Category Archives: Journal

The best kind of sewing day

Journal

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Pat is teaching this week and has a very early start – 5:30 AM. I didn’t hear him get up and shower prior to then, but I heard him talking to his students at 5:30 and there was no going back to sleep. I had lots of time to pack up for the bee, have a couple of cups of coffee, and do a bit of computer work before heading out.

The sewing went very well today. I got a label stitched onto the back of the Community Quilt. When I added it to the cupboard it was the only finished quilt in there. I thought about bringing another one home but I’ve got a lot of things of my own that need quilting; with my planned sewing trip with Stacia and Deloise, the November Retreat, and Christmas I didn’t see having much time for anything extra.

I finished a project of my own today. I had the piece quilted before I packed it up so I cut borders, a label, and a sleeve. I’ve been hand stitching at the bees for most of the summer and it was nice to be using my machine today.  The hand stitching was finished before leaving the bee this afternoon. It’s always good when you pack up on a finish.

I’ve been finishing up the last bits of yarn in my scrap basket in the evenings – hopefully by the end of the TV watching tonight I’ll have it all gone. Not to worry, I’ve already picked out the next bin that will be emptied into the basket.

I’m a fair-weather walker

Journal, Quilting

Sunday, September 16, 2018

I went up to the Fall Fair yesterday afternoon; next time I’ll have to take a bit more money. I checked that I had my $5 admission and I certainly didn’t expect to be spending any money. But the firemen had a Fill the Boot fundraiser for MS so in went some money. My first stop was the barns; not exactly up to PNE standards but there were some sheep, goats, chicken and a llama. On my way to see the garden produce and 4-H sewing displays I ran into a friend selling fresh-pressed apple juice. They were offering it by the glass or quart bottle but, since they had run out of glasses, I had to buy a quart. Next stop was at Carola’s booth – fortunately she offered the bee’s wax wrappers as a birthday present. I walked through the grounds, chatted with several folks and then was ready to go home. But then I remembered that I was out of the pine tar soap I like so I picked up a bar. Then I remembered that all summer I planned to get up to the market to get some of the salve the first-nation folks were selling – works good on sore hands after a long stitching session. By the time I left I had only a bit of silver left in my purse.

I finished binding the community quilt last night. Although I didn’t make any of the blocks in the quilt, I made a number of other blocks that went into other quilts. One of our on-going challenges at the Guild last year was to pick up a bag of scraps each month and make a 12″ square. When we got together to put the blocks into quilts some of the blocks really didn’t go with others ( I had one of the better ones with a blue theme). We’re going to do the same thing this year except each month will have a colour. This plan should mean the quilts will be more pleasing to the eye. I had practiced a quilting design on cards and it was nice to know before I started exactly what I was going to do.

Today was the Terry Fox Run but as soon as I woke up this morning I could hear the rain pouring down. I don’t mind walking in a bit of mist or drizzle but there was no way I’d walk in a downpour. The rain lasted until early afternoon when it rolled out but by then the walk was over. Although I didn’t walk, I have sent in my money.

I don’t have a project to work on this evening – what will I start?

A good day for a quilt

Journal

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Over the last few days the house has been quite chilly but I’ve resisted the urge to turn on the furnace. Last evening while I stitched I had to wear my outside sweater; it was cool for sleeping though and I like that. The house temperature has been hovering between 65º and 66º; as long as I’m busy that is quite comfortable for me.

We had rain overnight and most of the morning and when I took a break from my quilting to get a cup of coffee I notice the thermostat had dropped to 62º. That seemed a bit too cool so I flipped the furnace on. The rain has since stopped so I think I can turn it off again. I finished quilting and sewing the binding on my community quilt so I shouldn’t be too cold this evening while I do the hand stitching on the binding.

Since the sun is out at the moment I think I’ll head up to the Fall Fair. There is never much to see but I like to support their efforts.

No smiling

Journal

Friday, September 14, 2018

I’m doing some quilting today and it is going well. I’ve had a Community Quilt waiting to be quilted since June when we did our weekend workshop. There was a fire in town this week and the family lost everything; the head of our committee put out a call for quilts as her cupboard was bare. She quickly received answers from other quilters so she was able to place quilts with the family but that probably means her cupboard is bare again. I had other things to do but nothing more pressing so I got started.

The practice I’ve been getting on my cards has paid off for this quilt. I’m working with 12″ squares that are all different patterns but not exactly a sampler quilt. I decided to use the star pattern on each of the blocks; although I’m still drawing the lines in chalk I don’t need the book to know where the lines need to go. I have about half of the quilt done so, hopefully, I can finish up the quilting tomorrow. If I’m really lucky I’ll get the binding sewn on and I’ll be able to get it all done and delivered at the bee on Tuesday.

I took a bit of time out to get my driver’s license renewed this morning. Pat reminded me to brush my hair before I went although I think, since I’d washed it this morning, I would have remembered. They don’t want any smiling in the photos and we went with the first (and only) photo that was taken. I still look a bit like a criminal but then doesn’t everyone?