Tuesday, April 24, 2018

I had one main project I intended to work on at the Retreat – my Bloom quilt. At the end of the weekend all I had managed was one block! But I accomplished a lot of other things. I caught up on my 1880 Sampler blocks and made a couple of extras for card tops. I almost finished my baby quilt and, from the trimmings, ended up with blocks that will go together for my miniature meeting in May. I added the borders to Supernova and it is ready for quilting.

My Frozen quilt took up most of my time. Before leaving for the Retreat I reviewed my pattern – I was using a panel but they wanted me to cut off so much of it I decided to finish it my own way. It involved a lot of math but, once I had the last of the snowflakes appliquéd, I started on the borders. Some of the borders were wider than the pattern called for; some were turned the opposite way because I was using directional fabrics. I’m happy with the results and it too is on the quilting pile.

We always do a group project and this year’s was advertised as a Sunday morning Retreat Bag. It took me most of the day Sunday to complete it but, in the end, I’m happy with it and I have already loaded it up with travel “stuff”. It will get its first outing when I head to Quilt Canada at the end of May.

I was so tired when I got home yesterday I had a little nap which meant that none of my unpacking got done. And first thing this morning I headed out to my regular bee. I have the top of the baby quilt finished and I will have it sandwiched and ready for my free-motion quilting class on Saturday. I have to wash the flannel backing but I’ll get that done this afternoon.

Earlier in the day I thought I would work in my sewing room tonight. Since I feel like I could use another nap right now I’ll force myself to do a bit of unpacking before relaxing with my knitting tonight.

Friday, April 20, 2018

My bags aren’t packed and I’m not ready to go! I’m heading out to the Retreat first thing tomorrow morning and I’ll be gone until Monday afternoon. I’ve got several projects packed up although I’m not expecting to get at them all; I don’t want to be bored or run out of things to do. In no particular order I’ve packed:

• Frozen
• Blooms
• Magic 9-Patch
• Supernova
• Baby Quilt (with the cut-off pieces ready to be restitched into a miniature)
• Fabric for the Sunday Morning project (which requires a zipper!)
• Cross-Stitch Quilt Blocks (for stitching during Happy Hour, while I have my morning coffee, and when I’m too tired to sew at midnight)

Yesterday was a busy day. I was way off my yard schedule due to other commitments and rain; even though it wasn’t my usual day I couldn’t stand it any longer so spent the morning outside. I was able to get down one side of the house clearing out things that should have been done in the fall. It was much easier than the beds I did the last time I was out so I had time to tackle the weeds in another bed as well as cut down some dandelions and weeds that were sprouting up between the bricks. We are set with two big jugs of vinegar (thanks to our last trip to Costco) so if we ever get some hot weather we’ll be out spraying.

Thursday afternoon is my regular sewing time; next Thursday my sewing partners and I are going on a road trip for the day. We will take the first ferry across to the Island and drive down to Nanaimo. The other two women have fancy machines that they need to take in for servicing; their dealer also sells Janome’s so maybe I’ll find a stitch-in-the-ditch foot for my machines. I’ll mainly be along for the ride and, hopefully, a stop at Michaels to pick up some embroidery floss.

Last night was movie night. It has been a long time since Pat and I went to a movie together; we seemed to be on different schedules when the Cinematheque features came around. I think last night was the final film in the series and there doesn’t appear to be anything coming in the near future that I’m interested in.

But back to today. Pat had a meeting this morning with the in-coming President and VP for the Hall. As part of that meeting I found myself volunteering to make sweets for the Member Appreciation event as well as make sure we have enough tea, coffee, sugar and cream for the afternoon. I have to do up some tickets for some door prizes we are handing out, as well as prepare an agenda for a quick meeting after we have elected a new Board. Until today I was feeling caught up in the Hall department!

Now I’d better get back to my packing. As of today I’m officially two blocks behind in my 1880 Sampler so I’ll get them cut out (as well as two cards from the same pattern) and add them to my project bin. I’ve bought my snacks (jelly beans and Cheezies) and drinks (beer and wine) so all I’ll have left to do is pack my clothes.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

When Pat was checking out the new-to-us bed and frame he also spotted a juicer that was for sale. I’ve always wanted a juicer and was happy that it came home with him.

Yesterday, after sewing, Pat juiced up some melons, pineapples and a lemon that were left from his birthday event. Although it isn’t labour intensive to make the juice, cleaning up afterwards is. But we enjoyed our small glass of juice before dinner.

Pat could hardly wait this morning to try a veggie drink – I was a bit skeptical. He juiced some apples, celery, carrots, ginger and a lime and we each had a big glass for breakfast. Much to my surprise it was very good and he ran through another batch with tomatoes, carrots, celery and lime. We had a bit of an explosion because we used some grape tomatoes that popped out of the juicer but I think we have them all cleaned up.  I’ve saved the pulp from the juicer and I’m going to make some soup; I would have done it today but we had to have our gas meter changed so we were without the stove for an hour just at lunchtime.

I spent all morning and the first part of the afternoon on Cranberry Hall stuff. I’m pretty much caught up on what came about as of the last meeting but with the AGM in two weeks I’ll have more on my plate next week. My room is in such a disarray I had to do something with it today. I’ve been shredding paper since the beginning of the year (part of a 31-day clean up plan that will likely take me 30 years); paperwork was the task for January 1st and it has taken me until now to get it done. With our taxes due at the end of the month it will start another cycle of cleaning out the file cabinet but I don’t expect to get back to the paperwork task until January 1st next year. I don’t remember the next thing on the list but I’m hopeful it won’t take me quite as long!

I will be sewing tomorrow with my Thursday group and I didn’t have a project sorted out. I will add borders to my Supernova quilt but white fabric didn’t really work with Gail’s inquisitive and shedding cats so I’ll leave that for the retreat. I settled on a miniature for our next meeting in May. Today we have a friend replacing the roof of the back deck and I recalled that they were expecting a baby and Pat and I talked about making a quilt for them. I found a pattern and I’ve spent the afternoon cutting. Clearly I’m tired though; my 8.5″ squares were all cut to 12.5″ and my 1.5″ x 10.5″ were all cut to 1.5″ x 12.5″ before  I realized my mistake. Thankfully everything was cut larger than required so I still had enough fabric. This will be my Thursday project while the other ladies catch up on their Supernova quilts.

I’ll finish the cutting for the baby quilt and then get packed up for tomorrow. Pat is out tonight so I’ll continue with more tidying up, unless I cave and relax with my knitting.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

I finished most of the things on the list I made yesterday afternoon. Two cards and a parcel went into the mail before I headed out to the bee. The minutes are almost ready for distribution, the cheques have been signed and the deposit is safely in the bank. The back deck and the bedroom are cleared out. Not bad – but I was more than ready for bed by 9:30 last night.

It still seems impossible to get at my Tuesday project (because I need to do that cleaning on the SUV) so I’ve fixed that by making my April Challenge my Tuesday project. I’ve been slowly working my way through the appliqué work on 20 snowflakes and I’m down to only four left as of today. I hadn’t really intended to take this project to the Retreat but since I’m close to being done the appliqué I think I will pack it with me. Theoretically after the snowflakes are done the rest should be pretty easy to put together since it is a panel; at least that’s what I’ve kept telling myself all the way through these snowflakes.

The fabric I ordered for the sashing on my Magic 9-Patch arrived but I’ve decided it isn’t quite right for the project. So I stopped at the fabric store today and found some that I hope will work – too bad if it doesn’t because I’m not buying more! I also picked up border fabric for my Supernova; I wanted the shapes to float and fortunately Deb still had the fabric I used on the body of the quilt. And finally I had to pick up a zipper for the Retreat project; since I’m going to have to deal with putting a zipper in “something” I decided to treat myself to new fabric for the project (but I got it from the 50% off bin).

I didn’t get my cutting table cleared yesterday but it is imperative that I get it done soon. My Retreat projects will all require some cutting and I don’t do well cutting in a group – I pay too much attention to the conversations going on around me and not enough focus on what I’m doing.

Now, I’d best get back to those minutes or I’ll be up here all night.