Everyday Life

The big project I finished this week was the taxes. I was expecting all kinds of problems because my husband died last year and I had to deal with the stuff that happens financially when one half of a couple dies. Turns out that Turbo Tax was totally able to deal with everything. As usual they just took me one step at a time. Even the problem that my federal taxes where going to be filed as married, filing jointly and the PA taxes could not be done that way was not a problem. I located a step by step tutorial on how to manage the PA tax forms in their online site. They deserve 5 stars out of 5 for how all of this was handled.

Now I've started shredding several years worth of documents that were never needed for the taxes in those years. I'd just filed some and put some into a holding space. That holding space and the filing space are filling up. Time to make some room for new stuff. This is a project that is going to take several days, or even a week or two as I locate more and more paperwork that needs shredding. I've got some downstairs in my computer room/office and I've got even more sitting in a file cabinet in the attic. ...[sigh]...

I didn't do any Free Motion Quilting while I was working on the taxes. Seems that the kind of "energy" I needed for the taxes is the same kind I now need for Free Motion Quilting. So once the taxes were done I figured back to the sewing machine. But I pulled something in my upper back, and I'm not stressing those muscles until the pain is totally gone. My chiropractor has an excellent handle on this kind of pain. I'm almost better. He told me what he did yesterday will take a couple of days. I'll see him tomorrow again, so if what he did needs a bit more tweaking, that can happen.

I have been working on the hand projects. Neither the sock nor the hexagons have gotten much further since the last time I blogged about them. Not enough that pictures would mean anything. But in both cases I can see some progress.

I'm going to be joining up with a Quilt Along at Patchwork Times. See the link here:

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/02/18/new-quilt-along/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatchworkTimes+%28Patchwork+Times+by+Judy+Laquidara%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

(I need to learn how to do the "here" thing. I'm open to help on how to get that done.)

I've never joined a Quilt Along before, but they look like fun. I need to pull my fabrics together. I'll probably need to buy most of it because I do not have a yardage stash worth talking about. So there is going to be a shopping trip in person or online. Or both. Even in person I will probably change my mind about one or two fabrics once I get them home. The bed scarf was the first quilting project in decades where I bought all of the fabric for a particular project, and I replaced two of those fabrics before I started cutting, with better ones I had in the house. I'd be really shocked if that didn't happen again.

I'm going to end up with a bed sized quilt. Not totally sure what I'll be doing with a bed sized quilt or even if I'm going to be able to get it quilted on my own. I have a friend who uses a long arm quilter, so I do know of a person who does wonderful work that I feel I can trust if it turns out I can't manage it myself. But I don't really care. Sooner or later I need to make a bed sized quilt.

We are dealing with end of Winter weather here. I'm supposed to meet a group of women for lunch. But there is no way to tell if the weather that is coming today will be all rain, or if it will start with a wintery mix. I'll be playing it by ear. And there are already rumbles about something for the very end of the month that could be nothing much except a lot of rain, or could be very ugly indeed.

I am so tired of Winter!

Take care all.