Wednesday, March 1, 2017

This morning Pat helped me with my “on the table” method for pin-basting my Celtic Crystals quilt. He devised quite a system of clamps and boards to hold things in place and then, as I needed to move the quilt, he helped to reposition and reclamp everything. It all looked like it was working perfectly but when we finished and I turned it over I could see a few spots on the back where the fabric wasn’t pulled quite tight enough and there is some bunching. I think I can redo those sections one at a time on my table upstairs. The process was so much easier than being down on my hands and knees on the floor, and the bunching isn’t any worse than I’ve seen when I pin-baste at the Guild and carry the quilt home.

After lunch I finished my report for the meeting tonight. I had most of the work done but, since the meeting falls on the first of the month, I had to get the final financial numbers from the bank statement. I also had to make a revision to one of my Guild reports. I’d rather have everything done ahead of time and do one or two revisions than leave them all to the last day.

When I got all of those things done I thought I should try to develop some sort of a quilting schedule to be sure I’m done in plenty of time for the quilt show. There is a large centre medallion on the quilt, and 16 blocks around the centre. The quilting pattern I’m following (from Superior Threads) is different for every block so it made making the schedule easier (sticking to it will be more difficult). Keeping in mind we have two House Concerts this month, I’m signed up for an afternoon to sell Raffle Tickets, we have our bathroom renovations being done and I have a one-day class I can still get everything done (on paper) before the end of the month. I’ve allowed a couple of days for “catch up”; dare I hope they might be “get-ahead” days?

So, before I get behind on the first day of my schedule I’d better get busy re-pinning my quilt.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

My schedule was so new that yesterday I completely forgot about my “ukulele night” when I wrote my journal entry. I spent over an hour last night learning Swing Low Sweet Chariot; I learned to finger pick it and I learned a couple of alternate strumming patterns. Now if I could just sing well enough I might have “something”. It is fun though and I think, for now, it is more of what I want to be doing than the Ukulele Club was giving me.

Today was a bee day and I took along lots of things to work on – as usual, too many. For the second week in a row I didn’t get anything done on my Bingo quilt. I managed to get the eight flying geese done, part of my Wild Goose Wednesday quilt.

I got the backing pieced for my Celtic Crystals quilt. I hope to be pin basting it tomorrow and, maybe, I’ll be able to get some of the stabilizing stitching done.

Next up was the speaker cover I’m making for Pat. I’ve gone far enough now that I’m pretty sure I got the measurements wrong. I may be able to salvage what I have already done, but if I can’t I’ll complete it and offer it for sale at the quilt show – as a thread catcher or tool bin. And if it doesn’t sell I can use it myself.

I worked on two card tops but neither of them are finished. One needs some bright yellow fabric (which I’ll have to buy); I decided that I wanted to use Steam-A-Seam on the other one and I hadn’t taken it with me. I’m particularly loving the Dresden Plate card. They will be quick finishes and I’ll quilt all four of my March cards on my new machine.

In and around all these other projects I got several more of my Rail Fence blocks done. There was a moment of synchronicity last week when I came across a new setting for a rail fence quilt. I will definitely be using it if I ever get my 500+ blocks done. I haven’t even checked to see if that will be enough, but I know that was the number for the setting I was planning to use.

I’ll start hand stitching the binding on my Blossoms quilt tonight.

Monday, February 27, 2017

I didn’t plan to do any sewing today, but I planned to accomplish a lot more than I managed.

It took me all morning to sort out the paperwork and prepare for the Cran Hall Board meeting on Wednesday. I also wanted to get the Guild reports and meeting prep done but I didn’t even make a start on it, not to mention the pile of my own and Pat’s paperwork. After lunch I went out to the bank to make a deposit and I stood in line for 20 minutes waiting for a teller. From there I went to Staples to look for some bulldog clips; it took me awhile to find them but they didn’t have any the right size. From there I walked to Canadian Tire; I found five clamps that look perfect, but I needed six of them. I waited ten minutes for a clerk only to be told they showed six in stock but they couldn’t locate that sixth one for me.

When I got home I started gathering projects together for the bee tomorrow. I received a call that I need to go to Dwight Hall tomorrow afternoon to figure out how many tables we will need for the Quilt Show Boutique. For someone “not really in charge” I seem to be doing a lot of the planning.

The good news is that there is nothing on our schedule for tonight. I’m hoping for an early bedtime; I think I’m still a bit wiped out from all that quilting.

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!