Monday, October 16, 2017

I had a lovely weekend at the studio – my first solo visit. Getting up and down the driveway wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be – in fact I think going down was worse than going up. I spent most of my time indoors working on various projects, but I did drive down to the market on Saturday. And we had our first visitor to the studio.

Don’t think my heart didn’t stop for a moment or two when I heard a knock at the door. But I knew my car was parked outside so there could be no doubt that there was someone at home. So I was very brave and answered it. Our visitor was Jamie from a couple of doors down; his wife saw the red car (and we usually have the truck) and I think they were just checking to be sure whoever was in the house should be in the house. Nice to know they keep track of the place.

I got a lot done over the weekend. I finished a couple of donation sweaters, I finished the ornaments for an Advent calendar and the biggest task of all was cutting down all my scraps. I cut them into squares or strips of various widths because someday I’m sure I’ll find a way to use them. Some of the small scraps go into a bag for a friend and the smallest pieces get set aside for stuffing dog pillows. I took a sewing machine with me this trip (and left it there); I sewed on the kitchen table but I’ll have to find a small table or, if I’m very lucky, someone will be getting rid of a sewing machine cabinet.

When I got home not only did I have to put away all my weekend work but I also had to unpacked my Thursday afternoon sewing projects. I’ve done a bit of prep work for the sewing bee tomorrow although I have one more project I want to do some prep work on. Three projects will no doubt be more than I need but since I was on such a good roll over the weekend I don’t want to run out.

Thursday, October 12, 2013

This morning I finished gathering all my stuff for the Texada trip; I even had time to do a run to the recycle depot. It was to be an afternoon of hand stitching and I wanted to have everything ready so I could catch the 8:30 ferry in the morning.

I love these hand stitching afternoons but I’m beginning to think I’m the only one who takes the sewing seriously. Sandra decided she didn’t like the fabric she was using for her project so decided to wait until she found some she liked. Gail spent most of the time on her computer and discussing the problems at the Seniors’ Centre. I was pleased to get my project finished (another Christmas gift) as well as getting two corners attached to a Farmer’s Daughter block. The visiting is fun even if we don’t all sew.

I’m very excited for next week – Gail is going to give us our first instructions on the use of her long-arm quilting machine. After that we’ll be able to book some time on the machine; I already have a quilt top ready to practice on.

While we had lunch I talked myself into catching the 6:00 ferry tonight so I’m at the studio for an extra evening. It was getting dark by the time I pulled up to the back door to unload, but not nearly as dark as it will be on retreat weekend. My biggest concern was the driveway up to the studio. One of them has a very sharp corner off the road and then is very steep up to the door. The other is a bit more winding but is really just a trail over the Crown land next door.

I remembered my iPad this trip and the Internet is working so, as Pat said, I’m online and off the grid!