All posts by Sherry

It’s like a day off

Sunday, April 7, 2019

We hurried out the door this morning so we could get the sound equipment set up for tonight’s show. I offered to help Pat get it out to the truck and then said if he wanted to head down to the Hall right away I’d go along and help. I was able to carry quite a bit of stuff in but I’m not sure how much help I was in the actual set up. Once we were done we hurried home so we’d be here for the noon ferry.

Our performers decided not to come until the afternoon ferry so it was like having a free day. I used it by starting to work on a miniature quilt; we got a notice about the Tuesday meeting yesterday and I didn’t have anything prepared or even planned.

I decided I would scale down a pattern Stacia had given me but somehow (not surprising) I did the math wrong. Some of the pieces might have been fixable but I didn’t have enough of one of the fabrics so I scrapped that idea and moved on.

I’ve got lots of patterns stored in my files so I picked one that looked easy. It uses 1.5″ squares which are small to work with but I have a pile of them already cut. It is nice to be able to use up some of these scraps – they are too small to use in a big project although I have done some larger-than-mini projects with them.

We’re invited out for supper after the sound check at the Hall. Until it is time to go I’ll get a few more pages of my book read.

Stormy day

It’s a windy day out there today. It has died down somewhat now and I expect the afternoon ferry will run but that will be the first one of the day. Even the ferries from Texada were cancelled. I have to admit though that the sun on the whitecaps on the ocean looked quite pretty when we drove home this morning.

We were out the door before eight with a list of things to do, and we didn’t get home until past noon. First stop was to get some breakfast at Julie’s Cafe at the airport – good breakfast at reasonable prices (and I got a fresh-from- the-oven cinnamon bun).

I think I’ve mentioned before that we are working on the workshop on Texada and we are at the stage where we need flooring. Pat purchased (at auction) a dance floor out of one of the hotels, but that covered less than half of what we needed. Pat had a line on some second-hand laminate from a person on Texada but he found a sale at Rona and we got new flooring and underlay for about the same price. Our carpenter will be happy as he said second-hand was okay so long as the tabs were still intact and we wouldn’t have been able to find that out until next weekend when Pat could see it first-hand.

I’m keen on getting the workshop finished as Pat suggested a new use for it. With lumber we have left over he thought he could get Trevor to build a workbench/table for me to use for sandwiching my quilts. Wouldn’t that be nice?

With that task taken care of we headed south of town to Dan and Judy’s. Dan is a luthier and he has been working on one of Pat’s guitars. We visited with them until almost noon and then stopped at Safeway on the way home; Pat needed a prescription filled and we picked up a few items that were on sale – coffee and cheez whiz were the important items!

We are having a by-election in town today. Fortunately the polling station is in the old library right across the street. There was a line-up when I arrived but I moved through relatively quickly. I barely expended any energy getting home as the wind was at my back.

The afternoon was spent working as well. Pat had a few phone visits and we were both taking calls regarding tickets for shows. I’m selling tickets for a Cranberry Hall show tomorrow night and Pat is selling tickets for the House Concert on Wednesday. When things settled a bit I did my cleaning for the first batch of performers who arrive tomorrow (two of the four will stay here).

Finally I have made my way upstairs and I hope to finish cutting the retreat project I started yesterday. There are two more projects I’d like to take with me; no doubt more than I will accomplish but I like to dream.

A lazy day

Friday, April 5, 2019

Thursday seems to be the day I most often miss posting. I always think I’ll have more time between events than I do and then I get rushed and posting gets pushed off the list.

I spent more time than I intended yesterday morning prepping some Splendid Sampler blocks to take to the Spring Retreat. I wrote my reports for the Guild meeting and then headed out to the yard to do a bit of work. I knew rain was coming and there were a few things I wanted done before it started.

I had a good sewing session in the afternoon but before heading off to that I had a few stops to make. I got our tax papers sent to the accountant and stopped at the library to return a book and pick another one up. Much to my surprise there were two books waiting for me.

I was busy packing up for the Guild meeting after supper and took one last look to see that I had everything. I realized I hadn’t bagged my gift for my Secret Pal so everything came out of the bag. I got my gift ready and headed downstairs, only to leave my reports laying on the ironing board. It wasn’t until I went to hand in my quilt show report that I realized what I had done.

There was very little follow-up to do from the meeting last night so I took care of that first thing. Then I spent some more time this morning prepping another project for the retreat. I’m way behind on my Blocks of the Month for the Guild; I’m equally as far behind on the second set of those blocks that I’m making for myself. Hopefully I can catch up at the retreat.

With the library books collecting on my bedside table (there are three of them) I decided I should spend the afternoon reading the book I started at the end of my weekend on Texada. Still a long way to go but I’m enjoying it; it has been raining all day and if it continues over the weekend I may get through it.

I’m a Farmer’s Daughter

Finished Size: 70″x70″

In the very early stages of making my Farmer’s Wife Sampler I came across the name of this pattern in a blog I follow. Based on the name alone I purchased it immediately. On a trip through Calgary with Stacia and Deloise I told them about the pattern and they decided to make it as well. Each of us made extra blocks to be added to the backs of our quilts.

I purchased a Kaffe Fassett bundle of fabrics on that trip and started English Paper Piecing a block. With one block finished I changed my mind on some of the layout, based mainly on seeing what Stacia had done. The fabric made my blocks look very scrappy so I tried to calm it down a bit by putting some order into the scraps.

The quilt was finished in time for the 2019 quilt show. Here’s what my label said:

A Jen Kingwell pattern made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I bought the pattern based solely on the name – I’m proud to be a farmer’s daughter. Close to 1000 pieces were hand-basted and hand-pieced (EPP). A block from each of my sisters is on the back. Hand Appliquéd and machine quilted. Never Again!

I thought that finishing this large EPP project would allow me to decide if I wanted to do another big English Paper Piecing project (with 17,000 pieces). The answer is NO!