Sunday, September 22, 2019

Thursday was a busy day. After sewing in the afternoon I had to get a dish ready for the pot luck and headed out the door for the unveiling of the classes and demos the Guild are planning for the year. It truly is my favourite meeting of the year. There are a number of classes I want to take and I’ll take part in some of the demos.

Since Friday was my birthday I did whatever came into my mind as something I wanted to do. I cut binding for two quilts, I picked and cut fabric for four blocks for my Thursday project and I picked and cut fabric for the Guild’s block of the month (due at the October meeting). Since I had a lot of fabric strewn about I wrapped most of it around cardboard and that took care of a lot of my tidying – both scattered around the room and in my fabric drawers. For the rest of the afternoon I did some cross stitching.

Pat was in meetings most of the day Friday but he was home in time for us to go out for dinner. We try to go to the Laughing Oyster a time or two during the summer but we hadn’t made it out yet this year; in fact I think the last time we were there was Father’s Day last year. It was their usual buffet and I mean usual; even though we hadn’t been there for so long both Pat and I felt like the options on the buffet table hadn’t changed in all the time we’ve been going. That being said, we were both stuffed at the end of the meal so it’s a good thing we didn’t have a birthday cake.

Pat headed over to Texada Saturday morning and I worked on my computer for the first hour or so. At about ten I realized I hadn’t had any coffee so I headed downstairs with my knitting (and coffee) and binge watched TV for most of the day. There were some errands to run and a few other things that needed doing but it felt like a very lazy day.

So today I had to make up some time. I did another step in the Farmer’s Daughter block I’m making for Deloise and I stitched the binding onto those two quilts. Both quilts needed labels so that got done too. I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon (and probably the next few evenings) hand stitching the binding down.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

I spent all day at my computer and, with a few exceptions that are out of my control, I think I’ve caught up. There are only three items on my “To-Do” list so I think I’ve earned the rest of the day off.

And what will I do with the afternoon? I have a couple of quilts on my cutting table that need to have binding prepared. I hope to get at that this afternoon but since my sewing machine is still in the trunk of my car (I leave it there on Tuesdays) I’ll package them up for another sewing session.

Pat mentioned to me that Canada Post have their “free postage Tuesdays” starting in October so I should start packing up what I need to take with me to Saskatoon. Fabric and patterns for sure and maybe even some of my tools could be sent ahead. Do I dare think Christmas?

I’ve picked out my recipe for tomorrow night’s Guild potluck (Greek Salad Dip) but I need a few groceries. I could go out to the store but I enjoy a solid day at home so much I just don’t think I’m up for that.

I picked my next miniature pattern and fabric for it so I could get that cut out. I’ve also started working on Deloise’s I’m A Farmer’s Daughter block – I could do a bit more work on that. I finished a knitting project last night but I have a shawl on the go so I could do a few more rows on it. And, of course, there is always more stitching to do on the Princess.

We’re off to the movie tonight so unless I get busy none of the above will get done!

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Although the ferry was late leaving for Texada on Friday I was over in time for dinner at the Texada Inn. I find it amusing that the Texada Inn replaced the Texada Hotel (which burned to the ground) but there is not a room to rent in the whole building. They have a large restaurant and bar but no rooms.

I headed down to the workshop first thing Saturday morning but I waited until Pat brought a load of wood down before starting a fire. It only took a few minutes (and a few tries on my part) to get some fire going but there was smoke coming from the back of the stove so we put the fire out and we’ll wait until the installer comes back to check on it. Once the weather proofing has been done I’ll rearrange the furniture so my chair can be closer to the fire. I’m not sure where everything on the “sewing side” will go but I’m in no rush to figure it out.

We had a fire in the studio all day Saturday but Pat returned to Powell River on Sunday morning for a show he had booked at the pub. I was in the workshop most of the day and I was warm enough in the studio Sunday night. Monday morning it was very cool in the studio- down to 18 degrees. I thought about turning on the furnace but thought I’d best get used to lighting fires.

I didn’t have too much trouble getting a nice fire going and by the time Pat came back the studio it was warming up. I’m a little surprised the fire worked as I was following the instructions for the stove I have in the work shop. I knew how to lay the fire, but it was the position of the dampers that I was using the book for.

The other thing that makes being on Texada like camping is that we have to check the traps for mice – in both the studio and the workshop. We haven’t had a lot (and we’ve yet to catch one in the studio) but I’m nervous enough that I make a lot of noise before opening the door of the workshop. The fellow doing the weather proofing in the workshop will also work to make it rodent proof.

In the meantime, I’m getting a little tougher!

Friday, September 13, 2019

I attended a Quilting with Rulers class at the Guild today, but the adventure started quite awhile ago.

When the idea of quilting with rulers first surfaced I purchased a set of template rulers along with the ruler foot for Ruby. I used the rulers just a bit on my Celtic Crystals quilt; I wasn’t very good at it and I never put in the time to practice. So I thought a class would help.

But before the class started I had to be sure my ruler foot was right for Pearl. Turns out Ruby uses a High Shank foot and Pearl uses a Low Shank foot. So I ordered the proper foot for my class machine.

When Pat was on Texada and looking for my templates he mentioned that the bag they were in said something about high shank rulers. That got me a bit worried and I got the news today that not only is the sewing machine foot different for the high and low shank machines but the rulers are also different. There was no way I was going to put out more money for another set of rulers for a machine I wasn’t really going to use all that much for quilting.

The entire morning was filled with lectures and demos and then, after lunch, we got down to business. Some of the rulers I can use with Pearl and some I can’t. No matter. My intent is to take one ruler and learn how to use it properly and then move on to another ruler. I did a bit of playing around on a practice square this afternoon and I think I’m getting the hang of it but, like free-motion quilting, it is going to take a lot of practice.

And that is what I intend to do this weekend on Texada. I have a quilt that I’ll use my 12″ Arc ruler; I asked which of the rulers was the easiest to learn and this is the one the instructor picked. The quilt is one I planned to keep for myself so it won’t matter so much how it turns out.