Monday, February 4, 2019

No actual skill involved but I’m very excited by the win anyway.

Sunday, February 3, 2019

I was up at seven and checked out the window to see if the snow they had promised had arrived. Nope, nothing so it looked like my walk would be on. I sat in my chair, had my coffee and then opened the blinds at about eight. How did this happen? There was snow all over and it looked like a blizzard outside. Needless to say our walk was off.

So I’ve been quilting all day. Progress seemed fast over the last couple of days when I worked on the sashing between the blocks but this afternoon it is a bit slower. I’m working on quilting stars on each of the 111 blocks – three down and an awful lot more to go.

As I sit and sew I occasionally get up to check mail on my computer and it is always a surprise to see the mess behind my back. While I’m quilting I can forget that I have a lot of work to do before I’ll be able to do any cutting, pressing or anything else. But I’ve got days of quilting ahead of me so I’m going to continue to ignore the mess.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

I did a bit of tidying up in my sewing room this morning – I needed to clear off a table so when I started quilting I had a place for the quilt to rest. I cleaned and oiled my machine, I changed the needle and I filled three bobbins. I did a test run of the pattern I was using and I was all set. I was to be selling quilt show raffle tickets at Canadian Tire from noon to two and I promised that I would arrive early to help set up. But I still had half an hour to wait until it was time to go. I wondered what I should do to fill the time.

I don’t know what I was thinking (obviously not much thought was involved) but I decided to change my sewing room around. I wanted to swap a couple of cabinets but when I got that done I realized that the drawers in one of the cabinets wouldn’t have room to open with the other one positioned where it was. So I took everything down off a couple of shelves, removed the shelves, moved a bin of yarn and moved the second cabinet over.

That’s as far as I got before it was time to leave. I started selling tickets early (since I was there) and it wasn’t long until someone showed up to sit with me. It wasn’t the person who was expected though and when that person showed up I came home and started quilting. I felt just a tad guilty not going back later to see if they needed anyone for the second shift but by then I was involved in quilting and I didn’t want to stop. So far it is going well, and perhaps a bit faster than I expected.

I’m going to need more than thirty minutes to get everything back in order, but at least my mess doesn’t interfere with my quilting space!

Friday, February 1, 2019

I spent all morning on my hands and knees sandwiching my Farmer’s Wife quilt. Because I was using two of Mum’s quilt tops as backing to my quilt I felt it was important to get it as tightly sandwiched as possible. I did my best, but in the end I don’t think it will be without a few puckers when it is quilted. I checked with a couple of quilters with the Guild and they thought that if I used a straight stitch for quilting I should be okay. Time will tell, and I hope to get started on it tomorrow.

I felt I was due a bit of fun this afternoon so I went up to the library to pick up a Valentine gift. Every year they wrap books in red paper, put a cryptic poem or explanation on the cover and you get to pick one that you think will appeal to you. I didn’t find the choice difficult, and I wasn’t disappointed when I got it home and opened it.

I stopped at the fabric shop on my way home. I needed thread for my quilt. I bought two spools as I’ll use the same colour in the bobbin as I use for the top. The quilting will show but with so many colours both top and bottom there was no way I could pick just one. I suppose I could have gone with an invisible thread but that is a bit like working with hair and I want this to be a quick and relatively easy job.

I have enough time this afternoon to do the bit of quilting required on my Challenge bag. If time allows I’ll get my machine cleaned and oiled ready for its next big job.