Monday, November 20, 2023

Yesterday I carefully planned what I would take to the Guild sewing tomorrow. But somewhere in the middle of the night I changed that plan. My new plan meant that I would be hand stitching and wouldn’t need my machine, making packing up much easier.

I started the morning by wrapping up a few of my 12-Days packages and then I printed all the envelopes that accompany the gifts. I changed my mind for one of the days and got the new gift ordered; it will be here in plenty of time to send.

I stitched the extra border on the two quilts that I’m donating. Our quilting weekend is coming up on Saturday and I have five quilt tops to donate. The Guild has a really good and efficient method of sandwiching; I may get some of them back to quilt or someone else may take them on. Either way I’m fine.

Next up were two birthday cards that I took to Texada but never touched. They are both quilted and ready to have the binding hand stitched. In case that hand stitching isn’t enough to keep me busy I’ll take along another hand-pieced Manx block. I have some prep work to do before I can say it is ready to go though.

I have the final Book Circle tonight. I’ve enjoyed the discussions but I’ll be glad to have my evenings back. I’m realizing that I’m not enjoying a weekly commitment; I prefer something that I can do if and when I want to.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

I spent the morning in my sewing room putting the binding on my Remembrance Day runner. It is ready to take to the Guild on Tuesday for hand stitching. I also have borders pinned on a couple of Community quilts that I’ll attach on Tuesday as well.

I had a bit of time before lunch so sorted out a few packages for my 12 Days. I hope to have them ready for the mail by the end of the month. I have a bit more shopping to do for them but it can be done the next time I’m out running errands.

I didn’t get to my chickens yesterday afternoon so I’m working on them now. Pat has a guitar that needs to be repaired so when he delivers it south of town I’ll go along for the drive.

Saturday, November 18, 2023

I had a lovely two days of sewing with Stacia and Deloise. I finished our monthly project on Thursday and still had time to start sorting through my Christmas fabric bin. I’m pretty sure it had never been cleaned out. There were bags of strips, bags of squares in all sizes and not necessarily even the same size in a bag. There were also a lot of pieces of fabric, big and small, just thrown in.

I started Friday morning by finishing the sorting, although I still have a lot of Christmas fabric on my cutting board that is ready for card backings and bindings. Hopefully, when the time comes, I will put it away neatly. I pulled a sandwich out of my over-flowing bin of projects and started some quilting. The project was a Remembrance Day runner; I’m a bit late for that but the backing is a Christmassy fabric so it is more or less reversible. I finished the quilting this morning and have the binding cut.

A day ago I had plans for this afternoon. I was going to a movie that was recommended from my Book Circle. Since I was going to be in the area of a couple of craft sales I planned to take a look. On the way home I needed to stop at Walmart for something, as well as a small grocery shop. However, when I checked my website I was able to see that I had, in fact, already seen the movie in 2016 at our film festival. So I was out the door at 8:30 to do my shopping so I’d have the rest of the day at home (to finish that quilting).

Tomorrow afternoon we were scheduled to go to a concert south of town. One of the performers is a friend of Pat’s and he stayed with us when he was here with one of our house concert guests. He offered us free tickets which was very nice of him. Today though the news came through that the concert was cancelled due to illness and will be rescheduled for the Spring. I was looking forward to the event but I don’t mind a day at home either.

I’m going to try and finish my current bauble this afternoon and, if there is time, I will do some work on my chicken block.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

There was a lot of noise going on across the street early this morning. We could see the tree company working inside one of the trees. We speculated on whether dead branches were coming off or if the tree was coming down. By lunch the three huge evergreens were gone and our view to the ocean opened up incredibly. From where I’m sitting now I can see all the way to Sliammon and Savary Island.

I’m still recovering from my weekend away. I managed to get everything unpacked yesterday morning but didn’t accomplish much after that. The afternoon naps take away a lot of my day.

This morning I finished the last items for my 12 Days packages. Time now to dig out the Christmas wrapping paper and start getting ready to ship everything. I spent some time this afternoon cross stitching while I listened to some music. I hoped I’d get another bauble done but there is still a bit to do. I think Pat has an open mic tonight so I might be able to do a bit more.

It’s time now to get ready for my two days of sewing with Stacia and Deloise. I know the pattern I’ll be using but that is as far as I’ve got. Fabric picking and cutting are still needing to be done. For our second day I’m hoping to get at some quilting on one of the projects I already have sandwiched.