Saturday, May 20, 2017

Before I was even dressed this morning Pat asked if I would help him load up some junk into the back of his truck so we could take it out to the dump. He had already cleaned up quite a bit of stuff from around the yard but needed help with an old exercise bike (not Dad’s). Since I was happy to be getting rid of things I decided to get the recycling to the depot and the bottles to the bottle recyclers. Our trip to the dump was delayed because Pat had a friend who wanted to stop by at about the time we’d be leaving.

I headed out myself but was only able to get rid of the recycling; the bottle depot was closed for the long weekend. I’ve left all the cans and bottles on the back seat of the car (the trunk is full of Guild library books). When I got home I went through the boxes in the trunk, removing the library cards and getting them ready for sale. I set aside two boxes of books to bring into the house to have a closer look at.

After we made our trip to the dump we stopped for a late lunch. Since I’ve been home I’ve done more work on the Guild library books. When we were sorting the books Nina mentioned a couple of them that she thought were worth some money. I checked, and she was right. So as I went through the boxes of really old books (that had been archived even earlier from our shelves) I checked to see if anything could be sold. I’ve set aside half a dozen books that are selling on eBay for more than $10; after the sale to our members I may list some of the remaining books to see if we can get a bit of extra money for them. I know our members will be generous but I also know there will be a lot of books that no one will want.

I’m not certain whether I can’t stop working or I just don’t want to start sewing because my project isn’t an easy one!

Friday, May 19, 2017

I’ve done nothing but work for the last two days and the only pay I get is the satisfaction of a job done. As I type that I’m smiling as none of my jobs are exactly done and I often wonder if I’ll every be completely caught up.

I spent three hours yesterday morning working on the Guild library. Our new sewing space will have much less room overall, and therefore much less room for our library. It was the Library Committee’s job to downsize our collection; there are only two of us on the Library Committee but I was lucky enough to be working with one of our founding members and someone who knows quilting (and quilting books and authors) backwards and forwards. After the morning session I brought home four boxes of books that will be offered for sale to our members after the move.

As Thursday is a paperwork day for me I spent the afternoon at my desk working on some Cranberry Hall stuff, Pat’s accounting, as well as some of my own work. I also updated our library inventory based on the books we had culled in the morning session.

After dinner I was back at the Guild for demo night. I signed up to learn how to make a folded star but Nina and I ended up spending another two hours in the Library. I added another five boxes of books to the ones I’d already taken out; all those boxes are currently sitting in the trunk of my car. We finished the sorting so we’re ready for the movers on the 30th. I don’t know if we have to pack up the books or if movers do that but, in my mind, the hard part is done. The good part about all this work is that I get first dibs on which of the books I want to keep for myself. In all we lowered our book count from 344 to about 250!

My back and shoulders were quite sore this morning but I wanted to do a bit more desk work. I finished updating our Library sheets; on Tuesday I will go back through the books to be sure my list matches what we still have on the shelves. There were a couple of things I needed to circulate to the Board to prepare for some Cranberry Hall mail-outs so I got those drafts prepared. I had a payment I needed to pick up for the Hall and we needed to stop at the Credit Union to sign some papers so we went out for lunch. On the way home we stopped at the Hall to pick up the mail and then to the garden centre for something a little more fun. I wanted some flowers to plant in a pot under Mum’s mixer (thanks to Barb for the idea) and was looking for pansies. I ended up with some alyssum instead (I couldn’t resist the smell). The centre didn’t have any pansies but they sold me a packet of seeds; I won’t hold my breath on getting them to grow! Pat also got a basket for the table on the front deck.

With what is left of the afternoon I’m going to finish my cross stitching project. I have only a few back stitches to do and then it is done. I’m never caught up on that side of things either as this morning I purchased a new pattern from one of my cross stitch groups.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

I accomplished a lot today; it’s been quite awhile since I’ve finished everything on my “to-do” list plus a little bit more.

I have a meeting at the Guild tomorrow to sort through and downsize our library. Our new location won’t have room for us to keep all the books we currently have so we (mostly my partner) will  pick which ones stay and which ones get offered for sale to the members. I computerized the library listing two years ago when I joined the committee so I’ll also be compiling a final listing for the group that will take it over. Whether they decide to keep the computerized listing is up to them. I printed out 22 pages of book titles so it should be easy to check off the books that will be discarded. Since I was already working on Guild items I took some time and updated a few of the pages on the blog.

When that was done I finished quilting the card I worked on at the bee yesterday. Not only is that one ready to have the binding hand-stitched but I also finished a second card this afternoon. Granted the second one was pretty simple, but it feels good to get two done in a day. Of course my reminders for June cards popped up yesterday so it isn’t as if I get a free week!

I have a good chance to get the border finished on my cross stitching this afternoon. If my luck holds I might even get further along.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The class on Sunday and Monday was fabulous. There were so many useful tips and, although not perfect, the block I made is certainly more precise. The first morning of the class was lecture and checking our machines. The instructors were a couple – Shelley took care of the precision piecing part and her husband took care of our machines. The end result was that almost everyone ended up with a full “servicing” on their machines.

By the end of the first day we managed to get the pieces cut for our first block. Once I had my block cut out I knew the orange fabric just wasn’t going to work for my pinwheels. Fortunately Deb, from Crazy Quilt Cottage, opened her shop for me at the end of the day so I could pick out something more suitable. We found the perfect fabric and once I saw the finished block I decided rather than making three blocks for a table topper I’d make 30 blocks for a quilt (or as many blocks as I could until the fabric ran out). That being said I have only one block finished and it took me until the bee today to finish it.

Last night when the 5 PM ferry was leaving Pat and I both commented that it was the last day for the Queen of Burnaby. There was a bit of a storm outside and we both laughed and said it would be funny if the final sailing was cancelled due to weather. Before the ferry had even made it past Texada we could see it making a run in the direction of its “storm” crossing. Sure enough, the final ferry of the night was cancelled.

This morning we watched the new Salish Orca dock at the terminal. It was about ten minutes late arriving but we figured there were probably some ceremonies that took place on the other side. When the ferry was still docked at almost 9 o’clock I thought maybe there were more ceremonies taking place over here. The Texada ferry in the meantime was waiting to dock – all our Texada ladies at sewing were a little ticked off that they had to wait! While they waited they were saying that the crew probably couldn’t find the Start button on the new boat.

Yes, I was off to the bee first thing this morning. I got the last few stitches sewn on my block and then I moved on to a card and some mindless Leader and Ender stitching.

This was my third day in a row of stitching but many of the Guild members took a class on Saturday as well so that made it four days for them.