Jungle Walk, Recipes

 This is definitely the CUTEST quilt I've worked on in quite a while.

Jungle Walk by Harebrained Happenings

Here are a few of the blocks...

Today we are celebrating VALENTINES DAY.  Still locked in with the stay-at-home orders, until Tuesday.  Supper tonight will be leftover roast beef, but I'm making a Chocolate Olive Oil Cake for dessert.  This is a new recipe for me.  The Savour Ontario site (apparently I follow them on Instagram?) has never led me astray, so it will probably be very good.  Assuming I don't forget any ingredients which I know happens to all of us once in a while.

Yesterday, being GALENTINES DAY, I had a lovely two hour video cocktail party with the Beach Girls.  If they'd been here for our annual Winterruption get together I would have shared a large jug of Salted Caramel Martinis, but as it was I made a small jug and hic drank it all myself. 

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT POLITICIANS (not that anyone cares what I think...)

In Ontario, the province is getting opened up starting this coming Tuesday.  The government's plan is to transition the Public Health areas into colour coded zones - I think for two weeks at a time. I'm in Haldimand/Norfolk, which is going back to Orange status.  We are surrounded by Niagara on one side - which is going to Grey (really bad!), and Hamilton on the other side which is going to Red (bad!) - both areas keeping MORE restrictions than us because their situations are much worse than ours.  What that means is, like what happened around Christmas, residents of those restricted zones simply get in their car and drive to a more open zone to get whatever they simply cannot live without, which spreads more infection here into our zone.  So, my request to Hamiltonians and Niagrans:  STAY AWAY FROM HERE.  Please.  And thankyou.  The medical officers of health in most of the province think this whole thing is nuts, because the new variants are spreading and they want the stay-at-home orders to remain in effect for the time being.  But hey, why would the government listen to their experts?  

OK, that covers my thoughts on the Doug Ford Conservative government idiots.  Now I shall move on the the United States.

Yesterday, Donald Trump was exonerated for inciting the riot at the Capitol on January 6th.  I kind of expected that, but I am still shocked.  No more than I was when he was initially elected, though.  They have become a country that willingly elects a man who laughingly, sexually abuses women, makes fun of disabled people, feels justified in paying almost zero taxes, etc.  Now, they have no problem with permitting (arguably) the most powerful man in the world to run roughshod over democracy and encourage the murder of his fellow politicians.  What a sad state of affairs.  I was honestly hoping that with the election of Joe Biden things would turn around but that is not to be.  I would no more travel to the USA again than I would go to Iraq, Nigeria, or North Korea.  Not happening, and I know I'm not alone.  Sigh.

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLDWIDE:  108.7 million cases, 2.4 million deaths, 310,800 new cases Feb. 13/21

USA:   27.6 million cases, 484,000 deaths, 84,727 new yesterday

CANADA: 825,000 cases, 21,200 deaths, 3,046 new yesterday

ONTARIO: 285,868 cases, 6,693 deaths, 981 new yesterday. The current stay-at-home order is in effect until Feb. 16th.

HAMILTON:  9,830 cases, 275 deaths, 40 new yesterday

2 Quilts (one complex & one simple), What's Cookin'?, and Covid numbers

PLEASE NOTE THAT I ONLY HAVE A FEW OPEN SPOTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS - GET IN TOUCH SOON IF YOU WILL NEED QUILTING DONE.

Here's the complex quilt, with a medallion setting and a bunch of paper pieced sharks teeth.

And curved piecing.  Don't forget the curved piecing.

This quilt took me back in time.  When I was a kid, Mom had made me a skirt that I loved - dark grey with box pleats.  The inset in the box pleats was pink with a tiny black print.  I felt so sassy when I wore that...every step showed off the pretty pink.  To this day that is still one of my favorite colour combinations. 

Lots of s.i.d. and straight line quilting on this one.

Here's the simple quilt.  Well, not simple exactly - it's all on point, which makes the outer edges really stretchy when it's time to add the borders.  But simple in the sense that it's a one-block quilt, and the blocks are only 2 pieces.

This is from a Fons & Porter magazine, and the maker requested quilting similar to what was in the pics.  I love her colour choices, and she did a great job with the layout.

WHAT'S COOKIN'?

There have been lots of PIES coming out of the oven lately, both savory and sweet.

1.  tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, cooked sausage, green peppers, tomatoes, onions
2.  pesto, mozzarella, shredded cooked chicken, tomatoes, onions
3.  tomato sauce, mozzarella, diced ham, pineapple, onion
4.  peach (plus another one in the freezer!😁)

And I've been doing lots of sweating over a hot stove.  Peach marmalade, blueberry marmalade, peach-rosemary jam, mango chutney.  I will save DH's reputation and not tell you the story of how I came to be in possession of enough mangoes to necessitate the making of chutney.  You can use your imagination for that.   Not shown are the 21 quarts of diced tomatoes which I finished on Friday.  By February you can expect to see my arse another size larger.

COVID NUMBERS

Worldwide: 25 million cases and 843,000 deaths.

USA:  5.97 million cases and 183,000 deaths

Canada:  128,000 cases and 9,113 deaths.

Ontario:  42,000 cases and 2,800 deaths.

PERSONAL COVID UPDATE

I had my Red Hat girls over last week for a brown-bag-lunch-at-a-distance on the back patio.  Our patio isn't fancy, but it is nice and big.  We hadn't seen each other in MONTHS so it was really good to have a chance to catch up in person.  A few of the gals couldn't make it, but that's par for the course.  Since we're all members of the Caledonia Grand River Quilters' Guild we did a bit of guild catch-up too.  Our guild donated a quilt to the Fair Board to raffle as a fundraiser (see the Guild Feb. 9th post), so many of us bought raffle and/or 50/50 tickets.

I was supposed to leave for two weeks in Italy on Friday.  Yeah, no.  I have actually received a refund for what I'd paid to date, which is good.  I have not yet received anything regarding my seat upgrade for the flights...still waiting on that. ✈

I have another HAIR appointment next week. 👩 Yaay.  This stuff is way too long, and way too hot.  It's going to get a very generous trim.

A Lone Star Beauty and Covid Update #582. OK, not really...

This beauty had been in-progress by the maker for quite a long time. The Lone Star block is perfect.  She pieced it using the pre-printed fusible interfacing product, which makes for a very exact block.  It gets a little bulky in some areas, but that's a small price to pay for great accuracy. 

 The diamond wedges were all quilted with c.c. (continuous curve), and the outer edge of the star, along with all borders, were stitched in the ditch.  I created some ghost blocks in the white background to break that space up into more manageable-sized areas.

There's a nice repetition of the diamonds and squares in the background quilting.  And I love the contrast between the curvy and straight motifs.

This is definitely my favorite shot of the back. 💕

Covid Update To June 27th

May 23- broke a crown on a back molar
May 30- emergency dental assessment.  Dental offices are still closed but will hopefully open next week.
June 2- I had my dental appt for crown repair.  How often do you hear people say they are glad to go to the dentist?  Ontario's State of Emergency is being extended to June 30th.  Bars and restaurants are staying closed. Vet clinics and pet groomers are open.  Sadly, beauty parlours are still closed so hair cutting at home is still a thing. In Haldimand-Norfolk 164 migrant workers are now testing positive, and one has died in Essex county.  The farm corporation is seeking asparagus pickers - bring a group of 5, pay will be $25/hr per person, 7 am - 4 pm.
June 10- In the past week - short term rentals are now allowed in Ontario, so cottages are good to go. Ontario is mostly moving to stage 2, allowing hairdressers to reopen and allowing groups of up to 10 people.  Now we can have small weddings and small funerals.  However that does NOT include Toronto region, Hamilton, Niagara, Windsor-Essex or Haldimand-Norfolk.  The mayors of both Haldimand and Norfolk protested by getting their hair cut outside where the media could get lots of photos. I cut my hair again - this is Edward Scissorhands episode 4.  The Canada-US border will continue to stay closed past the June 21 end date, but the official end date has not been announced.  The Canadian gov't WILL allow immediate family to reunite on the condition the travelers are healthy AND self quarantine for 14 days.
June 12- Ontario will start allowing visits at Long Term Care Homes, Retirement Homes, Residential Care Homes, etc. although there is a long list of conditions that must be met first.  The 30 day limit on prescription meds is ending, and the TTC will require all passengers to mask up.  People can start a social "bubble" of up to 10 friends/family but they can't overlap with other "bubbles".  Grocery stores are ending the pandemic pay bump of $2/hr.  What? We don't need these people anymore? They are no longer critical? Oh, don't me started.
...I'm getting tired of keeping track.
June 17- my poor tooth ended up with a root canal which has left a lovely bruise on my jaw.  Looks like DH slugged me, lol.
June 25- we bottled a batch of wine which should keep me quiet for a few weeks.  Since we were out in the plague ridden world already we took the plunge and got a take-out pizza.  This was our second "restaurant food" since the pandemic started.
June 26- EXCITEMENT!!! I had dinner with a friend!  I packed up my supper, a bottle of wine, dishes, and a lovely gift from the Universe ...well, actually from the tee-total neighbours.  They'd had a celebratory breakfast and gave me the leftover (almost-full) bottle.  After eating our respective dinners-at-a-distance on my friend's deck we enjoyed the champagne with strawberries & whipped cream for dessert.
June 27 - holy sh*t. The US is reporting over 45,000 NEW DAILY CASES of covid. Keep our border the hell shut.

So, about those "Bonus Wages"...

Last month I got into a bit of a disagreement with a couple of people on facebook over the Ontario minimum wage.  Now the grocery stores are eliminating the 'bonus wages' they've been giving to employees for the past few months, and I've got my knickers in a twist again.  The grocery stores have been racking up large increases in their profits because so many people are uncharacteristically feeding themselves at home.  The executives at the TOP of those food chains (no pun intended) are, and/or will, no doubt be getting large bonuses to reflect their (ahem) "superlative performance" during the crisis.  What the hell?  Those low level employees are still putting themselves on the front line every. single. day.  And the people behind the counter at Tim Hortons?  Same thing.  Every. Single. Day.  It was suggested that entry level jobs are not meant to pay a living wage.  Yeah, sorry, I don't get that.  In my opinion that means it's a VOLUNTEER position.  But that's not why people go to work every day...making someone else wealthy while I work cheap?  Student wages is a different thing.  They're part time by necessity (ie school) and are generally supporting cell phone bills, video games, and date nights with their favorite snuggle person.  So sure, they don't need a living wage - they're just learning how to show up on time and do what they're told.  But adults who go to work should be making enough money to pay their rent, for God's sake.  How rich is rich enough?  Why is it always people WITH money who want to stop other people from HAVING money?

On a more pleasant note, I made Strawberry Orange Banana jam last night.  Pandemic Preserving, ha ha ha.  Here is a link to the recipe.  It's identical to the recipe from the Bernardin Home Canning cookbook I have, so yes, it's safe.

Entertainment During The Pandemic, UFO's, Quilt Ideas, Local Happenings

SCHEDULING UPDATE
At the moment I still have seven quilts here that I will be working on.  As they're ready I'll contact you and arrange a porch pickup.
I am not taking in any quilts until the provincial restriction on non-essential businesses has been lifted.  I realize you might find that to be an inconvenience, but as a rule I do what the "people in charge" tell me to do. Depending on how long this situation persists it might mean your booking in May gets delayed until Julember, or whenever.  With all the UFO's that are being completed you can certainly be added to the calendar, so feel free to contact me.

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I was on retreat the first weekend of March and worked on these three tops.  The first little panel quilt is a challenge at the Binbrook guild.  It's due in June and I hope we're back to having meetings by then.

DH and I cleaned and defrosted the freezer.  We had to throw a few things out that have been hanging around too long, but overall it was pretty good except for the frost.  I really like the accessibility afforded by the upright but it seems to be much worse for frost, or perhaps I can just SEE it better.  Another plus:  it defrosted REALLY FAST.  Although we left everything in coolers outside overnight (it was well below freezing that night) we could easily have reloaded it within a couple of hours.

The cleanout located a couple bags of frozen cranberries, which meant I had to (had to?) make a cranberry loaf.  This was really good with the cheddar, so I will definitely make it again.

Deciding on quilting designs is helped along by a bit of doodling on cello wrap.

And when life gets to be too much, make brownies!  This is a Buttermilk Brownie recipe from an old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  I never have buttermilk, so I've always had to substitute with soured milk (by adding vinegar or lemon to regular milk, not by using the stuff that's gone off and makes your gag reflex kick in... in case you're new to cooking).  Now that I make my own yogurt I use the strained whey - it also adds that nice bit of tart flavour.  My other baking tip is to reduce the sugar by about 25% and to skip the icing.  Trust me, they are still quite edible.  I bake this in two 8" cake pans and hide one of them  in the freezer after baking.

Here's where I've ended off with the Four Patch Posie.  I got sick of the news Sunday night so I finished this up while I was waiting for the I Heart Radio Living Room Concert to start.  Now it needs quilting.

The panel quilt is finished and ready for presentation.

LOCAL COVID HAPPENINGS

3/22 Hamilton cases = 27
3/23 Ontario closing all non essential business as of midnight tomorrow. Porch dropoff of 2 quilts today and I won't open the bag until 27th at the earliest.  DH got 2 emergency bags of dog food, just in case.
3/24 Hydro rates are going down for 45 days - woo hoo, I can do laundry in the middle of the day for a change. Took a walk this morning to get away from the news, and spent a lot of time messaging with the Beach Girls about our respective needs for batting. I spoke to a customer who's a little annoyed I won't take her quilt now. Did not wash my face OR  make the bed this morning.  I thought this was just a facebook joke, but apparently it's not. 😜
3/25 I spoke to a customer who is picking up on Friday - she wanted to drop off 2 quilts.  I initially said yes since she was going to be on my porch anyways, then I called her back and said no. I've penciled her in for June.  It was 13 degrees today so we went for TWO walks. I set pea seeds in water tonight to presprout, and a friend has an "in" with someone at Stokes Seeds - she's trying to get us a seed order.  Apparently, seed companies have been overwhelmed with orders.  There are 100 new cases in Ontario today, and Hamilton is reporting 39 cases today. NY governor announced 5146 new cases in one day. Omg.
3/26 Any travellers coming in to the country are required to quarantine under the quarantine act - 14 days, the only exception is essential workers. Trump wants to put troops at the Canadian border. Wtf? Sigh. Nice day today, the pea seeds are soaking to presprout. A friend of ours quit her job at BMO because they have done nothing to protect the staff in the branch. Cases in the U.S. rose to 83,836 on Thursday — more than any other country, overtaking both Italy and China — while the death toll passed the 1,000 mark.
3/27 Regarding the McDonald's closure in Hamilton last week ...the employee FAKED the doctor's note. Lol.  Teenagers can be sooo stupid!  (and yes, that also applied to me when I was a teenager)
3/28  First death in Haldimand-Norfolk was announced last night, a resident of a  nursing home.  Current stats: Ontario 1144 with 19 deaths. Canada 5655 & 61 dead.
3/29 Ontario gatherings are now limited to no more than 5 people.  Six Nations starts limiting access to the reserve - they have two people tested positive. Haldimand-Norfolk has 23 cases.
3/30 Hamilton  has 70 cases today...from March 22nd (8 days) that's an increase of 43 cases.

I am quite horrified by the numbers coming out of the USA.  Their screwy health care system is leaving uninsured people to fend for themselves.  They can't afford to get tested (one news article reported a cost of $900.00 for the test), and if they land in the hospital they will end up bankrupted by the final bill.  HERE is a news article about a California teen who was denied medical care over a lack of insurance and subsequently died.  If you have precarious employment and live paycheque to paycheque, chances are pretty good that you will get sick but keep going to work.  If you have no medical insurance you won't go to the doctor, won't find out you're infected, and will carry on infecting everyone you come in contact with.  Dear God...  HERE's an article about medical insurers and their adjustments to the co-pay system from March 12th.  This should scare every American (AND every Canadian, since they're our next-door-neighbour).

Jason Yenter Quilt and the Caledonia Pandemic Update

This is one of those quilts that scares me a little bit... I used lots of the "stand-and-stare" technique.

I will probably NEVER tackle a quilt like this - so much applique and paper piecing, with an on-point medallion setting.

I think at one point I had seven longarm rulers out - straight rulers, curvy rulers, circles, ...

I also needed chalk, a blue wash-out marker, and the IQ.  Along with some collaboration from the Beach Girls. 

Beautiful back.

In my last post I mentioned that some things had been cancelled with the Coronavirus epidemic, and that the grocery store was out of hand sanitizer.  Here is a timeline of things that relate to me, starting on March 9th.

• March 9 - WHO declares a Pandemic.  The Bulk Barn will no longer allow shoppers to bring their personal containers.  Toilet paper has been flying off store shelves for at least a week.
• March 10 - I made a trip to Swiss Chalet and Costco with a friend.  I needed an emergency supply of Parmesan cheese and baking cocoa.  You can't have an apocalypse without brownies, right??  My friend SHOULD have bought toilet paper because they had some and it was on sale.
• March 11 - at a guild meeting, I jokingly tried to auction off a bottle of hand sanitizer with a starting bid of $20.00.  No one would bite.  Bummer.
• March 12 - this was the date that Mark Preece Family House sent the email advising volunteers to stay home.
• March 13 - Colleges and Universities in Ontario have closed.  Mark Preece House sent an additional email advising that the House was closing and all guests were being asked to leave, asap.
• March 16 - I sent the revised SOLO invitation to the Ontario longarm quilters, changing our meeting from April to September.
• March 17 - This was a big day, item-wise.  The Province of Ontario declares a State of Emergency.  This closes many establishments and releases additional funding to some institutions.  This was the day of my last face-to-face client quilt dropoff.  My little warning antennae started going ding.ding.ding when she mentioned that she's a flight attendant.  Aaack!! deep calming breath  This was also my last face-to-face social engagement, when I had my friend over for tea & toilet paper (see March 10 item).  She'd been looking in stores for four days, with no luck.  This was also the day the travel agent advised that the final payment in March for the Italy trip (scheduled for late August) was being postponed.  Aaand my optometrist called to reschedule my appointment to mid April.  They have been ordered to close.
• March 18 - the customer booked for Saturday the 21st has emailed to cancel our appointment.  I had invited the tea & t.p. friend for dinner on Saturday, but I cancelled that in light of the current directives to "social distance".  For the life of me, I cannot remember what date we were told to social distance, so I'm going to assume it was March 17th, when the State of Emergency was declared.  I received an etransfer from a friend refunding the theatre tickets she'd bought us for a May 2nd performance.  Tonight I sent a big long email to my Singapore niece (who's actually in Vietnam).  I haven't talked to her since Christmas, so I just wanted to bring her up to date on what was happening here in Canada.  Every time I googled the virus and Vietnam, information was a bit sparse.  I wanted to know what was happening in her neck of the woods, and a little assurance that she and her family were ok.
• March 19 - Singapore niece replies to my email saying that she has no time to update me, they are leaving for Canada tomorrow.  Well, let me tell you...that brought some real tears of relief! She's the daughter I never had and I think about her all.the.time. This morning I had my first Porch Pickup with a customer.  I left her quilt out on the porch but I couldn't miss the chance to chat for a few minutes so I went out (staying away from her) and visited for a bit.
• March 20 - the Canada/US border is closed.  Only citizens (?) and commerce are allowed to cross.  DH's sister and her husband called to let us know they are back home from their winter abode in Florida.
• March 21 - the Haldimand & Norfolk Public Health Department has ordered the closure of all "personal care" establishments.  No haircuts.  No tattoos.  No facials.  Suck it up ladies - we're going to start looking like our real selves soon.  My optometrist called again, and cancelled my new April appointment - now they've been closed "indefinitely".  And speaking of looking like our real selves - I skipped the part of my day when I get dressed in "daytime" clothes.  Ha ha ha, pajama day!!  I got caught though - one of the Beach Girls accidently hit the "video call" button on Messenger and one of them noticed my jammies.  Whoops. It was a fun call, though.  Scrolling through facebook tonight I see the news that an employee at a sort-of-local McDonalds has tested positive.  There go any hopes I had of an Egg McMuffin takeout. wah wah...
• March 22 - the second Porch Pickup happens.  I have another one tentatively scheduled for tomorrow, for a quilt dropoff.  DH and I realize that we must have transitioned to "mature-and-at-risk"...our neighbours did some grocery shopping for us.  💗  The Singapore niece has posted on facebook - they have arrived in Canada.  happy happy  I had a cheque to deposit from the March 19th p.p. so we went for a little drive, and I wore a bright orange latex glove to use the banking machine.

Somewhere in there the upcoming meetings for my three quilt guilds were cancelled, too.  Every day I am GLUED to the news, and to facebook.  I hope that doesn't become a new bad habit.

Winterruption Recap

This year Winterruption took place from Feb. 13th to Feb. 18th.  Since Feb. 13th is GALENTINES Day, I made us all tiaras.  These girls are such a fun bunch, we wore them every night. 💓

These pics are actually from the 14th, which we spent running around having a fun time in Brantford.  We went to:

• Rose Hill Liquidators
• Value Village
• Zanders Restaurant
• Michaels
• Just Like New (which actually has a different name, but still a vintage shop)
• Butcher & Restaurant Equipment & Supplies

Lunch at Zanders was quite late because I had a heck of a time getting these girls out of Value Village!  I have to say, it's a nice large store and Karen & I both scored big with Tupperware.  That night we had an easy charcuterie board supper, along with soup.  If you can see the glass plates we're using, those were my mom's which she probably received as a wedding gift in 1944.  They are such a throwback - they're partitioned, and one of the sections is an ashtray.

They forced me to eat cake (which let's face it - was not much of a struggle!) since my birthday is at the end of this month.

Saturday was our day "in" when we mostly sewed.  This is the quilt I pieced during the SuperBowl, using three charm paks that came from Missouri Star Quilt Company a few years ago.  I needed to add 16 squares from my stash.  I still have two more charm paks from that trip, in soft baby colours...who knows how long it will take me to use those.  Oh yeah, AND two layer cakes, AND a cutting template.

I finished the top (at this point it's been cut diagonally twice, then had borders added).  I really like the bright, bold colours in this.

After the girls left on Sunday I loaded it on Pretty Boy Floyd (my longarm) and quilted it.

Fun variegated thread on top.

Bright yellow backing shows off deep teal thread.

Hopefully this afternoon I'll get the binding cut and applied, then I can call 'er done!

Deb & I see each other at a monthly guild meeting, and Karen & Diane see each other for random outings, but the FIVE of us won't be together again until the SOLO meeting in mid-April.  We always breathe a big sigh of relief when Mother Nature accommodates the driving dates for Winterruption with decent weather.

...until April!

First Ladies Quilt

Lordy, I'm behind with my pretty-quilts-pictures.  I finished this at the end of October.  In general, I don't post pics until after the customer has picked up the quilt, just in case, and this gal was unable to get here for a while because her own life was pretty hectic at the time.

First Ladies Quilt

This is a very large quilt, and it was beautifully pieced.

There was lots of negative space for some pretty quilting.

The blocks were all quilted individually.

In order to keep some continuity between the blocks, I restricted the quilting to straight lines and gentle curves, with a bowknot motif inside the larger center squares.

I'm not sure why, but this was definitely my favorite block.

On the Social Life front, I've been to see the Cherrywood Exhibit in Seaforth.  This was a tribute to Bob Ross, the guy from PBS with the big afro, who would teach you how to paint.  I'm surprised at how many people have never heard of him.

There were over 400 entries in the competition, and this travelling exhibit included 120 of them.

This was my favorite - you may have to enlarge it to see what's going on, but all the little forest creatures are painting.  This reminds me of those paint parties which are often held at restaurants.  So stinkin' cute!

I also managed to get out to the theatre to see a production of Mamma Mia.  That was fun - I was singing to myself all night long.  Ear worms, you know?

Since then, I've been nose-to-the-grindstone, trying to catch up the quilting backlog.  There is finally light at the end of the tunnel - I should be back working on the currently scheduled quilts before the end of the week.

Tobermory Retreat Recap & Technology Mixed With Idiots & Scammers

I abandoned hubby for six days - he and the dog were feeding each other kibbles and bits for a week.  Although, a friend took pity on him and had him over for a roast beef dinner mid-week so he didn't starve.

I played THREAD CHICKEN and won.

The railing with completed projects.  This is always such a satisfying pic!  Debbie definitely took the prize this year - completing all those wee monthly quilts.  So cute.

Of course, cocktails.

I work on my Double Wedding Ring for one day every year.  The Tobermory cottage is a great space for it.  This year, to my horror, I discovered that I used bad math when I had the pieces cut several years ago by a quilting buddy, using her GO die cutter.  The quilting buddy has fallen off the face of the earth, and of course I no longer have any of that white fabric.  (Non-quilters may not realize that there are a zillion different fabric versions of white, so yes, this will show in the end.)  I threw in the towel around 3:00, poured a glass of wine and curled up on the couch with a book, nursing my angst.

This is the top I pieced, I managed to get it quilted and bound this week.  So girly.  I used up lots of strips that I have been collecting through the Strippers Club at the Caledonia Guild.

Now we wait until Winterruption for our first retreat of 2020.

TECHNOLOGY MIXED WITH IDIOTS & SCAMMERS

Dear God.  Did you see this story?

Attempted sextortion leads to call for stricter phone porting rules

I do feel great sympathy for the idiot.  His cell phone number was stolen.  Once the scammer accomplished that, he gained access to the idiot's emails, personal files, credit cards, and (of course) his personal sex tapes.
Why do men think they need to make sex tapes of themselves and their partners?  Why does ANYONE think they need to have nudie photos of themselves and/or their partners on their phones?  Do they get bored while they're standing in line at Starbucks and think "hmm, maybe I'll pull up one of my sex tapes and jerk off while I'm waiting for my Grande Mocha Latte"?  Or, in a boring meeting at the office do they decide to get the conversation started by showing pics of their former girlfriend's boobs?  Seriously.  Get a life, idiots.
This fella has admittedly compromised his own reputation, but Dear God, also the poor people who were intimate with him.  They will be on pins & needles for the rest of their lives, wondering if and when their pics/videos will be shared all over the web.

Not that anyone cares what I think... but my suggestion would be that you don't take photos and keep them on your cell phone or send them up to the cloud.  Really.  Simple.