Wednesday, February 13, 2019

I was ready this morning to start some free-motion quilting on my Farmer’s Wife quilt; this was going to be an easy day and by the end of it I’d be ready for binding. But after five needle breaks I realized it was going to be a tough day!

Needle 1 – Me: I must have bent the needle with my quilting in the blocks.

Needle 2 – Me: Darn I must have been moving too fast.

Needle 3 – Me: It’s the heavy seams in the backing that are causing the problem. I’ll use a marker and circle the spots I should avoid.

Needle 4 – Me: ***#, I got to close to one of those seams.

Needle 5 – Me: *@#$ *&^%, that seam wasn’t even that thick.

So I spent a relaxing (?) afternoon sitting in the sunshine and taking out all of the free-motion quilting I managed to do this morning. Now that it’s done, I’ll go back to my book and see if I can find a pattern that will work with my machine’s walking foot.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

We only had 17 people show up for our Powell River house concert on Sunday night; fortunately 34 people had pre-paid for the event so our performer (Meaghan Blanchard) wasn’t out any money. It had started snowing in the late afternoon and by four people were calling to say they weren’t coming or wondering how the roads were. We tried to get some others into the seats (for free) but no one wanted to be out in the weather.

When we got up on Monday morning we had long conversations as to whether or not we should go over for the show on Texada. Meaghan had shows booked for Victoria on Tuesday and Ladysmith on Wednesday. We knew we were going to get another large dump of snow and worried that we might get stuck on Texada and she would miss the ferry back to Comox. We decided to go over to Texada and hope for the best. The show there had about 17 people as well but, again, we had pre-sold tickets so Meaghan wasn’t out any money. Before the show on Texada ended both Victoria and Ladysmith had cancelled.

The drive to the studio was okay because Pat had the truck in 4-wheel drive. We were almost to the top of our very steep driveway when the truck started slipping and we were sliding back down the hill with very little control. Meaghan and I were certain we were going to go over the embankment but Pat got things under control by the time we had slipped most of the way down the drive. We blocked the tires with firewood so the truck wouldn’t slip any further and walked up the hill to the studio.

It snowed most of the night and although there was no rush to catch the ferry today we decided quite early to attempt to get to the Texada ferry. Pat did a fine job of backing down the driveway (although maybe it was Meaghan’s and my guidance that did the trick), turning the truck around and getting out to the ferry. By the time we got to the ferry the snow had pretty much stopped but it had started again by the time we pulled into Powell River. The roads on this side were pretty clear so we didn’t have any trouble with our hill.

It had stopped snowing for a bit this afternoon but it has started again. When will this end?