Wednesday, June 7, 2017

No, I’m not giving up on my yard work – but I would in a heartbeat if someone else would do it for the same mooney as I get!

No, not my stitching – I’ll never give up on my stitching; I’ll never get it all done either!

I’m giving up on ever getting anything but work done on a Wednesday. There is another Cranberry Hall board meeting tonight which means I have reports that need to be done. Our meetings are usually on a Wednesday, although we don’t always have as many as we’ve had this past month. I’m going to shift my paperwork day to Wednesday. If the Guild reports are a day out of date it won’t make a bit of difference. My own paperwork has stacked up for two weeks because I’ve been working on other reports for other meetings and there is no way, after spending all afternoon on computer work today, that I’m going to follow my usual schedule and do paperwork again tomorrow.

For what is left of the afternoon (before supper and before the meeting) I’ll try to catch up on my own stack of papers.

But tomorrow? I’m clear for sewing!

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

I had a much better day today – not a big surprise as it was a sewing day. We were sewing in our new meeting place for the first time so there were a few kinks to work out. I think by the end of the day everyone was happy with how it worked out. I was pleased that the space is as bright as it is; we had such natural sunlight at the Seniors’ Centre that I thought we might feel like we were in a dull basement (we are, in fact, in the basement). But the sun was streaming in, the lighting is fine and we’ll be very happy there I’m sure.

I managed to get three cards almost completed. I’ve been using my precision piecing tips for my sewing. It takes a bit longer by the time you glue and press the seam lines, stitch, finger press, press, starch and press again and, naturally, not all my seams are precise. I was amazed that almost all my piecing was done by lunch. I didn’t really have the right threads to do the quilting (because, seriously, I never thought I’d get that far) but I managed with what I had. Just a few ends to tie in and the bindings to put on and they will be done.

Pat is out to a scotch-tasting party tonight and I’m the designated driver. I was ready for bed by 8:30 last night but I’ll probably have to stay up a bit later tonight!

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.