Friday, February 12, 2021

Today is the Lunar New Year. I always remember Gung Hey Fat Choy from Elizabeth when she is in elementary school and they were celebrating. At one point we even made fortune cookies. Sunday is Valentine’s Day and then Monday is Family Day so the Covid-19 briefing today was full of warnings about what not do. In the past there have been increases with every holiday and to have three special days so close together has most people a bit worried.

It was a noisy day in the neighbourhood. I heard a chain saw and first thought it was coming from the house behind us. But I got up to change positions at one point and realized it was coming from the Duncan side of the house. When I looked out the window there was some major trimming being done on the big evergreen tree on the grounds of City Hall. They continued to cut down limbs and chop the branches while we had lunch and we thought they were probably going to take the whole tree down. Shortly after we had our lunch all was quiet and I thought perhaps they were on a lunch break but they have moved all their equipment away and left some sizeable logs on the ground. If they take the tree down I will certainly miss it but right now it just looks a bit sad.

My quilting didn’t go as planned today but I’m happy to say an alternate plan worked and I’m ready to start on the border tomorrow – I’m too tired to go any further today. I managed only a few stitches with my quilting rulers before I broke a needle (going over a seam); I switched to some free-motion and made even fewer stitches before breaking another needle. So I switched to some straight lines and things went well from that point on.

I’m hoping I have enough energy to pick up my knitting tonight. The last couple of nights I have been too tired to even knit – I think it was all the tension I felt about the quilting.

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Vacation Time is the name of this pattern and by the time it is finished I will definitely want a vacation. It was a Guild Mystery Block of the Month from several years ago. Had I known what the pattern was called I would have picked different colours – more seashore-like.

I’m going to end my day as I started it – tying knots and burying ends in the quilt. Yesterday I did the straight line quilting on the orange sections and today I’ve done the straight line quilting on the blue sections. You can hardly see the quilting and I guess that is the way I like it but after two days it feels like I should see something.

I’m dreading tomorrow as I’m going to try some ruler work and then some free motion quilting. I still need to pick out a design for my borders but I know it will be something with a straight line.

We chatted with Kathryn today and she was saying how cold it is when she goes home at night. Her remote starter only heats up the engine and it doesn’t take her long enough to drive home to get much heat in the car. Both Pat and I ran our vehicles today – not because it is cold but we were afraid the batteries would be drained since we haven’t been out for so long. I made a short trip this afternoon to the Post Office and the library.

Now, back to that quilt.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

I’m quilting today and will be for the next several days.

And in case you can’t see out the window … yes, that’s snow!

Monday, February 8, 2021

I’m struggling (just a little) to get off my regular schedule and into non-schedule where I finish a project before moving on to something else.

Today, when I was trying to finish a small project, I wanted very badly to set it aside and do something else. I was using my quilting machine and trying to use my rulers. I know the rulers don’t work well with a lot of seams but I was using the ruler that was a straight-edge so I thought it might be possible. But it wasn’t and I had to rip it all out.

Then I noticed that my machine was skipping stitches. I thought I could live with the skips but when I started a second round of quilting and the measurements for lines weren’t working out well I ripped everything out again. I rethreaded the machine and that seemed to help with the problem.

When I quit for lunch I thought maybe I’d have better luck after a break. But that little voice in my head said right back to me, “It isn’t luck, it’s skill”. Regardless of whether or not it was luck or skill, I managed to get the quilting done.

The positive of this new non-schedule is that I quite enjoyed sitting in the sunshine this afternoon and stitching down the binding.

Now I’ll move on to prepping for tomorrow’s project. Stacia, Deloise and I will be working on a common project and I don’t even have my fabrics picked yet.