Wednesday, February 13, 2019

I was ready this morning to start some free-motion quilting on my Farmer’s Wife quilt; this was going to be an easy day and by the end of it I’d be ready for binding. But after five needle breaks I realized it was going to be a tough day!

Needle 1 – Me: I must have bent the needle with my quilting in the blocks.

Needle 2 – Me: Darn I must have been moving too fast.

Needle 3 – Me: It’s the heavy seams in the backing that are causing the problem. I’ll use a marker and circle the spots I should avoid.

Needle 4 – Me: ***#, I got to close to one of those seams.

Needle 5 – Me: *@#$ *&^%, that seam wasn’t even that thick.

So I spent a relaxing (?) afternoon sitting in the sunshine and taking out all of the free-motion quilting I managed to do this morning. Now that it’s done, I’ll go back to my book and see if I can find a pattern that will work with my machine’s walking foot.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

We only had 17 people show up for our Powell River house concert on Sunday night; fortunately 34 people had pre-paid for the event so our performer (Meaghan Blanchard) wasn’t out any money. It had started snowing in the late afternoon and by four people were calling to say they weren’t coming or wondering how the roads were. We tried to get some others into the seats (for free) but no one wanted to be out in the weather.

When we got up on Monday morning we had long conversations as to whether or not we should go over for the show on Texada. Meaghan had shows booked for Victoria on Tuesday and Ladysmith on Wednesday. We knew we were going to get another large dump of snow and worried that we might get stuck on Texada and she would miss the ferry back to Comox. We decided to go over to Texada and hope for the best. The show there had about 17 people as well but, again, we had pre-sold tickets so Meaghan wasn’t out any money. Before the show on Texada ended both Victoria and Ladysmith had cancelled.

The drive to the studio was okay because Pat had the truck in 4-wheel drive. We were almost to the top of our very steep driveway when the truck started slipping and we were sliding back down the hill with very little control. Meaghan and I were certain we were going to go over the embankment but Pat got things under control by the time we had slipped most of the way down the drive. We blocked the tires with firewood so the truck wouldn’t slip any further and walked up the hill to the studio.

It snowed most of the night and although there was no rush to catch the ferry today we decided quite early to attempt to get to the Texada ferry. Pat did a fine job of backing down the driveway (although maybe it was Meaghan’s and my guidance that did the trick), turning the truck around and getting out to the ferry. By the time we got to the ferry the snow had pretty much stopped but it had started again by the time we pulled into Powell River. The roads on this side were pretty clear so we didn’t have any trouble with our hill.

It had stopped snowing for a bit this afternoon but it has started again. When will this end?

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Just checking in to let you know we haven’t (yet) been buried in snow. The second batch of snow is still on the ground and we are getting another bunch now. It has been so cold that they are letting us into the movie theatre early so we don’t all freeze in the line up. I know none of you feel sorry for us but I thought I’d try for some sympathy.

I’ve been getting up early in the morning to do some quilting before starting my “real” day. It is going well, but it takes a long time to put an eight-pointed star on 111 blocks. My goal is to have the quilting done by the middle of the month and I think I’ll make it.

I’ll be taking a break from movies and quilting for the next couple of days. We have a house concert here tonight (my cleaning has been done in quilting breaks) and tomorrow we’ll be doing it all again on Texada. I don’t always go to the Texada shows but I haven’t been over since Christmas; I get little enough recognition as part of the sponsoring team so I like to show up occasionally.

We’ll be back on Tuesday and there will be a week of films and more quilting.

Friday, February 8, 2019

I’m still sorting out whether or not it was a good Guild meeting last night or a terrible one. On the good side my name was drawn for a gift certificate from the fabric shop and I got another lovely package from my Secret Pat. Also on the good side I got my name in for the Spring Retreat. It was only announced last night but my name is quite a way down on the list of participants. On the bad side though I have a new job for the quilt show. Someone brought me three bags full of magazines that she wanted me to offer for sale through the library (I have become somewhat of a dumping ground for this sort of thing). Another quilter said she had bags of magazines at home as well and she thought we should offer the magazines for sale at the show – she had been to a recent show in the Lower Mainland and said they made a ton of money through sales. So I’ll be manning the magazine table at the show, which is fine because I wasn’t signing up for any of the other duties thinking in my mind that I was going to be busy with door prizes throughout the day.

There has been a lot of snow since last night. It is the heavy sort that weighs down the tree branches. It snowed most of the morning, stopped for awhile, and then started again. It has stopped again now but we’re wondering what the roads will be like tonight as the temperature drops below zero.

I thought I might get at some quilting early this morning but when I woke up I realized that the stairway up to my sewing room was blocked with all the stuff I brought home from the meeting last night – those bags of magazines, several baskets to use for the prizes and a few donations for those baskets. So I went back to sleep for awhile. I quilted most of the morning but after lunch I lay down and finished reading my book. The film festival begins tonight so it will be better to be reading from my Kindle and I hate to be reading two books at the same time.

Yes, film festival is on for the next week. We’ll miss a few showings because of the House Concerts (and a quilting class I’m taking next Saturday)  but I’m sure I’ll feel I have seen enough by the end of next weekend.