Monday, June 5, 2017

This was not a fun day but it certainly felt like a Monday. As I was heading out the door to work in the yard, I wondered if it was too early in my job to call in sick. I was weeding in the lavender and the roses – nice smell of lavender but prickly thorns on the roses. I have a few scratches but I’ll live. Not long ago (two weeks in fact) I wouldn’t have said mowing the lawn and boulevard were a welcome break from anything, but it was a nice change of pace from being on my hands and knees pulling weeds. When that was done I couldn’t believe there was still time left in my two hours so it was back to weeding.

After the laundry was done and hung to dry I headed out to run some errands. As I was stopped at a light I realized I had forgotten my Venture One card for mailing my parcel. I decided the bit of money I would save didn’t matter so continued on. I was just parking the car at the Post Office when I realized I had put my wallet in my Cranberry Hall bag last night so there was no way I could do anything until I turned around and went back home. With both my card and my wallet in hand I headed back out. After the post office I stood in a long line at the Credit Union to make a deposit; it seems to me that they are busier now than they were when I was making the Guild deposits. After that it was a quick stop at the Library and then home.

When I finally came upstairs I put away some embroidery threads from my last project and got out another of my works-in-progress. It is a Canada 150 theme so I better get at it. The good news is that I guess Canada 150 actually lasts from this July to next July – lots of time for the four Canada-themed projects I have in mind! When at last I thought I could get at some sewing and packing for tomorrow I realized that with another Cranberry Hall meeting on Wednesday I had to get last night’s minutes prepared and circulated. The regular secretary was ill and couldn’t come to the meeting so I offered to fill in; sadly our regular secretary has resigned from the Board so in the meantime I am Acting Secretary. None of the new Board members seemed keen to take it on.

I’m packed and ready to go for tomorrow. With what is left of the afternoon I’ll see if I can clear off my cutting table so that some real progress can take place the next time I actually have some time up here.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

My morning went fine for the most part. I finished the Splendid Sampler block I was working on yesterday. I’ve been using the tips I picked up at the Precision Piecing workshop and, with the exception of one seam, everything was working out well. I restitched that seam three times and then decided it was going to have to do. It wasn’t until I was marking for the embroidery that I realized one of the blocks was stitched in the wrong way around. It meant taking out quite a few seams and the mistake didn’t really affect the way the block looked so I left it alone. Had it been turned the right way around the seams might have matched better but there is no guarantee of that.

After lunch I made the Rice Krispie Squares for the meeting tonight. Then I sat out on the deck and did the embroidery work on the block I had just completed. I had great plans for the rest of my afternoon – particularly cleaning up my cross stitch table and cleaning up my cutting table.

Somewhere along the way though I ended up fighting with my computer. My e-mail wasn’t working and I changed settings, rebooted and did everything I could think of to correct the problem. I asked Pat to check his mail and it turned out to be a Telus issue. By the time Telus came back online I’d screwed things up enough that I still wasn’t able to send mail; incoming mail was working fine though. Pat helped me sort out the problem and I’m back on track.

While I waited for Telus to correct itself I managed to get three packages ready for the mail tomorrow. I don’t think I have time to get everything on my list finished before dinner and the meeting but I’ll get to some of it.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

It’s been awhile since I had a day that was full of things I wanted to do without the obligation of things I needed to do or should do!

I knew that I was going to make a rhubarb pie today but I didn’t want to sit idle while I waited for it to cook. So my first task in the sewing room was to get some hand stitching ready. I made a few adjustments to a cross stitch project and then got it ready for binding. But that wasn’t going to take me long as it is a smaller-than-usual size.

I know I am crazy, and you will agree, but I’ve decided to start all over again on my Splendid Sampler blocks. I purchased the book that contains all the patterns so I could see all the patterns in one spot rather than having to call them up on my computer. I swear that was the only reason I bought the book. But then one of our Tuesday quilters displayed her quilt top with all the blocks and I was inspired – again! The Splendid Sampler folks have started another sew along so I’m joining in – the blocks are posted once a week (instead of twice) so I’m hoping to keep up this time. Kathryn said she keeps looking for the fat quarters that she gives me in my cards so, with that in mind, my blocks this time around will be made out of my growing pile of fat quarters.

I cut out the first block last week so it was a quick matter of sewing the pieces together. The first block called for appliqué and I haven’t been enjoying my machine appliqué so I decided, for this block anyway, that I would do some needle-turn appliqué. Once I had the appliqué piece ready to hand stitch I got my pie made. My timing was absolutely perfect as I was just tying the knot after my last stitch when the timer on the oven went off.

I might have time for another Splendid Sampler block before supper. If I do, I’ll be completely caught up.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Weekends haven’t meant much to me since I retired but I’m looking forward to this one. I’ve finished my first week of working in the yard, I ache all over, and there is still so much to be done. But when I volunteered for this job I told Pat I wouldn’t work weekends so I have a couple of days off now. I’m behind on some sewing I wanted to get done this week but the cross stitch I’m working on is taking longer than I expected. It’s almost done though and then I’ll be able to move on to something else.

The Guild meeting last night lasted longer than any meeting I’ve attended; it was almost nine and we were just getting our snacks and coffee. We actually had two meetings (the AGM and the regular monthly meeting) and, of course, we are in our new space so there were a few questions on how things are going to work. I was nominated for a position on the executive but I declined to run. Part of my thinking for staying with the library was I knew there was only one of four executive positions filled and I didn’t want to be guilted into taken any of them. We eventually got all the slots filled and no one went home with a broken arm – a sore arm maybe, but not broken.

Pat got home from a meeting this morning just as I was finished my shower and putting clothes in the laundry. He suggested we go out for lunch but when we ran down the options none of them really appealed so we’ll go out for dinner instead. I thought about making a rhubarb pie this afternoon but I’ll do it tomorrow morning. I’ve decided on Rice Krispie Squares for the Cran Hall AGM – we going pot luck with the Board members. I wanted to make a peanut butter slice of some kind; I found several recipes but none that didn’t require me to go out shopping so I change my plan to something really easy.

Back to my stitching now.