Sunday, February 26, 2017

Yesterday morning I ripped the paper templates off three sides of the Blossoms quilt, tied in all of the ends, and proceeded to trace out and pin my last ten templates. Since I had lots of time before my afternoon appointment I decided to get a start on the last border. All was going well; when I was down to one last spiral set I realized that when I quilted the five sets above this last one I had caught the backing in the quilting. I had to rip all of them out, and taking out quilting stitches is a lot harder than taking out a seam. I got one set done before leaving for the afternoon.

I was scheduled to sell Guild Raffle Tickets at Quality Foods for a couple of hours in the afternoon. After the morning I had I suggested to Pat that I hoped whoever I was working with was someone I liked because “I wasn’t in the mood”. Fortunately the person I worked with said she saw my name on the list and said “I can work with her” so we had a good time visiting, and we sold a few tickets. Then I rushed home to get ready for our evening out.

Pat’s friend, Evan, was playing at an event at the golf course and he and his wife had invited us to sit at their table. It was Hawaiian night and most people were dressed for the occasion. We knew they were serving Maui ribs but didn’t get the message about wearing our brightest and best Hawaiian gear. Many of the people attending were members of the Rotary Club – Evan and Jill are active members. The woman who runs the quilt shop was sitting at our table so I had more fun than I expected. The Rotarians are all very nice but I don’t think I could keep up with them when they are in a party mood!

This morning it was back to reality – more ripping and then more quilting. I finished the quilting and, since I had the sleeve and binding already prepped, I was able to get all the sewing done before lunch. I know I said I was taking the rest of the day off when the quilt was finished but I was so happy to be done I haven’t even minded doing the laundry and some cleaning this afternoon.

Maybe that is because I’ve celebrated the finish in a couple of other ways – before I was actually finished. A Guild member had a sewing machine for sale and advertised it on our Guild Facebook page. I was interested when I saw it but I didn’t need a new machine. But it kept niggling at me so I asked a few questions and downloaded the manual. It is an older model Janome but Myrt says it does free-motion quilting. Pearl, my current traveling machine, doesn’t do free motion and is heavier by a few pounds than this model. By Friday afternoon I had decided I deserved it and bought it. I’ll pick it up on Thursday at the Guild meeting.

The Guild offers a Spring Retreat but I have never gone. In past years it has been on Texada and it was always full before I got my name in. Last year it was held a bit closer to home, at the Wilderness Centre on Haywire Bay. My understanding was that the conditions were rustic but everyone had a good time and the conditions weren’t that rough. The last time I was at the quilt shop Deb mentioned that I wasn’t on the retreat list; she convinced me I should go. She still had about half of her list empty so I said I needed to check the calendar at home before committing. When I saw her last night she said she only had two spaces left. I assured her I wanted to go so, a couple of weeks after the quilt show, I’ll be off for a long weekend of stitching.

Pat is out tonight but I just can’t take another night away. I may do something practical, like prepare for my meetings next week, or I may reward myself by starting a new knitting pattern and relaxing. I can’t imagine the rewards I’ll be granting myself when I get the next quilt done!

Friday, February 24, 2017

I really didn’t plan to go out tonight. Someone booked the hall for a Cabaret-style show and she asked Pat to do sound for her. When Pat came home from the sound check he said she was really good and I might enjoy it.

If I stayed home I think I could finish the quilting on the last borders of Blossoms. On the other hand it would be nice to attend a show at the hall when I’m not actually working. Even if I stayed home I don’t think there is any way I’d have the binding attached to the quilt until Sunday, and it really doesn’t matter if it is Sunday AM or PM because I’m going to take the rest of the day off on whatever day it is done. I’m out most of the day tomorrow so I’ve pretty much written it off.

So, planned or not, I’m out the door in a few minutes.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

I spent most of the day yesterday quilting, with several trips downstairs to see our new ferry circle and pull into the terminal. The boat was open for tours for a few hours but we decided not to bother going down to the dock – we had an excellent view from home. The boat is shorter than the old Queen of Burnaby but much taller; all in all I think it holds slightly fewer cars. From the house it appears to move much faster than the old one. I can’t help but wonder just how long it will look “good as new” and not like the rust bucket we currently see come and go. We’ll take a trip across to Comox one of these days and check it out first-hand.

We were off last night to another Dine Out meal and a movie. We go to The Modern Peasant relatively often – they serve the best fish and chips in town – but they had a set three-course meal that included their one-piece fish and chips plate. Whenever we’ve been there in the past they’ve had other customers, but they had a good crowd out last night during the hour we were there. We are beginning to make friends with all the other theatre patrons after seeing them at the film festival and two other movies this week. We were saying we were glad that the Lego movie was up next – not that we want to see it but that we will get a bit of a break. They showed trailers for two upcoming movies and they both look excellent. Two of the upcoming films are based on books so today I put them on hold at the Library. While we were at the mall today I also picked up a couple of $2 books from our local Coles store. I don’t get much time for reading but I may add a reading night to my as-yet-to-be-tried new schedule!

As I have done most days this week I’ve been working on my Blossoms quilt. I really want to be finished by the weekend but I’ll have to have a very good day tomorrow if that is to be the case. I did a bit of Cranberry Hall work today; our meeting is next week and I am not in the least prepared. The Guild meeting follows the night after the Board meeting but with everyone focused on the quilt show there won’t be much for me to report.

After stitching 49 leaves in the various borders on my quilt you would think I’d be brave enough to try them free-hand, but I’m not there yet. I have noticed though that my traced patterns are a little sketchier with each border. The quilting hardly shows but since I started this way I’m committed to finishing it this way. Okay – back to it.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The movie theatre was the last place I expected to be last evening but you have to take advantage of the films when they are in town. Believe it or not we’ll be at the movies again tomorrow night for the start of the Cinematheque series.

But before we got to the movie we went out for dinner as part of the Dine 2017 promotion. Several different restaurants around town have special prices on set menus. We’ve never eaten at Strikers Bar and Grill; in fact I don’t think we’ve ever been in the building to visit the bar or to go bowling. Another first for me was a dish of poutine which was part of the set meal. I can’t say I liked it much but it was tolerable after picking out all the globs of cheese. The poutine along with a burger and half an order of nachos was far too much for either of us to finish.

Yesterday I finished quilting the motifs on Blossom. I’m a bit worried about how much time this is going to take to finish; I was awake at 5:30 this morning and finally, at about six, I got up and managed to get four blocks done before heading off the the bee.

Since I am quite focused at home on items for the quilt show I worked on several small projects today. I finished up another week’s worth of flying geese, I finished two card tops, and I worked on a basket for Pat. The basket is a bit of an experiment for a specific purpose (to hide the box that his new speakers sit on) and I’m not yet sure if I’m on the right track. I’m trying to enlarge a thread-catcher basket, but only in the height. I also managed a few more rail fence blocks before coming home.

Pat has been doing some promo work for the next house concert, an extra house concert we are putting on, as well as an upcoming concert at Cranberry Hall. Since we had so many no-shows at the last concert we are insisting that everyone pay in advance for the March show. We are sold out (on paper) so if folks don’t pay by the end of the month we will start working our way down the waiting list. Bob Bossin has played a Cranberry Hall show in the past; he will be in town with an art event and asked if Pat wanted him to do a house concert. He was very popular so we will host his show a week after our regularly scheduled show. Tickets are selling well and I expect another sell out. The tickets for the Cranberry Hall concert will be handled in advance by the newspaper office but we’ve had a few inquiries about when it is happening. It is getting confusing as to who is coming to what shows and who is paying; to make things just a tad more difficult Pat set a different price for the Bob Bossin concert. I accepted money for tickets without knowing the price had changed so now we owe money back to a couple of folks.

This week I started what is supposed to be a new schedule – the first day didn’t work out so well but maybe it will be better tonight. I’m feeling a need to have a couple of free evenings during the week in order to play my ukulele and to work on my photo/writing project. Last night was supposed to be the first night of “something other than television” but we went to the movie instead. That being the case, I guess I have a choice as to what I work on tonight.