Thursday, December 16, 2021

I headed off to my Thursday sewing a little early but only by about 15 minutes. I arrived before Jessie; I knew she wasn’t there yet because her car wasn’t in the lot. When I let myself into the sewing studio all was quiet and dark, but that isn’t unusual because Gail sleeps late and I thought either she wasn’t up yet or she was still getting ready.

I set up my machine and started sewing. I was making 4-patches as the last clue in the Guild mystery. When I was about half done my patches I looked at the time and it was quarter past one which meant Jessie was late or not coming. There was still no sign of Gail. I began to wonder if I had the day wrong or if I had missed a memo.

I decided I’d finish my 4-patches and if no one emerged I would pack up and go home. I was in the process of packing up when Gail wandered into the studio. Apparently there was something odd about her clock in the bedroom – either it hadn’t been set back and she was mentally adjusting the time or it had been set back and she didn’t think it had been. Whatever the reason she thought she was getting up at 12:30 rather than 1:30.

When she checked her phone messages there was one from Jessie; she had her booster shot yesterday and, in her words, it knocked the socks off her. Gail and I spent a pleasant afternoon all the same. I finished hand stitching the binding on the Community Quilt and Gail did what she always does – kept me up to date on what she’s finding on Facebook.

Because it was our last sewing day until the New Year I made some Butter Tart Squares (thanks for the recipe Stacia) to take and have with our coffee. I have no doubt that this will be all the Christmas baking I do.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Now that all my Christmas prep is done I was delighted to get back to my regular schedule – a cross stitch Wednesday. I was behind three clues on my Peppermint Purple project and I got them done before stopping for lunch.

After lunch I made the repairs on that Community Quilt and got the binding attached. I’ve been working on my Guild mystery at my Thursday sessions but I only have a few four patches to make and then the quilt can be put together. I didn’t think those four patches would take all afternoon so now I have the hand stitching to do on the quilt if I have time.

And then it was back to my Peppermint Purple project – this time to work on the border. There are only two clues left but I’ll be away when they are released. The border is more complicated than I should have made it – not enough experience with the technique so I picked the border I liked best without realizing how much work it was going to be.

Next year’s stitch along will be released on December 27th and I’m definitely in for another year.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

I didn’t have much hand stitching to do today after all. I came upstairs at the end of the night to get the binding attached to that quilt but found that it needed more work before I could bind it because the backing was a bit short on the side I started to stitch on. Maybe the quilt tops I do aren’t as bad as I think they might be. I guess it is aways harder to work on someone else’s project and know that they haven’t done them they way I would have done them.

I had barely started my stitching before it was time to go to my appointment. After that I had one more stop to make at the Post Office and then a stop at the pharmacy to fill a prescription. On my way back from sewing I stopped for gas so it was almost lunch before I got back to work.

Since I had finished my stitching, after lunch I took some photos for the blog, packed up and headed home. I had to pick up my prescription around 1:30 so I quickly got the last of my cards addressed, stamped and ready for today’s mail. I bragged to Pat that this time I wouldn’t need to stand in line I just had to drop them in the outside bin. Of course when I got to the Post Office there was no one in sight so I didn’t feel like I had a win!

I’m back to doing some clean up in my sewing room – putting away Christmas bags, tags and paper and putting away some Christmas fabric. It won’t take long but I’d like to get it done so I can have a fresh start tomorrow morning.

Monday, December 13, 2021

I wanted to sort out some hand sewing for tomorrow’s bee as I have an appointment in the middle of the morning and I didn’t want to take my machine and all the gear if I wasn’t going to have a full day of sewing.

I finished off the last birthday card I needed for January (except for the hand sewing) and then started the binding on a Community Quilt. I didn’t make or quilt the project but Gail handed it to me at one of our Thursday sewing sessions and I thought I should get it done and pass it along. The binding is cut and pressed and hopefully I’ll be able to get it attached either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning.

I had a busy afternoon. I had a couple of things for the post office and expected a line-up. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been my last trip but I did wait a bit. My next appointment wasn’t until two so I had some time to kill. I went looking at a particular shop for a birthday present only to find that it was closed. From there I dropped a deposit at the bank and headed to another shop that has some locally-sourced gift ideas. One more stop and one more small gift picked up and I’m pretty sure I am finished everything I need for Christmas and beyond.

When I finished my two o’clock meeting I headed home to get one last package ready for the mail. I received a notice this morning that my library book was due back today and I had another meet-up scheduled for the library just before 4:30. Once the package was wrapped and ready to go I sat down to try and get my book finished. I was still reading when it was time to leave for my appointment.

Once I had picked up what I needed from my meet-up I headed back to the post office to get the parcel mailed. Then I drove back to the library and sat in the car and finished my book. I thought I could sit in the library to finish it but they close earlier than I expected so I parked near some store lighting and managed to see well enough to finish.

I haven’t done this much running around in one day for a long time.