All posts by Sherry

It’s kind of like having a dog

Journal

Saturday, October 1, 2022

As I was pulling weeds out of the patio bricks this morning (again) I had the thought that the patio and driveway are a bit like having a dog. With a dog you have to constantly pick up their mess – do it one day, maybe miss a day or two, but you’ll have to get back at it soon. That seems to be the way of the weeds in the patio bricks. I cleaned them up last week and by the time we got back from Texada yesterday they needed to be done again. I got the patio bricks done before I moved on to what I really wanted done – the driveway.

I’ll need another day to finish it off. The driveway itself is done but we have a trench that drains (or is supposed to drain) the rain water and with this dry weather the weeds and grass have sprouted up. I didn’t have enough energy left to continue on; I managed just over two hours and I’m feeling it now.

I did a bit more Hall work today. I cleaned up the digital files when we were on Texada so I transferred them to a USB drive. I have a meeting tomorrow morning with the two people taking over the Treasurer’s job so I’ll pass the drive along to them and then, except for the paper files, I’m done. I think I’ve said that before though so you never know.

I have a new evening project – the knitting was just too hard to keep straight while we watched TV. I’m working on a stamped cross stitched tablecloth, one that Mum had but hadn’t started.

Calendar Block – October

Calendar Blocks, Cards, Quilting

October 1, 2022

from Quiltish Corner

It wasn’t until after I had the pattern picked that I realized there was a lot of October to get through before Hallowe’en pumpkins really were the “thing”. So I added a backing that might be mistaken more for a fall and/or Thanksgiving theme.

This was a fun one to make and one of the fancy stitches on my machine took care of the quilting in the border.

Sashiko Sampler

Needlework

I was looking for a date on my website and realized I’d never done a proper post for my sashimi sampler.

I enjoyed doing this so much that I already have two more lined up waiting. It is relaxing as all the stitches (and stitch lengths) are printed on the fabric and it really is quite mindless. Once I started I couldn’t put it down.

There is, of course, a story behind why I ended up with such a large “first” project. When Stacia, Deloise and I were at Quilt Canada in Vancouver I picked up a couple of smaller pieces. I remember admiring this larger piece that was done as a sample at the booth. Somehow Deloise convinced me to buy the larger project and she would buy the smaller ones. Neither of us touched them until our trip to Panorama in June. Not to be left out Stacia also ordered a small project so we all started at the same time.

I did some experimenting with the stitches – knots in the back for starting threads and later doing smaller stitches at the beginning and end of the thread and going back over three stitches. In some places I left about a quarter inch of a loop on the back to allow for shrinkage but, after Stacia finished and washed hers, it didn’t seem to make much difference. So I stopped doing that and simply made sure I wasn’t pulling the thread too tight.

When it was finished it washed up really nice and all the pre-stamped stitching lines came out. While I was stitching I had a couple of ideas of where I would put it but none of them worked. It ended up here where it is protected but visible under the glass that covers our dining room table.

Happy Birthday Roberta

Cards

September 30, 2022

Winter Flower (from the Splendid Sampler 2 series)

Obviously Roberta’s birthday doesn’t fall anywhere near winter even on the Prairies but it was the second-to-last card in the book and I didn’t want to wait for a winter birthday to make it. Maybe it was because I was making this card in the wrong season but I had problems with some sections of the design on this card. In the end, I followed the pattern up to a certain point and then did my own thing.

I had trouble getting the English paper-pieced edges correct so I used the centre of the flower and appliquéd it to a background. The floral fabric in the card is from Mum’s stash. The quilting is very light – just the appliqué stitches.