Friday, February 2, 2018

Since Christmas I have been very careful not to join any online groups or sew-alongs. But my favourite sampler shop (Temecula Quilt Company) came out with a new one today and I couldn’t resist joining. It is call the the Quirky 1880 Sampler and I plan to use the scraps of my 1930’s fabric for it. It sounds simple enough – one 4-inch square every Friday. What I don’t know is how long it lasts. My Circa 2016 is one of theirs and one of my Christmas miniatures was from their company; I have another of their sew-alongs started (Wild Goose Wednesday) but its a long way from being finished. I have saved all the clues on another one (Patchwork Olympics) but it isn’t started yet. I may regret it further down the road but these on-line sew-alongs keep things interesting.

I got most of my last Valentine project pieced this morning before heading out to do some errands. I am more or less packed up for my trip across to the studio tomorrow; I tend to have a bag “going” all the time so there is less last minute packing. It helps that I have enough clothes over there and I just need to pack the fun stuff that I want to do while I’m there. I’m looking forward to getting back to my cross stitching.

I’m off to a concert tonight – performers I enjoy, an early start, and absolutely no responsibilities!

I may try to finish piecing my Valentine before getting a bit of knitting in before supper.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

I was actually looking forward to turning the calendar over today. The first of the month is the release date for the UFO number we will be working on for the month. My #9 is the quilt I am making from the strips I won/was given at the Texada Retreat in November. Although the idea is to tackle unfinished items my list includes a few projects that have deadlines attached. #9 will be a new project for me and I’m ready for something new.

I had to make a quick trip to the Hall this morning but was home by nine. I volunteered to bring goodies to the Guild meeting tonight and since my cookies from the concession last weekend were given away I had to start fresh. I made a batch of oatmeal cookies and I’ll add a plate of cheese and call it done. The rest of the morning was taken up with getting reports written for the meeting.

I have two more Valentines ready for binding. I hope to start on the final project tomorrow. I thought there was some hand stitching involved with it but as I read my pattern this afternoon it is all pieced. Even with being away for the weekend I think I’ll still have time to finish it before the 14th.

Off now for some dinner and then my meeting. I’m hoping to get a bit of knitting time tonight after the meeting. I only have a few episodes of Once Upon a Time left and I’d like to get them finished before the weekend.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

It didn’t happen without more reverse stitching but I finished the top border before I quit for supper last night. Although this is meant to be a Tuesday project I wanted to get the bottom border together before I completely forgot what I was doing. I had better luck this morning but I still had to do some seams over. Those mistakes had nothing to do with the set-in triangles and more to do with me not paying attention to where I was attaching the rows.

Before I got started for the day though I took one of my machines in to be “looked at”. The SUV is very noisy when I’m stitching and even though I clean and oil it there doesn’t seem to be much difference. I thought perhaps I had something caught in it somewhere. I expected to leave it for a few days but Cam was able to look at it right away. He says it is a low-end machine and they run noisy. He squirted some oil in places I know aren’t mentioned in my manual and says it is fine and he didn’t even charge me.

With the two borders attached I moved on to some cards. I waivered about whether or not to do Valentine cards but since I’m not doing as many birthday cards it felt wrong to ignore Valentine’s for my family. I have one ready to bind and another ready for quilting. I would like to get them all ready for hand stitching before I go to Texada. Since I’m not taking my sewing machine across it would give me something to work on if I join the Texada quilters on Monday night.

I’ll go back to stitching for a little while; I hope to finish another Messy Bun Hat tonight.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

I was off to the bee this morning with great hopes of getting two of my borders ready to attach. Sadly I managed to get one border half done, and that was a struggle.

The pattern I’m working from isn’t very detailed and I was pretty much working from a picture. I expected trouble because the blocks in the border were to be set on point and I always struggle with that. In fact I had so much trouble understanding what I was doing that I had to ask for help; I thought the pattern was wrong but when it was explained to me I was using the wrong piece as the setting triangle.

There was still lots of time to make up for my problems and the top half of the top border went fine. After the lunch break though everything went to sh*t! Another quilter stopped by to help and, once we saw where my mistake lay, she helped me to take out a few seams. I really thought I had it right but then I realized I was missing a row; another friend helped sort me out.

I have notes pinned to almost all of the seven rows in this top border, as well as pieces pinned where the seams should be. If it isn’t already too late I’m going to go back to my stitching to see if I can get it right. This top border is to be my guide for the bottom border so it better be right.