Friday, December 31, 2021

I’m almost running out of time for my year-end review. I may not stay up until midnight but I still have a lot of year-end things to do in my sewing space before I’m ready for the New Year – and tidying up isn’t one of them!

Looking back I didn’t have a lot of goals for the year so it was easy to surpass them – I must keep that in mind for tomorrow’s post.

I accepted the Goodreads Challenge and said I’d read 50 books but I managed to squeeze in 53. My new iPad (thank you, thank you, thank you) allows me to download books from the library and over the holidays I read one and returned it with a click of a button. I’m about half-done the second one – no more going out in the rain to return and pick up books.

A quick count tells me I did at least 60 cards throughout the year. I knit or crocheted four afghans as well as several hats and scarves. I finished ten quilts but for many of them the top was already pieced. I didn’t count how many additional quilt tops I worked on or started. I managed 16 miniatures as well as 26 miscellaneous small quilting projects (microwave bowls, tissue holders, mixer covers, etc.).

I finished one large cross stitch this year that was a UFO from many, many years ago, as well as my Hallowe’en stitch along. I finished 24 small cross-stitched quilt blocks before passing the patterns on to Stacia, and I finished a pillow top over the holidays. My Peppermint Purple Stitch-Along has just two blocks to fill in as well as a lot of border but I’ll continue to work on it on my hand stitching days. My Neglected Floss stitch along petered out after two months – not me, the designer – so I’m going to have to find something to fill in the remaining monthly gaps.

I’m looking forward to what the New Year will bring – all good I hope.

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

I just put the lock on my suitcase and I’m ready to go – vaccine passports packed, some stitching, my Kindle, my phone, a few clothes – I just need to log on and do our check-in and seat selection.

Without anything specific to do today I sort of floated around doing a bit of stuff but not really accomplishing much. I cleared off the fabric scraps on my cutting board and got the specific sizes of scraps (1.5″, 2″, 2.5″, etc.) into separate bins. That will make it a lot easier for when I need to pull fabric for some of my scrappy projects. I got a start on my 2022 UFO Challenge list and I have six scrappy quilts to work on throughout the year.

I made two trips to the pharmacy. I had about a one-minute call with the doctor this morning (about 9:15) to get some prescriptions renewed. He assured me he would fax the prescription to the pharmacy right away. It was after lunch before I went to pick them up and they said that they had only just received the fax. My guess is the doctor sent it to the front office right away but his staff didn’t deal with it as quickly. I managed to get some KN95 masks while I was there – Pat has heard that those are what we should be wearing- so we are set with plenty of masks for our trip – homemade 3-layer, medical masks and these new ones. After the news conference regarding Covid was over I got the prescriptions I needed.

We have new restrictions in place again today but nothing that affects our trip and really not much that will affect us when we get home. I plan to isolate for two weeks when we get home – is it wrong to say I’m actually looking forward to that?

While I wait to do our online check-in I’ll try to settle with some stitching – but I’m not ruling out a Solitaire marathon.

I won’t be sending out my posts over the holidays but you can always check the website as I’ve done some pre-publishing.

Monday, December 20, 2021

Last night Christy asked about the Christmas mouse and I had to admit that I hadn’t unpacked it. She suggested the mouse was probably in the box wondering why it hadn’t seen the light of day.

I looked for the mouse today in the Christmas boxes I have in the bedroom closet. He wasn’t there so I thought he’d just have to skip a year. Then I went searching for our Christmas stockings so they could be packed but they weren’t handy either.

So I went out to the shop. When I opened the trunk the Christmas mouse was sitting right on top, as if waiting to be pulled out. The stockings were easy to find too so that was nice.

Christy was definitely right about the mouse – he started to sing before I even got out of the shop.

Congratulations to Dylan on getting his Learner’s License! He assured me this summer that he would pass without any problem – and he did!

Sunday, December 19, 2021

I figured out a way to make use of those tiny cards I mentioned yesterday. It took some trial and error but I now have a dozen cards ready for next year. I even cut up some of my Christmas scraps into sizes that I can use for a scrappy quilt – maybe next year.

The last Song Circle was this afternoon. Pat will continue on but I won’t be involved as the Hall isn’t renewing our Zoom license. We are under new Covid restrictions so it is possible we may reconsider but for now I’m glad it is over. I don’t know why I complain as I spent an enjoyable couple of hours working on the border of my Peppermint Purple project.

I had a lovely conversation with Vicki this afternoon. I’ll see her when we are in Calgary. We spent an hour on the phone and when we were actually arranging a date to meet we both laughed at the suggestion we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.

I don’t plan to do any more sewing until we come back from our trip – I’m done.