Monday, November 6, 2017

I didn’t get much further on my quilting yesterday. After I wrote my post I went back to the machine and within a dozen stitches I ran out of bobbin thread. I just couldn’t bring myself to wind another at that point in the day so stopped. I finished my first Prayer Shawl last night while I watched Netflix; I have one with a different pattern on the needles now.

I had a bit of a shock when Pat came in the door from Texada. I was working on border three (of four) and thinking my morning was going very well. But Pat comes home on the noon ferry – could it be noon already? Fortunately not – he was packed and ready to go this morning and caught an earlier ferry. I still had enough time to finish my quilting before lunch. I intend to do a scrapping binding on the quilt (since it is made up of scraps) so I pulled a few strips from my stash. I need almost 400 inches of binding so it will be an ongoing project (probably a new leader and ender).

I have a couple of projects packed for the bee tomorrow and I even made a start on pulling projects for the Texada retreat. I had a plan in mind for what I’d do at the retreat and then I started thinking about Christmas and that has thrown everything off just a bit. There is always a Friday night project and I’ve pulled some fat quarters from my stash for it. We also need to take strips of turquoise and burgundy fabric for “something”, as well as a meter of fabric for a new game; I see a trip to the fabric store in my future!

I’ve almost finished my reports for the Cranberry Hall meeting on Wednesday – I feel like I’m gaining that extra hour today rather than yesterday. With what is left of the afternoon I’ll try to find some instructions for lining a couple of Christmas stockings that I’ve embroidered.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

If you changed timed this weekend, how did you spend your extra hour? I think mine was spent changing all the clocks. We normally do the time change Saturday evening but I totally forgot about it. Fortunately when I woke up at seven (on my clock) I immediately remembered the time change. I’m sure every clock in the house is set a few seconds off one another but they are all in the right ball park!

I don’t think I’ll ever finish this quilt. I’ve worked at it all day and just now I thought I had only the borders left to quilt but I found three squares that I missed. I’ve put so much work into it I sort of hate to give it away; on the other hand I’m rather tired of it!

I was out earlier in the day and picked up a few more Christmas gifts; it is all coming together really well this year. Of course there are still a few things to decide on, a few things to purchase and quite a few things I plan to make. I’ll pack up a few of the “making” things to take to the retreat next weekend.

Saturday, November 4, 2017

I had an early start to my day and was back at my sewing machine just shortly past eight. It turned out there were very few of those nine-patches remaining and I had them done in no time. The first craft fair was on at eleven and before it was time to leave I started on some Cranberry Hall reports – our meeting is on Wednesday.

The craft fair had all the usual suspects selling all the usual stuff – lots of jewelry and natural soap products and table after table of knitting and crocheting. I wasn’t tempted by anything and wondered why I even bothered to go.

I had my eyes open for some possible Advent calendar goodies but nothing appealed (or was cheap enough). After I came home I managed to decide on my game for this year’s calendar so that is a big hurdle passed. I still have to do the shopping but I think (I hope) it will be fun for everyone. It involves some sewing as well so it’s a good thing the retreat is coming up.

I’ve started on the free-motion part of my quilting. I’m using two different patterns – one is a single spiral (when I can keep my focus) and one is a flower – I had a lot of practice with this flower design when I quilted my Celtic Crystals and I’m comfortable (if not terribly accurate) doing it free-handed.

It’s quite a chilly day today and while I had my lunch I watched a show on Netflix. Lunch didn’t take long so I picked up my knitting. I would have liked to have kept at it but my quilt awaits.

We turn the clocks back tonight but I doubt I will notice the extra hour. What I do notice is that it is dark really early in the evening (actually late in the afternoon) and we have a two-hour time difference with Saskatoon. That makes it much harder to phone my grand kids (and their parents).

Friday, November 3, 2017

I quilted all morning. I was hoping that by lunch I would have all the straight-line stitching done but that just didn’t happen. I’ve been working and working and never really noticing how many 9-patches still needed to be outlined; I assumed that with all that I’d done so far I must be close to the end. Maybe it is better that I don’t know!

After lunch I had to go out to pick up a prescription; since I was going to the pharmacy anyway I decided to get my flu shot. I usually go to a public clinic (I understand the cost to the government is less than through pharmacies) but I couldn’t find a clinic until the end of the month and I didn’t want to wait that long. After the flu shot was over I asked about the pneumonia shot; she said I could get that right away if I wanted so that’s what I did. Although the flu shot seldom bothers me I now have the potential for both my right and left arms to be tender. The pamphlet they handed out says that exercising the arm is good so I guess more quilting will fill the bill.

So, back to it!