Sunday, December 17, 2023

A couple of days ago I was noticing how dark it was in the sewing room and how much I was looking forward to longer days. When I had to move a light over to my sewing table so that I could see better I thought to look up and noticed that three of the four lightbulbs in the room were burnt out. And there were also two bulbs in the hallway that needed to be replaced. Now, when I turn on the light to come upstairs it is so bright.

I haven’t been accomplishing much these last few days so nothing to report and no posts. Our Guild party was lovely and I came home with one of the raffle baskets – full of wine and chocolate. I don’t do alcohol anymore but Pat still does – he can enjoy the wine and I’ll enjoy the chocolate! The M&M Casserole was a hit and there was lots leftover – I should have made a smaller batch.

We’ve spent a lot of time this weekend watching hockey and curling. With morning and afternoon games in both sports nothing much is getting done. I’m managing a fair bit of crocheting as we watch so that is good.

I’m still planning to do some Christmas baking and I’ve received three new recipes in the past few days that I want to try – Citrus Panna Cotta, Squamish Bars, and Ted Lasso Biscuits. In the meantime Elizabeth sent two batches of cookies – Peanut Butter and Ginger Snaps – plus in one of our 12-Days packages we got a scone mix. I have to go out tomorrow so I’ll gather all the ingredients and get to work.

For now though curling and hockey are calling.

Wednesday, December, 2023

I spent the morning in my sewing room. What a treat to work in a clean space. I’ve left Christmas behind in that room and moved on to January birthdays. I have one card done and ready for hand stitching while I have coffee with Gail tomorrow. It will be a shorter than usual visit as the Guild’s Christmas party is tomorrow night.

On the middle level it is starting to look a lot more like Christmas. We put up the tree this morning and I pulled out a number of boxes full of decorations. Since I took the photo I’ve added some stitching projects from years past. One of the boxes said the Christmas mouse was inside but when I opened it there was no mouse. Sorry Kathryn. There are still more boxes to go through so I haven’t given up.

I had to go back to the library today. Of course after dropping a book off yesterday a new one came in today. It is quite a small book so I should have no trouble getting it finished in time. There are two more books on hold so there will be no shortage of reading material over the holidays.

With what is left of the afternoon I’ll do a bit of work on my chicken block.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

I made it to the Guild’s sewing day today. I didn’t take a machine as I had some reverse stitching to do on a quilt top and for the three seams that needed to be re-sewn it didn’t seem worth it. I didn’t have anything else on the go (well nothing easy to transport) so I took along some hand stitching.

I usually am done by the time lunch is over but I stayed a bit longer today. I was close to having another Manx block finished and I wanted it done before I quit. On the way home I dropped off a book at the library and stopped in at the flower shop next door. I was looking for a “little something” for a birthday that is coming up; the store is closing and I also wanted to tell the owner how much I enjoyed the flowers that I have received over the years that came from her shop.

It’s a busy TV night for us. The Canucks are playing; Alex and Will are in Edmonton for the Connor vs. Connor game. We get both games on SportsNet so we’ll be watching to see if the boys make it to the big screen. Taylor is playing in her first band concert tonight and the show will be live streamed so we’ll be watching that as well. It’s a good thing we have phones, iPads and the television so we can see it all.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

It was a tough job but one that needed to be done. With all my packages ready for the mail, and most of them already send and/or delivered, it was time to start the cleanup in my sewing area.

My cutting table was littered with bits of fabric (not only Christmas ones), bits of wrapping paper, bits of ribbon – you get the idea. Pretty much anything I had used while finishing my projects and wrapping them had some remnant left on the cutting table.

My sewing table was in the same condition. Threads of all colours, sewing machine feet, bobbins of different colours with varying amounts of thread on them. There were pins and clips and even some of the ribbons made their way across to the surface.

My quilting machine was bogged down in projects that I want to do right away. I turned over a quilt top to Community Quilts but when I was looking at a photo I realized I had a block turned the wrong way. I dug it out of the Community Quilt cupboard at the last Guild meeting and I hope to have it fixed and back in the bin by the next meeting. I still have my Jelly Roll Race top to add borders to and, for some mad reason, I brought home a sandwich from the last Community Quilt weekend to quilt. I have another donation quilt that I’ve decided needs some borders before donating, and I don’t want to forget the placemats that need to be quilted – a Guild challenge from 2022.

I managed to get everything tidy enough that I was able to do the vacuuming this morning. The hallway and the room across the hall will have to wait another day for their turn.

I saved the toughest job of all for this afternoon. I have a library book that is due back on Tuesday so I need to sit down and finish it. I tried that yesterday afternoon but after reading just a chapter I had a little nap!