Wednesday, December, 2023

I spent the morning in my sewing room. What a treat to work in a clean space. I’ve left Christmas behind in that room and moved on to January birthdays. I have one card done and ready for hand stitching while I have coffee with Gail tomorrow. It will be a shorter than usual visit as the Guild’s Christmas party is tomorrow night.

On the middle level it is starting to look a lot more like Christmas. We put up the tree this morning and I pulled out a number of boxes full of decorations. Since I took the photo I’ve added some stitching projects from years past. One of the boxes said the Christmas mouse was inside but when I opened it there was no mouse. Sorry Kathryn. There are still more boxes to go through so I haven’t given up.

I had to go back to the library today. Of course after dropping a book off yesterday a new one came in today. It is quite a small book so I should have no trouble getting it finished in time. There are two more books on hold so there will be no shortage of reading material over the holidays.

With what is left of the afternoon I’ll do a bit of work on my chicken block.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

I made it to the Guild’s sewing day today. I didn’t take a machine as I had some reverse stitching to do on a quilt top and for the three seams that needed to be re-sewn it didn’t seem worth it. I didn’t have anything else on the go (well nothing easy to transport) so I took along some hand stitching.

I usually am done by the time lunch is over but I stayed a bit longer today. I was close to having another Manx block finished and I wanted it done before I quit. On the way home I dropped off a book at the library and stopped in at the flower shop next door. I was looking for a “little something” for a birthday that is coming up; the store is closing and I also wanted to tell the owner how much I enjoyed the flowers that I have received over the years that came from her shop.

It’s a busy TV night for us. The Canucks are playing; Alex and Will are in Edmonton for the Connor vs. Connor game. We get both games on SportsNet so we’ll be watching to see if the boys make it to the big screen. Taylor is playing in her first band concert tonight and the show will be live streamed so we’ll be watching that as well. It’s a good thing we have phones, iPads and the television so we can see it all.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

It was a tough job but one that needed to be done. With all my packages ready for the mail, and most of them already send and/or delivered, it was time to start the cleanup in my sewing area.

My cutting table was littered with bits of fabric (not only Christmas ones), bits of wrapping paper, bits of ribbon – you get the idea. Pretty much anything I had used while finishing my projects and wrapping them had some remnant left on the cutting table.

My sewing table was in the same condition. Threads of all colours, sewing machine feet, bobbins of different colours with varying amounts of thread on them. There were pins and clips and even some of the ribbons made their way across to the surface.

My quilting machine was bogged down in projects that I want to do right away. I turned over a quilt top to Community Quilts but when I was looking at a photo I realized I had a block turned the wrong way. I dug it out of the Community Quilt cupboard at the last Guild meeting and I hope to have it fixed and back in the bin by the next meeting. I still have my Jelly Roll Race top to add borders to and, for some mad reason, I brought home a sandwich from the last Community Quilt weekend to quilt. I have another donation quilt that I’ve decided needs some borders before donating, and I don’t want to forget the placemats that need to be quilted – a Guild challenge from 2022.

I managed to get everything tidy enough that I was able to do the vacuuming this morning. The hallway and the room across the hall will have to wait another day for their turn.

I saved the toughest job of all for this afternoon. I have a library book that is due back on Tuesday so I need to sit down and finish it. I tried that yesterday afternoon but after reading just a chapter I had a little nap!

Thursday, December 7, 2023

After pushing myself to get everything in the mail yesterday Pat convinced me I should take the rest of the day for R&R. It didn’t take much convincing. So after my appointment and post office trip in the morning I decided to start tackling some of the clean up required before starting my Christmas decorating. First up was a pile of 200+ CDs that came out of the two players when we were getting rid of the one that didn’t work. I thought I’d do a few at a time but Pat was helping and we managed all of them. We had to go through several boxes of empty CD cases to find the right ones for the CDs that we took out of the old player. I’m not sure it was what either of us had in mind regarding an R&R day but at least it is done.

I had lunch out today with the group from the Book Circle. I said I would go, then thought I’d just go long enough to get my book signed, but before the morning was over I’d decided to go and stay for lunch. They are a nice group and we have always had good conversations and discussions on a variety of topics. It was my anti-social behaviour that made me not want to bother but I’m glad I went and stayed. There is talk of another meet-up at the bowling alley for a game and lunch; one of the group works for the brewing company that owns the alley.

I had the rest of my Christmas projects underway with the expectation that they would be done by the time my last delivery was made. It wasn’t supposed to even ship until the 12th, but it arrived today. I have all the fabrics cut for the projects and they won’t take long to put together but I hate that “I’m behind” feeling.

I’m off to a Guild meeting tonight.