Saturday, January 29, 2022

I spent all my sewing time yesterday working on a card – one card – and I didn’t get it finished until this morning. I now have two cards finished and waiting for the binding – I’ll stitch that on this afternoon before supper. I realized the third January card that I had on my list was for someone in the Guild and since I’m not joining them at the moment she will get an e-card this time around. Had I been going to Tuesday quilting I’d have taken both a card and a cake. In December I volunteered to take a cake for the January birthdays but it looks like it will be February before that happens.

I’ve finished all my shredding, at least this batch. No doubt (and I’m hopeful) Pat will clear out a few more boxes. I cleared out a couple more drawers this morning – mostly office-related items. I donated a few things, rearranged some others and cleared off half of a cabinet top. I have ideas now on some more rearranging I can do; I almost look forward to these decluttering tasks.

My cleaning task for the day was to work in the kitchen/living room. I’ve kept at that task every week this month so I gave myself a bit of a break and did some baking. I made Mum’s Wonder Bar recipe. I didn’t have enough icing sugar for the icing but with the sweetness of the cake and the coconut topping I don’t think we’ll miss it. I cleaned up my mess, did the dishes and swept up the floor when I finished so I think that counts.

Now, back to those cards.

Thursday, January 27, 2022

I’m down to just four tasks on my list – I’m not sure that has ever happened before. Three of the tasks are for February cards (one top is already done) and the other is my scrappy challenge for January.

I cleared out more scraps today and spent half an hour working on my fabric cabinet. When my friend Lainey closed her shop I purchased some yardage in a number of fabric lines that I really liked. I’ve never used them but I will someday; for now I just love looking at them. I found if I folded them a bit differently I had more space for yardage in the cabinet. I still have a mess on the floor with things I pulled out and haven’t put back yet but that will be a task for next week.

And speaking of scraps I’m thrilled that my method is working so well. Today I needed a number of 1.5″ squares in neutral colours – just happened to have those sorted in my bin. I also needed some yellow – my yellow scrap bin was sitting right on top of the pile. When I put my scraps away I noticed that my green bin is looking pretty full. It will soon be time to start work on Carol’s Mystery in green; the blue one is almost ready for stitching.

The afternoon was spent making that card top. I’ll get all the tops done before I start quilting them.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

I’m checking in early today.

This morning my decluttering task had me back in my scrap bin. I could spend all day every day working at managing my scraps (Mount Scrapmore as some in the group call it). I had the feeling that I was just moving scraps from one bin to another without a lot of noticeable improvement so I’ve developed a new plan.

I’m going to work on my 1.5″ and 2″ scraps until all the bins that hold them are sorted. I have a new scrap project for my 1.5″ x 3″ scraps so they will be pulled out and sorted separately. My blue 2″ square scraps have been set aside for a mystery quilt I’m making. I’ve also found a pattern for a scrappy 2.5″ x 5″ project so when I come across those I will set them aside as well. I hadn’t realized I had a separate task for dealing with scraps – I’ve been doing that under Thursday’s “Clean up the sewing room” task. An extra day on scraps will not go amiss.

First up for hand stitching was this week’s Peppermint Purple clue. I was of the opinion at the start of this that combining blackwork with cross stitch would be quicker each week but I don’t think that is the case.

I have the binding all done on my January quilt. It wasn’t until I was putting in the last stitches that I realized I hadn’t put a label on it. I’ll do that before it gets sent off – well actually delivered in person as I booked flights for the April birthdays this morning.

For the rest of the afternoon I’ll be working on the border of my 2021 Peppermint Purple project.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it was an easy day; normally I would be out stitching with the Guild on a Tuesday. Even though they have started the Tuesday sessions again I’m holding off for a little longer. I’ve also cancelled my Thursday sessions. I said to Pat the other night that I was tired of people not accepting my decision to stay home. They always have reasons why I should be joining them – we’re all double vaccinated, if you get Covid it will be mild. All that may be true but I don’t want to test the severity of the illness and I certainly don’t want to pass it along unknowingly (or catch it) from someone who has the virus but are showing no symptoms.

I had one task on my declutter list – dealing with my batting scraps. I have several pieces cut that I will stitch together to make larger pieces that can be used for small projects. Anything that is going to be washed often won’t get a “frankenbatting” layer but wall hangings would be fine. I hoped that when I had some of the pieces sorted the lid on my batting scraps bin would close but I guess I didn’t go deep enough. I also did half an hour of some Guild work and I spent some time shredding paper.

I have the quilt trimmed, binding pieced and attached so I’ll get started on the hand stitching. The timing is perfect as tomorrow is a hand-stitching day.