Thursday, October 7, 2021

I continued with my cleaning/organizing this morning – the big job was clearing off my cutting table. In the past I have stored scraps according to their width but recently I switched to storing them by colour. Every now and again, when I’m looking for something in particular, one of the bins sorted by width gets dumped on my cutting table. That leaves quite a mess to sort out and get organized into the right bin sorted by colour. That is mostly what I had to do today.

I thought of a couple of other places my mesh bag for the laundry might have been stashed but I came up empty. When I was moving my Christmas fabric bin from the bottom of the stack to the top I had to move a few items that were in front of the dresser I have up here. That prompted me to look in the drawers of the dresser and in the third drawer I pulled open there it was. Now that I’ve found it I think it was a good spot to store it in – I just have to remember where it is the next time I need it.

I have two meetings that will take up the rest of the day. A couple of people from the Hall Board are coming to the house for a quick (I hope) meeting to sort out ticket sales for an upcoming show. I’ve done some research on what we are hoping to do so I think I’m ready.

Tonight I’ll be off to a Guild meeting – our first indoor meeting in over a year. I wrote my short report this morning. I’ll be at the membership table tonight and I may be selling 50-50 tickets as well. I swear, next year I’m not signing up for ANYTHING!

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Not long ago I purchased a new cross stitch pattern and I knew I was going to need to buy fabric for it. I thought it was going to require either linen or a very high count of aida but when I read the pattern it was asking for 14-count aida which is what I use most often. But I decided to challenge myself and go with a higher count. To get the colour I want I’m going to have to make a purchase from one of my online shops.

And while I was thinking of ordering fabric for that project I remembered another pattern I purchased a year or so ago that needed linen. Since I now know that aida cloth can be purchased in a very high count I thought I’d buy some of it for the project.

When I went looking for the pattern it wasn’t where I thought it should be. I looked in another spot that I thought it should be in but, again, no luck. Now I’m a bit concerned as to where I might have put it and at least two other patterns that were purchased around the same time.

In my search for the patterns I was able to almost empty a drawer in a dresser. Most of it was fabric that was purchased when the girls were still around – fabric for sewing clothes for them. They all (well almost all of them) went into a bag for the thrift store as I won’t be branching back into that type of sewing.

On the bright side I found a kit that will do nicely for my Christmas cards this year. It’s never too early to get started and I plan to take them over to Texada on Retreat weekend.

I’m going to attend the Texada Retreat vicariously. My friend Moreen usually stays at the studio with me. We decided yesterday that she would go to the Retreat and I’d stay at the studio and do my own thing. She’ll catch me up an anything I need to know when she comes back to sleep every night. I was a little nervous about distancing with a group of quilters that I seldom see; distancing is okay when you are at your own table sewing but group meals and games might be tricky. And I don’t want anything to get in the way of our planned trip to Calgary. Moreen will wear a mask in the studio and, truth be told, she’ll hardly even be there as she sews early until late.

I went out to get some backing fabrics today – one backing at each of the different shops. I had good chats with friends both places so it took longer than it should have. One of the backings is a flannel; I was going to get it in the laundry right away but I’ve lost the bag I use to put the fabric in so it doesn’t tangle too bad in the laundry. I know it isn’t really lost – I’ve just put it away somewhere and I don’t remember where!

I already planned to clean up my sewing space today but all of the losses really motivated me. I think I might have done more reorganizing than I have cleaning but it is all part of the process I guess. I’ve found my lost patterns, and kitted them up with the right threads. I resorted some of my quilting bins and consolidated a few things and was able to get a few projects out of plastic bags and into bins. I’ve even started a list for my 2022 UFO Challenge.

I still haven’t found the laundry bag but I’m not in a rush and I have at least a couple more days before the room has been completely “gone through”.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

I had an appointment at the hospital early this morning for regular lab work. Since the start of Covid we have been able to book lab appointments online and I really hope once Covid is over (if it ever is) we won’t lose that ability. I got to the hospital about five minutes early but I was obviously the first one with an appointment. There were other folks waiting outside the lab but I hadn’t even had time to remove my sweater before they called me in. A couple of vials of blood later and I was out the door (about the time of my actual appointment).

I spent almost all day on Hall work resulting from the meeting last night. I got the newsletter ready for proof reading by our President, and I updated some events on Facebook and on the website. I had some research to do on a few different things so was online for a good portion of my time.

I hoped to get up to the fabric shop to pick out some backings but it was pouring rain for most of the day. The sun is out now and if it is halfway decent tomorrow I’ll get that done. I checked in with the Guild at lunch but there was only me and the organizer online. I’m not sure where the usual suspects were.

There were a lot of things I could have been doing with the last part of my afternoon but I didn’t feel very energetic. I had some leader and ender bits that I worked on while I did my last quilt so I got them stitched together and trimmed. I could have been cleaning up my sewing space or cutting fabric for our October miniature or even starting to quilt one of the projects that is already sandwiched. I guess all of those things can wait for another day.

Monday, October 4, 2021

I didn’t get everything done today that I wanted to but I manage to get my quilt top finished, a few more days worth of my 12-Days wrapped, and quite a bit of paperwork handled.

I would have liked to have had the quilt top finished a lot earlier in the day but the day was almost done before I got the last border attached. Because I was more or less winging those borders it was slow going. I used some paper calculations, measured my fabrics, and when I didn’t have enough fabric I erased the calculations and started again. When I thought I had it right I cut and sewed the border on one side at a time, and then measured everything again to be sure my paper calculations matched the actual size on the quilt top.

I had hoped to make it up to one of the quilt shops this afternoon to get some backing for a couple of quilts. According to Pat (and the weather forecast) today was the best day for sandwiching on the back deck. When we were chatting at lunch he suggested I could bring the tables inside to do the sandwiching; I might do that but I won’t feel comfortable spray-basting so I’ll have to see if I have enough pins for both quilts.

I also wanted to get a book returned to the library today; I had a notice in my e-mail this morning that one is coming due. I had read the book but had never done my review (Good Neighbors). I finished that up and when I go out for my Hall meeting tonight I can drop it through the slot.

Kathryn messaged me that she received her tablecloth – and that she likes it and it fits perfectly.