Wednesday, September 27, 2017

I think I’ve caught you up on my entertainment from the past week. Without internet on Texada (and because I do a lot of reading when I’m over there) it means all the updates have to wait until I’m at home.

Last night, after the parcels were wrapped, I almost finished another project I’ve been working on. I’m not sure yet whether I’m happy with it but it was destined for me so I guess it doesn’t matter too much. I hope to finish it off later this afternoon and then I’ll know for sure.

I spent the morning deep cleaning the living room – washing all around the windows and the sills, pulling all the rugs out and vacuuming them, dust mopping the floor and then putting everything back. Well not everything; since several of the coffee tables and lamps have to be moved out when we set up for the house concert I decided to put them in the closet today rather than wait until Sunday when we set up the chairs.

After lunch I went up to the post office with my mail and then stopped at the thrift store. I needed an extra set of needles for my knitting project; I think I gave most of my duplicates to Emma when she was here this summer. I made one last stop at the fabric shop to pick up the last of the fabric for the Guild challenge. Deb was holding the remainder of the bolt for me and it didn’t seem fair that she went without payment. I still have some challenges ready to purchase; if I don’t run out I can always use the fabric I have purchased for something else.

Once I was home I decided it was time to get a quilt sandwiched. I haven’t tried my new table for sandwiching a larger piece and the sun was shining so I thought it would be a good day to get at it. Before I got waylaid by this computer, I found and cut some backing and the batting. I’ll take my ironing board and iron downstairs so they are handy to the table where I’ll be doing my spray basting.

It’s movie night tonight so I’d better get that sandwiching done.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

I finally made it back to the Guild bee and I lasted the entire day. I didn’t sew the entire time (I worked on the Library after lunch) but at least I stayed until the end. I’m tired tonight but, hopefully, my Tuesday’s will again be spent sewing. Once we have our next Guild meeting I’ll have two monthly challenges to complete so I need to make my Tuesdays count. Today we were celebrating the 80th birthday of one of our members; I made a card for her yesterday afternoon but neglected to take a photo. This shot is from one I took of all of Marlene’s cards for the Guild blog.

I was working on a couple of cards today and it didn’t go as well as I would have liked. I was trying to place some appliqué pieces on a background but, because of the colour of the fabric, I couldn’t see the pattern lines for placement. I tried a different background which worked better, but as I was placing the pieces I realized that the pattern should have been reversed. Once I realized that I gave up and did my own design on the card tops.

Pat will be going back to Texada tonight on the 6 PM ferry. We will be getting the new oil tank filled tomorrow and they will also fix the line so we will have heat over there again. He is also hoping that the Internet folks will come by this week; we have a coffee shop that offers free wi-fi so we aren’t completely cut off. He’ll also be putting up more of his sound proofing panels; at some point many of my quilts are going to be covering those panels.

My intention for the rest of the week is to get started on cleaning for the House Concert coming up on Monday. Between my surgery and all the sorting out of furniture and other stuff into piles the cleaning had more or less stopped. The first House Concert is always a good excuse for some deep cleaning after the summer. We have a (more than) sold out show and since we’ve taken a few of our chairs away we may be scrambling for seats for everyone.

I have a couple of things to get ready for the mail tomorrow so I’ll get those wrapped up tonight.

Monday, September 25, 2017

We spent our second weekend at the Texada house and it felt much less like camping than the previous weekend. We had a mover come on Friday – mainly to load and transport the equipment from Pat’s studio – so we had a few more of the comforts of home. We had the oil tank replaced and moved to the side of the house but apparently the line needs to be “bled” and we had no heat. Pat and I tried to sort out the problem but to no avail, and we weren’t able to find anyone to do it for us. I guess that describes “life on the Island” for us. We have something lined up now so we should be okay for our next trip. Fortunately it wasn’t all that cold on the weekend and wearing a sweater inside was all that was needed.

So how does it look now? Click on each of the photos for a better view.

Pat will set up his studio in what is the living room but there is still one side that will be a sitting area. It might be too warm by the wood stove but we’ll decide that once we get the chimney cleaned, some wood purchased and a fire lit. I spent a lot of time sitting in Virginia and reading this weekend.

Our bed was one of the first things we set up after we got the moving truck unloaded. It wasn’t an easy task putting it together, but it sure is a nice bed for sleeping. With the duvet we weren’t the least bit cold at night. There wasn’t much set up required for my sitting room space – the cedar chest has lots of unfinished (and new) hand stitching projects for me to work on.

The bench fit perfectly in the entrance way – it was left-over by the previous owners of the Powell River house and the covering was one of the first things I quilted. We now have chairs for the kitchen, and I even made a set of placemats for the table.

We have chairs for the back deck and we spent lots of time outside listening to the leaves fall, the swooshing of the ravens’ wings, and a few squirrels. We met one set of neighbours and they say, when the leaves have all fallen, that we’ll be able to wave to them through the trees.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Tonight is the Guild pot luck so I’ve spent some time over the last few days figuring out what I should take. I seldom take a main course dish, usually a salad or sometimes a dessert. Since I’m not eating much in the way of desserts these days I decided on a salad. But what salad?

Originally I thought I’d take a Spinach Chicken Cranberry salad. If I made it without the chicken it would serve as a vegetarian dish and if I substituted honey in the dressing with agave syrup it would also serve as vegan (I’ve had to do that on one occasion). But I’d have to buy a lot of the ingredients and it isn’t good made too far in advance (and we had a movie this afternoon) so I went looking for something else.

I make a pretty good bean salad – you know the kind with four or five different beans in it with a sort of vinegary dressing. That seemed to fit what I’m eating most days and any of the leftovers would be good to take to Texada this weekend.

But by this morning I had changed my mind again – but only slightly. I had to get a few groceries for the weekend and when I remembered that the deli at Quality Foods make a good bean salad I decided to buy some of it. Once I put it in my own crystal serving bowl it will (maybe) look like something I made myself.

Mission accomplished!