Quilting and other Things

 Last month I saw an ad for a Canon Road Trip.  They were setting up booths at different places across the country and inviting people to sign up to come play with one of their new mirrorless cameras.  There were three locations in Toronto -- Downsview Park, Evergreen Brick Works and Toronto Botanical Gardens on Sunday - Tuesday.  Monday worked the best for me which meant the Brick Works.  So I signed up to play with an R5 camera and had a fun afternoon out. I went to the Brick Works one afternoon last week to refresh my memory of the location as I've only visited there once or twice and then was able to arrive about 30 minutes before my appointment.  That let me take some pictures with my camera and lens.  Then I went and borrowed the R5 and a 24 - 105 lens and wander back around and took some of the same photos with the mirrorless.  I use an 18 - 300 lens so there were some challenges in a few places but given the mirrorless is full frame and ca...

Once again Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl is a hosting a Planning Party for the coming year.  So its time to look at what happened this year and what I'd like to accomplish next year.  Use the link above to join the party or see what others are planning. Review: Quilting: 1.  Clean and organize quilt room (and office since they are in the same area).         The office got moved upstairs into the den this fall and I'm enjoying that setup.  Bits of organizing have happened but there is still a lot that needs to be stored, given away and organized.  I also realized that with the office area moving, I don't need to keep the current layout.  I borrowed a book from the library called  Love Your Creative Spaces by Lilo Bowman that Mel recommended in a comment in July.  Its a really good book, I need to go back through it again for ideas as I progress and consider the layout of the room.  I also found the notes from a Quil...

Yvonne  has a mid year review link up this month.  My wrist healed well and I've been back quilting since the end of February / early March although it was limited at first.   Quilting: 1.  Clean and organize quilt room (and office since they are in the same area). Despite staying at home for the last several months, its still not as organized as I would like.  Parts are tidied and parts are still a mess.  Some things need to be taken up to the recycling station now that its open and that will help the cleanup.  I did move part of the office to another area of the house which will free up a bit of room and may result in a bigger reorganization. 2.  I'm going to continue with the Motivation Monday ideas.  I'm still working on the list I created for 2017.  The goal at the time was to move things forward.  I think that will still be the goal for some things as they are quite large.  The list still includes Canada BOM from Gui...

As I mentioned previously   a goal the last several years has to been to learn Photoshop .  I realized this year that part of my problem was I hadn't really defined what that meant so came up with a high level idea.   Through my library, I get access to Lynda.com  In January, I watched Julianne Kost's classes on Lynda.com called Photoshop CC 2019 Essential Training: Photography and The Basics .  While watching these I realized that I needed to step back a level.   I do basic editing in Lightroom, having learned some formulas but I don't understand why they work or what to do when they don't work.  I'd like to understand all the panels in the develop modules of Lightroom (or camera raw) and know how and when to use the tools.  Then when that still hasn't gotten the photo where I want it, how to continue in Photoshop .   So I stepped back and started watching her course on Camera Raw .  While its not Lightroom itself, th...

Friday I posted about this year, today its about next year.   Yvonne is hosting a planning party again.   The new year sees a number of changes for me so I’m in the process of planning that as well.  Some of that will take a few months so for now I'm focusing on the recurring items. Quilting: 1.  Clean and organize quilt room (and office since they are in the same area).  Its gotten so messy, I've no desire to go down there and work on my quilting or anything else for that matter. 2.  I’m going to continue with the Motivation Monday ideas.   I'm still working on the list I created for 2017.  The goal at the time was to move things forward.  I think that will still be the goal for some things as they are quite large.  The list still includes Canada BOM from Guild 2015/16 Stainglass Manger - Quilt and bind ABC Applique One Block Wonder - Quilt and bind  Common Bride Love Entwined Winter Wallhanging Bonnie Hunter My...

Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl is holding a planning party again for the coming year.  While I haven't done a lot of quilting in the last 6 months, I've done some and am getting back to it.  So am participating again.  The goals will be similar to last year. Quilting: 1.  The Motivation Monday worked really well in the first half of the year.  As I stopped and planned what was realistic to accomplish for each item for the week, I found myself accomplishing what I wanted to.  Until I got distracted by trip planning, hiking and a messy sewing area.  The Sewing area is now cleaned up, the trip is completed and there's only the photo book left to finish so I've started sewing again.  I did finish some of the twelve items I had picked and moved others along.  I think for 2018, I'll just continue to work the 2017 list and move items along or finish them.   This is one of the blocks from Common Bride.  Some of this is hand work and will ...

The 2016 planning had mixed results. Probably because I saw post and created the list at the last minute. I am really pleased though with what was accomplished. I'll look at that another day. Quilting  The spreadsheet still has 52 things on it but the completed tab has 51 completed things.  1. I've already thought about what 12 things I would like to move along or complete next year. Elaine has a series going for Motivational Monday's so I spent some time thinking about those.  For 2017 I'm going to work on these twelve things:   Some will get fully finished.  Some will probably just get moved along.  The Common Bride is a big quilt.  Love Entwined is also big but I think I'm stopping once the centre is completed.  Still lots of applique to do there though.  Each month I'll be picking on to work on and then deciding what can be done in the month.  January's goal is to get caught up on this years Guild BOM and then ...