Tuesday, February 26, 2019

I would really like to be ready for the quilt show by the end of the month – which means Thursday. I finished the Guild Challenge today and I put the binding together for my Farmer’s Daughter quilt.

I have a busy day tomorrow but I should have time to get the hand stitching done on the Farmer’s Wife quilt. I have a few calls to make regarding Guild door prizes and I have a meeting at the Hall in the late morning. Tomorrow night I’ll be out at the movies but in between times I should get quite a bit done.

I made a few more calls today regarding door prizes but I didn’t come home with anything. I had two refusals but they were nice about it. When I delivered my request letter one of the shops indicated they probably wouldn’t donate anything but I hoped that after they read my lovely letter (thanks Dave) that they would change their mind. The person I need to talk to wasn’t in so I’ll call back another day.

Two of the shops yesterday told me to come by today to pick up their donation. In one shop they said it wouldn’t be ready until this evening and the other shop said not until tomorrow. So I’ll add a couple more stops to my list tomorrow.

I’ll take time this afternoon to attach the binding to my Farmer’s Daughter quilt and it will be my Thursday afternoon project. I’ll want to show the ladies anyway and when I’m there I work on a table that gives lots of support for the quilt while I hand stitch.

After the last show I promised myself that I wouldn’t be getting quilts ready at the last minute. But two years ago the show was in April so, by moving the show up a month, I can be forgiven for being in a bit of a panic. However, as someone pointed out today, I’ve known the show dates for over a year so my excuse really doesn’t work for everybody.

Monday, February 25, 2019

I’ve read the book by Marie Kondo but I haven’t watched the Netflix series; there were a few good ideas in the book but there were a lot of ideas I thought were a bit silly. Some of my things are just “things”; they may not spark joy but they are necessities. And if you have a separate drawer for things (like underwear and socks), why would you need to fold them just-so?

Pat decided to do a bit of decluttering in his closet over the few days. Although I keep an ongoing pile of give-away items in the closet I hadn’t gone through them in awhile. Today I distributed all our boxes of goodies – shoes and coats went one place, books went another, and a lot of odds and ends went to another place. There was even one small bag of garbage that went to the curb this morning.

Before heading out to drop off our boxes I finished up the reports for the Hall meeting tonight and got a deposit ready. I dropped a couple of books off at the library and then I started on my Guild list. I had previously sent out letters asking for donations for door prizes at the quilt show and today I was following up with the folks I hadn’t heard from.

Although I didn’t collect many gifts, I got call-back dates from most folks. I have a few more calls to make tomorrow; one more round next week and another the last week before the show and then I’ll start putting baskets together. I absolutely hate asking the stores for these prizes but I don’t think I’ll enjoy putting the baskets together either.

Next I’ll get some projects ready for the bee tomorrow – binding for my Farmer’s Daughter quilt and my Challenge bag come to the top of the list – and then I think I’ll sit in the sun and hand stitch some binding.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

I quilted all day yesterday and by supper I was almost finished the quilting on my Farmer’s Daughter quilt. After supper and an episode of Bosch I headed back upstairs and got it finished. Although I know there is much more to do (sleeve, label, binding) it is a great relief to know it won’t be a problem to get it done in time for the show.

And I finished a knitting project – a shawl I’ve been working on for the last couple of months. It took a long time but it only used two balls of sock yarn; my goal for the year is to use up my bin of sock yarn for something other than socks.

I had do an opening at the Hall late this morning and I didn’t even resent doing it. The sun was shining, the renter was on time and she paid, and another Board member was going to be at the Hall in the afternoon so I didn’t have to close.

I did some catch-up work for the Hall since we have a meeting on Monday night; for some reason I didn’t think the meeting was until Wednesday. I’ll have to make a bank deposit tomorrow and I have to question one of our bills but I’m in pretty good shape for the meeting.

I’ve moved on this afternoon to trimming my quilt and I’m ready now to get started on the sleeve. I’ve also picked out a couple of new patterns for sock yarn so I can get started on a new knitting project.

Friday, February 22, 2019

I’ve been quilting on my Farmer’s Daughter all day and I’m still not done. I’m working on three or four blocks at a time and I keep thinking that when they are done I must be finished. But no, there still seem to be blocks that are only half finished. It will take me another day to finish the blocks and then I’ll move on to the borders. They will have some free-motion quilting and should go quickly but I remember how that worked out on my Farmer’s Wife quilt.

I haven’t decided whether I’ll knit or sew binding this evening while watching TV. Working on the binding yesterday afternoon at a table was so much easier than working with the quilt over my knee. But the quilt show is less than a month away and the knitting has no deadline to it at all.