Thursday, November 16, 2017

For almost a full week I’ve been sewing either in groups of friends or with at least one friend. I’m amazed that I’m not tired of it by now. It is a Guild demo night and for the past couple of years the demos have been “hands-on”. We’re making pillow cases tonight. I’ve made them before so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep up with the group. At the last demo I didn’t do so well; by the time I arrived at the hall some folks were already half-finished. I’ll get there early and hopefully have a finish by the time I come home – there are no zippers involved tonight so I stand a chance!

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Today was the big day for trying out the long-arm machine at my friend Gail’s. I spent most of the morning getting ready for our date. I still had two borders to stitch on the practice quilt and then I needed to piece the backing and cut the batting. That part of the prep is no quicker than if I were to quilt on my domestic machine but the bonus with the long arm is that nothing needs to be sandwiched. I had enough time before leaving to get everything cut for our demo tomorrow night.

It took a long time to get everything set up on the long-arm frame. Gail did most of the work and I just rolled and pulled when I was told to. She also wound the bobbin and threaded the machine. Once I got going though she left me to “do my thing”; I find that “my thing” looks a lot like my very first free-motion quilting attempt. Because this was just a practice I tried a few different motifs as I quilted my way down the quilt – there are some attempt at spirals, leaves, flower and my more comfortable meanders and loops. None if it is any where near good enough but I know it will just take more practice.

It was certainly a quick way to get a project quilted. I was at Gail’s shortly after noon and I was finished before three. I think one big difference from the domestic-machine quilting was that I was encouraged to go slower whereas I try to increase my speed on Ruby. Also on Ruby my loops are quite small but with the long-arm they are much larger; in fact it is difficult (at least for me) to make small loops. Gail seemed okay with the job I did and, now that I’m home, each time I look at it I’m a little less critical. I won’t be bragging to anyone about my success but I’ll be brave and add a couple of photos. As with domestic-machine quilting I will still need to add binding but there’s no hurry for that.

All in all I enjoyed the experience. I’ll do at least one more practice quilt before I feel confident enough to do something “real”. Gail suggested I try some placemats; apparently you can put a whole bunch of placemats on the backing and then quilt from one to the other without stopping. That might be a good way to get better at certain motifs and placemats can always be used at home where no one sees them.

My evening will be spent cleaning out my sewing room. We are getting a corner desk (a freebie from a friend) and we’ll pick it up tomorrow afternoon. I have to make room for it which means I not only have to clean up, but I also need to rearrange.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

I have a lot of days to catch up on so here we go.

The Texada retreat started on Friday but since hand stitching was canceled for Thursday I decided to take the mid-morning ferry across to the studio. My main project for the retreat was a Christmas one and I wanted to have a photo-type done before setting out on the multiples I had planned. I spent all day Thursday sewing; my new sewing/craft table works really well and I loved stitching on Pearl – the machine that I had taken to leave in the studio. In fact I loved it so much that I used it all weekend at the retreat and brought it back with me to be (again) my travel machine. The SUV will go back to the studio eventually but I want to take it in for servicing first; it works well but it is so noisy when I sew that perhaps something can be done about that.

The weekend goes by so fast at retreat. We started before nine every day and I wasn’t back to the studio until almost ten every night. I accomplished a lot on my Christmas projects but I have to admit that I was a little bored with them by Sunday night. I got a lesson in bias binding while I was there; I replaced the binding on my prototype after the lesson but I think I’m good to go for the rest of them. The retreat ended Sunday afternoon; I was so tired that I was in bed by 9:30 Sunday night.

There is always a weekend mystery project – we used to call it the Friday night project but it doesn’t always happen on Friday night anymore. This year’s was simple enough that I was able to complete it on Saturday afternoon in the allotted time frame. In planning for the project we had to bring two fat quarters; I breathed a sigh of relief knowing there were no zippers involved!

When we’re at the retreat we always play a game of strip poker – everyone brings five strips of a specific colour and we roll dice to see how fast we lose them. I’m usually out by the second round but this year I hung in the game. So many of the ladies were anxious to be out; I couldn’t stand their grumbling so I told them I was “in it to win”!. It came down to myself and one of our associate members from Ladysmith. Not surprisingly I lost in the final roll but Gail, bless her heart, ran to my sewing table and dumped all the strips on it; she said I could have them. So I now have 100 turquoise and burgundy strips that I need to do something with before the next retreat. I’ve been looking at two-colour quilts online; I’ll keep looking until I find one I like that is done with strips.

Our challenge for next year will also be fun. We each took a one-meter cut of fabric and ripped it in half. We kept half and pass the other half to the person beside up. We ripped the half-meter we received and kept half and passed half along. At the end of the game we were to end up with five different fabrics that we have to use to make something for next year; we can’t add any fabric of our own and we have to use at least some of each fabric we received. I say we were to end up with five different fabrics but I only have four different ones because two people had the same fabric and I ended up with two of those pieces. I already have an idea of what I might make, but I haven’t really checked it out to see if it will work with what I have.

I stayed on Texada for an extra day. I have joined the Texada Guild and they were sewing all day on Monday so it seemed like a good time to get my feet wet with them. And get my feet wet I did as we had (and are still having) a tremendous storm. Several ferries off Texada were canceled on Monday but the five o’clock ran; that was the one I intended to take. Had it not run there was another at seven but I’m not sure I would have sat in the line-up that long. Having the studio is a nice option on weather days!

I was out the door early this morning headed to the regular Tuesday bee; I had all the Guild’s power bars and irons in the trunk of my car so I had to get there early. I am scrambling to get a quilt top ready for my long-arm quilting session tomorrow. With the exception of two borders and cutting batting and backing I’m almost ready.

I hate to go out in the storm again but tonight is QiGong so I guess I’ll have to brave the weather.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

I’ve had a couple of busy days but I’m far from ready to leave tomorrow.

Tuesday’s bee was productive – I got a couple of prototypes for Christmas started. It was enough that I changed up the plan a bit! When I got home I had more Cranberry Hall stuff to get ready and then I headed off to QiGong. It wasn’t until I checked my mail before going to bed that I realized I hadn’t written either the Guild’s blog or my own journal.

We went out for breakfast this morning and then stopped at Canadian Tire on the way home. Both those stops were actually timesavers – a Magpie’s breakfast meant I didn’t need any lunch, and we were able to pick up some mats for the Hall that we had agreed to get at the last meeting. It doesn’t look good if the President and Secretary/Treasurer don’t fulfill their obligations.

For the rest of the morning I gathered together stuff I need for the retreat. Along with that I added things we need at the studio to the pile. I’m really only working on one project at the retreat but I threw in a couple of hand stitching bins just in case. I cut batting for my project but I still need to piece a few bits together. I have all my tools ready to go but nothing is in the car yet (except for Guild equipment that I loaded into my trunk after the bee yesterday).

I had a lot of errands to run this afternoon – post office, library, groceries, $ Store, bank and a second grocery store. My best stop (and most expensive) of the afternoon was at the fabric shop. My new project method required more fabric and I was glad to have lots to choose from. I almost always run into someone I know so there is visiting as well.

I have a bit of time before we have to leave for the Board meeting so I’m off to get a few more things sorted and packed.