Friday, June 23, 2017

This morning we loaded up the truck with bags and bags of yard waste and headed out to the dump. It was a messy (and smelly) job but it was good to get it done. When I got home I headed out to cut the lawn and the boulevard. When that was done I decided to clean up the lower front patio so we can get the hammocks set up; that involved cleaning up some stuff that went either to the garbage or the recycle bin. I’ve wanted to try spraying the weeds between the patio blocks with vinegar and, since there was no wind today, I sprayed a test patch. It it works, we’re going to need a lot more vinegar. Now that I’m taking more of an interest in the yard I see things that I previously ignored.

While we had lunch on the deck I told Pat about a Row-by-Row pattern I had that would be perfect for the Cranberry 75th and Canada 150 celebration we are hosting in August. I ran upstairs to get the pattern to show to him and I’ve spent the rest of the afternoon looking for it. I still don’t know where it is and all my searches have been pointless other than to underline the fact that I have too much stuff.

Remember back when I was doing an inventory of patterns, kits, etc. That definitely cured my “need” to purchase any more fabrics or quilting kits. At that time I also made a spreadsheet of where the different patterns and kits were stashed (the cedar chest, the wicker basket, individual bins, etc.). When a quick look through the bins at hand revealed nothing I looked at the spreadsheet; the kit should be in the “Small Projects” bin. It took me awhile to find that particular bin but when I looked at the contents that particular row-by-row wasn’t in there. I’m sure, with Canada 150 coming up, I kept that particular project out so I would “get at it” sooner rather than later.

As I’m moving around the room looking for the pattern I’m doing a bit of tidying up and putting-away; clearly it is badly needed!

Thursday, June 22, 2017

My plan for today was to finish all the sewing I wanted done before our trip. I have enough Bingo blocks done that we can test out the game when the kids are here; the hard part is yet to come though as I need to come up with “Under the Blue/Red/Green/Yellow/Orange” clues. As I was stitching I was thinking about this and because there are 3 kids and 5 blocks I need to be sure that I have enough clues for someone to win regardless of which blocks are in play. I also realized that the blocks (and the quilt when it is done) can work as an “I Spy” game. Hopefully my grandchildren won’t all be teenagers when this particular project is finished!

It didn’t take me long to finish the filing for Cranberry Hall; I could have done it all yesterday. I’m about to go out and make the final deposit before our trip. After that is done I can get the last report ready for the meeting we are hosting the evening after we get home.

I’m counting down to the day we leave but I have so many more tasks to finish before then – prepping some hand work, cleaning my sewing room, and I guess packing should come in there somewhere.

I’m off to a recital tonight. One of the Tuesday quilters, and a regular at our House Concerts, invited me to her recital – she plays guitar. She has been taking lessons for a couple of years and I admire her for continuing to practice (unlike my Ukulele) and for having the nerves to feel okay about performing. I remember my piano recital days – and none of those memories are pleasant!

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

I had a bad night last night so decided I wouldn’t work in the yard today. After the garbage and recycle bins were put out to the curb I came upstairs and started on Pat’s accounting. His GST is due at the end of the month. By early afternoon I had sent it off to the accountant. It had to be done before we left for Calgary so I was glad to get it off my list.

After lunch I took care of my own paperwork. The taxes had to be paid and there were several bills that needed to be paid before we left.

For the rest of the day I worked on Cranberry Hall “stuff”. There is still a bit of filing to do but most of the work is done. Our next meeting is the day after we get home from Calgary so, with the kids here, I’m not going to want to be stuck doing accounting. There will, of course, be some last minute reports to run but hopefully nothing much. Pat needs to get the Agenda planned and I’ll have to send out the packages to the Board members.

I’ve started a pile of things I want to take to Calgary with me – that will continue to grow over the next few days until it is time to see how it all fits in my suitcase. I have one more quilting project that needs to get finished before we leave, and a couple of hand embroidery items that I need to prep to take with me.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

There was no shortage of things to work on at the bee today. I pieced the binding for my Pink quilt; since the front border and backing didn’t really work with either shade of fabric I decided to do a two-colour binding. I did it once before and, in my mind, you sewed the two pieces together and then proceeded as usual. I tried that and then couldn’t figure out a way to stitch it to the quilt for the desired result. I had help from a couple of other quilters and between us we managed to sort out the problem. I was correct that you sew the two pieces together but then, rather than fold the piece in half and press, you fold each of the edges to the centre seam. Once I did that everything worked out fine. It took until after lunch to get the entire binding on the quilt though so rather longer than I had planned.

Because I’m going to have three of my grandchildren here in July I wanted to get at least enough Bingo blocks finished that we could try out the game while they are here. Sadly all the re-design work I did yesterday was still sitting in a file on my home computer so I wasn’t able to stitch any rows together. I didn’t have any extra squares cut so I couldn’t stitch any of the one-colour rows. I ended the day by doing a bit of reverse stitching on the four blocks I had already finished before I decided to change the layout. I still have a bit more of that reversing to do.

I took along a card to work on but I never even pulled it out of my bag. That particular card isn’t due until the end of July so I’ll have time to get it done another day.

This will be my last bee for at least three weeks; it may be four before I’m back because I don’t remember when we come back from the Island after the music festival. I’ll be planning lots of hand stitching for the Calgary visit, lots of fun things for the week the kids are here, and then a few projects to take for our week on the Island.

But I have choices for tonight. Will I finish my reverse Bingo stitching? Will I start sewing down the binding on Pink? Or will I continue with the knitting project I started last night?