Monday, September 3, 2018

We had a busy weekend and I’m going to need some extra sleep before launching into the fall schedule that begins tomorrow.

The concert on Friday night was very popular; we were at capacity with the crowd that came out. The Hall was co-sponsoring the event with the music festival, which meant that we gave the space rent-free. But me, being me, stepped in when I thought things should be done or taken care of. The festival provided coffee, tea and a few cookies but I found myself constantly filling water jugs and picking up tea bags and used cups and glasses throughout the evening. Although they had volunteers (who sat in the audience) I was asked to look after the merchandise table; I did that but I also promoted membership for the Hall. At the end of the evening the festival folks did the dishes and I swept the floors. It was more work than I anticipated for the evening; I’ve made the suggestion to the festival that next year the Hall should run the concession and they seemed to be agreeable to that. Our own volunteers are much better trained and if we’re doing the work we should at least have something to put in the bank at the end of the night.

We were on the first ferry to Texada on Saturday morning. The party wasn’t until 6 PM but they suggested that we come a bit early. I made up my Mexican Dip (you’d be hard pressed to call the sprinkling of olives, green onions and cheese actual layers) and then Pat and I spent the afternoon in the hammocks. I put everything except the dressing on the Spinach Salad and off we went about 5:30. It was a nice party and not the “shit show” Heather (Jamie’s wife) warned that it might be. We met a few new folks from Texada but I spent most of the evening chatting with Bev, our neighbour at the bottom of the hill.

We were back on the first ferry to Powell River on Sunday morning. We had enough time at home to unload everything before we headed out to a day at the music festival; Pat did sound on Friday night and earned each of us a festival pass. It wasn’t very warm and I wore my sweater most of the day. About the time I wondered how I was going to keep warm for the evening performances it started to rain so we bailed on the festival and came home about 6.

I spent most of the morning working on Cranberry Hall stuff. Our Board meeting is on Wednesday so I needed to get the agenda out today and that meant I had to get the financial reporting finished to go along with it. And there were a few follow-up e-mails I needed to get out and a couple of phone calls that I needed to make.

Sunday is usually my day to work on sampler blocks and cards but since I was busy yesterday I’ve been working on them today. I have some hand work to do on a couple of cards (along with the quilting that can be done ahead of time) and I have the current block of the Splendid Sampler 2 project cut out and ready to go. I still need to find a pattern for one card; let me rephrase that – I know what I want to make for the card I’m just not sure I have time to get it done and in the mail before my cut-off date.

We had friends drop in for tea this afternoon and now it is almost supper time so I may not get to any sewing today. It’s a good thing I have a project that is easy to pack for tomorrow.

Friday, August 31, 2018

Today has seemed so much like Saturday. I wonder if it is because my “things” tend to finish up on a Thursday so Friday feels like a weekend which, for many years, started on Saturday. At any rate I’m not doing much work today.

This morning I boiled the eggs and cooked the bacon for my spinach salad for the birthday party tomorrow. I also cut up the green onions for the 7-Layer Dip; I’ll put that together once we’re on Texada. The party doesn’t start until six so I’ll have plenty of time as I expect we’ll be on the first ferry out tomorrow.

I helped Pat load up his sound system for the festival concert at the Hall tonight. Pat is doing sound for them (a separate deal since he’s no longer on the Board) and I’m opening and closing for the event. As part of Pat’s payment for working he received passes to the festival this weekend – we’ll be back in time on Sunday to attend the final day.

I spent some time in my studio this morning putting the sashing and corner stones on my 4-Seasons Tree. I need to get it quilted for the miniature meeting in September so it will be the first thing I do when I get back to quilting.

For the rest of the afternoon I’ll clean and oil my machine, I’ll change the needle and I’ll be ready to go come Monday.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

I’ve been promising myself since the beginning of summer that I was going to get at some quilting, and by that I mean actual quilting, not just piecing. Well, September is almost here and nothing has been quilted. There have been sampler blocks made, cards made and delivered, giant steps made in other projects, but no actual quilting. I have three projects that are sandwiched ready to go and about five more that need to be sandwiched.

Of the eight (or so) projects I need to quilt, only one of the ones that are sandwiched are really priorities – one is a Community Quilt which needs to be delivered, one is a Christmas project (that will be my November mini), and one is a project I will probably attempt to sell at the quilt show (it didn’t turn out as well as I wanted it to).

Of the five waiting to be sandwiched, one is last year’s Row by Row which I really should try to get done before the September meeting. There is a table topper in the pile that was destined for the table on the patio – maybe next summer? There are two gift projects in the pile and another one that I’m hoping to put in the quilt show.

But I’ve kept putting it off and putting it off. I promised myself that as soon as the paper-piecing projects were finished I was going to change my needle, clean my machine and get at it. Well I think the time has come. I finished the last tree of my 4-Seasons Tree this afternoon – once I get the borders on it I’ll have to get it sandwiched and quilted for the September 11th meeting.

But this is a busy weekend. I have my stitching tomorrow afternoon, Pat is playing his last session in Lund and I have a 60th birthday party I should make an appearance at. Friday I’ll be busy preparing for a party on Texada on Saturday – 7-Layer Dip and Spinach Salad – and I have to open and close for a concert at the Hall. Saturday we’ll go over to Texada for a 75th birthday party and then back home on Sunday for the Sunshine Music Festival here in Powell River.

So maybe next week I’ll get at that quilting.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

My back was sore first thing this morning but I wasn’t about to give up my stitching day on account of a little pain – cleaning and yard work maybe, but not stitching. I kept moving through the day, never sitting for more than a half-hour at a time and it has helped. The real test will come tomorrow when I’ll be back to the cleaning and the yard!

After stitching I stopped at Canadian Tire to pick up some mop heads. When my back was sore yesterday I dug out my steam cleaner and was going to do the floors with that. I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find the mop heads; somewhere in my memory I think I might have brought them upstairs so I could make a pattern and stitch one or two from old towels. At any rate I managed to get most of the floor done the old fashioned way – on my hands and knees. But I found a couple of mop heads today and, although they don’t say they are for the model I have, I tried them when I got home and they fit. No excuse now I guess not to continue cleaning down the hallway.

I had a book to take back to the Library and, of course, I never seem to leave there empty handed. I’ve enjoyed watching Shetland on Netflix – a second time around because I couldn’t remember anything from any of the two seasons we had watched before. The series is based on books by Anne Cleeves so I went looking for some of her books. They have a lot in the library but there were only two that were available. Sadly they are both new books so I only have a couple of weeks to read them. Another excuse not to be cleaning or doing yard work.

Perhaps there is time before supper to heat up the steam cleaner and see how those mop heads work.