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.

Wednesday, October 24, 2023

I didn’t intend to go to the Guild sewing yesterday as my plan was to have a quiet day at home working on my cross stitching. I puttered around most of the morning doing some cleaning, some laundry and more organization in my sewing room. I settled in after lunch with my new Baubles pattern and was ready to go.

It didn’t go well and after taking out several stitches and starting over a few times I gave up in disgust and spent the afternoon working on my crochet project. I spent most of the evening working on that while I watched the last of “my” baseball teams get eliminated from the World Series.

But today was a new day. We got my new colour printer set up (thank you Elizabeth) but it took a lot longer than we expected. Pat did most of the set up as it will reside on the desk in the basement. I was able to print to it from my computer upstairs so I got my Baubles pattern printed in colour which is so much better.

Once that was sorted out I got my next chicken block and bonus traced onto freezer paper and the wool set aside for all the pieces. I’ll get the pieces pressed onto the wool tomorrow morning and that will be my sewing project for my Thursday afternoon sew and chat.

I volunteered to make lunch today and after that was done and eaten I got back to my cross stitching. It is going well so I’d better get back to it.

Monday, October 23, 2023

I poked my head outside yesterday and our dahlia plant (from Elizabeth) was bursting with blooms. Every time I cut them I expect it to be the last of the blossoms but I think today may truly be the last ones. I have five big clippings sitting on my counter and it is cold enough that there don’t seem to be any earwigs inside them.

While several others are awaiting the first snowfall of the season I did a walk around the yard and took some photos.

This afternoon was cool but we went out and did a bit of fall clean up and got most of our bulbs planted for Spring. We have one more batch of poppies to plant but they need to soak overnight before planting. We expect rain tomorrow so we’ll wait for another sunny day.