Tuesday, April 7, 2020

I was like a kid waiting for Christmas this morning – or to be seasonal like a kid waiting for the Easter Bunny. Clue 2 for our Guild’s Mystery Quilt was due today. I thought it would come by e-mail by nine because that is the usual time for our classes to start. That didn’t happen so I thought it would be there by ten. I was disappointed again.

So I got busy doing my daily block and by the time that was finished the clue had arrived. I’ve been working on it all afternoon and I’m still not finished; there is no way I could have completed this mystery in two days had it gone ahead as planned.

I took the car out for another drive today; again, the battery seemed low. I didn’t stop anywhere except the mail box to drop off some letters and I had my disinfecting wipes with me. There were very few vehicles parked along Marine but I was caught in ferry traffic coming from the peninsula. I was surprised at how many vehicles were in the parking lot at the grocery store, the strip mall (with Canadian Tire and the Dollar Store) and at the mall. I guess not everyone is staying at home. The few people I saw on the street weren’t wearing masks although a lot of my sewing friends have started to make them.

Now, back to my mystery.

Monday, April 6, 2020

I actually took care of some business this morning. For several mornings I’ve brought a cup of coffee upstairs planning to start pulling the paperwork for our income taxes. For several mornings I’ve got dragged (very willingly) into the internet rabbit hole. But today I was determined to get started. I have a lot of scanning to do but if I do a little every day I can get it to the accountant before the middle of the month.

My block for today has a few bugs in it. Yes, there are mistakes but I couldn’t resist throwing in a bit of bug-related fabric. Sadly the Covid-19 bug isn’t nearly as cute as these ones!

I’ve started quilting another donation quilt. It is one I made but from fabric the Guild gave me on our recent Community Quilt weekend. I ran into a bit of a problem first thing but I was able to determine that it was an operator error. The quilt wasn’t feeding properly; I rethreaded, I lowered and raised the feed dogs and finally I went online for some help. The first suggestion I read that made any sense was to unscrew the bobbin plate as perhaps it wasn’t set properly; I had removed it when I cleaned the machine so I assumed that was likely what was wrong.

I only got one screw removed when I realized I had the walking foot attached but I hadn’t lowered (and put in motion) the walking foot lever. Things went smoothly after that.

I’m not sure how I did it but after lunch a piece of my tooth broke off. I didn’t eat anything hard or crunchy (cottage cheese and a tomato) so I think perhaps over time the edge of the tooth has worn thin. That’s what I think happened but I expect it will be awhile before I have it confirmed (or rejected) by a dentist.

Sunday, April 5, 2020

I seem to be having a rather unproductive day. But that’s okay because we aren’t supposed to be putting pressure on ourselves to feel productive.

Laundry, a dishwasher load, my block and finishing my book while sitting in the sun – all in my day’s work.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

I changed my routine around a bit today. I was all set up for quilting so I finished the quilting on my community quilt rather than start with my Covid-19 block first thing. It took until after lunch but the binding is attached and ready to hand stitch tonight (and maybe tomorrow). The quilt is flannel so I gave my machine a good cleaning, oiled it up and I’ll be ready to go with the next quilt (on Monday).

The block today was quite simple so it didn’t take me long to get it done. I think my smaller machine should also have a cleaning as it has been getting a lot more use than normal; it is my Tuesday machine but I’ve been using everyday for three weeks. I’ll get to that when I finish here.

I’ve been a bit uninspired with my knitting project; I like the yarn and it is a nice pattern but I can see it is going to take ages and ages to finish. All that for a donation shawl that will go to someone I don’t even know. But it dawned on me today that I have someone I can gift it to when I finish so that will help to hurry me along.

I think I’m getting a bit cranky (some would say I needn’t think about it); I had to have a rant on Facebook this morning and I just responded to someone’s post when I would normally just scroll on through. As I said to a quilting friend (through Facebook) that I thought maybe I should start “online distancing” myself.