball, so great for all kinds of travel. I just watched the video with all the features -- oh my -- I learned a few things about the jacket! 

It's dirty, and DH would LOVE for me to replace the jacket. I've tried to wash it, but that dirt is engrained in it. I'm good with that. 

OK -- so why am I telling you all this? Because the zipper has failed! I know -- after 10 years of heavy use, the zipper has become very unreliable. I'm devastated and won't give the jacket up! 

I've looked at purchasing a new jacket -- the colors are bland. I've thought about replacing the zipper myself -- my Monday sewing friends all poopooed that idea as it's quite the job to do so. I even found a replacement zipper online! They still poopooed the idea. 

They suggested that I have someone else fix the zipper, and in the afternoon, I went to the mall to see what it would cost. $50!!!! Yikes!! That's a lot of money. 

And there's this label in the jacket that makes me NOT want to throw the jacket away. 

There used to be a store in Toronto, but I couldn't find it on the internet and only found three stores out west. So I called the one in Victoria. OH -- MY  --- GOODNESS. When I explained my problem to the guy and lamented that they didn't have any bright colors, he said PATAGONIA stands behind all their products and will fix it for FREE!!!!!  

Seriously???? I could have kissed him if he were in front of me. He also explained how to find the Toronto store. Apparently, the ones out west are franchises, and the Toronto store is the corporate store. I called them, and YEP, they will fix the zipper for free. All I need to do is make sure the jacket is clean and dry and then take it in. WOW!!!!! 

There are a few holes on the inside of the elbows, and some down has escaped -- I don't know if they can fix that, but I don't care. I'm going to get my jacket fixed! I will schedule a day and go downtown to visit the store. I've been thinking of purchasing some other outdoor gear, and well - I will certainly pay the price to buy from Patagonia. It would cost me $300 to replace the jacket, and I'll spend that money to buy something else. 

And is $300 expensive to pay for a jacket? Well, let's see --- I didn't pay $300 when I originally bought it. Let's say that I paid $200. $200 over 10 years?? That is $20 a year to own that jacket. And now that it needs repair and they will fix it for free?? I think I owe Patagonia some money! That was a very worthwhile investment. In a heartbeat, I WILL buy my next jacket from them.

I thought they would be encouraging me to buy a new one since the jacket is 10 years old. Nope -- For them, this is NOT an old jacket! My kind of company! And the reviews on these down jackets are fantastic. It weighs about 13.1 ounces -- something that is very important if you are backpacking, which I am not, but I love how lightweight it is! 

DH will NOT be happy that I can get the jacket fixed! He's not quite as environmentally conscious as I am! 

So if you did venture to that Jan 2012 blog post, it was all about a trip downtown that M and I made to the ROM to view a clothing exhibit and a visit to the textile district in Toronto. Fond memories!!

I don't seem to get much sewing done during Monday sewing, but I sure get a lot done early in the morning by myself. I hate diagonal seams on quilts as they seem to go on forever!!!

Sewing the LAST diagonal seam on Farmer's Wife

But LOOK -- the top, minus the borders, is done!!!

Farmer's Wife -- almost done!

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about that! 

Yep -- it's been so much excitement the last couple of days, I can barely control myself! But now reality is kicking in, and it's time to get down to some serious work. More writing, homework assignments to sew up, and well, it's going to be heads-down the entire week! 

But I'm OK with that. 

The other night I was sitting in the living room reading, and the first quilt I made when I got serious about quilting was sitting there. I had to laugh when I looked at the corners of the binding. 

The binding corners on my first serious quilts

OH MY GOSH -- some of those look like the toes on elf shoes!! Look at the hooks on them! I had NO idea what I was doing. 

And now, look at the binding on my latest quilt. 

Binding now

Yep -- quite a bit of difference, to say the least. 

We all know that the prices of EVERYTHING are going up. I came across this article about batting the other day. 

When I was at the mall yesterday looking for a couple of things and getting a quote on my zipper, I thought I'd check out the irons at Wal-Mart. Not that I need a new one, but we've had several discussions the last couple of Mondays, and I thought I'd check to see what was on the shelves. 

Good gosh --- what is going on with the irons??? The shelves were BARE, except for ONE iron. Quilters??? Sheet ironers?? Someone is hoarding irons!

Where is the supply of irons?

I also found the latest issue for QUILTCON -- that was the modern quilt show that happened in February. Since I didn't get to go -- I bought the magazine to read all about the latest trends, etc. It's published BEFORE Quiltcon happens, so it's not directly about the show, but close enough. 

Quiltcon magazine

I haven't seen any coyotes in a long time, although I have seen a fox from time to time. I actually thought the coyotes might have moved on, apparently NOT. They were howling their heads off at 3:30 this morning. And I say THEY -- there was definitely more than one -- it sounded like two or three at least. I'm not sure what they were chatting about -- it didn't last long. But something significant happened. 

Now that I think about it -- the rabbits probably think they are safer INSIDE our fence with our two goofy dogs than outside with the hungry coyotes!!

And on that note -- I'm out of here! 

Lots to sew, e-mails to answer, things to create, a presentation to do. It's going to be a busy day!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!