Tuesday, April 9, 2019

I was back working on my Half-Square Triangle quilt today. I changed my mind (again) on the setting; I think I’ve committed myself far enough into the project that changing my mind again would be too much work no matter how good the idea.

I stitched one block to test my new idea and for the rest of my sewing day I stitched pieces of blocks and pressed about 100 HSTs. Next week I’ll start trimming them and then, hopefully before the end of the month, I’ll be able to get some blocks and rows completed.

We had our miniature meeting and I came home with a prize. It was a random “pick a number” and my prize was a pencil cup – I’m not sure it was worth an entire days work. We have another meeting next month and I’m going to take something to retreat to work on so I’m not down to the wire next time. I’ve already picked out my pattern and fabrics so just a bit of cutting to do.

I had a bit of shopping to do after the bee but I didn’t go to the Hall as I normally do. As far as I knew no one had left me any money and I checked the mail on Sunday so it didn’t seem necessary. I did purchase a First Aid Kit for the Hall so I didn’t entirely neglect my duties. I also printed tickets for the next show at the Hall.

I did a little bit of knitting after dinner while we watched a couple of programs, but I still have some work to do tonight. I have a bed I need to make for our guest tomorrow and I need to clean up the kitchen a bit. I could probably leave both until the morning but the time goes by so quickly I’ll feel better if it is done tonight.

Monday, April 8, 2019

In spite of an early start this morning my day is far from done. Our performers were leaving this morning on the 7:30 ferry for Vancouver. They planned to be out of the house by 6:15 so I was up at 5:30 to get the coffee started. They slept as late as they could so there was no time for breakfast, but I think we all needed the coffee.

I had my first load of laundry out on the line before eight. Pat and Trevor loaded up the dance floor and the flooring we bought on the weekend and headed off to Texada. We had a lucky miscalculation and at the end of the day Pat was able to return more than half of the laminate flooring. I’m glad that math issue affect more people than just me.

My tasks for the day were simple – get the laundry done, get the beds made (for the next performer on Wednesday), and get a miniature quilt finished for tomorrow’s meeting.

The laundry is done, although the last load is still in the drier. I knew the sheets I hung on the line wouldn’t completely dry but it shortened the time they needed in the drier. It helped that I got them inside just as the rain was starting.

I’ve spent the rest of my time today working on that miniature. I’m not done yet but there are still a few hours left in the day. And I hope to stay up long enough to get the beds re-made.

Sunday, April 7, 2019

We hurried out the door this morning so we could get the sound equipment set up for tonight’s show. I offered to help Pat get it out to the truck and then said if he wanted to head down to the Hall right away I’d go along and help. I was able to carry quite a bit of stuff in but I’m not sure how much help I was in the actual set up. Once we were done we hurried home so we’d be here for the noon ferry.

Our performers decided not to come until the afternoon ferry so it was like having a free day. I used it by starting to work on a miniature quilt; we got a notice about the Tuesday meeting yesterday and I didn’t have anything prepared or even planned.

I decided I would scale down a pattern Stacia had given me but somehow (not surprising) I did the math wrong. Some of the pieces might have been fixable but I didn’t have enough of one of the fabrics so I scrapped that idea and moved on.

I’ve got lots of patterns stored in my files so I picked one that looked easy. It uses 1.5″ squares which are small to work with but I have a pile of them already cut. It is nice to be able to use up some of these scraps – they are too small to use in a big project although I have done some larger-than-mini projects with them.

We’re invited out for supper after the sound check at the Hall. Until it is time to go I’ll get a few more pages of my book read.

It’s a windy day out there today. It has died down somewhat now and I expect the afternoon ferry will run but that will be the first one of the day. Even the ferries from Texada were cancelled. I have to admit though that the sun on the whitecaps on the ocean looked quite pretty when we drove home this morning.

We were out the door before eight with a list of things to do, and we didn’t get home until past noon. First stop was to get some breakfast at Julie’s Cafe at the airport – good breakfast at reasonable prices (and I got a fresh-from- the-oven cinnamon bun).

I think I’ve mentioned before that we are working on the workshop on Texada and we are at the stage where we need flooring. Pat purchased (at auction) a dance floor out of one of the hotels, but that covered less than half of what we needed. Pat had a line on some second-hand laminate from a person on Texada but he found a sale at Rona and we got new flooring and underlay for about the same price. Our carpenter will be happy as he said second-hand was okay so long as the tabs were still intact and we wouldn’t have been able to find that out until next weekend when Pat could see it first-hand.

I’m keen on getting the workshop finished as Pat suggested a new use for it. With lumber we have left over he thought he could get Trevor to build a workbench/table for me to use for sandwiching my quilts. Wouldn’t that be nice?

With that task taken care of we headed south of town to Dan and Judy’s. Dan is a luthier and he has been working on one of Pat’s guitars. We visited with them until almost noon and then stopped at Safeway on the way home; Pat needed a prescription filled and we picked up a few items that were on sale – coffee and cheez whiz were the important items!

We are having a by-election in town today. Fortunately the polling station is in the old library right across the street. There was a line-up when I arrived but I moved through relatively quickly. I barely expended any energy getting home as the wind was at my back.

The afternoon was spent working as well. Pat had a few phone visits and we were both taking calls regarding tickets for shows. I’m selling tickets for a Cranberry Hall show tomorrow night and Pat is selling tickets for the House Concert on Wednesday. When things settled a bit I did my cleaning for the first batch of performers who arrive tomorrow (two of the four will stay here).

Finally I have made my way upstairs and I hope to finish cutting the retreat project I started yesterday. There are two more projects I’d like to take with me; no doubt more than I will accomplish but I like to dream.