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.

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.