Saturday, April 1, 2017

I persevered with the hand stitching yesterday and finished my Celtic Crystals just a few minutes before supper. It seemed fitting that as a reward for finishing there was Flapper Pie for dessert. Although mine wasn’t as light and fluffy as I remember Mum’s, it was very good just the same. My meringue wasn’t as fluffy either, even with three egg whites. I wonder if fresh farm eggs make better meringue than the ones I buy at the store?

I also finished the last scarf from the bag of yarn I had. My donation collection is growing and I’ll be ready should the grandkids (or kids) need mitts and scarves next fall. OMG – it is hardly even Spring and I’m thinking next winter already!

I finished up the three birthday cards this morning. I will stitch the binding down while I have my coffee in the morning and they will be in the mail on Monday. I had been working on changing the the measurements for the speaker “things” that Pat wanted but I knew that this first trial wasn’t going to be right. This afternoon I stitched it up and I will try to sell it as a fabric basket at the quilt show. I have a couple of other works-in-progress that I hope to finish and have ready for the sale next weekend. Between now and then though I have a Board meeting, a Guild meeting and some shopping to do before the show. And did I mention our bathroom renovations should finish up next Friday (quilt show set-up is Friday morning until early afternoon) and then I’ll have to do a quick clean for the House Concert on Saturday night (after a full day at the show). Life is never boring around our house!

Tonight we have been invited to a house concert. Friends who occasionally come to our shows have their son-in-law and a friend coming from the Island and they are doing this concert as a fundraiser for the Outrigger Club. We know several of the outrigger paddlers and it was nice to be invited.

Yesterday morning while Pat was trolling the Internet and I was playing on my iPad, he asked if I had ever heard of Flapper Pie. Well of course I had – I can almost taste Mum’s right now. Once Flapper Pie was in my mind I had to have it. I was surprised that the recipe wasn’t in Mum’s recipe book; only the recipe for the graham wafer crust.

When I was out shopping yesterday afternoon I picked up the graham wafer crumbs I needed. The ingredients in the recipe Pat found were pretty basic – eggs, milk (I had some past-due cream that I used), vanilla and corn starch. No doubt Mum had the recipe well memorized and didn’t need it written out.

I started hand stitching the quilt binding this morning before heading up the street to a Garage Sale at the United Church. They have one every Spring – they start at noon on Friday which seems odd but there was quite a crowd there when I arrived. I wasn’t looking for anything but I picked up a large, decorative ceramic bowl for $3 and a set of new queen-sized sheets for $5.

As soon as lunch was over I made the Flapper Pie; it is pretty quick to make as it was just over an hour from start to finish. We haven’t tasted it yet but it smells good.

I’m having trouble motivating myself to get this hand stitching done. I was working at the kitchen table this morning and was jumping up and down to look out the windows whenever I thought I saw or heard something. Our bathroom renos are to the point where cabinet placement needed to be decided so I was in and out looking at the various options.

I’ll take a coffee break now and then get back to the stitching.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Did you hear my whoop of joy as I put the last machine stitch into my Celtic Crystals quilt? I knew I would get it finished today but it took a couple of hours longer than I expected. Early in the process Pat asked what I was going to do in the borders. I said the borders were borders and I wasn’t going to do any quilting in them – the batting didn’t require it and I didn’t think it needed it. But as I was finishing up the missed meandering I decided one of the borders should be done; I could have left it but I think I would have regretted it. I know I could go back and do it after it is finished if I thought it still needed it but my feeling is that when the quilt is done I’m done with it. There is lots of hand stitching ahead of me but that will be my evening project until it is done.

While I’ve been stitching this past week I’ve been rethinking my studio set up. One of the bloggers I follow has switched her room around so her machine is in the centre (mine is along an end wall). I’ve done some measuring and, although it will take away some of my walk-in space I think it will work; and even better, the extra room around my computer will be very much appreciated.

Maybe it’s a good thing that I never quite finished my last re-arrange!

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

I am so close to finishing up the blocks on my quilt that I’d like to keep pushing and get it done today but I’m losing my concentration so I think it is better to quit before I make a mistake.

I’ve been focusing so much on individual blocks that it has been awhile since I spread the whole quilt out. I’m impressed with most of the quilting (although I see lots of things I don’t like) but I’m less than impressed with the piecing. I’ve missed a number of points, and some of my seams don’t line up as well as they should.

It didn’t take me long this morning to finish the remainder of the two blocks and move on to the last two corners. As I finished up one of them and turned the quilt to get to the other I noticed that I had missed stitching a couple of lines on the two corners that were finished. I went back and looked at my guide and on the right-hand side of the block they show a quilting design but on the left-hand side they don’t. I guess in some places I was looking to the left side and some to the right so I’m going to have to go back and make sure the corners are all the same. Fortunately it means adding some quilting lines as opposed to having to remove some.

I also noticed that I missed a couple of spots where I need to add some meandering. I know as I was doing blocks I thought the meandering could be done at the same time as I was doing the meandering on the adjacent block. As it turns out I guess I forgot about it when I finally got to that adjacent block. The good news is that I should be able to finish the sewing up tomorrow.

Pat is just getting over a nasty cold and I’m a little afraid I might be getting it. I feel fine (except for wanting to take a nap) but I’ve been sneezing and blowing my nose all day.