Tuesday, April 3, 2018

I had a good weekend on Texada. The weather didn’t cooperate so we weren’t able to go out for any walks but we did do a nice drive one day; it is always warm when you are inside behind a window. It was warm enough one afternoon that I was able to sit on the deck and read but when I tried the same thing the next day the coolness of the breeze drove me back inside. I did a fair amount of stitching and quite a lot of reading. I seem to go through books faster on my Kindle than I do when I read a “real” book.

When we were out for dinner on Friday night I ran into a couple of women from the Texada Guild. The Guild normally sews for a couple of hours on Monday evening but I don’t go because I take an earlier ferry back to Powell River so I’ll be ready for my Tuesday bees. But since this was a holiday Monday they were stitching for the whole day. I didn’t have a machine or a project with me so I started on a new project idea I had. Mum had several cross stitch patterns for quilt blocks and my idea is to make a quilt using the cross-stitch blocks along with fabric blocks in the same pattern. The fabric blocks will depend on my ability to copy the cross stitch pattern but for the first block I found something easy that I should be able to recreate.

I’m enjoying the idea so much that I did a little stitching this morning while I had my coffee. I did a little more this afternoon when I got home from the bee. Although I may sit a bit longer with the cross stitch it is certainly more productive time than the time I was spending playing MahJong on my iPad!

I had a productive day at the bee. The final fabric for the table runner I’m making Elizabeth arrived last week so last night I trimmed it down and sorted out the pattern. It stitched together very quickly today and it is ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I did up last week’s block from the 1880 Sampler, along with a matching block that I’ll use as a card top. And finally I worked on my April challenge. #5 was the lucky number this month and my project is one I started about three years ago. It involves a lot of snowflakes, which are appliquéd, but I actually didn’t mind doing that today. Is it that I’m getting better or that it was just nice to have a change?

On the way home I stopped at the library to drop off a book and then made my way to the fabric shop. I was looking for a backing fabric for the table runner; I found a perfect piece but there wasn’t enough. I bought it anyway as I can use it either for binding or for something else that uses the same fabric as the table runner. I ordered two fabrics online and bought enough that I wouldn’t have to go back for more. The table runner took very little of what I ordered and I’ve already warned Elizabeth that she’ll be getting presents in that fabric line for a long time!

I’m off now to get myself some supper. I’m hoping I’ll have enough energy after supper that I can come back upstairs to quilt. I’ve been working on this particular quilt for a long time and I have another quilt plus two table toppers waiting.

March 31, 2018

I can’t believe that between my own photos and the ones I take for the Guild I couldn’t find a “Before” photo of this project. It will be a good reminder for me to take a photo for the next one.

The class for this table runner was taught in November, 2016 so it isn’t as old as some of my projects. The class taught us how to do Invisible Machine Appliqué. We used wash-out interfacing for the shapes and then used InvisaFil thread to stitch down the pieces to the background. I managed to get the table runner stitched together and about half of the shapes traced. By the end of that class I had stitched down two of the trees.

My machine didn’t like the InvisaFil thread and continued to break. Also, my class machine doesn’t do zig-zags all that well, and neither do I. When I pulled it out to work on it this month I decided I would finish it using hand appliqué. I didn’t like the wash-out interfacing as I found it much too stiff; it holds the shape well but was difficult to hand stitch through. I have no idea what it will be like once it is washed.

I worry about the felt nose, eyes and buttons when it goes through the wash. And what was I thinking using a white background?

Although the project still needs to be quilted (and washed) I’ve made great progress on it. It will be up next for quilting and will be my Show and Tell for our mini meeting in May.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

I have a couple of bags to get packed today – maybe even three.

I’m heading out this afternoon for my Thursday sewing session. I haven’t touched that project for a couple of weeks and it is ready to go on the design wall today. My sewing partners are way ahead of me – Jessie probably has hers stitched together and I know Gail is ready to start sewing. Hopefully they will take a break from where they are at and help me get mine laid out. I generally have two bags for sewing – one with my project and the other with my sewing machine “stuff”. I need to clean my machine before I go – it has had quite a workout since last Saturday.

I am also packing a bag so I’ll be ready to go over to Texada after sewing. I have collected quite a few things so I may have to either take a bigger bag or take two of them. Of course I could leave out the wine and the hot cross buns, but that seems like a foolish thing to do.

But before I go I have some tidying up to do all over the house. I may even have time to do some vacuuming.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

I haven’t posted in a few days but I’ve been busy. Pat is over at the studio so I’ve been having a crafting retreat all on my own. Mostly I’ve been sewing but there has been some colouring and knitting added to the mix. When I talked to Kathryn a couple of days ago I said that I wasn’t going to post unless I had something to say other than that I had sewn all day. She said I still made it sound interesting so here goes.

I’ve been obsessed with 9-patch blocks since the class on the weekend. The new technique is quite fast as everything is chain pieced – in fact you chain piece, cut, press, chain piece some more, cut, press and you’re done. I did a few more blocks on Monday afternoon, a few more at the bee yesterday and then yesterday afternoon I finished all 78 blocks. I had to press a few of them this morning and then I tried to sort out what I could use for sashing. I think I have a fabric picked but I’ve been doing math for an hour trying to figure out how much I might need. I thought the blocks would be arranged in an 8 x 9 grid but when I added sashing the quilt will be huge so I’ll have to rethink some part of that design. Or maybe run through the math one more time.

I finished a couple of projects on the Island – I’ll report my March UFO challenge later but I was pleased to get the Guild’s February Row-by-Row block finished. We were provided with only a sketch of what the finished project should look like and I was at a loss. Appliqué was out (too many big and tiny pieces); I thought about thread painting but I’ve never done that and it seemed like it would take a lot of time and thread. I decided to try colouring the block; we had a demo on the technique a few years ago at the Guild and Stacia, Deloise and I have a project to do using that technique. So colouring it was.

With February’s Row-by-Row out of the way I was able to finish the block for March at the bee yesterday. A much easier block as it was all pieced. I don’t really see how it is going to fit in with the other blocks but I guess that is the challenge. And speaking of the bee, I came home with a few extra things. The sister of one of our quilters brought some of her fabric and patterns for us to buy – I came home with a nice collection of browns and a few others as well. Another quilter brought me a new Jodi Picoult book (small great things) and I borrowed a table runner book from the Guild library (yes Elizabeth – all the fabric for your table runner has arrived).

I made hot cross buns this morning; I got an early start and had the potatoes boiled and mashed before eight. I make the dough in the bread maker but I had a few issues this morning. One, I missed the part where you added the mashed potatoes so I had to dig a bit through the layers to get them in somewhat the right place. Two, I held back the raisins and peel until the beep but I never actually heard a beep. So when I decided they should be added the dough had already risen quite a bit so not all the fruit mixed in the way it should have. They were out of the oven and ready for tasting by noon; I didn’t put any icing on them but I’m happy with the results.

It was a nice afternoon so I decided that I’d do a walk-around to distribute posters for our next event at Cranberry Hall. Walking down the hill to the ferry terminal was pleasant but walking back up Courtenay Street was a bit of a hike. Fortunately there was enough flat ground before my next stop at 7-Eleven and Capone’s that I had caught my breath and could speak coherently again!

Have I wasted enough time yet? I really intended to quilt all day today so I could stitch binding when I’m on Texada over the weekend – if I stay up late enough I may be able to get it done. I’m off to the movie again tonight.