Trust your instinct!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! It was a very quiet day at our house - just the way we like it. We had popcorn for lunch while we watched the new Star Wars movie. I'm not going to say anything about the movie today, as I know some of you haven't watched it yet. It was an awesome way to spend the afternoon!

After we got home, I took a long walk with the girls to compensate for the popcorn (which had no butter, so it wasn't that big of a deal), but still, a medium popcorn has 430 calories and 20 grams of fat). That's almost ONE-QUARTER of what I'm supposed to eat in a day! It was a treat so I wasn't worried, but imagine if you did that regularly. And if you added butter. Oh boy!

I got myself busy trying to finish that UFO. Here's what happened.

Remember how I did NOT really calculate the measurements. Oh sure - I did in my head, but I wasn't writing them down. Well, after the third row was almost together, I was sure the row was going to be longer than it was supposed to be by one-half inch. So I chopped a half-inch off the last block. Guess what? I was a half-inch SHORT. If I had trusted my instincts, I would have been just fine.

Oops - now the row is ½" too short

So I ripped out one of the red pieces and made it a half-inch wider and all is well in the third row.

The third row now fits

It's very deceiving if things are going to fit - it totally depends on how many sections there are and how they are laid beside each other. See how row four and five do not look like they will fit at all.

Will rows four and five fit?

Wouldn't you know it - I did the SAME thing on row four. I was certain that I was over so I chopped down some of the red inserts only to realize that I shouldn't have chopped them at all. TRUST - where's the trust???

Row four is now too short

Thankfully with the improv style of piecing that I did, it was easy enough to fix. I made the red piece beside the PEACE block larger (after I had cut it down) and then row four fit perfectly.

A larger piece of red was required to make row four fit

Notice how the LET IT SNOW blocks on rows four and five are on the extreme right of the quilt. They're not supposed to be. Yep - made a mistake there too with the piecing! It was just one of those days. And I had inadvertently put some white blocks touching in rows three, four and five and so with a little bit of magic, it got fixed. There's only one small spot where two white backgrounds touch each other and I can live with that. I'm much happier with this improv setting than I am with the original one. I'm happy, I decided to change it up.

Work in progress

The bottom line is that it's all together - the top is anyway.

The top is finished!

I used the leftover 2 ½" wide strips as a starter for the binding. It's now completely made and I found something that'll work for the backing. It'll get made later today and that's going to be one more to cross off the 2017 UFO list. That'll leave THREE items on that list. This is SUPER EXCITING.

The backing (to be made) and the binding

I pulled the backing from this project box. This is one of the three remaining on the 2017 list. It's a red and white log cabin. I'm tempted to start working on it and NO, this isn't the one that Shelly is going to get excited about. That one is also pulled and well - I need to be working on other stuff, but I have a couple of UFO days left this year. Could I get THREE projects completed before the end of the year?? Hmmm - I could try.

The red/white backing was pulled from this box

There are loads of reds and whites in the box. I won't miss the backing that I pulled.

So does that mean the Holiday Redwork project box is empty? Of course not!!!  There was a hunk of white fabric in there that I used for the background. It's now back in the basket of white fabric. The embroidery floss is with the other embroidery floss. The crystals, which will go on after the piece is quilted, are in a plastic bag with the pattern. That bag will stay with the quilt until it's quilted so it'll be easy to make a label.

The bits from the redwork project

Is the box empty now? You'd think, but sadly it is NOT.

OK - so I confess that I'd bring home a stray puppy. Heck, I'd bring home anything stray. Well - I would have in the past. I might still bring home a stray puppy, but I won't bring home a stray project. So during one of the garage sales at The Textile Museum, I came across this.

OH MY GOD - it's the same pattern (by the same designer) as the redwork, but it's applique. I MUST have that. So I rooted through all the boxes that were there and I found patterns 5 - 12.

Holiday Sampler - Applique version

For each of the 8 blocks that I acquired, there is a fabric kit for the applique and the pattern.

The pattern for the applique and the fabric kit

Yep - I've got patterns for 8 blocks and 8 fabric kits. I paid $3 per pattern. Someone out there has the blocks 1 - 4. The scale of the blocks is slightly larger than the embroidery version.

However, it wouldn't take much to enlarge the embroidery patterns to the same size as the applique patterns and find some matching fabrics and finish (OK - start) the quilt.

Seriously?? Why oh why did I think this was a good idea at the time? The patterns and the fabric kit have gone back into that project box. I don't want to have to deal with this at the moment and my goal was to finish the redwork quilt, not the applique quilt. There is embroidery in the applique quilt as well. Hmmm - it might be fun to recreate the embroidery with the embroidery machine and get it done quick. It would be a great exercise in digitizing. And I could learn to digitize the outline of the appliques as well. Oh, shoot - that would be an awesome exercise to undertake. Ah - maybe that project needs to be pulled back out.

As I was cleaning, I've come across the oddest things. Do you know what this is?

What is this?

Well, it's the purse strap for my orange purse that I bought years ago. It was a "fancy" purse so the thing was completely wrapped in tissue paper so the leather wouldn't get damaged. Normally, I would just whack off the hardware and throw the strap away, but this is too nice of a strap to do that. I put it with the rest of my bag hardware and hopefully, I'll find something that it can be used for.

The leather strap - unwrapped at last

 I HATE straps on my shoulders. Rather, I should say that I can't use a shoulder strap for ANYTHING. My neck doesn't cope well and it's not good. So I refrain (and have for years) to use a shoulder strap for anything. I wonder if the strap is long enough for a crossbody strap? It could be shortened and used for a handle???

I wonder if the company that made my "fancy" purse would offer to give me a new one if they saw how the old one is wearing. Don't get me wrong, it's actually wearing very well as I would expect it to for the price I paid. I was just trying to get a new purse - which I don't need. So I won't even bother!

We didn't move the long arm back into position, but we need to get that done today so I can get back to work. And I was looking for two particular quilts this morning to get quilted. I have a burning desire to quilt them. I'll share them with you tomorrow because guess what? I couldn't find them. They are supposed to be in tub 15, but there isn't a tub 15 in the "to be quilted" pile. Hmmm - what does that mean? And I'm looking for a binding that got misplaced along the way. I think it's time to revisit those tubs and get things in order. Tubs 1 - 14 are in good shape - it's the ones NOT in tubs that have the issue.

I did pull two of my own quilts out that I would like to get quilted as I use them for trunk shows. It's a pain to have to pull from the "to be quilted" pile. They are now in the URGENT pile for me. A job for later today - to sort through the tubs to find the missing quilts and the missing binding. It won't take long - things are in pretty good order. I don't want to buy more tubs - I need to quilt faster!

I'm working on the class list and it should be finished by tomorrow.

Here's something to contemplate as the end of the year approaches. Some people like to make resolutions. How they want to become better or do more things or do better things or whatever they resolve to do. Most don't follow through. So here's something to contemplate. Think about all the GOOD things that you are currently doing. Give yourself a pat on the back for those things and then see how you can add, subtract or modify the good things you do to incorporate something you'd like to change. Be absolutely sure that those changes have consequences, goals, timelines, etc. I'll be chatting more about that in the next couple of days. I'm in the process of evaluating that for myself and I'm also in the process of CAREFULLY choosing my next 12 UFO projects. Two down, ten more to go.

All food for thought as the year draws to a close!!!

On that note, have a wonderful day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!

Cleaning up!!!!

OMG - I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I had a lot of fun unpacking boxes yesterday. I don't have time to share the photos with you this morning, but here's a couple of quilts that I've been working on over the last couple of days. My goal is to get ALL of the customer quilts sitting in the queue to be completed before the end of the year. I'll still have some community projects quilts to do, but those can wait. I want the few customer ones left to be done! I know there is more coming in, but those are for January!

Customer quilt - DONE

Customer quilt - DONE

Customer quilt - DONE

And yes - even though that long arm has a robot on it, I still have to know how to operate the darn thing. It's never a good idea to get into a groove and absently push the wrong button. Cause if you do - guess what? Now you've got a big problem to solve. I know how to solve most (I think), but I'm sure I could get myself into trouble if I didn't pay attention.

Setting up the long arm robot

I still have to be there to change the bobbin, advance the quilt, and load and unload so the robot does the boring part of the job, but it can't function without me!

Here's a picture of the cold storage room that's under the front steps. Three saw horses (where's the fourth? I haven't seen it so likely it's gone or why would I have an odd number?). The rest of the stuff is painting supplies - brushes, rollers, and other stuff. I need to go through all that and sort it out. That's a job for next year. For the moment, it stays there. But for the most part, this cold storage room is pretty neat and tidy.

Cold storage room

Good because I need a space to put some boxes. I have a "few" sewing machine, embroidery units and serger boxes that I need to keep. So I laid those big planks on the floor to keep the boxes off the concrete floor and now all those boxes that were cluttering up the basement are now safely and neatly tucked away in the cold storage room.  And NO the plank is not covering the drain in the center of the floor. There's a bow in the plank so should anything need to drain away, the drain is clear.

Storage for sewing machine boxes

 I did say that my goal was to get the basement completely done by the end of the year. I might just make it. I'll be sharing more with you later this week. It's a huge job and I know that once I'm done, I'll be starting over. Although I might take a break from the basement since it's not in bad shape. I might restart at the top of the house and go through closets and whatnot to get rid of more stuff. What I'm loving about this is that while I'm getting rid of stuff, there's practically nothing (or very little) coming in.

That's the most exciting part! And I guess I can't put it off any longer, but the office is going to need to be tackled. It's going to be a thankless job. I know I could spend days here and not make a dent. Should I pack it all in boxes to clear the space and then work on one box at a time? Or do I work through the mess? Hmmm - I need to figure that one out. Since the rest of the house is in pretty good shape, perhaps I give myself the entire year to clear out this mess in the office. Maybe that's a bit much!

So here's the thing. I have lied in the past. Come on - we've all lied about something or we've cheated on something. I think it's human nature to try and get away with stuff. In my case, it's been nothing big. But I can't lie to myself. Ronda persuaded me to get back to using the MyFitnessPal app to track what I eat. It's not that I was eating poorly or excessively, but I knew there were times when I had an extra cookie when I didn't really need it. I've been maintaining my weight in my 5-pound buffer zone for over a year. But I do know that if I eat more sugar and fat than I should be eating (note - I eat sugar and fat - I'm talking about excess sugar and fat) - well guess where they both go??? Right on my waist and I don't like that! So I don't gain weight per se, but my body fat content goes up!

Well - I can't cheat that stupid app! If I have something, I log it. Logging the food is a pretty painless undertaking. You can scan food in or look them up - the information is readily available. And I think most of us tend to eat pretty much the same things, so now the information is even more accessible since it's already in the app.

Now here's my problem (and it's a good one to have). If  I want a snack, I think long and hard about what kind of snack I have and how it'll reflect on my nutrition in the damn app!! Can you believe it? However, here's the thing - it's saved me from mindlessly eating and makes me limit myself to two cookies a day instead of three or four. I'll have yogurt or fruit as a snack instead. And yesterday? I walked to the bank so I could have an extra big snack! The more steps you take, the more calories it allows you to eat since the app is linked to my FitBit. I did over 15,000 steps yesterday and already at 4,000 for today.

I think it's hilarious. But then I saw a sign at the gym today "you can't out-train a bad diet!". That is so true.

Just for fun, you should download the app - it's free. MyFitnessPal. Log in a typical day of eating. Don't change anything. Then look at the caloric intake - the sugar, the fat and see what you're eating. You might be shocked! I know that I need to increase my protein. That's my biggest downfall in eating so I've got to try and have a protein shake each day.

I can't put it off any longer - I need to get more paperwork (administration) stuff done this morning. I want to sew all afternoon, but that's going to be a reward after the paperwork is done. Where's my secretary?

I did think of one more amazing gift that you could add to your list. Pay to have their car detailed - inside and out. That would be a wonderful gift for anyone! And go back and read the comments from yesterday's blog. People are changing, but it's going to take time! Baby steps - but we need to start taking giant steps!!! Kudos to those that are bucking the trends!!  I love the phone in a basket idea - we need to do that more often. DH says I need to do that at the dinner table, although last night, together we booked our movie tickets for Christmas Day!

On that note, have a super day!!!


Ciao!!!

Self Control

I swear my brain has been taken over by aliens. The self-control I have these days is blowing my mind! Today is the first day of Roll up the Rim at Tim's. I used to go crazy and would buy up to two or three cups a day. I wanted that chance to WIN!!  What was I going to win? In all the years I've been playing, I never won anything big. The odds are not in my favor. I don't eat the cookies from there anymore and I drink ONE decaf tea a week and I buy it on my way to Monday sewing.

After the most amazing workout at the gym, I thought about Roll up the Rim and I even got in the lane to turn in. Then I thought to myself - "I'm BIGGER than their marketing. I do NOT need to buy a tea just for a chance to win a tea." I drove on by. I have loads of tea at home - if I want a tea, I'll make one and I saved $1.80!!!

Same as food. We should eat because we are hungry. Not because someone else has suggested to us that we should eat and what we should eat. Have you noticed that almost all food commercials are advertising PROCESSED food? Can you imagine a commercial for cauliflower and hummus? I doubt it! I'm so over sugar - I simply do not crave it anymore. I'm quite happy and actually look forward to having an apple or cantaloupe for a snack and am completely satisfied by it. Yes - those items have sugar, but it's not refined sugar and I watch how much sugar I eat in a day.

I have to share this story about chocolate with you. After over one month without chocolate, I felt that I wanted to have a wee snack of chocolate. I have a bar here that's dark chocolate, super healthy as far as chocolate goes. Half of the bar is one serving and equates to 210 calories. That's not bad as long as you do something to warrant eating that chocolate - like going for a walk. But here's the thing - the chocolate bar has FIFTEEN squares. Hmm - how can you have break fifteen squares in half? I settled for three squares and I savored them for a long, long time. It was great.

Sorry about all the food talk, but it's even more important in my life than before. You can eat what you want! A quick story about spin class this morning. Remember the guy last week who said he had done 27 K to my 30 K???  I arrived at the class this morning to find that guy on MY bike!!!!  So I sat beside him! I wonder if he didn't believe me and was going to check out my numbers after the class? I had a good laugh about that. But I busted my butt and cranked out just over 30 K. It was hard and I didn't think about anything except 30 minutes to go. 28 minutes to go. 25 minutes to go. Until the class was finished. God - why do we bow down to peer pressure?

Yesterday was another super productive day. I can't share a whole lot with you as it was a lot of prep for upcoming classes. You'll get to see it after the class sees it. I also got a lot of paperwork done. As you know, I hate paperwork but in the business that I'm in, paperwork is a must. And keeping track of my schedule can be a nightmare. I accomplished a lot in that area and I'm very happy about that. Going to be some exciting things happening this year, but I've got a TON of samples to make.

I emptied another spool of thread. This time it was for the long arm.

Empty spool of thread for the long arm

The rows came out almost perfect on this quilt. I must start taking notes to try and figure out what is the right formula. The bottom edge of stitching traveled about ¼" in from the edge of the quilt which means it'll get hidden in the binding. That's pretty near perfect!!!

Nice clean edges of quilting stitches

Here's the quilt I worked on.

Customer quilt - DONE

I got the red/white quilt from the other day trimmed and ready for pickup. The next quilt which was HUGE is loaded and ready to be quilted later today.

Next quilt is loaded

I think one thing that has changed in my mind about my quilting is that I'm looking at it as a "job??" instead of a hobby. Not sure that's the right way to phrase that. But after I get my paperwork done, I can go downstairs and work totally undistracted until it's lunchtime. After a quick lunch, I'm back working. I don't have distractions and I don't get distracted. Maybe my brain is slowing down and there's no room to think of a second thing while focusing on one????

Since the blog is really late - hey - it will always be late on Wednesday because I'm at spin class. I'm going to share the post office story with you.

We have a new post office outlet in our neighborhood. We used to have to go to the mall which wasn't a big deal. It's a walkable distance. But we got a notification that we have a new outlet near the grocery store. Totally opposite direction from the mall, so now I have an excuse to walk in the other direction. Plus when I went on Sunday, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. Oh - where is our postal outlet?? In a Dollar Tree store!

This is the smallest bubble wrapper that Canada Post sells. It costs $1.46 and measures about 4" by 7". I had purchased a small item for M and I wanted to send it to her. The item cost about $5.00. I knew the item would cost a bit to send because it's thick, but less than 1" thick.

Bubble wrap mailing envelope

Oh - let me stand corrected on the envelope size. It says that it's 4" by 7", but that's the size of whatever you could put in it. When they measure the package to see the size, they measure from the outside to the outside which makes it 5" by 7 ½" depending on how much you fold that end over.

It weighed .035 KG. Mere ounces. The man measured the package, weighed the package and calculated the price to mail the package. $18.00!!!!!   WHAT??????    I saw the price on the little screen and I also saw XPost so I don't know if he made a mistake. I asked for the cheapest possible way - no signature, 7 days, no Xpost. Personally, I'd like to think he made a mistake.

I just checked the rates on the internet myself. Yep - that fellow was correct. It was going to cost $18 to send this little tiny package. But here's the kicker. I mailed TWO packages on Jan 2, 2019. One weighed .754 KG, measured 34 CM by 25 CM by 8 cm. It went to BC. That one cost me the SAME price as mailing this tiny package. On that same day, I mailed another package to Saskatchewan. That one weighed .102 KG and measured 19 CM by 12 CM by 3 cm. That one cost $17.00.  I think their system is totally stupid!

Now I did some further checking. You can mail a DOCUMENT - that's PAPER up to .8" thick before it becomes a package. That costs a whole lot less to mail - like $3.50. Can you tell me why???
I think it's highway robbery to call some of these small lumpy things that are LESS than .8" packages. Oh - and they grill you on the contents of the package - is it paper?

I spoke to Tish about this as she mails a lot of stuff - swaps and so on around the world. Her solution? Slap a couple of regular stamps on it and shove it in the mail. DONE! Well - I'll do it this week.

I'm just in shock that mailing paper (which is HEAVY) is cheaper than mailing a small item that is less than .8 inch thick? Someday I'll get over that, but it won't be for a long, long time.

On that note, I'm out of here!

Have a super day and stay safe - it's very messy out there with ice.

Ciao!!!!

About being healthy

ACK -- I had some writing that had to get done this morning and I have a Sit n Sew day today so there's not a lot of time! Can you believe that I get "complaints" if the blog isn't posted by 7:30 AM!!!!  So certain people can read the blog on their way to work. Oh, there are some troublemakers out there! Just so you know, I do try to get the blog posted by 7:30 AM because I have two girls who like to go for a walk at 7:30. It's all in fun and I sure had to laugh when I got that call!

While I got a lot of work done yesterday, I'm not able to share any of it with you. You'll see it all in due time. Matter of fact, you'll see it all next week.

In addition to running the long arm and the embroidery machine and a sewing machine, I managed to make a big pot of soup. I know - ME? In the kitchen? Hell must be freezing over.

Two things inspired me to make that pot of soup. First, when M and James were here at Christmas, James made us a big pot of soup and it was great to run to the fridge and grab a bowl and heat it up for lunch. I've been meaning since Christmas to make the soup once again. Then earlier this week, the new Canada's food guide came out and well - guess what? Cook more at home! OK - it's time to make that darn soup.

I got out all the ingredients. Did I have a recipe? Of course not! I don't cook with recipes. I may bake with a recipe, but cooking with one? Boring! It's a vegetable soup so seriously - how could one go wrong?

Ingredients for vegetable soup

Seriously - it's basically a "clean out the fridge" kind of soup. So I chopped some veggies and put them in the pot. Ran downstairs and kept feeding bobbins to the embroidery machine or the long arm. Then back up to chop more veggies and that's how the afternoon went.

I was happy with the progress on all fronts and I got loads of Fitbit steps in as well.  I almost forgot to put the spices in the soup. Now how did I remember which spices James put in his soup? I had taken a picture of course!!!  I opened up the picture, saw which ones he used and added a glop of that one and a glop of this one and a couple of bay leaves and we're good to go! I couldn't find one of the ones he made but no matter - let's just go with it!


This is what the final pot looked like. I think his soup looked different but no matter - this is MY soup. It has lentils and chickpeas so full of protein.

My veggie soup

I had soup for dinner. I took my first taste - OH MY GOD - it was amazing!!!!  I LOVE the flavor. OK - I'll make that again!!!  Well - I guess I have to since these days, we're all eating way healthier in this house.

As for Canada's Food Guide - I'm going to chat more about that one day. I have to say that I'm impressed. Probably because it follows the philosophy that I've been adopting all last year. Reducing refined sugar, eating more fruit and veggies, cutting down on dairy and meat. I may not even introduce dairy back into my diet - I've been off dairy for a couple of weeks and I don't miss it, except maybe those little pots of yogurt from Riviera. No caffeine, no chocolate. I always like something sweet to finish off a meal and I'm finding that I'm totally satisfied with an apple or some cantaloupe. That never used to happen. Does this mean that I'm finally converted away from all refined sugar???  I sure hope so.

My weight has been super stable - right in the middle of that 5-pound buffer zone. Other than my minimum 10,000 steps in a day, I haven't really been to the gym much in the last couple of weeks. I need to get there - even if it's for stretching and I love the sauna and steam room!

In keeping with the healthy, green lifestyle  - I love using these beeswax wraps for food. We have a couple but never seem to have enough so I bought some more last night. I get mine at Oh Look Fabric in Milton. I paid $30 for five. You may think that's expensive, but how much do you pay for saranwrap and you have to replace that. These are totally reuseable and very environmentally friendly.

Beeswax wraps

I'll show you one picture from yesterday. I was doing embroidery with blue thread. I thought I only had two spools of the blue and wouldn't you know it - I was soon playing thread chicken. Except that I lost big time! I still had thousands of stitches to stitch out when the second spool was done. I went back to the thread box and wouldn't you know it - I had a THIRD spool of that same color!!!!  How cool is that!!!!

Thread chicken -a win/loss

I seem to be ripping through spools of thread this year. I think that's about three or more that I've emptied so far. I'm going to have to stock up on embroidery thread one day. Yikes - that's going to hurt the pocketbook. What I need to do is take my boxes of thread to the store and look at the colors I have and what I don't have. Otherwise, when I go shopping, I end up buying the same thread colors which I already have which is why I end up with three spools of the same color!!!!

Last night, I had a class at Oh Look Fabric. It's a learn to quilt class. There are six in the group. Six amazing and super eager students. It was so much fun. I didn't get any pictures, but I bet Andi has them up on her IG pages. I can't wait to see the blocks next time we get together. I love teaching new quilters - they are so eager. I remember when I first started - before I finished the first quilt, I was onto the second and haven't stopped since.

OK - so for those of you who read the blog at 7:30 AM - I've made the deadline!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Sample making

Just a quick note about food. I know - you're probably tired of me yakking about it. I decided to get back on track and start tracking my food and water intake in MyFitnessPal which is a free app on your phone.

Logged in breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. My goal to maintain my weight at the top end of that range is in there (I'm currently right in the middle of my 5-pound range). The app is linked to FitBit so if you do exercise, it allows you extra calories to compensate for the exercise. My 10,000 steps yesterday added about 200 extra calories. Bottom line - after I logged in my dinner, I was short over 500 calories. Hmm - what to eat? what to eat? Why did I need to eat?

Well, if you consistently eat too little (even when you're trying to lose weight), your body goes into starvation mode and will start to shut down and I certainly don't want that. I had two apples and some almonds as my after dinner snack. Still short 300 calories for the day. I can live with that, but I've got to more conscious of what I eat throughout the day which is why the app is a good thing.

Let's face it, we tend to eat the same things most days. Once the foods are in MyFitnessPal (or you can scan or search) for foods, it's easy to keep track of everything. One more fun thing to do with your phone. It even has restaurant food calorie count in there. And it's fun to see how much fat, sugar, carbs and other nutrition facts for the day.

I went out to do errands in the morning and thought I was going to be really quick so I didn't take any snacks with me. I was getting hungry but did NOT cave and buy a bad snack when I was out. I waited until I got home and had lunch a bit earlier. It's all about making lifestyle choices.  Again - drinking lots of water and I'm talking full eight glasses a day will help to curb any cravings.

I was going to make soup for lunch and the night before when grocery shopping, I had forgotten a couple of key ingredients. But by the time I got home, there was no time to make the soup. That's for another day.

I also went magazine shopping. There's a couple of magazines on the newsstand with my quilts in them, but do you think I could find one of them???  Nope - it's the LAST issue of QUILTY and there's a super cool quilt of mine in the magazine. I couldn't find it here, nor in the US. Hmm - where to find it? A friend of mine bought it so I've asked her where she got it. I'm supposed to get copies of the magazines, but the editors been lax for the last bit. I'll e-mail them!

Then since I was out, I made my way to Value Village. I don't go that often, but from time to time, I like to check out what they have. After seeing what some of the other educators did for their samples, I wanted to get some inexpensive stuff to practise on and hopefully to become my samples.  (Check out some of the cool articles on envrionmental foot print on the Value Village website)

Do you know how hard it is to find a kids T-shirt with NO LOGO on it. I managed to find two. A pink one and a black one. I also picked up a small hand towel with nothing on it so that will be a good sample for working with towels. The plain T-shirts were .99 cents - anything with a logo on it cost more.

Two T-shirts and a hand towel to make samples for machine embroidery

We're going ahead with the Sit n Sew today, although I'm not sure how many will come since we've had snow, but not much, but it's very cold out this morning. So as I was tidying up, I placed these notebooks on the ironing board where I had just laid out those T-shirts. I think we have a very specific color theme happening here.

My notebooks match the T-shirts!

What a coincidence that was!

I was also looking for some jackets to upcycle. OK - I'm looking for a jean jacket. I'm sure that I have one here. I know that I bought one or two in the past. I'm just not sure that I still have them (or it). I may have decided that I no longer wanted to do that and gave it away. But I don't think so. The question now is to remember where I put it.

Some of the clothing samples that we saw this week were amazing. Not in your face embroidery, but subtle designs that dressed up an ordinary top. And the lady who had the most bought her stuff at Goodwill. She must have a great Goodwill!

I have a circuit when I hit Value Village. I check out the books - the craft books. I found a great and current book on making bags with something that I've been looking for for a long time. That was $4. They had tons of coloring books and while I have a few, I found a funky one and I bought that. I've got some great plans for that coloring book and it isn't coloring the pages! Then I'm off to the textile section where I look for hand made quilts - only ever found one and that had been scooped by a man just in front of me! I check the puzzles and games section. That's normally all I check, but yesterday, I scoured the women's section for jackets - shoot - I should have checked the men's section. And then to the kids section for shirts.

If you're into Value Village, there's a 50% off sale tomorrow - January 21.

Sale at Value Village on January 21

After lunch, it was time to get to work! I had this charity quilt to quilt. The quilt is made from solids, but I didn't have enough of any of the leftovers for the backing. I dug through my Northcott stash buckets and found a piece of Toscana that was the perfect color. It was JUST the right size. Now, how cool was that. I should have bought lottery tickets!

I made the backing and loaded the quilt on the long arm. It was easy to quilt and no issues with the machine.

West End Modern Quilt Guild charity quilt for QUILTCON

Here's the full view (or almost) of the quilt.

WEMQG charity quilt

I know it looks jumbly, that was the intention. The theme was small piecing and the easiest way to do that was in blocks. I hope to get the binding on later today. I had JUST enough of one of the solids to make the binding as well.

This is charity quilt numer two that I've quilted so far this year. It's so easy to keep track when you keep lists or pictures in the proper folders!


The next quilt is loaded and ready for quilting later today.

Next quilt is loaded

I did some machine embroidery, but it has to be cleaned up before I show you the blocks. I hope to get that done today as well.

Oh - I should say that yesterday when I went to walk the dogs, I bundled up. T-shirt tucked into pants. A pair of fleece lined jeans over my yoga pants. Hat, scarf, a small pair of gloves under my double fleece mittens and my BRIGHT ORANGE ski jacket that I bought a couple of years ago. I was toasty warm the entire walk and in fact, had to undo my jacket on the way home because I was a tad too toasty! A pair of light wool socks in my rain boots and my feet were good as well. It's all about knowing how to dress.

I guess that's it for today. I need to shovel the driveway before any of the brave souls come over today and it should be easier since there's only one car in the driveway!

Have a super day and stay warm if you're caught in this crazy weather. Thank goodness we don't live in the Maritimes where they going to get hit once again with a major storm.

Ciao!!!

Education Week - Day Five

We had another exciting day of education. Actually, it was only half a day as a number of us left right after lunch for the airport. 

We did another class in the morning and more chats. I can't say enough how beneficial this week has been for me. I feel like part of the team even though we all work independently. But the knowledge,  information, and contacts I gathered - well that's priceless. I'm also missing some tools - some very important tools. Different kinds of scissors from what I've been using to trim embroideries. Oh yes - I need a wee bit of a shopping expedition. 

But the amount of work that I now have to do is - well we won't go there and today is going to be a day of collecting my thoughts and a wee bit of organizing. 

Our flight wasn't until later in the day, but we got to the airport with some time to kill but that was OK. Three of us sat around and chatted for a while. You won't learn anything unless you ask questions. I have a lot of questions. 

I decided to bite the bullet right up front and check my luggage however I see that I still had a visitor in my bag.

You've been inspected

I have a feeling that it wasn't the scissors that they pulled that bag for. It was the immersion blender! I suppose in future, that I could take one of those shaker glasses and then eat the banana separately? I like my immersion blender. But I can live with them checking my luggage - a small price to pay for having that healthy breakfast every morning. Even with eating out every night  - I didn't gain a single ounce! 

I like to pack light and it killed me to pay for the luggage fee when I went with a very small suitcase which weighed 24 pounds. However when I start flying to do these events, my colleagues travel with two or three HUGE suitcases filled with samples. Up to 3 suitcases and up to 70 pounds each!!!!  Seriously? The weight limit is 50 pounds.

I do know that when I do a trunk show here that I like to have lots of stuff with me, but I couldn't handle three suitcases plus carryon. Just can't so I've got to find a way to double up samples and stuff. I think I'll settle for TWO 50 pound suitcases at the most. I must find my travel scale - I have one here somewhere.

I love flying into the city especially at night. We're in the flight path but far enough away that the noise isn't an issue. We flew right over our house last night. Then we circled around downtown and landed from east to west. Just a small thrill I get every time!

My neighborhood at night

I must say that we did NOT have any slowdowns in the Nashville airport and no issues in Canada. It took me mere minutes to get off the plane and outside to my ride. I didn't check the time, but it wasn't long - maybe 15 minutes which isn't bad considering I checked my luggage. Let's just say that I LOVE NEXUS. So worth the money. 

Out for dinner and then DH and I found ourselves at the grocery store minutes before it closed to get some groceries. I needed stuff for my breakfast and while he was going to wait until today to buy stuff for dinner, I convinced him to get it last night. Good grief. I think he likes grocery shopping - you could never get him in the store before. He must have an eye on the bakery staff or something. 

Speaking of the bakery - I was checking out the pasties. Thank goodness they have to put the calorie count on the items. That was an eye opener when I first saw this information. Check out these labels. 

180 calories

260 calories

510 calories

760 calories

WOW - doesn't that blow your socks off? I used to eat those brownies and sometimes I'd eat a complete one at one sitting. That's bad considering that my total calorie intake for the day is less than 2,000.  I just make life easy and don't eat any of it now. I do have some small dessert from time to time, but we always get the small item at about 150 calories or less. I don't miss it in the least. Again - it's all about making lifestyle choices. I'm fine without it and I just drink another glass of water. It really is true - having a glass of water will take the cravings away. You just have to get used to drinking that much and I find that if I drink 8 glasses a day, my bladder is happier than if I drink less. Now, why is that?

I had a quick peek into the studio this morning. Oh boy - it looks like a whirlwind hit it. There's stuff everywhere. We're supposed to have a Sit n Sew tomorrow, but with the impending snow apocalypse (according to the Weather Channel), it's up in the air. I'd better clear a few spots for the die-hards. 

The girls were happy to see me last night but they don't go too crazy. 

Now to go and start sorting out my notes and I've got a lot of e-mail to catch up on. And I have to walk the girls and it's COLD outside. 

Before I go, I have a couple of quilt links to share with you. If you or someone in your house is crazy about Harry Potter, there's a couple of sew-along projects this year. Here's a link to Sew Fresh Quilts. The blocks are pretty cute. There are two different designers doing a Harry Potter theme and they'll be linked to each other as the blocks are released. I'm tempted, but I know that I'm not going to have time to keep up. 

Here's another link. This is a block party hosted by the Canadian Quilter's Association. Each week a new block will be released. I haven't read all the information but you can find it on the link. I hope to participate in this one. How hard can it be to make ONE six-inch block per week?

One more link - if you're into challenges, there's a MAP QUILT challenge hosted by Quilts at the Creek. Check out a "map quilt" designed and made by Jacquie Gering. I hope to participate in this. I'm already collecting stuff to make the quilt. Now to figure out how to make it work. 

There are so many quilt-along projects that one can not possibly participate in them all and they become your entire world and I don't have time for that, nor do I want to spend all my time doing something that was designed/organized by someone else. So I'll going to be very picky about I spend my time doing. 

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Ice cream for breakfast

My life seems to be one giant learning curve and I'm so excited!

Last year when I did the dTox thing, I decided that I needed a Vitamix blender. Yes - I spent an obscene amount of money on the thing. Which is hilarious because I complained rather loudly when M insisted that we buy one for her. Well, she took that one when she moved out (technically it was a gift to her). So I had to eat crow and go and buy one for me. Sadly, the blender has sat in the box for an entire year. I know - don't ask.

Now I decided it's time to open that box. So I made my smoothie yesterday with the Vitamix. A frozen banana was no match for the blender and very quickly, I had a nice, delicious smoothie to enjoy.

This morning it was frozen strawberries.

Making a strawberry smoothie

Not sure that I had the right quantity of almond milk - I might have been a wee bit short, maybe too many strawberries and a little bit too long in the blending process. I got strawberry ICE CREAM. That's OK - it's got protein powder in it. Tastes amazing and that's my breakfast. So you can have ice cream for breakfast and it's super healthy.

Strawberry ice cream made in the Vitamix

I really should read ALL of the instructions. I will next week.

I just can't seem to last much beyond 8 PM these days. I'm in bed reading and lights usually out by 9 PM, but I'm up super early - I won't tell you what time. I know - that's why I'm in bed so early, but it works for my body clock.

I went for a long walk yesterday - the bank, the library, and Indigo - where I bought nothing. We have new ATMs at the bank. According to Ronda, my bank information person, these ATMs are NOT new - our branch appears to be slow. Anyway - they are super awesome. Very easy to use and much faster than the old ones. I didn't even have time to warm up from my walk.

I'm going to be away this coming week - off on an exciting adventure. I'll still be blogging, but before I go, I'm trying to get some stuff done. As usual!

So I have not one, but TWO embroidery machines going this morning. 

Husqvarna Viking Designer Brilliance 80 madly stitching out designs

Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC finishing off another design

I swear that I really try to keep those tables clear but look. Those two embroidery machines are buried in stuff. Actually, there's plenty of room around the machines, the rest of the tables - a HUGE disaster.

Tables are a mess

 If you look really close at the left just beside the door, there's a sewing machine there!!!

The EPIC is buried in this mess

I'm constantly learning with the embroidery machines. There's just so much that you can do. I'll show you pictures at a later date. But I had a WOW moment this morning. Oh my god - what technology can do is incredible. I'm making something for the QUILTsocial blogs and they will be posted at the end of January. You'll see my WOW moment then. I'm in total awe.

I've got a website for you to check out this morning.

If you know nothing about scissors or rotary cutters, here's a good link to get the overall scoop on them. The OLFA rotary cutter is celebrating it's 40th anniversary this year. Can you imagine life without a rotary cutter???  I started with the basic OLFA cutter and I won't change. I just love that cutter and I know that I have a FEW of them. There are tips on caring for and cleaning your tools as well.  If you want to see my rotary cutters - go to this link.

The West End Modern Quilt Guild met yesterday and we laid out the blocks for our Quiltcon charity quilt. Oh my - I didn't take a picture of the final layout, but what fun we had. I think this is what it looked like when we just threw the blocks onto the design wall. Then the blocks gots switched around. A super fun exercise. Surprisingly, it didn't take us very long to agree on a final design. Yes - 30 people agreed on the placement of over 100 blocks???  Yep - I managed to finish all my blocks - well all but 5.

The first iteration of the WEMQG charity quilt

Well - that's it for me today. I've got to check on those embroidery machines to see what's going on and I suspect I need to reload them as I see they are silent on my phone app.

Have a super day!!!


Ciao!!!

Drowning in paperwork

Paperwork is not my forte. Oh - I'm good at it when I settle down to do it. I can be super organized, but I hate doing it. There's nothing to show at the end of a paperwork session. I guess there is, but you know what I mean. Nothing fun!

Let's just say that this silly accident has filled my life with paperwork and running around. As we come to the end of the process, the paperwork seems to have ramped up!

There are still papers to complete for the physio sessions. And I got my settlement amount yesterday - what I expected, but I had set my expectations low. The car was 8 years old after all. So now I have to do all the final paperwork to "sell" the car to the insurance company.

Then there's the paperwork involved in getting a new set of wheels. Hopefully, all that paperwork is finished - yes I bought a new car yesterday. I bought an inexpensive car, but the final price still hurts a LOT. It's $10K more than I bought my Matrix for 8 years ago. At least I'll save money on gas, but probably get hit by higher insurance costs because of the smaller, lighter car. You just can't win.

And there's the question of the tires - one set is on the old car - the winter set. The summer set is in storage at Toyota. Can I use those rims on the new car? That requires another trip to the auto body to get the lug nuts which I left in the car. It just doesn't end!!! 

No word if they got the other guy, but I sure hope so.

I should say that buying a car is not fun! I was dealing with a different sales person last time I went there. I was supposed to be seeing the same guy yesterday, but somehow our times got mixed up so they hooked me up with someone else. Well, this guy didn't listen. And why do those guys have to check with their manager for everything??  Why not just let me chat with the manager? Which I did at the end because I didn't sign the first time I was at the dealer. No - I wanted to make them sweat a bit. Hopefully, I won't need to repeat that task for another 10 years or so.

Anyway - drive safe!!!!  Get OFF your phone! Stop eating in the car and PAY ATTENTION to the road. And stop being in a hurry!  The cost in time and money for having an accident is HUGE. If you don't care about yourself, I'm OK with that. But think about the other person. I didn't ask for this and the amount of time and money that it cost me is HUGE.

Despite all the running around, I did manage to get a few things done.

I quilted this quilt. It's not that big but it's done. It's for our guild's community outreach program. I had selected the fabrics from their huge stash. I was going to take a picture of the fabrics (tomorrow) -it's a great quilt to make with odd fabric. The black fabric? it's all millennium fabric but you don't really notice that because it's been chopped up! This pattern is from Atkinson Designs called Anything Goes. It's in a book called It Takes Two and add a few. I didn't see it on her website. I noticed in the bag (where the book is hanging out) that there's fabric for several more of these quilts - the fabrics belong to the guild. I guess I should get to work on one of those.

Community outreach quilt - DONE

I have to make the binding and get that sewn on which I hope to do in the next day or so. As long as it's done before the guild meeting, it doesn't really matter.

I got more blocks done for Jingle all the way - realized that I forgot to take a picture of the blocks. I'll do it today when I'll have even more blocks done. I'm making great progress on that quilt but still a few more blocks to make. Then I have one more quilt (Hello Sunshine) to get blocks ready for the class in two weeks.

Jingle all the Way by Kimberbell

Speaking of which, I'm having a blast making the blocks for the Lilla quilt class that's happening tonight at Oh Look Fabric. It's so fresh and modern and I love the fabrics I choose to make it. I'll share that with you tomorrow. The homework is almost finished. Come on out if you want to make a fun quilt that's half improv and half precision piecing.

Lilla quilt pattern

I usually use fresh fruit in my smoothies but decided that I'll go with frozen fruit in the future. The blueberries wor not so bad with my immersion blender, but I figured that frozen strawberries will be a whole different ball game. So I got out my Vitamix. Comes with a recipe book. Can't wait to make soups and hummus. I might actually be responsible for my own meals soon. Well, I do breakfast and lunch.

Vitamix recipe book

Yikes - I have to say that I've been eating super healthy this week and I don't miss any of the bad foods. No dessert, I have fruit instead. Lots of veggies. Let's not forget the supplements to keep my liver and other organs happy! Even last night when I really felt like something after dinner, I didn't have anything. I installed myself on the couch with my heating pad for my neck, a book, and a glass of water and I was fine! Amazing what you can talk yourself into doing. It's not even talking yourself into - it's just making a decision to live cleaner. You do it because you want to.

I find drinking lots of water helps a lot. I'm up to five full glasses of water a day. Almost done the second one for the morning. It's a great way to get things moving - chug a couple of glasses of water first thing in the morning - cures all ailments!

Now here's the thing. The world is coming to an end. I HATE drinking tap water. I've no idea why - there's nothing wrong with it. It's good for you and it's free and convenient. However, for years, I've bought big jugs of water for the water cooler. Well, yesterday, we ran out of water in the jug and I didn't have time to get more. Instead of not drinking, I drank tap water. Hey - this isn't so bad after all! Could I be cured?

Did you know that the more you drink, the less you go to the bathroom? No - you still need to go, but it's just different. I'm not sure how to describe that. Anyway - onto the third glass. I can do one glass per hour for the first couple of hours and then the afternoon? It just doesn't happen. Then I get in one glass after dinner. No - I don't need to get up in the night. I think part of that is that my body is so dehydrated that it takes all the water that it needs and there's nothing left over!

Anyway - it's all good. I'm feeling amazing and that's what it's all about.

Now I'd better get myself organized because I have to get that paperwork tidied up and I have a LOT of sewing to do. I was hoping to get another quilt on the machine, but I don't really have time for that today.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!