All posts by Sherry

4-Seasons Tree

Quilting

My first inspiration for this probably came eight years ago when we moved to Powell River. From my kitchen window I can see a big tree across the street on the grounds of City Hall. I’ve seen it through many seasons, as well as some storms that have broken branches but never toppled the tree. I kept thinking I should take photos of the tree at each equinox; of course that hasn’t happened yet.

The Splendid Sampler 2 sew-along that I’m involved in had Flowering Tree block; someone in the Facebook community suggested that it would be nice done in colours to represent each of the four seasons. That sparked a memory I had of a Hands Across the Water block that was to be done in different colours based on your last name (the colours represented four different seasons).

About the same time we had a reminder that our miniature was due early in September. I knew that when the Hands Across the Water block came out I purchased fabric to make all four seasons. The fabric was in a bin, buried beneath several other bins, but when I opened it there was no pattern.

I checked online for the pattern but I didn’t remember what year the block was from (2015 as it turns out) or which Guild was sponsoring the event (Quadra Island). But I am in charge of our blog site and I hoped that at some point the block had been posted. As t turned out the pattern had been removed quite some time ago but I was able to find it in my saved files.

Spring & Summer
Fall & Winter

I don’t generally sew with batiks (they don’t have enough “give” to let me fudge on the sizing) but I bought the fabric so long ago I probably hadn’t yet realized I didn’t like batiks. The block was paper-pieced so it was quite precise and I didn’t need the fudging. The quilting pattern in the sashing is called Cascade.

Harvesting

Journal

Monday, September 10, 2018

I didn’t get to hand stitching the binding on my cards last night so, over a couple of cups of coffee, I finished them this morning. Then I went out to do a few errands and by the time I was home it was almost noon. I made a trip to the Hall to pick up a rental fee, a stop at the grocery store for some cake ingredients, a stop at Walmart and, finally, a stop at Staples to pick up some posters.

Since we are hosting the House Concerts on Texada I thought I should upgrade my towels over there – we are currently using beach towels as that was what was on sale when we took possession last year. We also acquired the sofa bed recently and we needed sheets for that; our extra sheets are required at home for the concerts here. I also bought some curtain rods as we are hoping to hang some quilts at the cafe to give the shows more ambience.

It was almost noon by the time I got home. When I went to check for mail (there wasn’t any) I thought I should check on the apples. There were some on the ground so I knew it was time to pick them. I have a Safeway bag overflowing so I’ll have to do something with them over the next couple of days – probably cut them up and freeze them for apple crisps. While I was out there I checked the grapes and, based on the one I tasted, they too are ready to be picked. I’ll have to do some research but I’d like to juice them and freeze the results. There are way too many of them for eating and I already have a shelf full of jelly.

After lunch I baked a cake for Guild tomorrow – we’re celebrating September birthdays. I was to make a cake in August but I jammed out and bought one – it was just too hot to even think about turning the oven on but our ladies were not pleased. While the cake baked I finished my book so it can go back to the library, on time, tomorrow (and I can pick up my new one). We have a few gluten-free members and we usually bring them a treat but I forgot to pick something up so I went back out this afternoon and got something.

I’d really like to spend some time cleaning up my sewing area tonight – trust me, it is a mess – but I think after supper I’ll probably sit with a Farmer’s Daughter block and sew for the evening.

The Seagull

Books

Author: Ann Cleeves

Whew! I finished this the afternoon before it was due back at the library. And I must say I enjoyed HAVING to sit down after lunch to get it done.

There is nothing outstanding about the book – a slow and easy Scottish mystery. I really had no idea about the murderer on this one and at the end of the book there was one clue I didn’t remember so I had to go back to look for it.

This is another of the Vera Stanhope series and I can hardly wait until they are available on Netflix Canada.

Goodreads Rating * * * (I liked it)

It could have been a pyjama day

Journal

Sunday, September 9, 2018

When I got up this morning I thought I might go out and run some errands but that isn’t the way the day unfolded. It was stormy most of the day – rain and wind. Although there is a small stream of sunshine at the moment I can see the next rain shower moving in from Savary Island. I could have stayed in my PJs all day; I didn’t poke my nose out the door and the door was never even unlocked.

This being my card and block day I spent all morning prepping various projects. I did some hand stitching on a couple of cards and I finished this week’s Splendid Sampler block. That particular block involved some hand stitching, then a bit more prep work and more hand stitching. I had a quiet afternoon stitching everything.

Tonight I’m back in my sewing room piecing a card and finishing up some blocks that I started on Thursday. Once the piecing is finished I’ll have another card to quilt. And I hope to get the binding on three of the cards and get them stitched down – I have a new series lined up on Netflix!

And if I get all that finished tonight I’ll have to spend some time with my book tomorrow; I got a notice from the library today that another book that I put on hold is ready to be picked up.