Monday, March 30, 2020

I finally got at some actual quilting today; up to now it has just been piecing. I decided I should start slow and small so I’ve done one miniature and I have another one under the needle. Neither are complicated quilting as the patterns seemed busy enough that additional patterns with quilting wouldn’t have shown. I have several more projects ready to quilt and for those I hope to be more daring.

Today’s block went together well. I think I’m learning a lot as the days go by and I piece many different patterns. I’m following the cutting directions given (even if I think I could use a different technique if I were able to do the math), I’m trimming after every seam and taking care to match my points. Nothing perfect yet, but I think I’m doing better.

Today’s block will finish at nine inches.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

I realized this morning that I hadn’t had my car started in almost two weeks. I was afraid the battery would be dead but I managed to get it started; another day or two and I probably wouldn’t have. It was a lovely, sunny day so I went for a short drive. I took the back road out to Highway 101 and then 101 back through Westview, through Townsite and on to Cranberry. After a very short stop at the Hall to check mail I took a longer than usual route home and drove past the house where Margaret lived. I’m hardly ever back that way and I knew there was a new sub-division going in. The road through it isn’t open yet but it looks like it is fully paved.

When I got home I worked on my block of the day. These blocks are always more complicated than they look but I think I’m getting better at them; still some reverse stitching in them though. Because it was such a bright day out I picked some bright colours for my block. I’m assuming there really are 20 triangles in this block but I didn’t count them – I’ll leave that for you.

After the block was done I cleaned up and sorted through some of my leaders and enders; I have bags with half-square triangles in various sizes, as well as a number of different sized pinwheels. At some point I may decide on what I’m going to do with them; I saw a pinwheel design online that looked good but it takes a lot of pinwheels.

I’ve spent the afternoon cross stitching. I’ll go back to it until Pat calls me for supper.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

I had better luck today with my block. In fact, I was finished it by 9:30 – I was up early and after the disaster yesterday I felt I should get an early start. This one finishes at 9″; I used the red fabric because I think it looks a bit like a maple leaf and because Canadians are doing a pretty good job of controlling the spread of the virus.

After my block of the day was done I completed two blocks that will end up in a donation quilt. I had one block finished but I wanted to get the last two done today and out of the way; the fabric for the rest of the blocks is at Gail’s so I won’t be able to access it for awhile. The blocks finish at 16″ so they take some time to make but the good news is that I won’t need many of them.

I wasn’t able to finish my book last night so I’ll take another crack at it now. My two knitting projects are progressing nicely and I’m enjoying switching between the two; neither is particularly complicated either so I’m able to keep up with whatever we are watching on Netflix or Prime.

Friday, March 27, 2020

I dreaded doing today’s block and with good reason. The math I did yesterday was apparently wrong, but it took me until noon to see that it wasn’t going to work. Being as stingy as I am with fabric I didn’t want to waste everything I’d done so I adjusted the pattern to more or less fit the math. The name of this block bears no resemblance to how it ended up.

I’m not sure why I didn’t want to recut the fabric – the patterned fabric is one that made the rounds at the Guild as pretty much the ugliest fabric available; in fact, we had a couple of challenges just to use it up (and I still have some left).

Now that the block is done I’m quitting. I have a good chance of finishing my book today. And I know I’m not supposed to be stressing about my productivity.