Tuesday, October 31, 2023

I intended to go sewing with the Guild today but I spent so much time downstairs yesterday listening to music I didn’t get very far on my quilting. I really want to get this quilted and bound before the Texada retreat so I decided my time was better spent at home working on that. I have about another day’s work left and I’ll be ready to cut and attach the binding. I’ll do the hand stitching at the retreat at the end of the day when I’ve run out of steam to do anything that requires thinking.

A couple of weeks ago I was visiting a friend in hospital and then a week later I couldn’t see her because she was in isolation. I had word she was home from the hospital late last week so I called her this morning and she said she was feeling up to having some company. I took tea with me because I didn’t want her to have to put out any effort on my behalf. Her sister was there as well so the tea didn’t go as far but Shirley got two cups. We had a nice visit and I was glad that she was very much improved from her time in hospital.

We aren’t expecting anyone for Hallowe’en and we will turn the lights off in case anyone happens to be in the neighbourhood. It is a nice day and will be a good evening for anyone who is out.

We’re off to the Island tomorrow for a concert and a shopping trip to Costco. We’re seeing Connie Kaldor and I’m looking forward to a show in a venue other than the Hall. I have our shopping list ready – a keep a running list of things we have bought there and just refer to it on the next trip. The list isn’t as long as I thought it might be but there is still a lot on in it and we usually pick up one or two things that weren’t on the list.

For the rest of the afternoon I’ll do a bit more work on my Baubles.

Monday, October 30, 2023

One of the hardest things about writing my Journal is coming up with a catchy (or not-so-catchy) title. All through the day I’m thinking of things I might write about and titles that come to mind. Today there were an abundance of ideas for titles.

I Should Have Given Up

I wanted to sit in the sunshine yesterday afternoon and my stitching table is in the perfect spot. I was ready to move ahead with my Baubles project. When I put it away last I realized I had made another mistake and was going to have to either take out some stitches or abandon the project entirely.

Today I felt more like taking out stitches than I did giving up so I did the reverse stitching that was required and moved on. I’m now one row of stitching beyond where I was yesterday and I hope I can continue on the right track. I’m stubborn enough to keep at it and the project doesn’t have a home so there is no rush to get it done.

Who Needs a Bird Feeder?

For the past few days we’ve had a bird making itself at home in one of the pots on the deck. Pat’s not sure what kind of bird it is but we’re having fun watching it. There must be something good in those marigolds. Can I hope that it is eating the weed seeds?

I May Never Go Upstairs Again

The woman from Texada delivered our new-to-us CD player to our door this morning and Pat wasted no time getting it set up. There were a few CDs included in the player, mostly Country and Western, and I kept most of them in. I started adding my own CDs and when I still had a few slots left I added some of Pat’s.

One of the CD players we had in the living room quit working quite awhile ago but we’d never done anything about it; they don’t make players anymore and we were lucky to find one for sale. Yesterday I pulled out all the CDs from it and Pat took it out of the stand this morning and got it ready to recycle. But he happened to check online and he thinks that he’ll be able to fix it with a $13 purchase of some new rollers. If it works we’ll have two players downstairs in Pat’s area and one in the living room.

We started listening to the music this morning and I don’t want to stop; I may never come upstairs to sew again. I guess it’s a good thing that I have the Baubles project to work on … forever at the rate I’m going!

Saturday, October 28, 2023

I’m quilting again today. I didn’t make the blocks for this quilt but I put the blocks together, sandwiched the top and now I’m quilting it. The blocks were hand pieced by someone who gave them to the Guild. When they were offered to the Guild at a meeting at least three years ago and no one wanted them so I said I’d take them. I like the fabrics; they are very scrappy and I think quite old as some of them aren’t even cotton. For lack of another name I’m calling this one Stars, although I’m quilting it with hexagons so that would work also. A lot of the blocks have stains and age marks on them (not my doing) so I’m thinking of how I might get them out before I donate it back to the Guild.

I’m only giving this quilt a name because in the past couple of weeks I’ve been looking for the names and dates for a couple of things that probably, at some time, were mentioned either in my Journal, on the Guild blog or even somewhere in my photos. While I looked this morning, without any luck, I found a date for something that I had, so far, only thought about needing to look for. So, for the bit of time I have left to work on this quilt, Stars it is.

Other than quilting it has been a quiet day. While we had lunch we watched a couple of episodes of Bodies – a sci-fi, time-travel series. We are both a bit confused and thought that we only had one episode left and we’d get all the answers we needed. We ended up watching two episodes but we still have questions. There is one episode left and, hopefully, all will be revealed.

Supper is in the oven so I’ll get back to Stars. Just a few blocks left and then I’ll move on to the borders.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Yesterday morning I finally got my cross stitching sorted out. I have a colour print out of the pattern, I have a black and white copy of the pattern to mark up as I move through the rows, I have a bookmark to keep my eye focused on the right row as I’m stitching and I swapped out one green colour for another so it would show up better. I’m still a long way away from getting my first bauble done but I’ve made a start that doesn’t look like it will have to be ripped apart.

I had coffee with Gail yesterday afternoon and got all the pieces cut for my next chicken block as well as for the bonus pattern. The pieces for the bonus block are pinned to the backing. We thought we’d go over to Texada this afternoon and I was ready to take this project for hand stitching but we have changed our plans.

Pat bought a CD player from someone on Texada and we were going to go across to pick it up. Pat had a meeting this morning so we wouldn’t have been able to get away until the afternoon ferry and we have to be back on Sunday so it seemed like too short a trip for the money it would cost. Monday to Thursday are free for us but we pay on the weekend. Fortunately Pat was able to work out a deal with the seller; she will bring it across on Monday and Pat will meet the ferry on our end.

I got back to some quilting this morning – yes, actual quilting. I’ve had a quilt sitting on my machine for months; to be honest I don’t remember the last time I worked on it. But today it is under the needle and I’m pleased that I still remember the design I was using and that I still seem able to manage it. Mind you I had to have a nap this afternoon but I don’t think that was stress from getting back to it.

The ball game starts soon and when that is over the Canucks have a hockey game. I’ll continue working until then.