Sunday, September 1, 2019

I’ve been going to the Sunshine Music Festival almost every year since we moved to Powell River. I generally go for one day, but I skip it if the weather is bad. Yesterday’s weather was perfect. It was cloudy, but there were only a few sprinkles of rain; it wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cool. It was perfect weather.

I enjoyed the music and I enjoyed wandering around the site and visiting a few of the vendor booths. I got a start on some Christmas gifts and visited the Natural Soap Lady for some lotion for myself. There were good food choices as well. Lunch was from the 7-Sprouts Deli, a plant-based deli who, both at the festival and in their shop, are committed to zero-waste. My salad was in a mason jar and although I used a napkin to hold my bagel it was made from recycled paper and was compostable. My mid-afternoon snack was an ice cream from Sassy Mack’s. I got a double scoop – salty chocolate caramel and 32-Lakes (coffee) chocolate chip. Both were excellent.

The entire festival tries to be zero-waste and they do a good job of it. I’m not sure if they choose their vendors for eco-friendliness but it was good to see so many of them using recycled materials in their wares. I saw instruments made from recycled propane tanks, jewellery from beach glass, and lots of items made from “up cycled” clothing.

I took my knitting with me so I had something to do while I sat and people-watched. After so many years of attending you get to “know” a few of the other regulars. The odd man who dances had a girlfriend with him this year; the boy/girl (I’m never sure of the gender) was with a different friend. The large family gathering that often sits near us were all in attendance but the kids have grown. The woman I’ve seen every year at the Texada festival was dancing up a storm. Often I would see a face and then have to try and remember where it was that I knew them from; in one case it bugged me all day until I saw him on the way out of the festival and realized it was the fellow who sold me my cell phone! I missed our previous neighbour; it was always so nice to see her, her Mum and her daughter up dancing together.

Of course there were lots of people I really did know that we were able to chat with.

I’m taking it easy today. I have a card I need to get finished so it can go in the mail on Tuesday. Today will be the first day that I’ve used my sewing machine since I rearranged my sewing room.

Friday, August 30, 2019

I better get this post done now or the day will slip by as it did yesterday. I baked in the morning, went sewing in the afternoon and then we went out to Lund (again) for dinner. We wanted to support our friends Geoff and Scott who were playing their last night of the season.

Sewing was a bit frustrating. I thought I was set with my project already waiting for me at Gail’s. But just as I was going out the door I remembered that I was going to use the blocks for either my ruler workshop or my quilt-as-you-go workshop. In either of those cases the blocks didn’t need to be stitched together. So I ran upstairs and grabbed the container with my miniature in it.

It took no time at all to stitch the miniature blocks together and, of course, I hadn’t brought the fabric for the sashing between the columns. So I sewed together a block that was supposed to be my Leader and Ender for this year. Because so many of the fabric pieces have to match it isn’t working out all that well with the scraps I have cut, but I like the pattern (Shoo Fly) and I’ll continue cutting scraps for it and sewing blocks as I get a chance.

I moved on and trimmed my “real” Leader and Ender project blocks – a postage stamp quilt made with 1.5″ squares. I’m about ready to stitch one block together but I didn’t start it. I was rather daunted when Jesse told me she used more than 10,000 squares. With what remained of the afternoon I did some more embroidery on a card top.

This morning I was baking again. I’ve got two loaves sliced and on plates for the show at the Hall tonight. Pat is doing sound for the show so we’ll be heading out early.

Tomorrow I’ll be out at the Sunshine Musical Festival, possibly in the rain, so I won’t be posting.