Monday, March 12, 2018

I just finished quilting another block; this whole project is so much slower than I anticipated it would be. I’ll be on to a new design with my next session so I’m hopeful that will energize me. I think I’m over half done but I hate to count just in case I’m not!

I got a lot more than one block done today though. This morning I finished up a card and got it ready for the mail; it probably should have been in the mail a day or two ago but I’m hopeful it will reach its destination in time. I also finished (except for the hand stitching) a second card; there are four options as to where it will go but since I have an 80th birthday party I’m going to on Wednesday I expect it will go there. I packaged up all of my Twinkle Star baskets and got them out in the mail. Tuesday is usually my mail-out day but since that card needed to go I decided to get it all done today. After my post office trip I had to buy a new mop head for Cranberry Hall; after I dropped it off I picked up a few things at the grocery store in Cranberry.

After lunch I did a bit of clean-up on the deck. There were some pots that needed to be emptied and some old flower stalks that needed to come out. It has been so nice the past couple of days I feel like I should be out in the yard working. I got a few more pieces of my March challenge project ready for hand stitching. I hoped to get the outline drawn for my Row by Row block (for February) but when I read up on the technique I plan to use I found out I needed to wash my fabric first. Too bad I already did a load of laundry this morning so who knows how long it will be before I can move forward on it.

Time to pack up for the bee tomorrow. It will be nice to be back to my Circa 2016 quilt; it is also a Mini Meez day – I have three different things to show!

Sunday, March 11, 2018

I’m feeling much better today – a bit of a sore throat left but nothing I can’t handle. And the Vitamin D in the sunshine today will certainly help. It was an early night for me last night – in bed before nine and that was after we set our clocks forward!

I had my hair cut yesterday afternoon. I hate going to the hair salon although I really like my hair dresser. When I arrived we were chatting and I said that I had been debating about growing my hair longer and doing another wig donation but had decided I really wanted my hair shorter. She asked if she could cut it off in about 4″ chunks and her trainees could use it for testing with hair dyes. I was all in favour of that so I got a donation out of my hair after all.

We were up early as Pat had a flight to Victoria at nine. I had a woman coming over to take a look at some of my cross stitch magazines. Tina had taken me up on some patterns I had listed for free on Facebook and when I told her she was welcome to look at some of the other magazines I had she took me up on the offer. I had also asked another woman to look through them but she didn’t show up. Tina took about a dozen with her; my basket weighs much less now and I think I might hold on to the ones that are left. Tina gave me a lovely bookmark that she made, and she also told me of a good way to finish off some cross stitch projects.

It was close to noon before I made it upstairs to take up my quilting again. It is slow going but I have one more block finished. I thought I was ready to find a new stitching pattern but I found one more block that needs to be cross hatched if it is to look the same as the others. Slow but sure I guess!

I was barely into my quilting when the phone rang; someone was supposed to let a renter into the Hall but hadn’t shown up. We didn’t know who that “someone” was but thought perhaps they hadn’t set their clock ahead. I drove down right away and let them in but no one showed up so I guess “someone” forgot entirely. The woman said that next time she will just ask for me to be the “person in charge” because she knows she can rely on me!

I’m going to get my dinner ready early and spend the evening on a new knitting project. I may also stay up late and finish my book!

Saturday, March 10, 2018

I woke up with a sore throat that by noon had turned into a cold. I had some Throat Coat tea this morning and a couple of Distan so I’m feeling better – at least my nose isn’t running and I’m able to swallow without too much pain. But I’ve been quilting away and making very poor progress. Even though I’m straight-line stitching I don’t seem able to follow my pattern through a 15″ block and I’ll be the first to admit that not many lines are straight. Pat just called upstairs to see how it was going and when I gave him a run-down he suggested it was maybe a “Day Off”; in agreed since it was definitely an “Off Day”.

Friday, March 9, 2018

I was late getting back from my Thursday stitching and dinner was ready when I got home. We have another person joining us for Thursday afternoon; we’re at four now and I don’t think there is room for anyone else. I spent the afternoon stitching my half-square triangles. Although I’d love to cut, press and trim them we agreed we wouldn’t work on them at home.

There were to be no more delays in getting at my quilting – today was the day. I had a quilting pattern in mind and I was ready to go. But first I waited patiently in front of my computer for my weekly 1880 Sampler block to arrive in my mail. I was late getting last week’s done and I wanted to get this week’s done before I set up my machine for quilting. With the time I had while I waited I did some prep work on my March challenge. When my block pattern finally arrived I was ready to start cutting and stitching; it was a fast block to do and I think I’m getting better at figuring out from the picture how to put the rows together.

I had to make a bank deposit today and there was a bake sale (a fund raiser for a quilting friend) I wanted to go to. And I had a book waiting for me at the library so I had to stop in there as well. By the time I was home it was lunch and it wasn’t until after I’d eaten that I was able to settle down and start quilting. I have three of sixteen blocks done so I’ve really hardly started. The three blocks I did all have the same quilting pattern but many of the blocks are different so I’m planning to do each of them a bit different. I’m using my walking foot right now and, provided I can come up with enough designs, I hope to finish it all with straight-line quilting.

It’s time to start a new knitting project and I pulled out a few patterns to choose from for this evening.