Cleaning up!

Yep -I'm deleting from SENT and then emptying the TRASH folder. I don't have time to deal with it today, but I'm happy knowing that I've found a good part of the culprit. However, I'm still a long way from cleaning up that email. I'll do a little bit each day! If I were to add up all those "little bits" each day, I'd need a long, long day!

But all is good! You can't sweat the stuff you can't deal with that day. Just tuck it in the back of your mind and know that it will get done. Even more important is knowing how to fix the problem. Let's hope I can stay on top of it and it won't become an issue in the future. 

There is still loads of stuff on the computers, hard disks, USBs, and external drives that I need to delete! But I'll get there. 

And does anyone go into their smart devices and clean out chat streams? Yep -- that's another area that can quickly take up space on your phone! I do it occasionally, but I could improve at it. This is a huge problem -- we are inundated with so much crap that there's not much time to deal with keeping those areas clean!

Well, one area in my life that is super clean is the car! It's not because we have a new vehicle; I've always been like this. I arrive home, and I empty the car of EVERYTHING, especially my garbage. How hard is that? A wrapper, a drink cup? Grab it and trash it! I've always wondered why people keep a ton of stuff in their cars. Anyway, I digress. 

I arrived home about 5 p.m. yesterday, and I was quite happy to be home! I'm now home, except for a one-day meeting for almost two weeks! Yeah!!

However, I didn't get anything done last night. I was tired, so I started reading a book, and the rest is history! 

This morning, I got up and went to Studio B, but I almost turned around and went back to bed. Why? 

It's like a debris field in there. 

The debris field that is called Studio B

And the area around the long arm isn't much better. 

A second debris field

The place has been worse, but this is getting pretty bad. While I brought the suitcases (3 huge ones) into the house yesterday, they are still parked in the hallway. I unpack them a bit at a time since the quilts are heavy and need to be put away. 

I have work to finish today as I have three sessions over the weekend, and the show must go on. So I started with the cutting table, which wasn't in bad shape, considering what the floor looked like. 

AH -- A while back, I spoke about the Peaky and Spike unit in the quilt world. This was named because of Doreen Speckman. And at some point, Marti Michell made a ruler in honor of Doreen and this unit. 

Peaky and Spike template

There's only one problem with this template - it makes ONE SIZE!!

The templates only make a 5" finished unit

Deb Tucker has released many rulers; her version for this unit is called the V Block. I chuckle when I say that because so many rulers do the same thing, but everyone thinks their spin on it is best. 

The V Block ruler

However, I think the Tri-Recs Ruler, which has been around for eons, is the BEST ruler for making this unit. It's versatile—you can make units from 1" to 6" finished (or something like that). There is NO NEED to trim the unit down when you've sewn it together, so it takes less time, and there is ZERO waste. 

The Tri-Recs ruler

That sounds like an oxymoron statement coming from me - -someone who makes their HSTs slightly larger and trims them down. But I'm also an old dog, and teaching me new tricks is tough! 

Anyway, I LOVE my Tri-Recs ruler, and that's what I'll use for any of these units I need to sew. To me, they are called Peaky and Spike!!! Thank you, Doreen, for that cute name!

Oh gosh -- if I look a bit closer, there is more stuff on the floor. 

More stuff to deal with

OH, do you remember me saying I couldn't find my metal bias bars a week ago? That's because I was trying to be very proactive in prepping for my applique classes, and I stuck them in the box with the patterns I was working on. DUH!!!! 

Found the bias bars!

The missing bias bars. I've moved them back to the box where they belong, and I guess it shows that I am NOT good at being proactive because I don't remember pulling them out. So, in the future, things must stay in their original spot! 

The missing bias bars

I found a bag of thread that I bought a while back that had yet to be put away. I emptied the bag onto the cutting table. 

Brand new thread, which was homeless

And while I was sorting, I found two more mini stashes of new thread that had yet to be put away. Sigh.....

More homeless thread

More homeless thread

I find the best way to organize things is by color, as that's how I usually need them. Well, my threads are sorted by category first and then color. These are my boxes of embroidery thread, and the three stashes of recently purchased thread were all for machine embroidery. 

So, I pulled out the appropriate colored box. Hmm, there is not much room in this one. 

Oranges and yellows

And only a little room in this one, too. 

Blue embroidery thread

Now I have an overflow bag, which I'm not fond of. I could separate the oranges and the yellows into separate boxes and sort the blues by teal and blue. 

A bag of homeless embroidery thread

But my embroidery thread cupboard is already full, and technically, I could fill a second unit. The question would be, where do I put it? NO MORE buying thread!

My embroidery thread cabinet

I was cleaning something out in the storage room the other day- more on that story another day. And I found this mat smoother. Hmmm -- unopened, so I'll try it later today. I wonder if it'll be good to clean some of the debris off the mat or if this is just another expensive gimmick I fell for?  But I chuckle as I see this -- I met a lady the other day who has a small mat that she used for quilt classes. The mat was FORTY years old, and the front of it was pretty scarred. The back was flawless, so I suggested she use the back!!! 

A mat smoother

These are the background fabrics for my Green Tea and Sweet Beans. Since the quilt top is done, I guess I can put these away. So the whites are in the white bucket, the grays are in the gray bucket, and the scraps are in the appropriate spot. 

The backgrounds for Green Tea and Sweet Beans

I trimmed some half-square triangles sewn in the last month, and they were put away. 

Trimming half-square triangles

While rummaging in the storage room a while back, I spotted a box of solids. Hmm --- I could probably put those with the other solids. So, I opened it up this morning. ACK -- why do I do this to myself? 

Stuff I found in the box of solids

I found two patterns in the box, containing leftover fabrics from the Gravity quilt or leftovers from Amish with a Twist. I also found the MINI Hex ruler by JayBird and some half-hexes that were already cut. CRAP --- I can't just leave those half hexes, so I'll sew them together to make the little quilt on the left. WAIT --- I can sew them as enders and leaders. But first, I need to be sewing to use them! 

Well, it's always an entertaining day when I decide to tidy up, but I'm glad what I did. While it still is a disaster, I cleared off the one table where I need to do some work. I dug out the fabrics for the two projects that need to be prepped for tomorrow, and I'm going to focus on that one table only today! So all is good, but then I need to get that place whipped back into shape at some point. 

As I mentioned, walking in there this morning was not encouraging, and that is NOT a good thing. 

So -- yes, there is a Virtual Retreat this weekend. Here are the links. 

Saturday - April 27 - starting at 6 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89816483795?pwd=Mjc3M3pvVmZPdjdsQzlHS3Zhck52dz09

Meeting ID: 898 1648 3795
Passcode: 248667

Sunday, April 28 - starting at NOON

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82983517671?pwd=ODdsa1FJenQwdFNaQWFTNGd4bEhPZz09

Meeting ID: 829 8351 7671
Passcode: 117636

My computer only has THREE windows open this morning. WAIT—that's my Google Browser. One of them is the blog, one is my calendar, and the third is something I want to share with the Monday Sewing group. So I'm doing well!

I'm going to try to keep things clear on this computer. I doubt that will last long, but there's always hope!

On that note, I'm out of here. The girls (no boy - sigh -- I miss him, but it's amazing how quickly we fell back into our routine, although it's been chaos this week) are waiting for their walk, which they did NOT get yesterday and were pretty miffed about it.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!

A digital hoarder

OH --- so I perhaps found part of the issue with my email. Someone had mentioned it before, and someone mentioned it in the comments the other day. 

I don't have the pictures to share with you this morning, but here's what happened. I did a disk cleanup -- somewhere on my computer, I found that, and it cleared up maybe one GB. That's nothing -- I need gobs of space.

So, I went into the SENT folder in my email. Hmmm  --- I figured out how to sort them by size and got a chuckle. The first category that came up was HUGE (10 - 25 MB). Yep -- that's what the computer categorized it as. That's hilarious. 

And here's what has been happening over the years—yes, I know years! Do people clean out that folder? I know some of you do, but I don't usually. I've been saved in the past by being able to prove that I sent something. The same goes for the files in that IMPORTANT folder. I found very useful information there as well. Things I deleted elsewhere were in the important folder. 

But I started looking at what was in the sent folder, and OK— there were a "few" emails in there. I manually deleted some in that HUGE category, and can you believe that I deleted 25 GB of data? My email is now only using 75 GB of space, NOT 106. But I'm not done yet. 

I've tried to do a general delete in that folder, but it doesn't seem to work. Do I have to manually delete all the messages? I didn't have much time yesterday to play around with it, but at least I have space, and my computer should be much happier. 

Here's what causes the problem -- let's say that I send a message with a 10 MB attachment to someone. It saves that one message in the sent folder. If I send that same message with a 10 MB attachment to a group of 20 people, it saves the message TWENTY times. So, with all the group emails in the last couple of years and sending them my files, the space got eaten up!!! I doubt any of you will ever come close to having that same issue!

I'm unsure if there are any more HUGE files in that folder or if they are now only VERY LARGE (5 MB - 10 MB). Yep -- again, that is the terminology that GMAIL assigns these messages, which is hilarious. Now that I know, I may go in and delete those messages but keep the rest? I don't know. I just need to empty it for the moment. 

So when I get home again, I'll be able to tackle that folder once more and try to get rid of all those messages with attachments. OK -- I'll just empty the folder, but like I said, I can't just delete the contents as it seems to reach a limit and then stops. So, it may take several deletes to completely empty the folder. Then I'll check again to see how much space that freed up. Then, I still need to go through the inbox and delete more messages! I think I'm good with all the subfolders. I've gotten rid of quite a bit of stuff. 

I guess you could call me a digital hoarder! I collect stuff and don't even know that it's there until I hit a wall! 

Yes, I'm not home again! But this time, it's only a couple of hours by car. I spoke at the Georgian Bay Guild last night, and I'm doing a workshop today. Then I'll be home and no travel for a few weeks. Yeah!!!

Poor Murphy was beside herself yesterday. She was clingy and didn't know what to do with herself because there was no one to share the front window with her! What? Why are the stairs gone? Where's the little guy? And then, when I got the suitcases out to pack the quilts, she was even worse! What is happening? What about me? 

Lexi? She couldn't care less! 

But it was nice when I walked them in the morning because I was in the house before 9 AM, and both dogs had had their long walk. Yeah, high Maintenance—he was high maintenance!!!

Other than packing my quilts and the workshop supplies and reading a book, I didn't really do much. Gosh, all this traipsing around is exhausting. 

I keep forgetting to mention two things. YES, there is a virtual retreat this weekend. It'll be on Saturday evening and Sunday starting at noon. I'll put the links in tomorrow when it's easier. I don't have a mouse right now to cut and paste. How lame is that? 

Secondly, I have a REAL retreat at Springhouse (near New Hamburg), which is a beautiful facility. If anyone is interested in attending for a day or two or all five days, let me know, as I have a few spots open. The dates are May 17 - 22 . Send me an email if you are interested. elainetheriault@gmail.com

No one should be afraid to send me an email for fear of clogging up my space when it's the emails I send that are doing the job. But I now have LOADS of space, and I'm not done yet!!!

Well, I guess I should get myself together. I'm staying at a beautiful house on Balm Beach! I've been here before as when Kim originally bought the house, she used it as a quilt retreat house, and I stayed here twice before. I should get my butt in gear and walk down to the beach, but I don't think I have time for that. Yep -- I'm becoming a slug for sure!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Home AGAIN!!!

I'm home!! But not for long. I'm off to do a guild talk tonight and a workshop tomorrow, and then I'll be home for a couple of weeks. While all the travel is "exciting," it's not! I have much that I want to get accomplished here. But all is good!

Here are a couple of pictures to catch up on. That Murphy!! She knows exactly where to lay down so I won't miss her. I was about to go on a Zoom call the other day, and my computer stand was on that table in the middle. So she plunks herself right where I would put my chair! 

MOM -- I NEED you to see me!!!!

And then, when I was done at the computer, she plunked herself right in the path between the tables so I wouldn't miss her. 

MOM --- can you see me??? 

Hopefully, now that the little guy is gone, she and Lexi can return to normal. 

I will admit that when I got home last night, the house seemed empty. He may be small, but his personality and attitude are BIG!!!

He's so funny. I slept on M's couch and was so tired that I never noticed that it wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep. The Little Guy sure knows he is home. He would NOT go on the pee pad, so I took him for a walk and found something to eat. Hmmm, his mom did NOT have his toys or his bed out!!! She had to dig it out of the closet! Poor guy --- where's the welcome mat? 

There are two elevators in the building, and he was standing at the door to one. But he heard the other elevator announce its arrival, and he scooted over there to get in! Yep—he might like the forest, but he's an urban boy at heart. 

Then, he began sniffing every square inch of that elevator floor to see what he had missed. 

Grandma -- my friends were here! 

The second he was outside, he did a quick business. Good boy for holding! His Mom will be so "happy" that he doesn't like pee pads! However, there's a pet-friendly area on one of the patios, so she doesn't even have to leave the building! He's a good boy!!! That dog is a people magnet, though!!! Everyone loves him and wants to pet him!

So Bear and I walked up to Tim's. And let's say there are a ton of dogs in the neighborhood. I don't live downtown, so I can't compare to here; Vancouver is a cool city and seems extremely open to cycling and other non-vehicular transportation. 

As we were walking, I spotted a guy coming down the street—and I mean DOWN the street (hill) —on a skateboard, with a backpack and a ceramic mug in his hand! Although he seemed to be putting on a show of almost falling off the skateboard, he was quite skilled! 

Walking in that area is certainly different than walking in the suburbs where I live, where NO ONE is on the street or barely!

We passed beautiful tulips that were already past their prime. 

Tulips are past their prime

Beautiful old heritage buildings are interspersed amongst the high-rises, and like everywhere, the amount of construction was insane!!!

Old heritage buildings with a high-rise behind

We walked down to Cole Harbor and sat in the sun briefly as I sipped my tea. That huge yacht belongs to Jimmy Pattison, one of Canada's richest people. 

Cole Harbor

You can't really see them, but there are the mountains north of Vancouver! 

Our morning view

Then we walked back to the apartment, and Bear proceeded to snuggle up on the sofa with me for the morning while M and I visited. What a cutie, and I will miss him. WAIT a minute—HIGH MAINTENANCE. Murphy will be jumping up and down because she gets to go for a walk first! 

Exhausted after his trip!

As I prepared to leave, the little guy jumped in his carrier. WAIT -- you would think he had enough of the carrier the previous day! But I gave him a couple of big hugs, and then I was gone. 

Grandma - can I come too?

I walked back to the train station and didn't take any wrong turns. I got my ticket, which cost half of what the ticket the day before cost. Time of day is a huge factor in all these ticket prices. 

Got my train ticket

Then, I took the SkyTrain back to the airport. Doesn't this remind you of a roller coaster ride? Thankfully, it was a gentle ride. 

The Sky Train back to the airport

I made a couple of rookie mistakes as I approached the security desk. Few people are around when you enter the security area from the train, and it's very convenient. As I walked towards the desk, I was on my phone texting DH about something at home and even stopped to finish the test. That was a RED FLAG, and the lady even asked why I stopped. So I explained everything to her as she swabbed EVERYTHING I had. 

Then, my small backpack was flagged as it went through the scanner. OH GOD -- I forgot I had a half-full water bottle in there. DUH!!!! I never do that. And when I went through the X-ray, I got the big one. 

Yep -- next time, PAY ATTENTION and do NOT draw attention to yourself like that. Totally rookie mistakes!!! But I had loads of time, and no harm was done. 

The wait was uneventful, and the plane was on time. I was close to getting an upgrade, but there are too many people with 50K status ahead of me and my 35K, so it's unlikely I'll ever be able to use those points, but you never know. DH says I need to buy a more expensive ticket to get further up the line. Seriously? Would I pay more money to potentially get upgraded? That's one of the reasons we don't vacation together. I'm happy in a tent, and he needs 5 stars! 

I was happy in the economy seats - the flight is only 4 1/2 hours, so it's no big deal. EXCEPT -- on the way out and the way back, the persons sitting behind me had a very annoying habit. They must empty their packs into the back of their seat pocket. Then they proceed to spend the entire flight digging in the seat pocket, which, of course, I can feel every time because the padding in that area is not great. I swear they are touching my butt the entire flight! 

But I survived! On the way home, I snagged a window seat and got a great view of the airport, which is ENTIRELY built on an island. 

Vancouver Airport is on an island

And there are the mountains! I hadn't seen them from the air in a long time, and they were as majestic as ever! 

The Rockies

It's great traveling light, and I was much lighter than usual, with only my backpack. If I didn't have to check my luggage, I'd never check my luggage again. What a hassle to check it in and then retrieve it, carry it, and take care of it. Nope—I'll go as light as I can. However, there will be times when I'll have to, and I'll just deal with it then. 

DH came to pick me up, and I swear the people coming to pick people up are as silly as ever. Why arrive at the curb if your party isn't there? The congestion was horrific, but I hopped in the car, and we were gone in seconds! 

The girls (no boy) were thrilled to see me. And they will be even happier this morning (and so will I) because the walk will be much shorter, so they can get fed earlier! We love you BEAR, but you are high maintenance!!!

Mom's HOME!!!! 

Of course, Lexi wanted out late at night, but that's not happening! She wouldn't come in, or if she did, it would be in the middle of the night. OK, so these girls are also high maintenance, but now there are only two!

I did not go to the gym this morning. I thought about it and then said no! I had some work that needed to be done this morning, and I think I'm good. I have LOADS of emails to respond to, so if you're waiting for an email from me, be patient. I hope to get most of it done this morning. Then I have to pack for the lecture tonight and the workshop tomorrow. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Bear's travel day

Oh dear—I see people are in this folder, which only has pictures. I'm in another time zone and should have gotten myself organized and written about it. I'm tired today, as yesterday was a long day. 

Thanks for the tips on the tech stuff. The SENT folder is the next one to investigate, as there are all those big files I've sent over the years. What I do not understand is that even after deleting many emails and attachments, the file size has increased, NOT decreased. What the heck is going on? Well, I hope to get to the bottom of that. 

And NO—I didn't have a chance to watch all the videos on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, and I missed the one on dogs and birds of prey. I shall go in and check that out. I find all this stuff fascinating. I know there are shows on TV or streaming services about "How did they do that?" or whatever, and I really do not need to find them since I'd spend all my time watching them. 

So yesterday was an adventure. Little Bear and I were off to the airport. I'll tell you part of that story, but first, here are some photos of Little Bear on his last day at our house. Remember -- the little guy is HIGH MAINTENANCE!!!

He went for a walk in the forest. He's gotten very used to the forest and loves to sniff every leaf and tree. Now that he's back in his urban environment, he sniffed every tree, lamp post, and blade of grass on our walk from the train to the apartment. 

I LOVE the forest

When he was dropped off back in January, his mom thought he needed a lot of stuff, but we didn't need much of it. He needed his sweater and one coat, and that was about it. He's a big boy and survived just fine at our house without all the extra stuff. 

I told him to pack up all his stuff, and he just looked at me. Fortunately, I was able to pack it all in my office backpack. 

MOM brought a lot of stuff for me!

Murphy will miss the little guy if for no other reason than she was the one who thoroughly licked his plate clean! Oh, Murphy!!! 

Murphy cleaning Bear's plate

Then we had some fun trying to get some pictures. That was not going to happen with Lexi, but Murphy, Bear, and I had fun at the dinner table as we tried to get a group shot. I was trying to stay out of the shot! It was not easy with those two. 

Murphy: I LOVE the little guy!

Oh, what fun times we had

Bear was able to explore the backyard one more time. He was so hesitant about it the first time he came to our house, and each time, he got braver. He loved it and often spent time climbing on the rocks. With the scare of the hawk, we never left him unattended in the backyard. Either one of the girls was out there to babysit him, but even then, I watched him all the time. Yes, HIGH MAINTENANCE is the way to describe Bear. We haven't seen the hawks in our backyard, but I can see them flying in the forest, so they are always around. 

Exploring the backyard

His favorite spot in the house was the bed in the front window. Thankfully, he learned how to climb up and down the stairs, so he was pretty independent. Otherwise - it would have been a nightmare! But he would spend hours up there watching the world go by. Now, the only thing he can watch out the window in his apartment are the birds. He could look at the mountains, but they don't move, so what's the fun of that? 

Checking out the neighborhood and sitting in the sun

And while it looks like he's adoringly looking up at DH, he just wanted food!! That little devil!!!

Where's the food?

Anyway, we were off to the airport yesterday morning. As I walked into the airport, I heard my phone ding, and I looked at it and CRAP -- the flight was delayed by 3 1/2 hours due to maintenance. What exactly does that mean? Well, it means my flight is delayed by 3 1/2 hours, and I have Bear with me. We checked in and through security, and my backpack got flagged. Oh -- that's his hairbrush!! 

I got a Tim's and a cookie and was going to find a spot to sit when I remembered that I had a lounge pass. This is the perfect time to have a lounge pass, so we walked there, and yes, we got access. We found a comfy chair to sit down, and I let him out of his carrier. He was pretty excited about that, and no one said a word. They frown on dogs being out of their carrier in the main terminal. He was NOT allowed to run around but stayed in the chair with me or was on his leash. 

I had something to eat. Bear got a few snacks, and everything was good. 

Then we got a notification that the flight was further delayed by one hour. Good grief!!! Finally, I wandered down to the gate because we had to stop by the pet relief area. At first, he was like, "What the heck is this?" Then he did his business, and we were off to the gate, where the flight was further delayed by half an hour. 

I was wiped by now. How can it be so exhausting to wait when I can do so much in a day and not be tired? 

It was a huge plane, and we were in row 55, which wasn't even the back of the plane. I was asleep before the plane started to taxi. It was almost 2:30 when we were waiting to take off on the runway. We should have been in Vancouver by the time we took off. I'm on a quick turnaround, which was a large part of my visiting time. Sigh...............

But all was good—I had an ebook, watched a movie, and slept. Bear was very good for the entire flight and mostly slept. Around 5 PM EST, I gave him the remainder of the snacks, and he went back to sleep. It took forever to get off the plane just because of the sheer number of people. 

Then we had to find the pet relief area—we had no idea where it was, so we went outside, and he did his business. Then, we took the Skytrain to get into Vancouver. The train was easy and super cool, and soon, we were off the train and walking to the apartment. Although Bear was very whiney on the train. He was tired of being in his carrier and probably hungry. I can't blame him!

OK -- so I might be good with the GPS in the car, but I SUCK at it when I'm walking. And after TWO false starts, I got in the right direction. Why is that? I had the same problem in Spain last year. I am just not good at it. 

But we finally arrived at the apartment after Bear slowly sniffed his way home. I don't know who was happier to see each other!! But they are reunited again! And I can leave knowing that he is in good hands. 

I have more to say about the day, but it's time to edit this rough draft and then get on with the day because I'll walk back to the train (much faster and lighter) and get ready to catch my flight home. Which hopefully will not be late. If it's late -- that's going to be a nightmare! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Green Tea and Sweet Beans is DONE!!

I am dangerous around a computer. I know enough to get around and potentially get into trouble, yet not enough to solve problems. 

My computer has gotten sluggish again, and yes, when I checked, my email had grown to 106 GB from 104 GB, and I'm down to less than 45 GB free on the C drive. How is this happening? 

On top of that, when I went to download a document the other day, it did silly things to my setup. It was not a virus, but it installed a different web browser, and I was struggling to do any searches as Google just wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. 

So last night, against my "will," I decided to tackle the issue. I deleted ALL the other web browsers off my computer. I only use one. Hopefully, the others will never reappear. I played around with a few other settings and decided to tackle the email issue. By the way, the computer is much more responsive this morning, and I now have the REAL Google web browser, and it's back to its fast self. 

What happened? I've no idea, but all is better. And, of course, Google being Google, that change that happened the other day was reflected across my devices, which I didn't want. 

It drives me crazy if I don't understand something, so I went onto Google to do some research. There is a folder in my email called IMPORTANT. It seems to contain every email I've received since the beginning of time. What exactly is this? And why do I need it? 

Granted, I have accessed emails from that folder that I needed because I deleted them or couldn't find them in my other folders. But I don't think I need that anymore, so I checked online to see what it is. It appears that Gmail will predict what messages are deemed important based on your habits. I don't think that was happening; it literally put every message in there, so the important folder is HUGE. 

What I need to do is be brave and EMPTY that folder. And that is what I'm doing. ACK!!!!!! But even if I deleted the message in my inbox, it wouldn't delete from this IMPORTANT folder. 

I tried two other things first. There's a setting in the web version of Gmail that you can turn off to prevent emails from going into that folder. That's important because it will stop the flow of emails into that folder. I checked this morning, and the few emails that came in since I switched the notification did NOT flow into the important folder. YEAH—we're on the right path. 

Then, last night, I tried some other function to get rid of duplicate emails. Well, a lot of what's in that folder was already deleted from the main inbox, so it's not duplication. 

The IMPORTANT folder

There were many more emails than 5744 in there, and I think that number only reflects the ones that were unread. I'm not sure about that. 

As it started that task, it started moving duplicate emails into the trash, but stopped at 262. That can't be right. 

Reducing redundancy

Oh that task was called "cleaning up important," and while it was important, it wasn't what needed to be done. 

Trying to clean up the emails

Seriously??? I just checked my computer storage, and nothing changed! However, I believe one other step needs to be done to remove files from the computer. I checked the Recycle Bin, and it's empty. But there's another place, and for the life of me this morning, I can't remember. And I might need to reboot my computer to make any changes. But even after deleting all those messages, the space used by my email is still 106 GB. SIGH...

OK—if you are a tech nerd like me and want to see how that darn Gordie Howe International Bridge is being put together, you should go to the videos on this page. It's absolutely fascinating. They talk about the bridge deck completion and how much care is being taken to ensure the two ends meet. Check out the video called "Closing in on Bridge Deck Construction." 

The lead engineer walks through the process, and what they are doing is amazing!!! 

We had our show and tell yesterday, so now I can show you what I completed. I'm supposed to be working on a different quilt, but that just isn't happening. But I managed to get the top of my Green Beans and Sweet Tea quilt done!! 

Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt top is DONE

I did not like the original border on the quilt as I felt it was too wimpy. 

The original

I took the motifs from the border (oval flower with a center and the leaf) and brought them into mySewnet embroidery software, which I then digitized as machine embroidery applique. 

The vine was stitched down in sewing mode. The shapes were precut! 

Then, after 32 hoopings, the quilt top was complete! It took some time, and what a learning curve—I am thrilled with the process. 

But I almost ruined the entire top last night. It was sitting on a stool beside the cutting table, and I came trotting downstairs with a HOT CHOCOLATE. Yep -- it started to slosh, and as I neared the cutting table, I realized the danger, and I managed to avoid the top - almost. 

ACK!!!!

Good grief—how did that happen? A quick trip to the sink to give it a rinse, and all is good! Phew!!!

Now, I need to make the binding and backing and move it to the "to be quilted" pile. That pile is getting a bit on the unruly side—I must start tackling it!

While I have loads of stuff to prepare, I needed some downtime, and I needed time to unpack all the stuff I had used last week and put it back. 

Cleaning up the mess from last week

I emptied bag by bag on the cutting table and slowly worked my way through to ensure all the bits for each accessory were back in the correct box. The finished samples went in one spot, and the unfinished samples went in another. Most everything is back in place! 

This is good because I need to repack those suitcases for later this week when I'm doing a guild talk (modern quilts) and a workshop (curved pieced) at the Georgian Bay Quilt Guild. 

I received this as a gift the other day. It was very thoughtful of the giver and notice it's in my favorite color! It's a notebook cover and there's a small notebook on the inside which is perfect for taking notes and making lists!!!

A notebook

I also received this as a gift. It's a multi-connection gadget for charging devices with various connectors. This is perfect and it's also what I happened to use the other day to charge my phone. The PERFECT thing to carry along with a block! I LOVE it! I think there are four different connectors on it and all in one place! 

A multi-connection device

When I was fabric shopping the other day, I spotted these needles. You'll remember that I purchased a set a while back, but one of the needles was missing. So I bought the full set. 

Darning needles

The big question of the day is what the heck did I do with the other set? I wanted to put the two of them together and I can't find it. I suspect it's with my other bodkins which are upstairs and I must check that to see that everything is in the right place because what's the sense of having homes, if you can't remember where they are? 

I have to chuckle at myself sometimes. I seem to go from one small calamity to another! Whether it's tech related or mssing items, there's always something that seems to go awry in my world. 

Well, I'm off on another adventure today. While adventures are fun, they sure eat into your sewing time!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!