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.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

I had an early start to my day. Pat is teaching this week with a 5:30 start; I heard him get up at 4:30 and, since I’d been awake since four, I decided to get up too. After my coffee and a little iPad time I came upstairs and finished off a couple of colours in my quilt before heading out to the bee. I’ve changed my plan a bit and I am quilting two blocks at a time. The blocks were stabilized before I left for Christy’s and, by doing it this way, I can keep the same thread on my machine until all of one colour is finished. Having the stabilizing done also means I don’t have to change my sewing foot. I should have an easy time tomorrow getting caught up on my schedule and (ever hopeful) maybe even get the two last corners stabilized. I’m really hoping for a finish this week.

My priority at the bee today was to get the sleeve and binding ready for this quilt. I did the measurements yesterday and I was pleased that I had more than enough of the fabric that I wanted to use for the binding. By lunch I had two of my card tops finished, and by the end of the day I had the third one done. I debated about taking my SUV machine with me today in case I got as far as some quilting but decided if I was at the point of quilting the cards I would just come home.

The quilt meeting took up over an hour of my time during the day but the good news is that I only came home with one new job. I have a rather long list of things to take with me for the show set up, as well as some running around and collecting that I will have to do late next week. Since our last Guild meeting is the night before the show the coordinator decided to call a meeting today to go over all the last minute details.

Since we were up early we both kind of collapsed after supper. I did a bit of knitting while we watched TV. I’m working on another scarf that will probably go into the donation bag. I bought a bag of yarn at the Thrift Shop for $3 and I’ll end up with four scarves out of it. I love a bargain – even if I don’t need any more yarn!

Monday, March 27, 2017

I was supposed to be getting back to my quilting as soon as I arrived home but that hasn’t turned out to be the case. I had a great visit with Christy and her family; the weather didn’t cooperate all that well but we did get a few bits of sunshine so we could play at the park, explore the creek, and play some soccer (very badly on my part). The bus both down and back worked well, although it takes the whole day. I couldn’t help but think how proud Grandma McKnight (and her cronies) would have been at seeing Taylor (7 years old) managing to sort out her suits and runs in a card game very much like rummy (Phase Ten). It took a couple of days but Dylan and I were able to figure out the Minecraft card game I took with me.

When I got home I had several requests for Guild work that I needed to get done. I had a Guild order in at Staples, and I needed some coloured paper for sales tags for the Quilt Show. I had birthday presents to order and one present to purchase locally. I took my car for a bit of a run – down through Townsite, up through Cranberry, around Cranberry Lake and back to the shopping centre. Hopefully that will keep the battery charged enough for me to get to and from the bee tomorrow. I’ve done a few loads of laundry – in fact I think I still have one to go into the drier.

I might have considered skipping the bee tomorrow but the show coordinator has called for a meeting tomorrow afternoon. That will limit the number of things I can get done at the bee but I prepared three packages for cards as well as the sleeve and binding fabric for the quilt I’m working on. All of those things need to get done quickly and I’m sure they will be more than enough work to fill my time.

With what is left of the afternoon I’ll get at some quilting and maybe get another block done.

I set the alarm for seven because I knew I had a lot to get done today.

I sold raffle tickets for the Guild for a couple of hours this morning. I had a few errands to run after, as well as some recycling and a bottle-return run.

Pat has a House Concert tomorrow night so I’ve been trying to get as much as possible done today. He’ll have to take care of the last minute things, but I did the vacuuming, dug out the dishes and I’ll finish up the bathrooms and kitchen when I’m done here.

I leave for Christy’s tomorrow morning so I have been gathering things to pack and just throwing them on the bed. I did a small load of laundry and dug out my suitcase. I’ll have to get everything packed up before I can go to bed tonight.

Our bathroom reno will start next week so I cleaned out the bathroom cabinet. I checked expiry dates on a lot of things and, not surprisingly, many items were past their best-before date. So there was more recycling to do. Since I expect dust next week I took down all of my Quilt Show items that were on the walls; they are stored in plastic bags in a bin upstairs.

Pat is playing a set at the music store tonight so I’ll be going to listen. I hope to have time before we leave to pack up a couple of hand stitching projects for next week.