Monday, February 6, 2017

There was more snow overnight and for most of the day today. I postponed my meet-up this morning because, with the frost overnight, I expected the roads to be slippery. Facebook was full of closures (shops, social gatherings, events) so I thought it best to stay at home. I would have liked to have made it to the post office with my mail but if cards are late there is no harm done. I promised I would have some Guild photos ready for pick-up at the bee tomorrow but but I didn’t make it to Walmart, and I’m already thinking I won’t go to the bee anyway. Another Facebook post says we’ve had almost 18″ of snow since Friday – almost twice the amount as Gibsons and more than Comox or Campbell River. It can stop anytime now!

I spent the morning doing the prep work I would normally do to get ready for a bee – scraps cut and put away, a few flying geese pieces cut, three more Bingo blocks ready to go, a couple of sleeves and a label. I also have two more cards that need to be put together before the end of the month. I could work on them at home tomorrow if I don’t go out but, since I’m set up for quilting, I think I’ll finish that first.

I’m probably about half finished my Les Ceresiers II project. I misread some of my notations and ended up with a blanket stitch rather than a satin stitch around the fans. Once I realized my mistake it was too late to take it out and start over so I continued on. I was able to switch to a satin stitch after the fans were done. I have all the circles done in the centre – I just have to find the right circle template for the small fans in the corner. After that I’ll be on to some free-motion and, although I worry about doing it, it goes very quickly.

One of the participants at the weekend retreat in England posted some photos. I thought it was just four of the people from France taking part but there were two more familiar faces in the crowd. The only ones missing were me, Sheila (from England) and Gail (from France). Not fair!

My knitting took a bit of a back-step last night; I checked with Christy yesterday and I needed to add a few inches to the length so I had to take out the part I’d done after the neck line. It knits quickly though so I’ll be caught up in no time.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

I cannot believe the snow we are getting. Some folks are saying they haven’t seen this much snow in over 20 years. It has been melting today but it has also been snowing off and on most of the day. I cleared off the sidewalk this afternoon so the mailman could deliver mail tomorrow but it may have to be done again. I guess the temperature is critical now; if it freezes everything that I cleared will have a coating of ice. I have to go out tomorrow morning so I’m hoping we get rain overnight.

I started quilting one of my projects today. I panic thinking I’ll never get two done this month but when I realize it is only the 5th I calm down. I have a busy week ahead so I’m glad this particular project can be done in small stages.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

I planned to attend a seminar today about publishing your own eBook but, early this morning, it was postponed. The snow didn’t go away last night – in fact we had even more of it. It is melting now and big clumps are falling off the trees and the wires; there is a large branch off the tree across at City Hall but no other problems for us. There are folks south of town without power, no doubt due to branches falling on wires. I don’t think we’ll see the end of this for a few more days.

My plan for today was to do a few little tasks in my sewing room before heading out this afternoon. Since I had a longer block of time I worked on my quilt challenge piece this morning. After lunch I pin-basted my Fan Club quilt; four of the ladies from the class in France are together again this weekend at a sewing retreat so it seemed fitting that I should work on this last project from France.

After being on my hands and knees my back, hips and knees are feeling a bit overworked. I’ll have a glass of wine and relax for the rest of the day – I know those ladies in England are drinking wine, having a fab time and they will be chuffed that I’m getting this project done!

Not what we want to see at any point during the winter, but we woke up to snow this morning. Pat knew it was coming but it was a complete surprise to me when I looked out the window. There is a lot of it out there; it had stopped for a while but I see it is falling again now. I’m glad I didn’t have anywhere I had to go today. In what seemed like odd timing, I swapped out my Snowman Scentsy light for my year-round Scentsy; the box for the Snowman was in the way of something else I was doing so I decided to put it away rather than just move it around.

I worked on some of my show entries this morning adding labels and sleeves to a couple of small pieces. When that’s all I have to do it is easy to think I’m well ahead in the game; I’ve got a busy couple of weeks ahead though so the time will fly. I’m hoping my schedule will allow me to get two items quilted this month and the final one quilted in March, just in time for the show. We’ll see how that works out for me. I asked at the meeting last night as to when the final date for pulling an unfinished item might be – the comment warranted a lot of laughter but I didn’t get an answer.

I did a bit of work on another project before breaking for lunch. Once I get started on a section of something or a step in something I like to get it done before quitting. After finishing up I reached around to pick up my glasses off my computer desk but they weren’t there. I looked on my sewing table – not there. I looked on my cutting table – not there. I looked on my ironing board – not there. I looked on my other desktop – not there. I was beginning to worry so I made the rounds again, and again. Thinking there ought to be a remote control for such occasions I started retracing my steps from the entire day. They weren’t in my second craft room where I had done some spray basting. They weren’t in my scrap bin where I’d been finding fabric for my sleeves. I finally found them in the (closed) drawer of my sewing table; I had been looking in there for my “Purple Thang”, and later I’d pulled out a couple of fabric swatches that had examples of some of the fancy stitches on my machine. Deloise gave me a lovely chain to attach to my glasses and hang around my neck – I guess it’s time to start using it again.

Although I probably should be quilting, I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon with some cross stitching. My evening knitting project is going very well; Christy’s sweater is knitting up as quickly as Taylor’s did. Not too surprising though since I’m using chunky yarn.