All posts by Sherry

Purple Hibiscus

Books

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I’ve read a lot of novels about India and I usually can get an Indian accent going on in my head. This novel is based in Nigeria and I had a difficult time getting that Indian accent out of my head.

The story is told by Kambili, a fifteen-year old girl, who is the daughter of a very devout Catholic businessman. While her father is revered by the public he is not a very kind man to his wife and children. It isn’t until Kambili and her brother visit their aunt that they realize that a home can be a much happier place.

 

Goodreads Rating * * *

Maple Leaf

Needlework

Maple Leaf from Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks.

 

Today, in one of my Facebook groups, someone asked me the name of the pattern. I immediately came to my web page to see what it was and couldn’t find a posting for it anywhere. So this is a catch-up posting.

This still needs to be framed, but I hope to get that done before the summer is over.

 

O Canada

Quilting

O Canada (Size: 36″ x 12″)

Oddly enough, this piece wasn’t actually from my collection (yes, I now have a collection) of Canada 150 projects. It was the Fibre Expressions’ (from Sechelt) contribution to the 2016 Row by Row Experience. I’ve never made it into the shop but from the moment I saw the pattern I knew I wanted to make it. By the time the “Experience” was pretty much over for the year I still hadn’t been able to pick the kit up. But the shop was one of our vendors at Hands Across the Water so I made sure she was bringing some for her booth. As it turned out we were in Portland at the time of the event so I missed it again. But after November 1st you were able to purchase the kit without actually being in the shop and that’s when I was able to get mine.

When we started planning for the Cranberry Lake 75 Celebration (with its Canada 150 component to nab some of that funding) I told Pat I would make it to hang in the Hall. When I finally got around to getting it added to my “Must Get At It Now” pile I couldn’t find it anywhere. When I did finally locate it, in a totally unrelated bin, I realized it was too difficult to take to the Island when we had our week there.

So the pressure was on to get it completed in time. The piece was much harder to do than I thought it would be; the tiny letters and getting the staff lines on were challenges. I think I traced the pattern about four times before realizing that if I was using a Frixion pen I couldn’t trace everything and then fuse the pieces in place without losing all my lines and having to trace all over again. Were I to do the pattern again (and I won’t) there are a lot of things I would do differently.

Once it was together I wasn’t sure how to go about quilting it. I needed to use white between the black staff lines but those white patches were interrupted with black stems to the notes. So each white section was done separately. By the time the white quilting was done I noticed the maple leaves were already coming unstuck from the backing so I very carefully used my free-motion stitch to go just inside the borders of each one. The red section was easier but I was concerned about the red quilting over the black letters. I had a black fabric pen that I thought I would use to cover the red stitches but once it was finished I decided the red hardly showed and didn’t bother.

This will hang above the piano in the Cranberry Hall, and probably on the staircase at home.

UPDATE: I gave this to Will. When he was younger and playing mini-sticks hockey at the house we always had to sing O Canada before the games could begin.

It’s all done except for the event

Journal

Saturday, August 12, 2017

It’s been a long day but we are in good shape for tomorrow, aside from the fact that neither Pat nor I are moving very swiftly. I spent the morning checking my lists and packing up my car. We headed for the Hall about 11:30 and I fully expected to be home by 2:30 with all my last-minute shopping done.

We hung curtains, quilts and a bit of bunting. I washed a box of glasses that I found in a box by the stove when I had to go hunting for the tape that had fallen through a crack. They are nice glasses and, had I known they were there, I wouldn’t have bought all those ones from the thrift store.

We set up the tables and chairs and I put all the handouts and donation jars on them. All the time we were at the Hall we had people dropping in – one was an elderly man who brought us a photo that we are going to frame and hang. Others just wanted to see how it looked.

It was after three before I left the Hall to start my shopping so I was quite a bit later than my original estimate. Pat and I shared a beer when I got home and then I started my Cranberry Tarts. I made a double batch and I thought it would be enough to fill all my shells but I was short by a couple of dozen. I thought about making more but they have to sit in the fridge overnight and even with a lot of rearranging there just isn’t room for any more. So what I have is all there will be.

The rain moved in around seven and even though I don’t want rain and wet for tomorrow it smells so good; we haven’t had any rain for weeks. We even had a glimpse of the mountains on the Island for a bit this afternoon but they are gone again now either from smoke or mist from the rain.

Time now to clean up the kitchen and do a load of dishes. Pat is making one last trip to the Hall tonight and I already know I forgot to send the bags of ice with him. I’ll add it to my list for tomorrow.