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.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Who knew sitting in a theatre for an entire day could make a person so tired. I slept until almost ten this morning. I’ve spent my time today continuing the quilting on Blossoms. I have half of the motifs finished and, although it wasn’t what I originally planned to do, I’m happy with the results. I’m using a paper template for each block which means I have to trace out three of the motifs, stitch three hexagons, and then remove the papers and tie in the ends. It is slow going but I’m still well on my target for a finish before the end of the month.

Friday, February 17, 2017

I know I’ve said it before, but today really does seem like Spring. I had some Cranberry Hall business to take care of and the drop-off was just a five-minute walk away. Their business just happens to be a bit beyond the fabric shop so on the way home I stopped in. I almost didn’t take my wallet with me but came back into the house for it “just in case”. I didn’t need it but I had a good chat with Deb, the store owner, and another quilter from the Guild.

For most of the day I’ve been working on my Blossoms quilt and I have all the stabilizing done. Now I need to finalize the design I want for quilting the 36 hexagon flowers. I know what I want to do but I’ll have to see if I’m able to mark it on the quilt so I can basically just follow the lines. I’m also hoping to find a motif I can use for both the wide borders and the smaller ones.

It felt so warm upstairs this afternoon that I had to open the window. There is a gentle breeze coming in and, occasionally, it causes my wind chime to sound.

There are two movies in store for us tonight, and four more tomorrow, so there will be no more work done until Sunday.