Friday, January 6, 2017

It seemed like yesterday’s quilting went very quickly so I had big plans for today. I have just now finished the stabilizing straight-line quilting and I have a massive amount of ends to knot and tie in. I tried several different ways to do the straight lines that wouldn’t result in so many ends but anything I tried seemed to end up with the same amount.

I know that straight-line quilting takes much longer than free-motion quilting but, whenever possible, I slip into the straight-line pattern; for this particular quilt though I think the straight lines were the right choice.

I’ll start working on the ends while we watch TV tonight. At least I’ll keep warm!

Tomorrow I’ll be ready to start playing with my free-motion ruler template.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

How is it that I’m the only one who came away from the Cranberry Hall board meeting with a list of things to do? My list isn’t long but I decided not to do it today as I’m likely to get another list of things to do at the Guild meeting tonight. I think my New Year’s Resolution should have been to practice saying “No”, and learning to ignore work that needs to be done.

I had some printing to get done before the Guild meeting tonight so late this morning I headed out with a list of other errands. Most of my stops were short but they were things that had been piling up. Sadly the $4.25 I earned by returning my empty bottles wasn’t enough to pay for my bill at the fabric store. I have a new project that I want to do in batiks and my collection of batiks is quite slim. The Christmas fabric was on at 30% off and no one had to twist my arm much before I was asking for a few meters.

Finally this afternoon I was able to get a start on some quilting. I haven’t got to the fun part yet (with my new ruler templates) but most of the stabilizing is done. I’m very happy with the new layout in my studio; with the lower desk behind my machine the quilt falls nicely onto it as I quilt.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

It’s been awhile since I spent any amount of time on my paperwork. I have a Cranberry Hall board meeting tonight and a Guild meeting tomorrow night so it was time. Once the reports for the meetings were done I caught up on Pat’s accounting and then started my own paperwork.

I planned to “just finish what I was doing” before heading down for lunch when Pat called to tell me it was time. He doesn’t usually call me for lunch and then I remembered that we were supposed to be at the bank at one o’clock. When that appointment (and lunch) were over I returned to the paper. My physical In-Basket is absolutely empty, I’ve gone through and dealt with all my e-mail messages, and I’ve even done a bit of clean up on my on-line files.

I’ve been spending a bit of time scanning photos and adding them to my digital frame. I was at a loss for what to do with the actual photos but since my studio clean-up I had a couple of small empty bins so I’m just throwing them in those; the bins will be separated in the same way as my online scanned photo files. I’ve been looking through some old boxes of photos trying to find some Disneyland pictures – no luck yet but there are still a few bins to look through.

The friends who borrowed my car over the holidays are taking Pat and I out for dinner after our Board meeting tonight. We see Geoff and Brenda often at different functions but it will be nice to just sit and visit with them.