Is there a “Turning 40″ quilt pattern?

I must be getting old. It doesn’t seem like 40 should feel that old, and in fact it didn’t bother me when I turned 40 in March this year. Of course, to my children, I’m ancient, and to my husband, I’m young. I’m nine years younger than ITMan, which is not so much, until you remember that he grew up in the 70’s and I was an 80’s child, and there are some vast differences in attitude based on that. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective when you’re talking about age. To me, 65 seems old, but now some of my readers may be sending “Who’re you calling old?” comments my way.

Forgetting things almost always bites you in the butt, one way or another…

Whatever your perspective on the age issue, I’m starting to feel old sometimes, like when I can’t remember things. Part of the problem is just having too much creative stuff bouncing off the walls in my head, and the non-creative stuff just can’t compete so it just gets out of the way and then goes into hiding. (As an aside, I don’t have nearly as much trouble in the memory department as ITMan, who seems like he’s battling early-onset Alzheimer’s sometimes!) I write more notes these days, which is a good thing because I absolutely HATE to forget things. Forgetting things almost always bites you in the butt, one way or another, by inconveniencing yourself or worse, someone else.

It’s finally gotten to the point where I write notes about sewing machine settings or other quilting-related tidbits about certain techniques, so that I can remember them when I go to do something again. Only problem is, I tend to lose little bits of paper quite easily. Ok, they’re not exactly lost, just buried under other bits of paper, and sometimes fabric and such. When I want these notes, I can’t find them. *sigh* I realize that a clean desk is a sign of a sick (or un-creative??) mind, but there is a point at which something has to give, and a new system must be developed.

I discovered Microsoft OneNote in Office2007, and I’m in love! (I might have mentioned this, but I can’t remember at the moment ) You can just type in, or copy and paste in, little bits of stuff all over the pages, just like writing on paper. Then you can organize these pages into notebooks, just like a loose-leaf notebook or a filing cabinet. It’s all saved automatically, so there’s nothing to remember to do. Just open, type or paste, close, forget it and it will all still be there when you look for it later. I started using it for all these wonderful little tidbits (including the non-quilting related stuff of life), but I also decided to include some of those quilting bits here on Quilt Epiphany in case they might benefit anyone else.

I’ve created a new section called “Tips and Tricks,” which you can see on the right-hand side of the page. I’ll be adding to it as I remember where those other little bits of paper are with all the rest of my brains on them. Now, I vaguely remember seeing a quilt or block pattern called “Turning 20,” but maybe it’s time for me to make something like “Turning 40?” The Turning 20 block looked pretty easy (If I remember right), but why would someone need “easy” when they’re 20? It’s when you’re 40 that you need things that are easy to remember how to do…so you don’t have to write notes about everything and put them on a website just so you can remember it all!

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