Sleep Aids and Other Laughing Matters

Did you know that there are bloggers that blog every day or almost every day? I was wondering how that was possible. What do they find to talk about? And where do they find the time? My post from yesterday took me about 2 hours to write, and many have taken longer. Do I have 2 hours a day to write a blog post? Or will it take less time because I will have less to say if I'm posting daily instead of sporadically? I decided to try it and find out. I could spend less time "doom-scrolling" and watching time-wasting videos on YouTube. So here goes. 

In yesterday's post, I mentioned my insomnia. One of my friends suggested a couple of things: the sleep patches in the above picture and a supplement for anxiety. I tend to react (side effects, adverse reactions) to a lot of medications and supplements, so I was reluctant to try them. But they weren't that expensive and I finallly decided to give them a try and ordered them. I chose to try one at a time so if I had a reaction, I would know which one it was. So far, I've just been trying the sleep patches. I don't think I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had woken up around 2:30-ish in the morning and started writing that post sometime after 4:00. Ditto for today. So, I don't really think they're helping. The package suggests that you use them consistently for 14 days to realize their full effect... if I can remember to use them consistently. I finally left them out on the bathroom counter as a reminder, but even that doesn't always help. The package also says to apply it about an hour before bedtime. Sometimes I remember to do that, and sometimes not. One day I distinctly remembered removing it in the morning, but later in the day when I was scratching my upper back/shoulder area, I felt something suspiciously soft and slighlty squishy that wasn't my shirt (the patches are foam). Yes, there was another patch there. Had I put one on one hour before bedtime last night and then, forgetting I had already applied one, applied a second one at bedtime? Or was it still on there from the night before? Another day, I was also scratching my back, this time around my waistband and found one that I had neglected to remove that morning. I decided not to put one on that evening since I had been wearing one for most of the day. I guess it would help if I consistently showered in the morning, but since retiring, sometimes it's later in the day, and sometimes I skip a day. I obviously cannot be trusted with patches. 
And then there are the nasal strips. I found these in the dollar store and decided to give them a try. I couldn't figure out how a "band-aid" on the outside of my nose could help me breathe and keep me from snoring. I have bad environmental allergies, so have constant congestion and am a mouth-breather as a result. And I have constant dry mouth and throat. So, I decided that, at dollar store prices, it was worth a try. 
These strips have a very strong band that, when applied to the nose, pull up and out, supposedly opening the nasal passages. I tried it once, found it rather uncomfortable and didn't notice any improvment in my sleep or my dry mouth. A couple of nights ago, I decided to try one again. I applied it too far down my nose, so I moved it up. And then it didn't want to stick. I pressed it down as best as possible and went to bed. 
I am not a sleep walker, but I do remember a time when I had finished crocheting some mittens shortly before going to bed. I put them on the dresser near my bed. In the morning, I found them on my bed and that was the only reason I remembered sitting up and putting them on during the night. So, something similar happened when I was wearing the nasal strip. I removed it, found it was sticking to my fingers and attempted to drop it over the side of the bed. This time I remembered doing it, and found it on the bed beside my pillow. I guess I can't be trusted with nasal strips either. 😄
Remember I mentioned making a sampler quilt with all of the Bachelor's Puzzle and Old Maid's Puzzle quilt blocks? Out of curiosity, I decided to check out BlockBase+ to see how many were there. Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, on which BlockBase+ is based, is not as extensive as Beyer's Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. I did a search for "Bachelor's Puzzle" and came up with several blocks, but when I searched for "Old Maid's Puzzle", the program shut down. I tried it several times with the same result. I tried restarting my computer, I tried checking for updates, but it kept happening. When I searched for "old maid" and finally "old maids puzzle" without the apostrophe, I was able to get the blocks successfully without the program shutting down. I did report it to Electric Quilter, the producers of BlockBase+, and they reported back that they were able to replicate the "bug" and had forwarded the problem to their development team. So at least I know it wasn't just me, or my computer... But what a bizarre thing!

I managed to get the front and back of the travel bag finished, aside from the shaping/trimming. Yesterday morning, I was working on the front and was at the point where I was ready to put the mesh pocket on the inside of the front. Reviewing the video, the instructor said to remember if you have directional fabric to make sure it was going in the right direction. I double checked and mine was not! The dragon scales were pointing up instead of down. 😖 Initially, I was being very careful to keep track of which way was up, but as I turned it around to make the required markings, I lost track. Admittedly, it's not terribly noticeable with dragon scales, and a small part of the side strip has the scales upside down (I opted not to add a seam in the bottom to reverse the piece so the scales would be pointing down on both ends), but I couldn't leave it that way. So, a lot of stitch ripping ensued. Fortunately, I have a really good ergonomic stitch ripper. Unfortunately, I had the pointed end, and not the ball end, inside the seam and ended up with a small tear in the fabric on the bag front. 😓 I used a mending zigzag stitch over the tear, and some HeatnBond Lite and a small patch of the dragon scale fabric to cover it. I used a small zigzag stitch to keep the patch in place, and then went over the quilting with teal/aqua thread so that it's barely noticeable. It's at the top edge of the bag, mostly covered by the handle. As my mother would say, a blind man will never see it. 
I finally made salad to eat with my leftover fajitas and Spanish rice for dinner. I actually really like leftovers, as long as they were good the first time. That way I can spend more time in my craft studio, without having to take time to cook. But when I went to make my ranch salad dressing, I accidentally added Italian dressing mix instead of ranch dressing mix... Oh well, I now have creamy Italian dressing. Not bad, but not as good as ranch. 
Back in the studio, I was having ongoing thread problems - looping on the back, shredding, breaking. It was mostly when I was stitching on the handle over the front pocket. Think of all the layers: the bag front and a double pocket (because the front pocket has both a slip and a zip section), plus the handle. All of these have both an inside and an outside layer of fabric, plus an inner layer - foam on the bag and pockets, and webbing inside the handle. So that's 8 layers of fabric, 3 layers of foam and one layer of webbing. And then I added the layer of mesh when putting in the inside pocket. I ripped out loopy stitches (my stitch ripper has really gotten a workout with this bag), I changed the needle, I tried changing threads - using polyester instead of cotton and then finally switched to Glide 40 weight that I'd used in the quilting - but the problem persisted. I even tried turning the project over and stitching with the inside up instead of the outside. I finally moved to the heavy duty Singer that I picked up at the thrift store for $10. After all, it has "heavy duty" right on the machine, so it should be able to handle the bulk. I put in a new Schmetz needle and initially it appeared to be working. Then I had a thread break, cleaned up that mess and started again. Then the machine stopped with the tip of the needle just barely touching the fabric, and I couldn't budge it. It took some prayer and a lot of fiddling and I was able to extricate the project from the machine. So I decided to move to my mother's Janome - the old 6000. That's what I had ended up finishing the insulated backpack on. But first, I switched the needle. This time, I switched to a topstitch needle. Duh! Why hadn't I thought of that before? In my defense, mostly what I do on my sewing machines is piece quilts, for which universal or microtex needles are all that are required. But topstitch needles have a larger hole so that the thread is less likely to shred/break when going through multiple layers of fabric. That, or quilting needles, are what are used when one quilts on a domestic machine. But I quilt on a longarm, and for the odd potholder that I quilt on my sewing machine, I generally don't bother switching out the needle. But I knew about those needles and, fortunately, I own some. After that it was "game on", and I finished both front and back without any further problems. I probably could have continued stitching on either my Janome 8200 or the Singer HD, but I hadn't used the 6000 in a while, so it needed a workout anyway. 

Now, on to the trimming and shaping. But first exercise and breakfast. And maybe I better wash some dishes...