Thursday, November 15, 2018

Pat had an appointment this morning so we agreed he’d do a walk-on from Texada and we would both do a walk-on back on the noon ferry. He was up early so caught an early ferry and I met him for breakfast. Then we went our separate ways and planned to meet up again for the noon ferry.

I barely was home from running a few errands when Pat called to say his appointment was done and, if I was ready, we could probably make the 10:40 ferry. I wasn’t exactly ready but I knew what I intended to bring over so it didn’t take me long to get out the door.

It was nice to get to the studio a little earlier – more time for my stitching. After sitting a bit, putting away the bedding from last weekend and some reading I was ready to get going. I intended to get several Christmas-related projects moved along but when I opened my cupboard I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched through everything several times and I’ve decided I must have taken them home to work on. At least I’ve now remembered the tin I put them in so they should be easy to find. Oh well, the Princess will keep me busy for all the days I’m here.

I’ll head home again on Sunday.

Monday, November 12, 2018

I had a wonderful weekend at the retreat. It was nice to get to know my house guest a little better – we had a good time and never ran out of conversation. We slept at the studio but other than that we were hardly there. I bought a new memory foam mattress topper and Moreen was the first to try it out. It was nicer to set up than the air mattress and, apparently, it was very comfortable.

The best of our conversations was on the way back home – it turns out that Moreen would also like to hike the Sunshine Coast Trail; she’s actually done parts of it on the annual Marathon Shuffle so she’ll be a natural guide for me. They also have a boat so they can get us to the start of the trail at Sarah Point, a few miles from Lund. The whole trail can be done in sections and, if we had to stay out overnight, there are huts all along the way. She is in the middle of a kitchen reno but as soon as that is finished we’ll start walking together with a goal to doing the trail during the Spring and Summer next year. In light of those plans I spent a bit of time on the treadmill today. It was a nice day out but I have a book I need to get finished (because I have a short loan of another book from the library) so I was able to read while I walked.

Most of my day was spend unpacking my numerous bags from the weekend and putting things away. I managed to get at a bit of sewing this afternoon and I’ll do a bit more before supper. While I worked I started my Christmas playlist from iTunes but it wasn’t working for me – I guess it is still too early. My quilting playlist is working much better for me (Leonard Cohen is playing right now).

Here are a few of the things I worked on this weekend (click each one to enlarge).

Thursday, November 8, 2018

I spent all morning re-thinking and re-cutting fabric for my half-square triangles. I’m following a pattern now and it needed a lot more than I had originally planned on making. The quilt will end up smaller than the one in the book but it will be plenty big enough for a donation quilt. I was glad that I had several pre-cut scraps in the sizes I needed.

The first of Splendid Sampler’s Sew-the-Book blocks were released today. I intended to package the block up to take with me but instead of one block, or maybe the two I expected, four new blocks were released. At four blocks a week I’m going to have a hard time keeping up but the organizers reminded us today that it is not a race, it is a journey.

I worked on sashing my Farmer’s Wife Sampler blocks today – two more rows done. I have one more long row to do (13 blocks) and then each row gets smaller. I still need to add the cornerstones and sashing between the rows but I’ll keep this as my Thursday project until I see a need to speed things up.

I have all my projects packed, hopefully all my tools, and a few treats. We’re off to Texada on the 8:30 ferry tomorrow – I expect to be back on Sunday afternoon. I’ve decided NOT to take my iPad with me so I’ll be completely off-line for the weekend; it worked at the lake so I think I will be able to manage for a few days.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

When I got up this morning there were no plans for the day – it felt like a day off. I worked on a Farmer’s Daughter block while I had my morning coffee. I came upstairs to check my mail and Facebook and decided today would be a good day to get my hair cut – having it shorter for the retreat weekend would be nice. After a soak in the tub and a bit of time reading my book I went back to my hand stitching. The end is in sight and I’m so ready to be done with it.

My hair appointment was right after lunch and I picked the salon based on its location – close to the Library and the grocery store. I’ve been there before but I had a different stylist this time; same cut as usual though. After my appointment I walked to the Library to pick up a book I had on order. When I went to check out I couldn’t find my card and their computers were down so they couldn’t look it up. I took a bunch of cards out of my wallet when I was travelling and I guess (I hope) I didn’t put them back in. I’ll have to go back tomorrow to pick up the book.

On my way back to the grocery store I passed by a new-to-me pharmacy. I’ve been getting really bad leg and foot cramps and a nurse I know suggested I might be low on potassium. I know that bananas have potassium (they are about #6 on the list I looked at) but when I looked up other foods there are some that I eat regularly and some I never eat. So I stopped and got ten days worth of potassium tablets; hopefully they will help. Next stop was for a few groceries for the house here and a few things to take over to the Retreat, but it was a quick trip.

I’ll get back to my hand stitching for the rest of the afternoon. I think I can finish my knitting project tonight.