On the road!!!

My bags are packed - yes - even the toiletries! The emails are sent, and contact information is shared. Several blog posts have been written and scheduled. The only thing missing from my organized preparations is retrieving that darn small keyboard. 

However, I'm not going to let that ruin my vacation. I've packed the iPad, and with all the cords, snacks, and geocaching information, the backpack weighs 7.7 lbs. The suitcase weighs 16.1 lbs. A little bit heavier than I typically pack, but it's a different vacation. 

I am going to miss the trilliums. When I was walking with the girls this morning, I noticed they are just starting to bloom DRAT!!!!! But such is life. I will just have to watch the rest of the forest come alive when I'm back. 

I don't know how much geocaching I'll get done while I'm there, but did you know it's a GREAT way to discover unusual places in a strange land? I've got several of them highlighted, and I don't care how many I find, but I need at least ONE. 

There are many interesting cemeteries as well, and I plan to visit a few. I have no set plans beyond the wedding, and I'll be on my own, with limited luggage, so I can really explore wherever I want. I'd love to take my backpack, but that won't happen. I can live with a small suitcase - I'll find a small hotel and park my stuff there for a couple of days at a time and then move on. I've no idea what to expect, and that's often the best way to travel. No expectations, no disappointments!!!

Today's post will be short because I've also posted a second blog post, which you should find right after this one. It's all about potential classes for the fall. Take a look if you're interested, and provide me with some feedback via email. Even if you don't plan to attend, I'm curious what classes are popular these days. 

Compared to some people who are teaching garment making, I'm very inexpensive. I've heard of TWO people teaching garment-making classes (at least one was CDN), and the fee? Do you really want to know? $250 - 260 US$$$ For something that doesn't really need a class. I get it that I'm more experienced. But still!!!! 

After my presentation to the Thames River Quilt Guild, one of the members, who I knew from a local guild, wrote about what she learned or how she compared quilts to business. I thought it was quite profound. I don't think you can see the article unless you have a LinkedIn account. So I'll steal some of it. The person's name is Camilla Bagnell. 

I'm not going to copy the entire article, but if you have a LinkedIn account, here's the link to the rest. 

Yes—life is all about simplicity and not overthinking things, especially our hobbies!!! 

So many life lessons to be learned and to continue to learn from everything that crosses our daily path. 

By the time you read this, I shall be on the other side of the Atlantic, and I can only imagine the stories and the trials and tribulations that may or may not come my way!!!

I'll be blogging every day unless there are some major issues, but you may have to be patient!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Some assembly required

You know that I've not been happy with my desk set up for the computer. When I didn't spend much time here, it didn't really matter if the desk was messy. But now that I have more and more work on the computer, it's become an issue. There is zero room on the right of the mouse to work, and the left side was covered with stuff that needed to be done—just a disaster. 

My messy desk

I had tidied up the little shelf that's behind the monitor, and all the cords and such were taken care of. But no place to work. And I've been contemplating whether I need a second monitor. I want one, but not sure that I'll make enough use of it. It's easy enough to switch between windows using the taskbar on the bottom of the screen. 

A lot of the paperwork lives on the floor, which isn't the best, especially when Murphy decides to get lovey and walks all over it. 

Paperwork on the floor

There's space beside me on the left, so I was looking for something inexpensive that I could put in place of these two chairs, which could reside at the table. 

Two chairs filled with stuff

I knew I didn't have anything in the house that could be repurposed, so I went surfing the internet to see what I could find. And I found something at IKEA, so that's where I was the other day - picking up my order. Do you know they charge $5 to do curbside pickup? What's that all about? Then Carol said that they are a self-serve warehouse, so we're getting charged to have someone pick up the order and deliver it to the car. Oh well. 

Then I got the box in the house. 

The box from IKEA

I'm usually pretty good with assembling stuff. I'm a maker, after all! Well, I should have guessed that something was wrong when the piece wouldn't fit properly, and I grabbed the mallet to put it in place. Then onto the next step, and OOPS - I just put the wrong piece in the wrong place, and it's really tight. I told myself that I could live with the thing upside down and no backing on it. 

DH suggested that since I hammered it in place, I might have to hammer it back out. "That'll never work," says I. I set it aside as I didn't want to deal with it at that moment. Five minutes later, I had the entire thing out on the deck with the mallet to see if I could, in fact, hammer it off. And YES - it worked. Now, why didn't I think of that? 

Then it was a snap to finish the assembly. My hired help wasn't much help, but she's darn cute. 

Murphy supervising the build

I swear, she has to be everywhere. She just can't help herself. Lexi? She was likely under the shed, having ZERO interest in anything unless it involves cuddles JUST for her or a treat. 

And then it was done except for the castors. Yep - it's got castors on the bottom. And this thing is pretty solid. You know how the backs of some IKEA stuff are just cheap. This was the real deal. It's fairly heavy. 

It's together, and no pieces left over

I quickly moved the chairs out of the way and moved the shelf unit in. It would have been nice if it were a bit shorter to fit under the desk shelf, but I don't care. I couldn't even wait to take a picture as I grabbed some of the stuff on one of the chairs and put it on the new shelf. 

My new shelf

I cleared the paperwork off the desk and put it on the shelf. Oh yes -- I'm going to like this. I kind of need a staging area to have things to work on. So this needs to be sorted and organized, and then hopefully, it'll help me get stuff done, stay organized, and give me a bit extra space to work. Since it's on castors, I can move it to the other side of the desk if I need a bit of extra space to lay stuff out on that side. I need to make sure that I deal with at least THREE items on that shelf EVERY DAY. It's the only way to get this mess cleaned up, and while three pieces aren't much, it's way better than ZERO. 

More junk on the shelf

OK -- so here's some good news that we've all been waiting for. That custom quilt is OFF the long arm. It's DONE!!!! I'll trim it later today. I was so excited that I couldn't even celebrate when it was done. 

Customer quilt - DONE

Why did this need to be custom?  Each of those borders has a black FLANGE between them. There was no choice but to quilt each border on its own. 

Flanges between each border

And since I was doing that, I used a wide variety of threads to make it happen. There were those bold Celtic prints on most of the borders, so the trick was to not have the quilting compete. By using the right color thread, the quilting does NOT compete with the design. I'm pleased with it. 

Thread colors for the quilt

I have to laugh at how long it took me to get that quilt done. We all have things that we just don't cope well with. Plus, I had a busy week last week, and other things were occupying my mind. It would appear that I wasn't coping very well. 

Here's a book that I'm currently reading. 

The Pursuit of Endurance by Jennifer Pharr Davis

It's about long-distance endurance athletes and how they cope with pain, adverse conditions, mental boredom, etc. I can so relate to this. While I would NEVER want to attempt the type of feats that these extreme athletes are doing, I've done my fair share of crazy stuff. And when you do crazy stuff, you quickly realize that the task is about 10% physical and 90% mental. How do you keep cycling when every day is the same? How do you keep going when it's rainy and cold and wet and no place to warm your toes by the fire? How do you cope with the death of two members of your group in an accident? How do you deal with the tedium of riding your bike for 8 - 10 hours a day, every day (well - there were some rest days in there), for 10 weeks? 

Somewhere along the way, I've learned many of the techniques described in the book. The ability to remove your mind from your body - I know that sounds weird, but it's how I gave birth without drugs. The ability to love yourself (yep - I'm big on this one), the ability to let the small things slide, and so many other traits. 

I really think that's how I can get so much done. I don't care for fancy details, I'm pretty level-headed in a crisis, and well - I just move on. Oh - having a mantra is another one, and I remember being hospitalized years ago with a severe asthma attack, and I said "warm sand" over and over - a million times to get me through that one. 

It's weird how I developed that mental toughness, but I have NO desire to push myself to that limit. Here's a story on the person who holds the current record on the Appalachian Trail - 2,190 miles in just over 41 days. That's insanity!!

Me - I just need to learn to challenge my mind so that future custom quilts don't become a mountain that I can't get over!!!

And I was listening to an episode of The Quilt Show and listening to an artist (Laura Cater-Woods) explain how she sets her day by starting with a little session, outlining what she was going to get done, and I swear that's what happens to me with the blog. As I write, I reflect on what happened the day before and what needs to be done today!!

Oh - back to the mental toughness. I swear that we don't have enough people in the world with mental toughness. It seems that today, failure is a bad thing. The author talks about welcoming failure in the book, and I welcome failure every day! Mistakes are the ONLY way to really learn something. People are making safe choices for fear of failing - they will never get mental toughness if they do that. People are just taking the easy way out these days, and what is the fun in that? There's no ability to cope with the slightest hardship. 

Anyway, I digress, but you have more insight into how I function and why I usually get lots of stuff done in a day. 

Seriously?? I just put the dogs out - it's raining, and it's cold!! Suck it up, sister, and get out there and walk those dogs!!    😉😉

Don't forget there's a Virtual Retreat this weekend.

Saturday, May 29    6 PM -- 9 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86290033234?pwd=cWpvaks5L05RVTF1d0htVlE1SURmQT09 Meeting ID: 862 9003 3234 Passcode: 016601

Sunday, May 30 2 PM -- 8 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87654746667?pwd=S0lyZHpvMWVxQzQzZkZhWnkwZHdSUT09

Meeting ID: 876 5474 6667
Passcode: 457858

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Creativity

I hear it so often - "I'm not creative. I can't draw, I can't doodle, I can't .......,  I can't........."

What would you say to your children or grandchildren if they said that?    You would tell them they are very creative and you would find an example to show them.  So why do we berate ourselves so much?  Are we afraid that we will sound presumptuous? Well so what!   It's just something to think about next time you are about to point out a mistake in your quilt or tell someone that you can't do something.  You could if you really really wanted to!

Anyway - today we're chatting about creativity.  Someone (I think it was Tish) gave me this picture which came from a calendar. It is a real quilt that was used as a photo on this particular page in the calendar. The artist is Judith Reilly.

Artwork by Judith Reilly

I don't have the title to the piece above - it's in my office.  I was using sticky tack to hold it to the wall, but it doesn't stick well.  I need to get it PLAKed so I can jam a nail in the wall to make it stay up.  Got to find a place where I can get that done. Anyone know?  I'm not a member of Costco so don't suggest that. Black's is gone so who else?  OK - Staples   - I bet.   Must remember to drop it off tomorrow!

Anyway - I found this amazing article on Judith's website which I will share with you.  It's called Twelve Life Lessons for Creativity.

Seriously - go there and read through it.  I so agree with this philosophy.  Oh before I get started - I remember in an interview many years ago, the hiring manager asked me to give some examples of my creativity.  It was a computer sales job.  I know - that question blew me away.  Prior to that, I had always thought of creativity in terms of making things. Check out this definition of creativity.   I learned to be very creative in sales and in life. I learned that being creative happens when you make mistakes - get creative to find a solution. Creativity is not just about making things, but solving problems.

Back to the Twelve Life lessons for Creativity - Here is my take on it for myself.

1. We are all unique and gifted - This is very true. But here is the problem.  We do NOT recognize that in ourselves. We are always striving to be like someone else, to create quilts like other people, quilt our quilts like other people. We want to emulate OTHERS, and we lose ourselves in the process of trying to be everyone else! That's why I try to tell people in a class - explore, play, learn how to do it YOUR way, not anyone else's way.

2. Life is perception - oh boy!  How many people are going to complain about the time change!  Seriously - I never even thought about until I heard them talk about it on the radio this morning.  I don't dwell on things that I can't change and really - moving the clock ahead or behind - how does that really affect my life?  Not much. This is a non-issue for me!  I try always to look at the good, I'm optimistic and I LOVE life - even though I (like everyone I know) have personal, private issues that make life a challenge - I choose to keep them in the background and focus on the good things!

3. Childlikeness: never lose it!   Yup - that is me!   If there was an opportunity to drive a fire truck - I want to do that. Get down on the floor and look at things (provided there is something to help one get back up!), play with the dogs, sing like no one can hear you (I sound awful! - but when no one is home....).  It's not just the crazy things that kids do, but the wonderment of seeing something for the first time.  Enjoy that experience - I hope I never lose that!

4. Permission and limitations: choose one and reject the other.   Oh - I could tell you some stories about times when I just took hold of the situation and winged it. Who cares about rules - let's get the job done. Yes, I've gotten into trouble, but no serious harm was ever done. The job got finished and everything worked out fine.  Just remember it is easier to ask for FORGIVENESS, rather than PERMISSION.

5. Don't seek approval.   Come on - we are all guilty of this one. Do you like my project?  Do you think it is ok?  Seriously - the only person you need to ask that question of is YOURSELF!   Why do we care what others think?   Yes - I walked the dogs in my PJs on the street this morning with my bright orange coat and my red hat and my orange shoes.  Do I care?  Nope!

6. We must have wings and feet.  Yes - we need to be grounded with our feet, but we need to be able to dream. Soar above the problems, let ourselves go.  I always say that if you don't have dreams, you don't have life.  Why would I want to get  up in the morning, if I didn't have some vision of a goal?  That goal may be as simple as having a great cup of tea or it may be a vacation that I'm planning next year.  You gotta dream!

7. Determine what is traditional, accepted, expected and don't do it!   I LOVE THIS ONE!!!!!   So imagine you are out for dinner with friends. You go to a fabulous steak restaurant. I don't eat steak, especially when it costs a lot of money.  Just don't like steak!  So I had a bowl of soup!  Did I feel uncomfortable?  Nope - did I go home stuffed to the gills - NOPE. I love doing this - I can't be a sheep!!!   This one is great as it also keeps people guessing about you!

8. Be true to yourself. This is a toughie.  It's hard with peer pressure, accepted norms and all kinds of other influences.  But if I don't do what I believe in - then I'm being fake!  And I hate insincerity and fakeness.  So if you don't eat steak and everyone else is - eat what YOU want.  Soup was the ONLY thing on that menu that I would eat. I'm not a fussy eater, but I hate meals in those kinds of restaurants, I hate eating late and I hate eating huge meals!  I also don't do fancy drinks with liquor so I had a beer!

9. If we're not having fun, we're not doing it right!   Right on!  The day that I don't have fun is the day that I don't want to be alive anymore. Don't get me wrong - there are some drudgery days, but there is always some fun element to it. If work isn't fun and you can't change jobs - find a way to make it fun.  Wear fun clothes, listen to fun music or whatever it is that makes life fun!  You are NEVER too old to have fun!

10. We have to "kiss a lot of frogs"....   (a.k.a  Ooops)    Mistakes - if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn. It amazes me how people fret about making mistakes.  Many great inventions were discovered because someone made a mistake or what they thought would happen in fact did not. If everything was going to work out perfect - where is the opportunity to use our creativity?   Nope - I like making mistakes. Not costly mistakes, but mistakes.

11. We must share our gifts to experience their ultimate blessings.   If you are a master quilter, but keep your talents hidden at home, who cares that you are a master quilter. Share your knoweldge, teach someone how to quilt, show your quilts so others can learn.

12. "Solitude" and "Now" - the gifts we give ourselves.    Wow - this is huge!!!   We are always giving so much to others that we need some ME time.  Time to let your thoughts go, time to rejuvenate, time to just be us.  That is becoming harder and harder as things like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram invade our bedrooms, our few precious quiet moments - we spend those with an electronic device in our hands. I was waiting at the airport the other night and I brought along a book to read. Yes - a honest to goodness actual book made of paper.  I couldn't read the damn thing because the TV was blaring the news over and over again for the entertainment of those in the room.    That noise was almost as offensive as cigarette smoke.  Can't anyone be happy with SILENCE??????



Wow - that got way philosophical!!!!   But it applies to every part of our life - our hobbies - definitely quilting, the way we react with our partners, our children, our co-workers, etc.

We only have ONE life to live and if we screw it up - no one is going to give us a second chance.  I'm going to enjoy every day with as much gusto as I can muster!

On that note - I'm off to the races!!!!   I've got quilts to sew together, quilts to quilt and stuff to prep before going away!

Have an super awesome  FUN day!!!!

Ciao!!!!!