Friday, August 25, 2016

Is my life boring? Perhaps, but it suits me just fine!

I spent the morning working in the yard. I went over a small bed that I’d done before and it took no time at all. Another larger bed, some of which had been done once, took the rest of my yard time; there is still one patch that needs to be finished but overall I’m pleased with how easy the second time around appears to be.

I’ve spent the afternoon putting together another card top. Although I like the results of paper piecing, it does leave a mess in its wake. There are bits of paper and fabric all over my cutting table; I think I’ll clean that up before I start my next card top.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

I started my day by mowing the boulevard and the front yard. There wasn’t much grass on the boulevard but those darned yellow flowers just keep popping up no matter how dry it is. Pat had cut down most of the grass yesterday but I think going over it with the mower smoothed it out. That was all I was going to do but Pat was busy trimming and shaping some of the bushes in the yard so I picked weeds until he was ready for me to help gather up his branches.

I’ve been doing the machine stitching on the small hand stitching project I’ve been working on at my Thursday afternoon sessions. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be ready to stitch down the binding. I’ll find another project to take with me but I’m not sure what – maybe another fall project from the same magazine I’m working from, maybe one of my many wool felt appliqué projects, or maybe I’ll pull out that “raising children” stitchery that has been on my mind since Stacia finished hers.

I will have to do some fast reading tonight. My books are due at the library tomorrow and I’ve barely started the last one. It should be a quick read but the library closes at six tomorrow and, now that they have moved, it isn’t as easy to drop my books off on the morning after they are due (but before the library opens). So far the book isn’t good enough that I want to pay a fine on it.

I’m not making a lot of progress on my knitting project. We’ve been watching a sub-titled show on Netflix and I tried to do my knitting while we watched. I’ve spent the last two nights taking rows apart trying to find where I made my mistake – only four rows to a pattern but when there are over 300 stitches in a row it takes awhile.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

I had a good day at the bee; the card I was working on was very complicated but I finished the top before leaving for the day. Yesterday afternoon I pretty much redrafted the pattern and I was glad to learn today that another Splenderite had the same problem. I had a few seams that needed to be done twice but my redrafting appears to have worked. Fortunately I made another copy of the pattern so when it comes up again for my second set I’ll know what I’m doing. I often think when I do a card that hasn’t come up yet on the Second-Time Around that I should get ahead and do it; I do that when a block for the Second-Time Around comes up and hasn’t been used yet for a card – provided it is appropriate for someone on my list.

As one of the first four quilters in the hall today I brought home a lovely bouquet of sweet peas. They are sitting on the table beside me and I can smell them from my chair. No Guild library work today; on the way home from the bee I stopped at the fabric shop to make an arrangement for 40 fat quarters for my Guild Challenge. I discussed my plan with two long-standing Guild members and they liked my idea but suggested the Challenge goes over better if fabric is involved.

We occasionally go to one of the Indian restaurants in town but I always refuse their rice pudding because their recipe isn’t as good as the one I earned my Brownie cooking badge for. We had cream left over from Cranberry Day so I have a rice pudding in the oven. I hope it lives up to my memory of it!

Monday, August 21, 2017

I was awake really early with a headache and, when I finally got up at seven, even with meds and coffee I still didn’t feel all that well. But today was my first day back in the yard and the daisies needed to be deadheaded. Deadheaded is putting it mildly – the flowers were pretty much all dried and brown. I suggested that Pat do the weed whacking around the borders so I could cut the grass and the boulevard. Once he started he continued on until all of the grass (and I’m using that word loosely) had been cut. He raked it up and the yard looked not too bad so I’ll delay mowing until my next yard day.

It was interesting to be outside during the eclipse. It definitely got cooler and darker; Solana, the girl next door, made a cereal box viewer and she came over to let me look through it. I remember a solar eclipse in 1979; I can picture myself in the house in Yellowknife and it got totally dark. Nothing that dramatic today but there’s another one in a couple of years.

When the yard was done (for the day) and I had a load of laundry in the machine, I walked up to the mailbox. By then it had turned pretty hot so when I got home I sat out on the back deck in the shade and read my book. I got a notice today that the books are due in a few days and I still have one I haven’t started.

After lunch I took some more meds and had a nap; I’m feeling much better now. I’ve packaged up a couple of cards for the bee tomorrow and I’ve done a bit of cross stitching. When I have a day that I don’t do any sewing my mind tells me I haven’t accomplished much but I know that isn’t true. I accomplished quite a bit already and I’ll be back at my knitting tonight.