Thursday, July 23, 2020

Five years ago (when this photo was taken) almost all of us were together for a few days in the summer; we were missing Dave and Dylan B. The celebration was in honour of my up-coming 65th birthday. We were hoping to do it again this summer for another milestone birthday.

I planned for the event starting shortly after Christmas. Kathryn was helping me pick out some good skim boards and I had a cupboard full of new-to-me games from a yard sale. We had all three sections of Higgins Inn booked and all that was left was to book the travel and check the tide charts.

We cancelled all our plans several months ago but I’m feeling particularly sad today. Had the pandemic not hit we would have been checking into Higgins Inn today.

There is much to be grateful for though – we are all healthy and even isolation isn’t too much to handle. I have plenty of crafts to keep me busy until we are safe to meet again.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

I’m working on my July UFO project – my Cake Mix Recipe using Farmer’s Daughter fabric (both were a gift from Deloise). I haven’t done anything with it since last October when Stacia, Deloise and I were together.

When I pulled it out this morning I knew what I was doing – I had to stitch the lines on a dozen of the fabric sets and cut those and about a dozen more. Done!

Then I was ready to sew the pieces together. I looked at the pattern and knew I was making Block 2. But when I looked at the notes I had for putting the blocks together I had a Block A and a Block B. I looked at the blocks I already had sewn together but didn’t see any difference in them so I’m not sure where A and B came from.

So I started sewing on the blocks I had just cut. Went well except that I’m using fabric with printing on it and I wanted to have the printing going in one direction. Impossible with the half-square triangles but do-able with the four patches. Do-able as in if you are really careful how you put them together.

So, following that plan I need to take apart about a dozen on the blocks that were already sewn together. I’m going to tackle that now, out on the deck, with a gin and tonic at my side!

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Yesterday we planned to take the early afternoon ferry across to the studio. But before mid-morning all the ferry service between Powell River and Texada was cancelled due to mechanical problems on the boat. I expected to settle in and get a few of my daily blocks done.

I was only a few stitches in when the next news was that the Powell River to Comox ferry would make a stop on Texada. When that route was in regular service they were only taking ten vehicles so we wanted to be sure we were in the lineup early enough to get on if that was how they were handling things. We packed up and headed to the ferry in plenty of time (3 hours early) but we weren’t first in line.

We got to the studio around seven and after we had unpacked and had some supper I set up my sewing machine and finished my daily block just to test my setup. The lighting for taking photos is terrible but you get the idea.

Everything worked well and I made progress today on two sew-alongs that I’m participating in.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

I hoped to get a lot more blocks done today than actually happened. I was out in the yard shortly after eight; the boulevard badly needed mowing and I thought I’d do the grass inside our fence as well. With only a small bit in the centre of the lawn (and I use the term loosely) the batteries on the mower ran out. I thought that while they charged up I’d do a bit of work on the stone wall on the side street.

The grapes had grown into the blackberries and the bindweed had roped them all together. After each bag I filled I checked the batteries but they don’t charge very fast. In fact I finished the wall and they still weren’t done. When I say finish it is a rough finish; I should have taken the rake and tried to pick through the stones and get all the bits and pieces but I just didn’t have the energy. And when I found a snake in among the weeds I didn’t last much longer. I would have liked to have done a round of weeding in the beds but that just didn’t happen. I was barely able to get the remaining patch of lawn cut.

I went out this afternoon and hit a couple of stores I’ve not been to since at least March. I had a book to pick up at the library and when Pat did the grocery shopping this morning he couldn’t find any bread he liked. Since Quality Foods had the bread we like and because it is close to the library I said I’d pick it up. While I was there I got some hamburger buns and some tonic (the gin and tonic go down really well even if the weather isn’t as warm as we’d like). From there I went to the Hall and picked up the mail; I was expecting a couple of things and they had come in. It means a trip to the bank tomorrow but making a deposit is always worth it. My last stop was the liquor store to stock up on some wine and a bit more beer; I bought lots because it was Senior’s Day and I told Pat I didn’t want to go back for a long time.

It wasn’t until I was home that I was able to start sewing on my daily blocks.