Tuesday, December 7, 2021

I had just a few more hardanger stitches to add to one of my cards and then I thought I’d be home free with just some cross stitching to do. Don’t get me wrong, I can make mistakes in cross stitch but it is less likely and usually easier to fix or fudge. However, the stitching around the hardanger blocks contain some stitches that I haven’t done before and it is slow going. My cards this year may read Happy New Year rather than Merry Christmas.

I didn’t go sewing today so that I could zoom ahead (or so I thought) on my cards. I popped in at the Legion just before lunch to take some photos and see what everyone was working on. It was a small crowd. I took along some options for my paper piecing class and the ones I thought were too small were too small. I have one though that was a unanimous hit so that’s what I’ll be doing. I’ll need to sort out some fabric for it but the class isn’t until the end of January so I have lots of time – in case I need to buy something.

Back to work!

Monday, December 6, 2021

We had snow last night. In any other province in Canada we’d likely say we had a skiff of snow but not here! There was about an inch of snow covering the top of the table on the deck. The plows and sanders were out early and had the road cleared by mid-morning.

Another way to know there wasn’t much snow is that I actually ventured out into it. I had a parcel I wanted to get into the mail, as well as a couple of letters. No problem on the roads but the parking lot at the post office was a mess so I decided once the parcels were mailed that I’d skip the trip to the library. I hate the area around the library at the best of times and I didn’t want to be anywhere near it in case it hadn’t been cleared. My book isn’t due yet so I will wait for a better day.

I spent most of the day working on cards. I ended up with two hardanger patterns that were the same so I started the second one this morning. I managed to get the numbers to work out properly for the stitches on this one; they both need some cross stitching done on them but I wanted to get the hardanger stuff out of the way. I’m sorry for the person who is going to get my first attempt. The cross stitching is relaxing even if it doesn’t go as fast as I think it will.

I’m off to the Hall tonight for a Board meeting so I’d better get my papers together and packed up.

Sunday, December 5, 2021

I got a few cards made this morning and a package wrapped for the mail. I thought I might go out today but since everything I was going to do today could wait for tomorrow I decided to spend the afternoon stitching.

I’m back to one of my hardanger projects and although it is going better than the last one it still is giving me grief. I felt brave enough to try one of the fancy stitches but only had a couple done before I decided it wasn’t going to work and I ripped it out. My counting is off in a few places but I’m going to persevere in the hopes it can be done for the next package I ship out.

It makes me wonder why on earth I would copy a picture from the internet and think I could figure out a new crochet stitch – but I’m going to try just that this evening.

Snow is predicted for overnight but I’m hoping it will be like the last snowfall they predicted – nothing showed up.

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Oh what a mess I had after a Thursday stitching day, a 2-day Guild weekend, a Tuesday stitching day and then 2-days of sewing with Stacia and Deloise. When I started the day there was barely any clean space on any of my surfaces or on the floor.

It took until almost noon to clear up the paperwork on my desk, deal with messages I’d flagged for follow-up and a few tasks on my Reminder list that I had ignored. Needless to say that meant I was in my pyjamas until nearly noon. I thought I might get out to drop a few things at the letterbox and a book at the library but the day has slipped by without it happening.

From my desk I moved to my stitching table. I finished a project on Wednesday but I hadn’t put away any of the threads, the pattern or the needles. It didn’t take as long to clear away as I thought it would. When the mess was cleared I realized that I had enough cards done to get the last of my parcels ready for the mail – I’ll do that tomorrow for mailing on Monday.

Between my ironing board and my cutting table I’m not sure I’ve actually made any progress. My next scrappy quilt will be done in blues and since my blue bin was out I sorted out quite a few pieces that I’ll need for the project. In doing so I emptied several of my drawers of scraps to find any blue bits that would work. I think I have a new method of sorting scraps so I moved ahead with that idea and ended up with five drawers that will store various bits for various projects. There are also several bags of scraps that I sorted out of the drawers but I haven’t quite decided how I will deal with them so they remain on my cutting table.

I’ll be taking a paper-piecing class through the Guild in January and I wanted to find a pattern that I might make. I sorted through all my patterns and was surprised that I had several. Most of them mentioned they were for Intermediate and Beyond talents so I put those back. I have a couple of patterns picked out but they may be too small to be good for learning. I found a pattern that I think would work but I’ll take them all the the Guild to check with the instructor to find out what one she thinks would be best for me to try.

All that took up pretty much of the rest of my working day. There is still work to be done but I’m not going to get into any more rearranging between now and supper.