Monday, May 13, 2019

I was back in the yard working again today; the lilacs are still putting out their scent and, since I was cutting it back, I had some lovely lavender scents. Pat came out and did some trimming as well – some of the bushes have received hair cuts and he mowed and raked the grass. It’s nice to have company while I work.

After lunch I did a bit of paperwork for myself and the Hall. I was just finishing up some Hall work when I checked the mail and we have had another resignation from our Board (for health reasons, not anything we did wrong). We have two new members we expect will come on and we were looking forward to having one extra person over the past year’s count. Now we are back to the same number so no chance to spread the load a little thinner.

I’ve got the binding ready to be hand stitched to my miniature quilt; I’ll do that this evening. I finished up a major portion of my knitting project last night and I hope I’ll have time to get started on the border tonight. I have five new (small) projects ready for the bee tomorrow, as well as my HST quilt that still needs some correction.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

I was in a grocery store the May following Mum’s passing. I walked by their stationery aisle and I burst into tears realizing I wouldn’t have Mum to buy a card for anymore.

These days I celebrate Mother’s Day by acknowledging the great job my own daughters are doing as mother’s. It keeps them busy but they are very involved with their children and I couldn’t be prouder of them.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

I wanted to go out to the store this morning to pick up some extra needles just in case I continued to break them over the weekend. Then I remembered I had a library book to pick up so I added that to the list. I needed gas and also some invitations for the Hall. I was hosting a Hall meeting at the house this afternoon so I stopped at the liquor store for some wine and beer – just in case Annabelle wanted a drink (or maybe just in case things didn’t go well).

Walmart for the needles was first on my list but while I had my hands empty I thought I’d take a quick look at the dress shop. When I walked in the clerk asked if she could help me and I assured her I wasn’t really looking for anything. That “not looking for anything” turned into two summer dresses and three summer tops. I don’t shop for clothes often and I have to be in the right mood. As I checked out we were laughing that my last two trips to her shop were before we went to Ireland and France, and this time I was travelling all the way to Calgary!

Once I got to Walmart for my needles I was in and out very quickly. The liquor store was next – again a quick trip for some white wine (a big jug), and some Townsite beer (they have a new-to-me one out). From there I stopped at Dollarama for the invitations; they are next door to Staples so I thought it I couldn’t get them at the dollar store I could probably find more expensive ones at Staples. From there I was on to the Library and the gas station and then home.

By the time I got home I barely had time to get my notes ready for our meeting. Things went well and Annabelle has just left so I’m finally ready to start on some quilting.

Friday, May 10, 2019

Yesterday I was ready to start some free-motion quilting but I wanted to do a little practice before starting on the “real” thing. I had a miniature quilt that had to be done for Tuesday; it was all cut so I sewed it together, did a bit of stabilizing and got set up for some free-motion practice.

Before getting many stitches in I broke a needle; not good but I changed the needle and started over. But this needle kept coming unthreaded; On checking it was one of those easy-thread needles and the thread was coming out the “easy thread” part. So I changed the needle again and promptly broke another one. Then I remembered that my Farmer’s Wife quilt had a lot of seams coming together at a single point and it was suggested I should have tried a jeans needles.

I put in a jeans needle and got a little further but eventually that broke as well. So I took out all the quilting that I had managed to do and decided that an 11″ x 12″ wall hanging really didn’t need anything more than the stabilizing stitches.

So that left me this morning dreading the thought of doing free-motion on my big quilt. I’ve had a few glitches but overall it is going well and I’m happy with the results.