My Own Creations

It’s a good thing; it’s a bad thing

smcknight — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:08:58 +0000

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I guess I left my packing until too late last night because when I got to the bee this morning I had forgotten a few necessities for the thread catcher. I wasn’t alone as we were busy trading supplies back and forth across most of the sewing tables. I had the shelf liner to keep the bag from slipping, Kathy had the fusible batting, Reenie had the aquarium sand we used to fill the pincushion, Barb had the buttons, and Marlene had the long needle we needed to sew the button with. This was truly a group effort.

I am far from the fastest stitcher and, because they were steps ahead of me, several ladies were able to help me out along the way. And often one of our best quilters would stop us all and say, “Now the pattern says to glue this, but you know we aren’t going to glue it, right? This is what we’re going to do.” The bad thing about being slow though is that I didn’t complete mine at the bee. I had to come home and finish it off on my own and I’m not sure I did it correctly. If it holds together though I’ll be happy.

I wish I had added this project to “the list” so I could wipe it off the board!

Thread Catcher (The Abbey Bag)

smcknight — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:00:38 +0000

I’ve seen the ladies at the Guild with these bags and thought about making one but I never got around to looking for a pattern. One of the Tuesday morning ladies had this pattern she was willing to share and so we did it as a joint project at the bee.

The bag part has a pocket on the inside. There were a lot of comments about whether or not the pocket would be of any use, but I stuck one on mine just in case. I’m not sure how easy it will be to get the thread out of the bag. Maybe I’m supposed to put a brown paper bag inside?

Click to enlarge

The top part of the piece is a pincushion.

I don’t think I will add this into my setup at home, but I will carry it with me when I go to the bees. I’m usually the one sweeping the floor at the end of the day and I can’t believe all the thread and scraps that some of the ladies leave behind. Perhaps someone (definitely not me) should volunteer to make one for each sewer!

Back to my quilting

smcknight — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:55:03 +0000

Monday, February 20, 2012

I had the blanket stitched up and ready for the mail by noon today. It felt lovely to have that off my list and to be able to get back to my sewing machine. I did some in-the-ditch work this afternoon and a bit this evening.

I did some cleaning this morning as well. I found a way to rearrange the living room so that when I’m sitting in my chair stitching (or playing on my iPad) I look out at the ocean and not at the neighbour’s yard. I also managed to get a coffee table on the right side of my chair. Most of the seats in our home have coffee tables to the left (guess who is left-handed). By the time I had rolled up the rug and shifted some furniture it became clear that I should do a good vacuum.

I have some work to do tonight to get ready for the bee. We are going to make our Thread Catcher tomorrow rather than next week. I have some of the stuff I need picked out, but I’ll have to recheck my list to make sure I have everything.

Circular Shawl

smcknight — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:49:42 +0000

This is one of my favorite baby blanket patterns. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve made over the years, but I know the first one I made was for Christopher Gustafson and he must be close to (if not more than) thirty. This latest one was made for Nolan James, the son of a good friend that I worked with at the City.

I’ve made blue ones, pink ones, and purple ones. They no longer make the baby wool I have been using, but I still have enough for a couple more in my stash.

It’s done

smcknight — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:58:55 +0000

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Pat left for Vancouver on the first plane out this morning, so we had an early start. Although I wanted to get a lot more done today than I accomplished, I have finished the knitting on the baby blanket. I will get the seam stitched tomorrow morning and, hopefully, have it in the mail by tomorrow afternoon.

I spent some time working at clearing my desktop in preparation for more quilting. I found some photos that I want to have copies made of and I also found a batch of photos that I scanned into my computer. And since I’m working on some sort of photo project (I’m not sure what yet) I thought I should write a little story about each one. Once that was done they didn’t all fit into my “Scanned” box so I found an album and put them away. And then I found another file folder with photos that needed to be scanned, and so on, and so on, and so on!

I was happy to see the new season of Amazing Race start tonight. It is too early to have favorites and I’m not really sure I even like any of the teams.

Skeletons at the Feast (Chris Bohjalian)

smcknight — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:55:08 +0000

This book is quite different from others by the author. Several members of a German family, along with a POW from Scotland, are escaping to the west in advance of the Russian army as they move into Germany at the end of WWII. A Jewish man who has spent the war pretending to be a German joins them along the way. The other character in the book is a woman who has survived the labour camps and is being forced to march to an unknown destination.

Movies – Day 2

smcknight — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:34:52 +0000

Saturday, February 18, 2012

We spent the day at the film festival. I sat at the Guild table for two hours, but I had another member sitting with me so the time went quickly. The films started later today and I was only able to see the first 45 minutes of the first film before duty called. I missed the short that preceded the second film, but I was back in the theatre for the main feature.

We had a longer break this afternoon between the last matinee and the evening event. I did a little knitting, and we watched the last two periods of the Canucks game before heading back into the theatre.

Cloudburst

smcknight — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:34:05 +0000

Do you ever wonder what might have happened if Thelma and Louise hadn’t gone over that cliff? I think Dottie and Stella might be the answer. The two women have been together for 31 years. When Dottie’s granddaughter tricks her into moving into a care home, Stella kidnaps Dottie and they head to Canada to get married. They even pick up a boy toy along the way! Certainly not your “Sunday best” language, but I agree with Pat that it is probably the movie Olympia Dukakis always wanted to make.

40 Days at Base Camp

smcknight — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:32:18 +0000

When climbing any of the summits of Everest, climbers must spend the full season (40 days) acclimatizing to the high altitude. I knew about the Base Camp but didn’t realize that, for the time they are acclimatizing, they are making hikes up and down the mountain to and from Bases 1, 2 and 3. Their final climb is to Base 4 and from there they attempt the summit. Climbing the mountain doesn’t interest me, but I bet the hike to Base Camp would be spectacular.

To Make a Farm

smcknight — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:29:51 +0000

The story followed three sets of new farmers through one growing season. Two of the farms were in Ontario and one was in Manitoba. None of them had any farming experience, but their enthusiasm made up for it. The farms were all environmentally responsible and growing for the local food market. It made me want to dig!