Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Part 3 of one of my cross stitch-alongs was released today and so far I’m two weeks behind. When Part 2 came out I was ready to stitch but when I went to find the right colour of floss I didn’t have it. At the end of last year I placed an order for floss from a shop on the Island that is just outside of Comox. I called the shop on the weekend and she assured me the package had been sent out on January 2nd. I decided rather than substitute the colour I’d wait until my package arrived. Another week has gone by and still no package in the mail. I probably could have gone ahead with section 3 but today was a card-making day so I didn’t even check the colour I was supposed to be using.

I’ve worked on a couple of cards today and I’ve been pleased that most of the pieces I needed came from previously cut scraps. I’m so happy that the drawers of scraps are coming in handy; perhaps I’ve just reach the point where I have enough to be useful.

The first card went together fairly easily in spite of the fact there were 53 pieces in a six inch square. The second card (one of three) in the project has 36 pieces in a five inch square. I’m pleased that both of them were paper pieced which makes smaller pieces easier to stitch.

We have an online concert this afternoon so I’ll head downstairs in a few minutes.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

The Guild was set up today for a Zoom sewing day. The “usuals” showed up and we had about a dozen who joined. I checked in a couple of times. Since I’m working on the Guild Challenge I wasn’t able to share any of my stitching. A group of women from Texada were sewing together at the Legion. I don’t think they took a break from their weekly sewing (usually Monday night) except maybe over the Christmas break.

My car battery is finally fully charged. I made a quick trip out to the pharmacy this afternoon but that wouldn’t have charged anything up much. I have a bunch of errands to run so I’ll go out later in the week and do that – bottles to return, depot recycling, a pillow for the SPCA and maybe I’ll sneak a few more books into the Kiwanis bin. I’ll need to keep a closer watch on the battery charge so it doesn’t fully drain again.

Pat is online tonight so I’ll get a bit of reading done after the supper dishes are cleared up.

Sunday, January 17, 2021

My car battery has been dead for almost a week. I don’t even remember the last time I drove it anywhere but when I went out last Wednesday to be sure it would run for an appointment on Friday I couldn’t even unlock the doors. I plugged in my trickle charger but after several days I decided that there wasn’t even enough battery power to start the charger.

So this morning Pat and I went out and boosted my car. I let it run for about half an hour and then drove it out to do a few errands. I dropped some books off the Kiwanis Book Sale; I didn’t fill their bin completely but I got rid of a couple of bags from my closet. I dropped a couple of books off at the Library and made a night deposit at the bank.

My last stop was to get some gas; I was getting low and I thought that if I had to run the car in the driveway I didn’t want to be running out of gas. When I got home I plugged in the trickle charger again and will keep that on until the battery is fully charged.

I wondered when I last put gas in the car so I checked my records and it hadn’t been filled since August, and the time before that was May. I guess one silver lining of the pandemic is that the gas prices have come down (129.9/litre) and I’m not having to fill very often.

Saturday, January 16, 2021

I was working on an Alias Grace block today. I knew it was going to be hard because I didn’t have an actual pattern and it wasn’t one I could easily sketch out. But I found a couple of patterns online that were similar and copied them as best I could.

The block was full of curves and I don’t do curves; I have an appliqué work-around that has served me well with my calendar blocks. But that wasn’t going to be an easy work-around with this one so I decided to learn how to do it properly and sew the darned curves.

My first mistake was getting two curves sewn and then realizing that there was going to be a raw edge. I was able to draw a second curved template and use it to press under a hem. It was easier to do on the pieces that hadn’t been sewn together yet and a bit of glue worked wonders.

I had everything put together when we stopped for lunch. It was far from perfect but I decided I could live with it. I even had one set of edges hand-stitched down.

When I showed Pat he immediately noticed where the curves should have met and where they clearly didn’t. He had suggestions on how to fix it. The only way it was going to work was if I took it all apart. From there I could better match the curves but it meant the blocks had to be trimmed down. I kept matching and stitching and trimming until I got a better fit but a smaller block. There is still some trimming to be done.

It’s good to have a critic in the house (some days) as he challenges me do things better.