Saturday, December 10, 2016

I had a productive day yesterday and finished my card tops with the exception of a half dozen seams that I stitched this morning. Today was all about quilting and getting the binding on them. They are all ready for me to do the hand stitching on this evening; by Monday they will be in the mail and I’ll be done! And it really isn’t that late even though it feels like I’ve been running from behind over the last several weeks.

I called Brian today to wish him a Happy Birthday. Imagine my surprise when he told me that his birthday isn’t until tomorrow. Since I first knew Brian I’ve wished him a Happy Birthday on the 10th. He said I shouldn’t feel bad because Diane often woke him on the 10th by singing Happy Birthday. I’m surprised she didn’t correct me over the years but I’m glad I’ve got it straight now – one extra day to get his card ready in future years!

Pat is playing at a restaurant in Lund tonight; it is the start of their annual Scandinavian Yulebord. From the photos I saw of the menu choices it was pretty much all small fish of some sort – no doubt lots of herring, picked and otherwise. I opted to stay home and make cookies for the Song Circle tomorrow afternoon.

The snow that was predicted for today didn’t arrive, just lots of mist and rain. Occasionally there were a few flakes of snow in the mix but nothing to worry about. I hope the temperatures stay above freezing until Pat gets home tonight; it could get icy on some of the hills and curves between Lund and home.

What did arrive today was one of my new toys – the templates for free-motion quilting. I had to work hard not to open the package up and give it a try (I was, after all, doing some quilting) but I resisted the urge and I’ll look forward to spending time learning a new technique over the Christmas holidays. It is hard to determine just what the Christmas holidays are when you are retired. I consider it holiday time from the moment my last gift/card is in the mail until after New Years.

Off now to start those cookies – Whipped Shortbread. While they bake I’ll start stitching the binding down on my cards.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

I did a little making and a little wrapping today and there is no contest – I like making a whole lot better than wrapping.

I finished a project last evening and decided there was time for one more quick thing this morning. I did a search for a pattern and found several online that would have been fun to try, but speed was the biggest consideration so I opted for the simplest pattern. The pieces were as quick and easy to complete as they promised (that sometimes isn’t the case). It was fun picking out fabrics that I thought would be good for each of the grandkids.

I wanted to get as many packages as possible wrapped and in the mail today in case we get a lot of snow tomorrow and I don’t feel comfortable getting out to the post office. The packages that I mailed today won’t go out until tomorrow because I missed the cut-off time; they still have lots of time to arrive at their destination though. When I was still in the planning stages for my projects I wish I had considered how easy (or difficult) things would be to wrap and ship – maybe next year!

I’ve got more packages to wrap this afternoon and then I may do a quick clean-up in my sewing room. Things are a real mess and it is getting harder and harder to find things when I need them. I’ll be on to some cards next and it would be nice to start them with at least a clean cutting and ironing board.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

I woke up this morning to the sound of sand and salt trucks going up and down the hill so I decided not to venture out to the bee. I get a lot more stitching done at home than I do at the bee, and I need to keep making progress.

I finished the binding on my cards last night and spent all morning finishing up three more gifts. At the end of the day yesterday I did a trial project that worked out quite well so today I’ve got nine more ready to stitch. What is wrong with me?

The good news is that tomorrow I’ll have some packages to mail out. I’ll finish off my Christmas shopping while I’m out and then the parcels should start coming together relatively quickly. After they go it is back to more cards.

I ran into one problem today. If you had a glue gun and used it about once every three or four years, where would you store it? I found lots of extra glue sticks and I’ve search high and low but the gun itself is nowhere to be found. I can manage without it but it bugs me that it isn’t in any of the spots I thought I would have stored it. I guess since I haven’t found it yet I haven’t looked in all my hiding places!

Back to the machine – there is still a bit of time before supper!

Monday, December 5, 2016

It has been snowing for most of the day but I think it has stopped now. There is some accumulation on the roofs and grass, but the streets look fine. I guess if the temperature drops low enough they could get icy but I didn’t have anywhere to go today so it didn’t bother me a bit.

I’ve been working all day and I’ve made some good progress. I knew last night that if I could just “get the hang of it” my three projects would go quickly. And that is exactly how it worked out; I had all three ready to have the ends buried by the time supper was ready. I spent some of my evening tying in the knots and couldn’t believe it when I found two mistakes in the first one – that was the one that gave me all the trouble to start with. I was sure I had fixed it all. It was a quick fix this morning as I reverse-stitched the pieces that were wrong before I went to bed last night.

So I have three gifts to finish some hand stitching on and three cards to do the binding on. I finished another project completely and I’m working on a companion piece to go with it. I have another small gift that needs the glue gun but I’m not sure I’ll have time for that this afternoon.

I brought a new book home from the Guild library about quilting with your walking foot. I glanced at it quickly and did a couple of cards using her freezer-paper technique. It ended up being a bit like paper piecing because you still had papers to pull out. For the third card I did a bit more reading and realized I was doing it wrong; card number three worked much better.

Our dishwasher is on the blink. We tried and tried to get it to run last night with no luck; I know if we could just get it started it would work fine. We called the appliance repair this morning but he won’t be able to come until Wednesday. The full load of dishes couldn’t wait that long so my lunch break was spent doing dishes and peeling vegetables for a soup.

So it was work, work, work all day long – no wonder I’ve made progress!