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.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

I’ve got ten entries for the quilt show and, except for two of them, they all need some extra work. Of course they may not all be accepted but since there are just three large quilts, a couple of wall hangings and some miniatures there is a good chance they’ll all get in.

I walked up to the fabric shop today and got the backing I need for Blossoms and Celtic Crystals. I have also been struggling with what to do for my Guild Challenge and, about 6:00 this morning, I figured it out. The big problem I had was I needed a size, and to get a size I needed an idea. Mine will be very simple and I don’t think it will take too much work. I picked up a fat quarter at the shop today that will go in with the other fabrics I pulled from my stash.

I spent a lot of time this morning on Cranberry Hall stuff that I needed to do as a result of last night’s meeting. I was up at 5:30 AM so I still had lots of time to work on other things. Pat was out but was waiting on a delivery so I had to work downstairs; I got busy stitching the binding on my February cards. I even got one of the cards in today’s mail.

I’ve spend some time this afternoon getting ready for tonight’s meetings – Quilt Show and Guild Business Meeting. Oops, I just thought of two more things that need to be done so I’d better get at it. After that I’ll go back to my hand stitching.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

I have been working at getting my quilt show entry forms done. That meant finding the projects, getting sizes and copyright information for them, and assessing what extra needed to be done on them.

This is the stack that is completely finished – sleeve on and label added. Actually I have a full-sized quilt that could be added to this pile but at the moment it remains hanging on the wall. I took this piece off the wall in order to photograph it and measure it. That left such a bare spot that I’ll hang it again until closer to the show.

The unfinished pile is much larger but I’m not as far behind as it may appear. Most of the projects in the pile only need a sleeve and/or a label attached. There are, however, two full-sized quilts and a relatively large wall hanging that need to be quilted. The fabric shop has a sale on this week so I’ll go and pick out backings for a couple of the quilts and then I can get started.

I’ve spent most of the day getting ready for our Cranberry Hall board meeting. In addition to preparing the financial reports I’ve dug into the history of a few topics that have come up over the past month. With everything in that cardboard box it was too difficult to find what I needed so I emptied the box today and have everything stored in my new(ish) filing cabinet. I finished my research and I’m ready to go.

My desktop is covered with my Celtic Crystal bin, patterns and fabric, as well as my lightbox so I had to find another spot to sort through the papers. My cutting table is covered with my quilt show projects and entry forms so I was forced to use my ironing board as a desktop. It is close to my filing cabinet so it is almost as if I had planned to work that way.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

It felt like winter when I headed out for the bee this morning. I had to take time to scrape the frost off my back window – the sides and windshield were clear but I guess the back end of the car was unprotected and ended up being covered in frost. It was the first time I’ve used my new scraper so I guess I didn’t spend my $8 in vain.

I was all set to get the bindings on some cards before moving on but I drew a blank on how to join the ends. I use a single fold binding and I usually don’t have to even think about it. After getting the first one wrong I was more careful but ended up with another one that had to be restitched and a third one that had to be mended to make it work. I’m not sure why I was so “off” but they are done now and ready to hand stitch.

I got the second week of my Wild Goose Wednesday finished but as I was trimming them I had a horrible feeling I had trimmed them too small. I trimmed the ones from the first week after checking my directions but I only trimmed five of the eight for this week. Sure enough, when I got home I checked and I see that the size they give is the finished size, not the unfinished size. I could continue with the size I have but since I’m early in the process I think I will redo them.

With all of those issues I didn’t get any further, other than getting another Bingo block finished.

When I came out of quilting I found that my sweater and scarf were way too warm for the day we were having. And as I was carrying my sewing stuff in from the car I noticed a bit of colour in one of the pots in the yard. Sure enough our Hellebores has a blossom and there are at least half a dozen more buds.

It feels like Spring!