Tuesday, January 7, 2020

It was odd to think that this was the first bee of the new year; I guess because we were all together last week for the business meeting it didn’t seem like very long since I’d seen everyone.

I took along a couple of things to work on; the first was the Block of the Month. I cut everything out at home but obviously I didn’t read the instructions properly. I ended up with more pieces of one colour than I needed and one short on another colour. I pieced together as much of the block as I could but I also neglected to take along thread to do the appliqué work on the block. I guess I know what I’ll work on next week.

My UFO number for January is 2; for me that is my Disappearing 9-Patch. I took a class a couple of years ago on a newer (and supposedly faster) way to make a 9-patch. Once I finished all the blocks I wasn’t sure what to do with it but at the same time one of the bloggers I follow was doing a Disappearing 9-Patch Quilt-Along. I joined up (even though all my blocks were done) and only took part in the various ways the block could be cut up and re-arranged.

I decided that I wanted to try the Quilt-As-You-Go technique so that is where I’m at now. I sandwiched four of the blocks and I’ve got two of them quilted. I won’t be putting sashing between the blocks on this project; I have another Quilt-As-You-Go planned that will have sashing between.

All of my quilting design books are on Texada so I looked at a few from the Guild library and decided to do straight line quilting on these first two blocks. I think I have four different layouts for the blocks so once I decide on what to do for each layout the rest of the blocks for the quilt shouldn’t be too difficult.

That will get me ready for learning how to actually sew the blocks together once they are quilted.

Monday, January 6, 2020

We had an electrician booked for some work at the house at 8:15 this morning so there was no sleeping in. We had a few things that needed to be done and he took care of them all within less than two hours.

The light above the kitchen sink has been out for ages but we were able to use the stove light or the overhead light for when we needed to really see what we were doing. A few mornings ago the stove light quit working. Pat took the bulb out of the stove so we could get a new one. Then he tried to get the tube out of the light above the kitchen sink. He had a very hard time getting the fixture off, let alone getting the old fluorescent bulb out. The bulb was an odd shape and we decided we’d replace the entire fixture. When Pat bought a new fixture he also tried to find a replacement bulb for the stove but there wasn’t anything to be found locally. When he put the old bulb back into place it magically started working and it continues to do so.

We purchased a motion-sensor light from Costco a few trips ago. It needed to be wired in and we’d never found anyone to do it for us. So I called an actual electrical solutions company on Friday and arranged for this morning’s visit. In the meantime Pat had a switch downstairs that wasn’t working right so we added that to the list.

One of the plugs for my built-in vacuum hasn’t worked for months, if not years. We had the electrician look at it this morning, Pat went out and got the parts we needed and now that too is working.

The light above the sink is very bright and may be blinding when we first turn it on in the morning. The motion sensor light hasn’t been tested yet as it won’t actually kick in until dusk. I’ve no idea if the light switch downstairs has been fixed and I haven’t done any vacuuming to test the plug replacement. But I’m quite confident everything is good.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Late last evening a message came through from a Guild member that she was selling her sister’s sewing machine. It was a Janome and, although I don’t need another machine, all my machines are Janome’s and I love them. So I checked into the machine; the model was discontinued but it had been replaced by the model that is my Ruby machine. I thought it was too late to call so I sent an e-mail saying I’d like to have it and that I’d call this morning.

I thought I should wait until ten this morning to call. The seller is elderly and recently had hip surgery so I didn’t want to be a bother. About 9:30 Gaye called to say that she had already sold the machine. I was fine with that and when I told her I hadn’t called last night because I thought it was too late and that I didn’t want to call too early she said I apparently was the only one who was that considerate.

I’ve spent all day working on the Princess – as it is Kathryn’s birthday it seems appropriate.

Friday, January 3, 2020

I’m still not quite used to using 2020; in fact I did a card today and wrote 2019 on it and had to make a correction.

The day seems to have flown by – perhaps it is the roaring wind outside that has swept the time away. The Texada ferry made its runs until noon but then gave up and they have cancelled all of the Comox ferries. I’ve heard the plane coming in but I certainly wouldn’t want to be on board.

There was some Guild work to do following the meeting last night and that took up most of the morning. With what was left of it I finished off a card. After lunch I wrapped two parcels for the mail and that has been about it for the day, except for a few loads of laundry.

With what is left of the afternoon I’ll continue with some sewing. I have a couple of placemats from Christmases Past that need to have a bias binding added. I’ll be back to my knitting tonight – another shawl.