Saturday, June 17, 2017

I’ve been quilting all day and Pink is finished. Well finished except for the binding. I worked on the straight-line quilting for close to three days, so I planned on two days for quilting the rest of it. I had a good start to the day, a couple of interruptions, but I finished just now a full day ahead of schedule.

After lunch I had a few errands to run – a prescription to pick up, some supplies for my lemon pie (that I’m making for Pat tomorrow), a couple of games to take to Calgary, some pain killers (for when I get back to the yard) and some vitamins.

Late this afternoon, with about an eighth of a border left to quilt, I ran out of thread. When I stopped to fill my last bobbin I noticed that the thread was getting low but hoped I would have enough to finish. I had another thread that probably would have worked but when the fabric shop is just up the street why make do?

I thought the store closed at five so I wasn’t rushing too much (I had at least half an hour) but when I got over the hill I noticed her sandwich board wasn’t on the curb and worried that maybe she had started summer hours and was closing early. When I got there the shop was closed but I went around to the door of the house and asked if I could buy some thread. Deb was fine with that and I was in an out in no time at all. And yes, summer hours are now in effect in spite of what the sign on her door says.

If I had to, I know I could borrow a cup of sugar from Deb anytime I needed it. It’s nice to know I can also get emergency sewing supplies if necessary.

Friday, June 16, 2017

The Guild party last night was a lot of fun. The library sold three boxes of books and our members were very generous. There were lots of games and prizes too and I guess, to some, I was a “winner”.

Every year the Guild has a Challenge project that is initiated by a member chosen (by a draw) from the previous year’s challenge participants. This year, being a quilt show year, the entries were all displayed at the show. We should have drawn a name for the next year’s challenger at the show but it was forgotten. So they made the draw last night.

I’ve entered a challenge piece every year except one, but I never EVER add my name to the draw pile. Last night, when I realized someone was adding the names to the draw basket, I snuck over to the table to remove my name. Sadly, I got caught but that was okay because I never EVER win at draws. I was not please when my name was announced as the “winner”. Apparently there are many members who would love to be in charge of the challenge and I’ve made a deal with Deb (at the fabric store up the street) that she will pick and organize the challenge and I will “sell it” as my own!

So what was the challenge this past year? We were given a fat quarter of some lovely musical note fabric and asked to make something that would relate to one of the songs on this list.

This was my interpretation. Can you guess the name of the song?

Thursday, June 15, 2017

I found an interesting quilting design in my “Quilting with Rulers” book so that’s what I’ve been doing on my Pink quilt. I’ve been calling it my Sashiko quilt for so long but since the Sashiko didn’t work out I needed a new name. Once you see the quilt you will know I didn’t use much imagination to come up with that name!

I enjoy quilting with straight lines. It takes time to mark the sewing lines but at least I know that the quilting will be more or less even. I’m getting better at free-motion but I still feel tense when I know that is what I’m facing. Even though I’m using straight lines I’m trying a new technique. When I drew the pattern I was going to have 12 ends to tie in on each block. That was just crazy so I’m stitching over previous quilting lines so on each block there are only four. Some of the blocks still need a design but I’m hoping “something” will come to me before I finish this set of blocks.

In spite of the nasty weather today I went out and ran some errands. I took the Cranberry Hall books into the accountant, dropped off a couple of Cranberry Hall payments, and did some Cranberry Hall banking. After that I headed to the grocery store to find something for the pot luck tonight. I came home with a pasta salad that fits nicely into one of my crystal bowls and, unless someone asks, I won’t tell them I didn’t make it from scratch.

Back now to the quilting.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

It looked like rain this morning but I headed out to my job anyway. My boss came out on the deck before I had even started and suggested I might want to stay indoors. I cleared a very small patch and then the cold wind and dampness put a stop to my weeding. It was with some delight that I anticipated making a start on my quilting.

The quilting design didn’t go as well as I had hoped and I’ve given up on the Sashiko idea. The designs I was looking at are just too small; the book suggests enlarging them by 200% but that size would be too big to fit in the blocks I was wanting to use. So I’ve devised another design and I got a bit of it done before lunch.

While I was downstairs at lunch I noticed the moving truck at the library – I guess they really are abandoning me. The library has been closed this week and will open again the last week of June. The Guild was waiting for the move to happen because we are getting one of their old bookshelves for the library in our new location. Somehow losing the library and having more work to do to set up the Guild library doesn’t seem fair.

I spent the afternoon working on Cranberry Hall business. I’ve got the books almost ready to go to the accountant and I’ve managed to scratch a few other items off my to-do list. Our next meeting is the day after we come back from Calgary and guess who (our President) suggested a pot-luck supper at our place? The Guild pot luck is tomorrow night and I’ve already wimped out and decided to buy something – hopefully I can find something I can put into my own serving bowl and get away with!

We’re off to an outdoor concert at the beach tonight. It is still windy, but not as cold, and there are only a few drops of rain in the air. The sky looks like there could be more but I guess if we want people to come out to our Cranberry Day in August (even in inclement weather) we have to be prepared to do the same for other groups.