Sunday, March 3, 2019

I’ve become a different person since finishing my quilt show projects.

Yesterday morning I started organizing my sewing room. I want to separate all my “in progress” projects from the “waiting to start” projects. I’m following two UFO challenges and there are a few Guild projects that I need to catch up on but since I didn’t feel at all like sewing, doing some organization felt like progress. I’ve signed up for a Decluttering and Organizing workshop at the Library later this month – maybe I should hold off to see if I learn some better techniques from that.

I was scheduled to sell Quilt Show raffle tickets yesterday for a couple of hours. We were selling in the coldest spot in town (Quality Foods) so a two-hour shift is more than enough. But the next volunteers didn’t show up as they were supposed to. I called the organizer and she told me who to call. Both women had forgotten; one was from south of town and wouldn’t make it until the next two hours were almost finished but the other one came right away. Since the person I was selling with was a friend of a quilter and not even in the Guild I thought it was only right that she go home and I stayed on for another two hours.

I was barely home and warm when it was time to go out for dinner. One of our Indian restaurants is having a month-long series of set menus and last night was the first one. They are calling it a Taste of India and the menu will take us through four seasons of Indian food. The food is always good and the things I don’t like I can easily pass to Pat.

I don’t do the cooking in our home – Pat cooks and grocery shops and I do the dishes, cleaning and laundry. After my ticket selling was over yesterday I did the shopping and this morning I cooked and did the laundry. I wanted to make the soup that I had prepared for our mini quilting retreat in January. The recipe calls for it to be done in the crock pot but I did it on top of the stove so it was ready for lunch. Just as good this time around.

And if my making lunch wasn’t odd enough I baked a cake this morning as well. It was a recipe I saw online – very easy to make – and although it was barely cool we had a piece for lunch and it was yummy. Could probably be improved on with ice cream but we didn’t have any.

I should get back to more organizing but I think I’m going to head down to my knitting. I’m almost ready to change colours on my project and I can hardly wait to see what it looks like after I’ve done that.

Friday, March 1, 2019

I used my cleaning time this morning to start work on my studio – the sewing side. When things look like they do right now, ninety minutes doesn’t really do much to put a dent in the mess. So after lunch I’ve continued the task.

Going into the day I knew I was missing one pin cushion and my stapler. I wasn’t surprised at losing the pin cushion because I had stacks of fabric on every surface but the stapler is more puzzling.

When I cleared out a corner I found the pin cushion under an upset basket of odds and ends – the basket had been pushed off the edge of the table and everything had spilled out. I fully expected to find the stapler under some piles of paper but so far it hasn’t shown up. I’m ready now to move on to another area of my room and I can’t imagine why my stapler would have migrated to that area. So until I find it there is another pile of paper started waiting to be clipped together and filed.

Pat has a concert at Cranberry Hall tonight so there wasn’t any way to get out of working the show. I really like the performer (Oliver Swain) so I don’t mind.

Thursday, February 28, 2019

I was up fairly early this morning and started stitching the binding down on my Farmer’s Daughter quilt while I had my coffee. About 8:30 I thought I should get started on my “real” day but then I had a brilliant idea.

I’m a morning person and once I get started on something (particularly my sewing) I hate to quit. While I’m stitching I am usually listening to CBC radio. While I like the program Q, I don’t like the host so I’m often annoyed by the time those 90 minutes have passed. Yes, I could get up and turn the radio off but I don’t.

And here’s where my idea came in. Today, I would stitch until ten (when Q comes on) and I would start my cleaning then. I got everything done on the main floor (two bathrooms, the vacuuming and a load of laundry) and was finished about 11:25, just as Q was finishing. I think from now on those ninety minutes will be my cleaning time, or the time I do any other household tasks.

I was out with my sewing group this afternoon and I finished stitching the sleeve, label and binding on my Farmer’s Daughter quilt. That means I now have all of my quilt show entries finished.