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.

Monday, April 16, 2018

After my sewing session on Thursday I did a quick swap (sewing stuff out of the car, Texada stuff into the car) and headed out on the 6 PM ferry. I like being able to take that later ferry and still be at the studio before dark.

In spite of (or maybe because of) being on my own I didn’t get a lot of stitching done. I hoped to have a PJ day on Friday but ended up having to get dressed and go down the hill to the neighbour’s. I knew Pat had invited her to his party at a group meeting but I wanted to be sure she got a personal invitation. We had a nice chat and, since I was dressed, I didn’t bother getting back into my PJs. I did get my PJ day on Saturday though – I had already talked to the neighbour two houses over twice so I didn’t thing they’d be stopping in; Pat had just had a visit from the neighbour across the road, and I had just seen Bev.

Sunday was all about the birthday party. I had my cleaning all finished by Sunday morning. While the first group were on their way over on the ferry I got the coffee made, muffins and fruit set out. We had about ten guys show up in the first wave. Pat enjoyed showing them around the studio and the shop and since it was quite a nice day they wandered around outside. Bev came up to the studio for a visit so I was a bit later leaving for the Kitchen Party than I had planned but I arrived with the cakes about 15 minutes into the event. People came and went throughout the afternoon. There were about fourteen from Powell River and probably a dozen more from Texada. There was lots of music from both the Powell River contingent and the Texada group and I think everyone had a good time. There was talk of doing another one but I won’t be quite so involved if it does happen.

We had a few more of the guys come back to the studio after the party but it was kind of nice knowing they had a limited amount of time to spend. They all headed out to catch the five o’clock ferry. At the end of the day I had just enough energy to run my iPad battery down playing MahJong and finish reading my book.

We loaded up my car for the trip back on the noon ferry. I got all of the dishes and left-over food unloaded and put away, except for the dishes that we’ll need out for the House Concert next weekend. The left-over cake has been wrapped and is in the freezer and all my unpacking is done. Sadly most of that unpacking made its way upstairs and my sewing room is a disaster. I’m trying to work my way through a long list of things that need done in the next couple of day.

• One of the cards I sent out at the end of last month came back because I had the wrong address. I’ve sent a message to see if I can get the new address and get it back on its way again.
• I started the Cranberry Hall minutes from the last meeting but I need to finalize them and get them sent out. I’ve made arrangements to have cheques signed tomorrow after the bee but I still need to get a deposit ready.
• We’re having the roof of the back deck replaced next week and I’ve got most of the stuff from the deck somewhere in the house (rugs are drying in the kitchen, extra chairs in the living room, recycle bins in the laundry room). I still need to take a few things out to the shed.
• We are replacing the bed in the spare room and, although I have stripped the bed, I still need to clear out a bedside table and a book case. The new-to-us bed will have a frame so we’re not sure where it will best fit in the room so that we can still get into the closet. It seemed like it would be easier to pull everything else out, get the bed in and then re-arrange as necessary.
• I’ve got a parcel that needs to go in the mail and, if I can squeeze it in, I have a birthday card that I need to finish and get in the mail as well.
• I need to find something to work on at the bee tomorrow and get it packed up. My Tuesday project has been neglected because I need to clean and oil one of my lesser-used machines and I just don’t seem to have had time to get that done.
• And, of course, my cutting table, sewing cabinet and table are completely cluttered with things that need to be dealt with.

It’s going to be a long night!