Sunday, January 7, 2024

Before Christmas I was looking through the recipe drawer for my Tourtiere recipe – what a mess that drawer was. So I pulled out all the printed sheets and decided it was time to organize them into a binder. Many of the sheets were from Mum’s recipe book and several were print-outs from the internet or recipes I’ve had sent electronically from someone. I’ve been spending a bit of time every week getting the mess sorted out. While I’m at it I should be picking out a recipe or two to try because there are a lot of untested ones in the bunch.

I hadn’t updated my quilting binder for a long time. I printed some of the pages but they hadn’t been inserted into the book. I got my printing done at Staples so I always let the number of pages accumulate before I printed them. Thanks to Elizabeth I have my own colour printer now so it should be easier to keep up with them – particularly at the speed of which I manage a finish. I even found a few things that I hadn’t realized I didn’t have in the binder. I’m all caught up now, except for the projects that are still UFOs.

I’m continuing with my quilting today. I think I’ll be able to get the blocks quilted before supper but I’ll likely only make a start on the sashing and binding. Last night I added two more rounds on my tablecloth but I think I’ll still do another one. I might have been able to quit where I was but I found squares that I had made and tucked away in the bottom of the basket that I use beside my chair. I hate to waste them.

So not really resolutions, and nothing really done!

Saturday, January 6, 2024

I decided I would devote most of the weekend to quilting. I started quilting this Community Quilt before we went to Texada. I left everything set up on my machine so I wouldn’t move on to anything else before it was done. I didn’t put the top together but I brought it home to quilt because I could see an easy quilting pattern to use on it. I’m about half-way done, although there are still some ends to bury and threads to trim off. I pulled out some binding from my stash but I’ll check in the Community Quilt bins first to see if they have something I could use and that might match one of the fabrics in the blocks.

I was hoping I might be done with my tablecloth but when I did the measurement last night I still have a couple more rows of squares to add. I’m still not sure how I’ll add in the squares that I have left from the original tablecloth that Mum started but I won’t worry about that until I have the base done.

I can’t stop thinking about the Stash Buster Challenge I’m doing this year. The photos show the blocks done in a variety of colours; I wanted to use my green scraps but thought it might look odd in one colour. This morning someone posted a few blocks done in green in the Facebook group and I really liked it. So that’s how I’ll be doing mine. I haven’t done any work on it yet other than pull a few green and neutral fabrics. I think this is what I’ll work on during our at-home retreat weekend at the end of the month.

Canucks are playing tonight and it is an early game. I’ll be able to stop quilting before I tire of the whole thing and I just might get another row done for the tablecloth.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Look what happened while we were away!

The bulbs are up in two more of the containers, not counting the new garlic planting.

January 1, 2024

I made no resolutions last year and it turned out okay, and there was nothing to feel guilty about at the end of the year. I spent some time in the last days of 2023 to inventory most, not all, of the projects that I really would like to get done. Some have been started and I’d like to get them finished but some are just wishful thinking.

I’ll take part again in the monthly UFO quilting challenge. My chart last year showed three sections – piecing, quilting, and scrappy. As I look at the list from last year there were only 12 items that either disappeared from the list entirely (because they were finished) or moved forward to another list. I think this year I will stick to only one list but hope that each month I can accomplish a little more than the one item.

I have plenty of items to choose from but these are the ones that will go on my UFO chart. I look forward every month to see what my project will be.