Dealing with elder care

I don't think I have ever talked so much in one day as I did yesterday! My brain is half-dead, but WAIT --- there is one more day to deal with, and then I can go home, where I have things on my schedule. But it's all good—we are making amazing progress, which is great. 

But here's the thing—I keep saying that every time I come out, so why is there so much more to do each time I come? It just doesn't make sense. Some of it is repetitive from before, but most of it isn't. 

Dare I say I think we got things under control this time? 

I visited one of my aunts in the morning, and I got to see the "baby." He is now 14 months and growing like a weed. They grow up so quickly, and he is going to be into everything! No - -he is into everything NOW!!! Good luck to his Mom! My aunt is his great-grandmother! 

We had the assessment in the morning, and all went as planned, so we are good. They are currently NOT on any list, but we now have identifiers in place to know when that will have to happen. Sadly, it is just a fact of life, and there is nothing we can do about it. I can only hope that they will call when those triggers happen. If not, I have a Plan B. 

All I can say about that is: do what you can to keep your strength. Do chair squats, do a step up and step down, lift cans of soup, or whatever it takes, but the day you lose your strength, you are toast! I don't want to hear of anyone who ends up in the nursing home because they lost their strength because they didn't keep it up. Please do NOT do that to yourself. It happens gradually, and you won't even realize it is happening. 

We watched it happen with my Mom, but NONE of us even realized what was happening and didn't do anything about it. First, I doubt she would have believed it, and second, she would say, "I'm fine," and now look!!!

I'm glad I was there because if I wasn't, this assessment would have gone downhill very quickly. But I was there to keep things calm and remind Mom of certain things she said were OK but, in fact, were not. She was honest, but not too honest. I kept quiet, unless I needed to add a few details. 

So now we wait. 

It is interesting to note that when I was here last time, my Dad was in quite a bit of pain from arthritis and gosh knows what other aches and pains you can have in old age on an abused body. And he was ready to throw in the towel. Thankfully, he has the pain under control and is a completely different person. So that is wonderful news. So if you are in pain, for heaven's sake, seek out someone skilled in pain management and don't try to be a hero and not take pills. They were made for a reason. 

All is good. 

Then we sat at the table and went through more papers that he had for me to scour. Then we made a list of what needed to be done, and we got to work. We visited the funeral home, the lawyer, and the insurance company, and we had a great time, but also made great progress on collecting data and getting answers to all our questions. It will make things so much easier when that day comes, and we will be completely prepared. 

I have another huge list of things to accomplish today, but none of them should take too long. I hope so!! A few phone calls. It sure makes things easy when you cut down the number of companies you deal with and all that. 

But it's interesting about people in general. Some people are super inquisitive - almost to the point that they are annoying. I have annoyed people in meetings with all my questions. Others are happy to just accept what they are told. They don't have the ability or interest to ask clarifying questions about the situation. Whenever we are in a meeting with someone, of course, they are talking to Dad, which is fine because he is their client. But then I stop the conversation and ask Dad whether he really understands, and I give it to him in a language he gets. Then I ask the questions that I know he will ask me when we are home! 

I don't know what we will do about stuff in the apartment. I asked Mom if I could get rid of the clothes she doesn't wear. Well, she doesn't know about that. Oh, so help me God—I am trying to help the situation, and she just doesn't get it. She will never wear those clothes again. 

Anyway, I'm sure that most of you have or are dealing with parents, and you know what it's like. It's insane how they are ready to let go, and yet they are not. 

But here's the thing—how the heck can I prevent that situation from happening to me? I will become frail one day, and it's already made me consider what time frame we should consider moving to a smaller place or a place without stairs. I don't have to yet, and I still have a sharp mind (well, most days!), but when do you start making contingency plans? It depends so much on our health and who we have to help us. 

I think DH and I are going to have some serious conversations when I get home. Don't worry—I'm not moving, but I need to keep simplifying life, both physically and digitally, and cut down on paperwork clutter—well, I'm going to take a completely different view of my situation when I get home! I won't have time to tackle it immediately, but I'm going to become even more ruthless and hopefully work faster! 

And you can bet I'm going to keep up my puzzles and whatever else I can do to stop any decline in brain capacity. By the way - I managed to figure out that puzzle that was driving me mad, and I did another one as well! 

So there isn't much else to chat about. I see the ladies at the retreat are having way too much fun, and I saw a table heaped with goodies (likely from the new market we discovered) and YARN. They bought a lot of yarn. They looked like they were out of control, and I thought I saw one of them spinning a skein into a ball of yarn!! I can't remember what that gizmo is called to do that!!! The next retreat may become a knitting retreat! 

You can't really see in this picture, but there was a lot of fog yesterday. It was very sporadic; one minute there was fog, and the next there wasn't. I need visibility because I was going to visit my aunt, and while I know where she lives in the country, I rely on visuals to find the turnoff. Thankfully, all was good. 

A somewhat patchy, foggy morning

OH MY GOD - I stopped in at the grocery store with Dad to pick up a few things, and look what I spot. An entire shelf filled with puzzles. They are everywhere!! I did not stop to browse, only to take a picture. 

Jigsaw puzzles at the grocery store

Well, it's time to go, and I have a few computer things to get done. I've totally ignored email for the last couple of days, and now I have some urgent things I need to do. 

It WILL be a good day. 

Ciao!!!

Fun day at the quilt retreat

I really must learn the parts of the body! A quick update on Dad. He's been discharged without emergency surgery. The blockage is (was) in his neck. I don't know the details, but I will find out more later today, since I've been running around the house getting ready to get on a plane in a couple of hours!

But wait - let's back up! 

I decided to go to the quilt retreat as I had stuff to drop off to others. One must keep that Pony Express alive. I don't think I brought anything home. Wait - that's a lie - I have a small gift, but no time to take a photo. 

For the life of me, I had forgotten the door code, but we got it resolved fairly quickly. I had grabbed some handwork, and it was a good thing; that's what I planned to do all along. 

Unpacking wasn't without its mishaps. I had grabbed my wool pressing mat from this bag for the Michaels event and didn't realize it was open. So—the contents of the bag fell out on the front step! Of course they did! 

Oops - the contents of my project bag on the front step

But then I got myself set up - two other participants were also doing handwork, so we didn't need to set up another table. It worked very well. 

My workstation

Look how neat that all is!! And I managed to get everything done that I could with what I had brought. OH -- did you notice the Singer iron? 

I made myself some notes, and when I got home, I packed up the missing component and put it in the same bag. I hope to get back for the final day of the retreat. It will be a good way to decompress from the week. While DH is a good listener, it's not the same thing! But a lot has to happen before that final retreat day!

My project is packed and ready to go back to the retreat.

This project is my Many Blocks project, which is on my Visual To-Do list, and my goal is to get three quilt tops done by the end of the year. I still have a few, maybe 30, blocks to make before I can start to assemble the tops. And in keeping with my "nagging" at everyone else to get work done, I need to make a serious commitment to this project. It was started MANY years ago, and I want it done. 

Planning on taking only handwork was a good thing.  

But a good part of the day was consumed with phone calls. Extra home care, Meals on Wheels, respite bed - all of that was coming together perfectly until Mom called to say that Dad was being released from the hospital. Sigh............... I'm sure the Home Care worker was ticked off, but what could I do? It didn't make sense to put Mom in respite when Dad was coming home. 

However, I have asked for an assessment for the two of them living in that apartment, and I hope to get that scheduled while I'm there. 

I have no idea what to face when I get there later today. 

Here's one of the girls and the boy, sleeping while I wrote the blog yesterday morning! The little guy flew home last night, and he looked so sleepy!

Bear and Murphy sleeping.

OK -- so here's a bit of levity to the day. WAIT --- that is totally wrong. I had so much fun with just the one day at the retreat. I shall miss all the fun and frivolity over the next couple of days, but family comes first. But there is NOTHING more therapeutic and fun than spending the day with some friends and just having FUN!!!! It was a great day, and thanks to all of you at the retreat! I'm already missing you!!!!!

Well, you know that I've become a certified jigsaw puzzle nut! And I'm learning about all the brands and styles and types and whatever. Well, one of my favorite puzzle brands is Villager Puzzles. They are Canadian, relatively new, and Kelly (the owner) only hires Canadian women artists for the artwork. And oh my—some of the potential new puzzles for 2027 are amazing! Many of the options are local locations, like Kelowna, Chilliwack, and others. 

Kelly announced something new for 2026: a puzzle Advent Calendar. Yep - I totally get that puzzle Advent Calendars are NOT new, but this is a first for her company. The release day was yesterday. Of course, I had it marked in my calendar, but no alarm - just an event. I checked online in the morning and realized the release time was 9 AM PT, which is noon my time. 

I set the event to noon, and then we got caught up in all the phone calls and whatnot, and it wasn't until 2:15 that I remembered the puzzle release. I quickly connected to the internet, only to find out the puzzle was SOLD OUT!!!!! Drat—while I had set the event, I had forgotten to set a five-minute warning. 

Later, I learned that the puzzle sold out in 1 hour and 38 minutes. I have no idea how many she had. BUT when I got home, I realized that the puzzle sold out on the VILLAGER website, but it was still available at some shops!!! OK --- so let's have a look. I managed to locate the puzzle at a shop in St. Albert, Alberta. Now I have my copy of the puzzle Advent Calendar. How fun - I can't wait to see it. 

I bought mine at a shop called Sweet Boutique. I have no idea how many they have left. 

OK—the clock is ticking; Murphy is a bit agitated, although she has settled down now, and I'm packed. And yeah, me - because of the lateness of booking this ticket, I'm relegated to a middle seat. I can hardly wait! And there will be no upgrade for me - I tried, but I'm too far down the list. Sigh................

On that note, I'm out of here!!!!! The blog will likely be a bit later than usual for the next couple of days because of the time difference. I'll keep you up to date - writing it down is a bit of a release for me. And I will confess that my brother has stepped up and things are going smoothly. I hope to accomplish a lot while I'm there. 

It's going to be a WONDERFUL day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

The aftermath of quilt retreat

OH MY --- I was exhausted when I got home. I had a decent sleep the night before, but it was short. Can you believe I went to bed at 6:30 last night and got up at 4:30 AM—that is a rarity for me. I had five minutes of awake time and 1 hour and 13 minutes of deep sleep! Phew --- I feel great this morning, and that was probably my best sleep score ever. Those sleep scores only give you excellent if the sleep duration is long. 

But let's step back and see what happened in the day -- it was jam-packed!

Instead of starting something new, I decided to only work on the scraps from the dog quilts. You know you are down to your last bits when this is what the final block looks like! And yes—those are tiny little seams along the top, but this is what I love doing. 

The last block of the red/white/black scraps

The one above is made from the brights/black/white fabrics. This one was the last in the muted tones, except for that bright blue. I had more blocks made just from that blue fabric, and they got moved to the other pile. 

The last block from the muted fabrics

That piece of brown was the only scrap left when I finished sewing. The rest of the scrap cutoffs were already in the garbage, as I was trying to keep the cutting table clear, even though I was the only one using it. 

Trimming the last block

I had planned to stop at 11:30 or whenever the scrap pile was done. I beat the clock - I finished at 11:26. I felt like I was in a puzzle competition!!!

Finished at 11:26!!!

And there was the entire bag of dog fabric scraps from the cutoff quilt backings prepped into 6" squares to be made into two more quilts!!! There were 56 muted blocks on the left, so I can make a 7-by-8 quilt from those, and there are 87 brights. I'll add something to those and will make a 9-by-10 configuration. I'll lay these out on the design wall before I go. I find the design wall at the retreat house a bit small (wide but not tall) and very hard to lay things out on. If the blocks are labeled in rows, it will be a snap to assemble them. I'll lay them and bag them later today. OH -- and there was a bag of brownish scraps from those quilts as well. They are with the panel that I'm going to design later today. 

The blocks from the bag of dog fabric scraps

One last thing I looked at before leaving was this project, which belonged to Diane. She had all those squares sewn and labeled for a quilt top, but she was going to use light grey for the sashing. I wasn't sure about it, but as soon as I brought it out, the light grey got poo-pooed, which echoed my sentiment. So that came home, and I'll dig out another fabric, and that can go to the next retreat. 

The light grey does NOT go with the blocks.

I had a scrap bag of blue flannel bits with me as well, but I decided to finish using the remainder of my blue flannel pieces for those community project quilts, and THEN I can assemble some quilt blocks, and all the blue flannel bits will be used. One must be sensible about this stuff. 

The bag of blue flannel scraps is with the blue flannel pieces.

So technically, there was ONE project that I didn't touch while at the retreat. Yeah, me for the amazing packing job. It is the Oh Canada scraps, and they are back in the retreat bag for the next time! I MUST work on those the next time. 

And when I got home yesterday, I unloaded the car, brought all the bags downstairs, and left them. I was too exhausted to do anything, so I worked on that this morning instead of going to the gym. I'll do that tomorrow morning. See the freedom I have by NOT being committed to that spin class? I might just have found the silver lining. 

This is my retreat bin, which sits under a table. There are two bags in it, along with a few scrap projects at the bottom of the bin. That pile of scrap projects is slowly decreasing, and there aren't many left in the bin. I added the two extension cords to the pile because we need them, given how we configure the tables. So if anyone said, "Do you want to go sewing today?" I could grab that bin or the two bags in it, and I could sew for at least four days without running out of stuff. I love doing these scrappy projects at a retreat!

The retreat bin is ready for the next retreat.

This was the mess before I went to bed at 6:30PM!!! There was also a huge pile of tubs and such on the floor, but there was no way I could cope with it. 

Unpacking from retreat

Here are a few other projects from the retreat that others were working on. If you think freezer paper paper piecing is new, think again! This is from a project dated in the early 2000's or even earlier - I don't have time to fact-check that. Nor the designer, but I'll dig it out later today. One of the ladies is working on this rose, and it's stunning!!!

 A paper-pieced rose

She also showed us her Love Entwined (Esther Aliu) quilt that I remember she started MANY years ago. The finished quilt is much bigger than this, but she decided to finish this center block and stop. All that is hand-appliqué, even the zigzag border. Yikes!!!!!

The center of Love Entwined

And someone else was knitting these poppies for a Remembrance Day art installation hosted by her local Legion. They are stunning, and I can't wait to see what they do with them. 

Knitted poppies

OK -- I'm allergic to dogs or something in my house. When I woke up at the retreat house, my nose was perfectly fine. I wake up here, and my nose is itchy like mad!!! Murphy? Lexi? Thank goodness I love you lots!!!!

Let's take a wee break from the tidying up in Studio B and share the puzzle competition with you. 

It didn't take long to get from the retreat house to the puzzle competition in Georgetown. In the past, this competition was held in a community center, but it has grown, and they filled the arena (Mold Masters) with 100 tables, with a bit of room to spare, but not much! Can you believe? And I would bet that this particular event is small compared to the US or the World events. Unbelievable!!!

Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Nationals

I don't know what "social puzzling" or "puzzle chess" is. Although I suspect social puzzling is just assembling with friends. Puzzle chess? I'll have to look that up. I would have loved to stay for the entire event (it started on Friday), but I was at the retreat. Anyway, I went up to the stands to watch the next event start. The timing worked perfectly, so I got to see the start. 

The puzzle boxes are opened and then closed again by the volunteers. I don't know if the plastic bag is open. The boxes are then put into a red cloth bag. I watched part of the pairs event, and it was intense. And it was LOUD as people were chatting. But imagine 100 tables, all but one filled, and these pairs were madly flipping pieces and finding homes for them. And there were a lot of volunteers and spectators, who were most likely family members of the puzzlers. 

Let the pairs event commence!

As I was leaving, I snapped a close-up picture of one of the teams. Most started on the border, but not all. I found out after I got home that the DIL of one of our Monday group was competing in one of the events - could have been the individual events the previous day. How fun, and I knew NOTHING about this before. I feel like a kid in a candy store. 

Talk about intense!!

Speaking of candy stores, I did go to the puzzle store around the corner, and the darn place was hopping!!! All these puzzles for this competition have never been released before and bear a label stating they were for the Canadian Nationals. How fun!

I came home and got distracted by watching the livestream of the event. I cannot believe how quickly the participants finish these puzzles. It's totally insane. I went to bed watching the teams (groups of 4) and fell asleep. I would have fallen asleep regardless of how exciting this or any other event was. 

And now back to unpacking, which I did more of this morning. As I was madly sewing the scraps together yesterday, I needed a few HSTs but didn't have time to trim them. I'll trim them this morning, and then the remaining ones to be sewn can go back into the retreat bag. 

A few HSTs to trim this morning

I pulled out my zipper box and found TWO more appropriately sized and colored zippers for my two projects that I had to stop because of zipper issues. 

Better choice of zippers

But as I dug through the zipper box, I realized that while all the zippers are in one big container, they need to be sorted into "like" families and then into plastic bags. It didn't take long to find the zippers, but what a mess. 

OH - I guess I didn't send myself the picture of the zipper box. But that's one thing about sorting and organizing. If you put all the same things in one spot, it'll be much easier to sort and bag them. 

One of the best areas I sorted out quite a while ago was my supply of plastic bags. I had tons of them and gave a good part of them away, but what remains is sorted by small assorted, snack size, regular size, and large. It is so easy to find a plastic zippered bag for anything I need. 

Sorted plastic bags

I'm running low on large bags, so I may have to crack open a box if I have any left. I think I must have kept one box of large bags. I'll have to check it out, but no need to open the new box until I need it, because the minute one bag is empty, it goes into the appropriate bag. And notice, they are labeled!!!!

The poinsettia blocks are now on the design wall, and I hope to get to work on finishing the sled blocks later today. That will leave a section of flying geese to make, and if I had been smart, I could have taken that with me to the retreat, and they would be done! And there are three bell blocks to make for each wall hanging. 

An update on the winter quilts

There was a book on the coffee table at the retreat house in the giveaway pile, and it's one I LOVE, so it followed me home and is now on the appropriate shelf. 

A new book for the collection

One of the ladies at the retreat house loves the dollar store and made several trips during the retreat, and found some treasures. This was one of the treasures - actually, this one she found a while back. Normally, I wouldn't have gotten excited about these baskets except for what she used them for, as she had several at her house. I'll tell you in one minute. 

Once she told us what she used them for, I decided that two of them would work perfectly for me. That was the morning that we walked to town for breakfast. I decided that I hadn't gotten enough steps for the day, and I would walk back to town and get two baskets. I had many offers for someone to pick them up in the car. Silly them—a true walker doesn't care what they carry home! 

Hmmm --- how to economize on carrying them back to the retreat house. You could NOT stack them and carry them as the handles didn't work that way. Originally, I was going to carry one in each hand, but I also wanted to stop for tea (that might have been why my sleep the night before was short!). How could I manage a basket in each hand and a tea as I walked along the highway? People might think me a bit strange. OH -- I must tell you the story of the tea, but I'm running out of time at this moment. 

So while browsing the shelves at the dollar store, I spotted zipties, bought a pack, ziptied the two baskets together, put them over my arm, held my tea in the other hand, and it worked just fine! I love problem-solving!!!! I should add a couple of zipties to the retreat bag. 

The two baskets are zipped together.

Now, where do they work well? Take a look at this in the stash room. 

Bolts on the floor with quilt backings balanced on top

Bolts of interfacings on the left

I have two spots where bolts of fabric sit on the floor. While it's not an issue, there are times when I've kicked the bolts in the top photo, toppling everything onto the floor. Extra quilt backing sits on top, and when the bolts go, so do the backings. 

In the second photo, I have bolts of interfacing and fusibles, and they are very light and are prone to sliding all over the place. 

However, a bolt of fabric fits perfectly in these baskets (40 L Laundry baskets), and now look. 

The end of the row of bolts is now secure.

I don't need all the bolts to be in the basket, just the ones at the end where they could slide forward, toppling the contents sitting on top. 

And even more compact is the area of interfacings. 

The end of the interfacings is now compact as well.

Not all the intefacings are in the basket, but that end is now solid enough that nothing is going to slide away, and it keeps the floor cleaner. Thank you to my retreat friend for that wee organizing tip!

Here is the state of the cutting table as I left it this morning. There are still bags and projects to deal with, and I plan to finish tidying up later today, though it's going to be a busy day. 

The state of the cutting table

I have an ultrasound scheduled for both knees, and I have to be there at 11:15. My knees were totally fine all week, and then the tendons in the right knee? Since I got home, I can feel them shift in and out of place, and they hurt when they do so! It's the most bizarre thing. Thankfully, they have stretched a bit since this started, but it's still not a pleasant experience. This is probably NOT what is happening to them, but that's what it feels like. I'll have to come up with a better explanation before I go to the sports clinic in two months. 

I also have a meeting at 4 PM, Monday, sewing, and some wedding stuff that has to be addressed TODAY!!!


As I was unpacking my retreat bag, I spotted a couple of postcards with some quotes on them. This will be me today!! 

A quote for the day

Of course, the girls were very excited to see me, but I was so tired, I just wanted to bring everything into the house. But then they got some cuddles, and OH MY, Murphy has a boobooo on her head. I suspect she was trying to cram her huge body under the gazebo to catch a rabbit, but she just didn't fit. Thankfully, she didn't get stuck and had no more than a superficial wound on her head. Oh Murphy!!!

MOM - Look at my boo-boo

Oh my—I have to run. I'm running late, and there is so much to do today!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Taking stock of the coincidences!

 You guys are the best—so many good comments and suggestions. 

It was another amazing day of progress. And guess what? I have worked on almost all my projects - there are two bundles of scraps that I have not touched, and one quilt top! There are a few projects that didn't get finished, but they got advanced, and that is all that counts!

Here is the plaque from the BMO Museum in Montreal. What a hoot to see that. Thank you so much, Daphne, for spotting that and sending it to me, as I had no idea. I don't think I was ever in that museum, and I worked in that building for at least 10 years! I'll share that story and pictures with you when I get home. 

The writing about the scholarship

For something different, we decided to head out for breakfast, and this was one of the breakfasts. This was not mine, but it sure looked good. Let's just say that we did NOT need lunch. However, to help digest the goodies, four of us walked to the breakfast restaurant and then home! It was about a 30-minute walk each way. 

That's breakfast

Then it was back to the house to get some of those niggly little projects done, or at least advance them as much as I could. 

I'm happy to say that I got the invisible zipper back into that cushion cover. Good grief -- that job took all of 5 minutes, but it has sat on my sewing table at home for months. All that remains is to serge the edges together. 

Inserting the invisible zipper

I think I have now perfected how to put the invisible zipper in, especially how to avoid twisting the darn thing and get nice, neat corners at the edges where the zipper is inserted. That should be an easy finish when I'm home. 

A neat finish for the invisible zipper

I had attempted to cut away the zipper tape on the previous attempt, and with both zipper stops cut away, I had to use a clip to prevent the head from coming off!! But it worked, and I'm happy. 

Some of the zipper tape had been removed to reduce bulk.

Then I tackled this small binding sample. It had been turned inside out through the seam in the backing, and I wanted to add a few quilting stitches. 

So I added some stitch-in-the-ditch around the center part and top-stitched close to the outer edge. How long did that take? And yes—that has been sitting on the sewing table for eons. 

The front of the binding sample

The back of the binding sample

Then I grabbed this next binding sample. I wanted to put prairie points around the edge, as I didn't have a sample of that technique. I pulled out the fabric I was going to use, only to discover there wasn't enough. OK -- seriously? Why didn't I figure out how much I needed before I pulled out some black fabric? I wrote myself a note, and when I get home, I can pull the appropriate amount and either continue to work on it or bring it to the next retreat. 

Not enough fabric to work on this one

Then I needed to take a break and was going to check out the Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association on YouTube. They had planned to livestream the events this weekend. Imagine my joy when I found the live stream just ten minutes after the individual qualifying event started. So yes—I watched for about 40 minutes. Good grief - those puzzlers are intense, and the first puzzle was assembled after 38 minutes or something like that. That was a 500-piece puzzle - these guys are good, and I'm nowhere near that level! 

Watching the livestream of the jigsaw competition

The number of coincidences happening right now is incredible. I made a comment on the livestream that I was excited to watch and mentioned that I would be there today. Shhhh—don't tell DH that. Anyway, shortly thereafter, I got an email from a friend of mine who used to live in this area. They packed up and moved to PEI many years ago, and I saw her in person in 2015. I haven't really had contact with her since then. But she saw my post and emailed me right away to ask if I had switched from quilting to puzzling! 

She used to be a long-arm quilter and sewed quilts. She has given up quilting, and now she's a puzzler! It sounds like she keeps her puzzles, as she said they have close to 700!!! I don't plan on keeping mine. I'll be in touch with her—lots of questions, and it might mean a trip back to PEI. 

Then it was time to get back to work, and I had several pouches to work on. I had brought this pattern with me, but I wasn't all that excited about the construction method when I read through it. Hmm --- there is another way to construct these bags, but could I remember? 

Supplies to make a zippered boxy pouch

I got some information from one of my Monday sewists, who is in Europe at the moment! But I was certain there was a different way, so I got out some newspaper and cut some rectangles in the shape of my pre-quilted fabric. Yes -- it wasn't enough that I needed a pattern, but I would have to rejig it to match my shape. 

I had to make several iterations of my paper pouch, but I finally remembered the concept I used when making the bags in the past. It was quite the puzzle!!! But I didn't have the ratio of the cutout sections to make sure that all the seams would match up. 

Making pouches from newsprint

I remembered another friend had made a pouch in what I thought was the style I was looking for, so she sent me the cutting diagram, and DRAT -- it was the same one I had gotten earlier. But there is a different way. 

I have left that project out in case I get time this morning. I may decide to make several pouches using both methods. I'll have to find the pattern I'm thinking of when I get home. Then I can judge which one is easiest to modify, since I have quite a few pieces of pre-quilted fabric to turn into pouches. My sizes do NOT match any of the patterns. 

As the mother of the bride, with sewing skills, it's my job to fix this bowtie so a certain little Mister can wear it to the wedding. It had a huge buckle. I took the strap apart and will remake it with a velcro fastener. I managed to find a very similar colored fabric and will be making him another one that will be smaller -- this one is HUGE, and he's just a little guy. But don't tell the bride!!!! We'll have options, and I'm bringing a small sewing kit with me - just in case! And safety pins!

Deconstructing a bowtie

I pulled SIX raindrops off the Cherrywood challenge and WAIT --- someone suggested I use one of those shavers! I have one!!!!!! I'm going to try that when I get home. Thanks, Shirley, for that suggestion -- it's in a drawer of notions and I never even thought about it. That's why together we are a team!!!!!

More raindrops have gone from the Cherrywood challenge.

And someone has an answer for my three-needle bind-off, so I'll be checking that out as well. You guys are the best!!!!

There was one other project that I worked on - another small pouch. There is some appliqué to do, and I didn't have the right thread, and for some reason, I brought an invisible zipper. WAIT --- that was the zipper that came with the kit. So I'll get a regular zipper when I'm home, and they used snaps on it, which I didn't bring with me. So that can be worked on at home. 

Another zippered pouch

By this time, I had run out of things to do, including all the panic packing I had done. That left three bags of scraps and an entire quilt top to be sewn together. I grabbed the bag of scraps with all the leftover backing trim from the eight dog quilts for the vet and his staff. 

I had sorted them into bright colors and the muted ones. And I started making blocks. This process puts me in my happy place, and I just LOVE doing it. It's like a puzzle, and my brain is happy. 

Making fabric from scraps

I did a pretty good job at using up small pieces and cutting from the small yardage pieces. 

Making a scrappy block

OK -- this picture would NOT cooperate when I tried rotating it. But of the bright colors (a lot of them had black backgrounds), I have made/cut 82 six-inch blocks!!!! That's pretty exciting. 

I have made 82 blocks so far.

And this is all the fabric bits that remain for the bright colors, laid out to make one last block. That will be 83 blocks, which doesn't work well in any sort of configuration. I may have to add a few more solid colors or something. 

The last block

I'll work on the muted colors and see how many blocks I can make. I don't think I'll mix them, as they are quite different and will make the very scrappy quilt look even scrappier. WAIT --- that's a good teaching opportunity for my upcoming class in the fall!!! 

Here are a couple of pictures of what some of the others are working on. Look at all those beautiful colors of felt!!! Those came from Creekbank in case you covet them. 

Beautifully colored felt

Someone else bought a bucket of scraps and proceeded to cut them into squares of various sizes. Doesn't that look yummy!!! And she finished going through that scrap bucket!!! Yeah!!!!

Scraps in storage containers

And if you want to see something very crazy, these diamonds are hand-pieced. 

Hand pieced blocks

But she loves hand piecing, which is good because there are lots of diamonds to make (Quilted Diamonds by Linda Franz) and some of those pieces are tiny!!!!

Last night was the second full moon this month, so we kept an eye on it as it rose above the trees and risked life and limb (mosquitoes) to get a couple of pictures. The second full moon each month is called a Blue Moon (I'm sure you all knew that), and this one was supposed to be extra special because many planets were aligned!!

The Blue Moon

Well, I'm off to work on the rest of the dog fabric scraps, and who knows - I might be sewing those quilts together at the next retreat. But I have a bag of Oh Canada scraps in my retreat bag, and I NEED to get those sewn because they have traveled back and forth quite a few times. 

It's the last day of the retreat!!!!! I'll be leaving shortly after lunch and taking a bit of a scenic tour home, and then I can unpack and try to prep a few things to get them sewn this week. I feel quite energized and ready to tackle a lot of things. But I have quilts to quilt this week and a few things to finish or start for the wedding. 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!