Monday, January 10, 2022

We didn’t wake up to rain this morning but it made an appearance not long into the day. Apparently we have another atmospheric river happening between now and Thursday. I’m thankful it isn’t snow but really, enough is enough.

I hoped to get some bags out to the thrift shop today even though I hated to go out in the weather. Cleaning up the laundry room was on my task list and the bags have been sitting in there for a long time. First they were closed until today but when I checked their page (and I’m glad I did) they had a burst water pipe yesterday so were closed until further notice. The bags aren’t in my way but I have another set of bags in the hallway upstairs that I’d like to get out of the house.

I started quilting on my Log Cabin quilt this afternoon. All I’ve accomplished are some stabilizing rows. I’ve printed out photos of the various blocks so I can play around with some quilting that I might be able to handle.

There wasn’t much going on at the watering hole today – at least not while I was watching. Quite a few jackals but they aren’t that interesting after the first dozen.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Pat watches some odd things in the evening after I go to bed. Often they are YouTube videos on the music equipment he has and occasionally he’ll watch various lava flows from volcanoes around the world. But the other night he switched to something completely different – a web cam in the Namib Desert in Africa.

I’ve been watching all day. It is the sort of thing where nothing much happens for long periods of time and then there will be all sorts of activity. So far today I’ve seen lots of gemsbok (a type of antelope) both alone and in pairs, two feral horses, jackals, an ostrich, a porcupine family, and a rabbit. And who knows what came around while I wasn’t looking. There is a chat window you can watch and someone identifies most of the animals that come through. When I stitch I seldom have even music playing but this is going to be on my computer constantly – I love it. I’ll be able to load it up on my iPad too so if I’m at my stitching desk downstairs I won’t miss anything.

As well as watching for wildlife I have accomplished a few things. Today’s declutter task was threads. My spools of thread were in good shape but I re-organized my bobbins, cleared a few things I don’t use into the give-away bag, and sorted through a few little storage trays I have next to my sewing machine.

It took me most of the day but I also got a quilt sandwiched. I thought I’d have to bring my tables inside and pin baste the quilt but the sun was shining so I was able to go out on the deck and spray baste. It was cool but I was in my bare feet the whole time I was setting things up and I was without a sweater the entire time.

I’m going to move downstairs and do a bit of cross stitching and wildlife watching before supper.

Saturday, January 8, 2022

No, I’m not anxiously awaiting anything – well maybe an end to this winter weather. Sorting out my pins and needles was the decluttering task for the day. If you had asked I would have said nothing needed to be changed but as I was “just making sure” I found a few things I could switch up and a few other things that I could part with.

In the half-hour I allotted to the task I also cleared out a drawer full of paper. When I worked at the Red Cross it drove me crazy that all the notepaper was scraps of used paper that someone had cut up and stapled together into a pad. I’ve noticed lately that I’m guilty of that as well so today I cleared it all out. I had unused tickets from Home Routes and Pat Buckna Presents concerts, and I had notepaper that had been sent to me by various charities (still with the Wilson name) so they all went into the recycle bin. The scraps of paper I was saving for making notes on also went into the bin and I have three clean pads of notepaper on my desk shelf.

When I’m printing pattern directions (that I don’t want or need to keep) I will often use the back side of a piece of paper that has already gone through the printer. I think this is a good way to save on purchasing paper so I left that shelf as it is.

Before I started on my decluttering tasks I cut out fabric for another card. I also made my long-awaited trip to the quilt shop to get backing for a quilt that I’ll be working on this month. When I chatted with Stacia and Deloise about our upcoming sewing project they assured me it wasn’t a “work ’til you finish it” deal so I also bought fabric for the additional project I’ll work on during our session.

And finally this afternoon I’ve cut out fabric for a set of placemats using the Guild Challenge fabric. In spite of my decluttering and rearranging I’m running out of space to store these prepped projects.

Friday, January 7, 2022

Last week in my cleaning challenge I cleaned up the laundry room – I put away winter coats that I hope we won’t need again, sorted out the recycling and generally tidied up. I had a cylindrical bag that I made that I stored plastic bags in. I don’t remember the last time I needed to pull a plastic bag from it so all the bags went into the recycle and the bag that held them came upstairs with me.

My back was very sore yesterday from standing and cutting and leaning over to press at my home-made pressing station. I love using my mini iron for small tasks but the table is too low. Today I moved the mini iron over to the ironing board; I can use it for small projects but the larger iron will still be there for pressing larger things. I wish I could have cleared out the pressing station completely but I didn’t have time to measure where else it might fit, but I have an idea.

Today’s decluttering task wasn’t really a task – sit back and enjoy your clear floor and sewing table (she assumed we had kept it clean from the previous task). My floor wasn’t giving me much joy so I tackled it for today’s task. I had a small wicker bin that I kept small zip-loc bags in for using with small projects and an old wooden sewing chest that I used for larger bags. I put all the bags into the cylinder I brought upstairs and the wicker basket is on my cutting table for small scraps. I took the broken legs off the sewing chest and decided that without the legs it was worthwhile sending along to the thrift store.

Once the chest was gone I was able to move my Tuesday and Thursday travelling bags into the space and that cleared up some floor space. I had a pillow of scraps that needed to be completed and sent off the the SPCA. I hate sewing up those pillows and decided today that this will be the last one. I think they can probably make better use of the old pillowcases for use as rags or whatever (which reminds me I need to make a task for sorting out the linen closet). I know it isn’t the most environmentally friendly way to deal with scraps but they will go into the garbage from now on (don’t hate me for it).

I didn’t get started on any sewing until past 1:30 but I have managed to get a card top done except for hand stitching the binding. I’ll go and do that now and I think I’ll have it done before supper.

It was still too nasty out to make the trek up to the mailbox and the quilt shop. The snow is gone but we have high winds (no ferries) which make it cold. The power has been off on Texada for awhile and, without ferries, it may be awhile before it gets back on. Such is life I guess and it all could be so much worse.