Sunday, November 20, 2016

The class yesterday was very informative. The instructor is one of the best quilters in the Guild and, in addition to the technique we were there to learn, she gave us lots of other tips and tricks. The class was about invisible machine appliqué; appliqué isn’t my favourite “thing” and I keep thinking I’ll find a better way and one that I like. Unless I can use the buttonhole stitch for the appliqué I always think I miss the mark; so far, even using the new technique, my stitching isn’t very invisible. That being said I was doing it on Pearl and it may work out much better once I’m able to try it on Ruby. In the meantime, as expected, I have another UFO to add to my pile!

Susan gave us some great tips for piecing using glue to baste the seams; this was particularly useful as we matched up triangles on the ends of the table runner we were making. I’ll be adding my bottle of glue to my sewing kit. She was also talking about bringing in a guest instructor to teach us some other piecing tips and tricks. Susan did a workshop with the person she hopes to have come and, according to Susan, her piecing has improved 200%. I’ll definitely sign up for the class if it goes ahead.

Pat and I were watching a show on Netflix last night and something about one of the characters made me think it was Michael Northey. We finished the episode and watched the credits but his name didn’t appear. I thought that if an actor had a speaking role they were always listed in the credits so we went back to the beginning of the show and there it was – Michael P. Northey! We’ve been enjoying the show (No Tomorrow) but it will be even more fun now.

Between my quota of charms today I’ve been doing a bit of cleaning. Our House Concert is on Wednesday and I’ll be out sewing on Tuesday so I need to get as much as possible done ahead of time. The laundry room/junk room will be tomorrow’s project and it will take a good part of the day I think. I’ll still have some last-minute work to do Wednesday morning but the house is looking pretty good I think – provided no one dares to peek upstairs at my sewing rooms!

I’m off now to do some more charms; I started a new knitting project last night and today Christy gave me a new project so I won’t be slacking off in the evenings.

Okay, I have to admit I’m grinning and thinking of Uncle Jack right now; I just realized that I have my shirt on backwards! Good thing I’ve only gone as far as the garbage cans today.

Friday, November 18, 2016

As I was busy reading my book, The Dressmaker, it occurred to me that the story wasn’t aligning very well with the movie trailers we had seen. I purposely borrowed the book because the movie was coming and I wanted to read the book before we saw the movie. As it turned out, the movie was in town the week that I was in Houston; Pat went and said it was really good and he hoped the library would get it in so I could watch it too.

Last night I decided to take another look at the movie trailer. Much to my surprise the movie is set in Australia and my book is set in the UK and America. The movie is based on a novel, called The Dressmaker, by Rosalie Ham; my book, also call The Dressmaker, was written by Kate Alcott.

Here is what the movie poster looked like.

And this is the cover of the book by Kate Alcott.

Well maybe they aren’t as similar as I remembered, but quite a bit alike if you are only glancing and going by your memory of the poster. And isn’t it strange that the two books would have been given the same name?

I wasn’t able to renew my library book because someone else already had a Hold on it. I bet they are going to be as surprised as I was!

Thursday, November 17, 2016

It took until about 10:30 this morning, but I finished up yesterday’s quota of reading and charms!

Instead of making my a puzzle on my iPad while I had coffee this morning I read several pages of my book. I have no doubt that I will get it finished and back to the library on time. The two other library books have been renewed to December so there is no urgency to get them finished.

I did a bit of cleaning before heading upstairs to finish one charm from yesterday and do the backstitching on all three of yesterday’s charms. Once they were done I did a bit of maintenance on Pearl, my traveling sewing machine. It has seen a lot of wear and tear over the last month; two full days of Community Quilts and three days at the Texada Retreat. I have a demo/workshop tonight and a class on Saturday so some oil and a new needle seemed like a good idea.

After lunch I had a Cranberry Hall deposit to make so I added some errands and some groceries to the list. I picked out a few “treats” for the Advent Calendars and lots of vegetables (leeks, potatoes, parsnips) for some winter soups. The weather certainly is right for soups and, if Pat makes a large batch, it lasts for at least a couple of meals.

I finished a knitting project last night; I still have a couple of balls of yarn left so I’ll probably do another pair of mitts to use it up. BOND called yesterday to see if I would help with their Christmas dinner; it is on a Tuesday so I declined but said I had some gifts for their baskets. I have the projects knitted, but I need to sew up the seams on several of the sweaters.

I’ll try to get my charms for the day finished before dinner but the back stitching might have to wait until tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

With a few deadlines looming I decided I’d better set out some clear goals for the next week or so.

I have a library book due in a couple of days. Last night, when I couldn’t renew my book, I figured I needed to read 100 pages a day to get it done by the time it was due. Since yesterday (with some reading last night and this afternoon) I’ve finished about 75 pages. So I need to read a little more than 100 pages for the next two days. The good news is that I can finish the book late at night, get it over to the Library (across the street) early in the morning and they will never know it was late.

The charms for my Advent Calendar are a little more challenging. I figure I have eleven days before this needs to be in the mail. There are 25 charms and I have 4 finished. I need to allow some time to sew buttons on the centre panel and cords on the charms. Saturday will be a write-off because I’m taking a class and, with a House Concert next week, I will lose a bit of time cleaning and entertaining. At a minimum I need to get 3 charms done every day.

With that in mind I’m off to stitch!