Tuesday, November 15, 2016

I had a good day at the bee. I was in charge of opening up for everyone so I arrived early and had all the tables set up before anyone else came along. Our usual door opener was off to the Island today; I was nervous about the alarm system but when I arrived and opened the door there was no beeping so I guess the last one out yesterday didn’t set the alarm. I cautiously moved around the hall for the first few minutes worrying that a motion detector would sound but it didn’t.

I got the centre portion of my Advent Calendar finished. I sandwiched some Steam a Seam between my backing fabric and the Aida cloth and then did a fold over binding. The corners don’t look all that good but, since I’m using buttons to hold the charms, I will put a button in each of the corners. I got another charm stitched (now I have four) and three of them have been backstitched. I will outline the charms but some of the back stitching within the charms seemed excessive so I’ll skip it. Some of the buttons I picked to hold the charms are a bit too big so at some point I’ll have to find some that are smaller.

When I left for Houston there were several buds on our Christmas cactus; at least we thought they were buds but new leaves often start out the same way. They were in fact buds and look at what we have now! Isn’t it amazing what a bigger pot and fresh soil will do. My orchid has a bud on it as well so we’ll keep our eye on it.

I have three books that are due back at the library tomorrow, and I’ve only finished reading one of them. I have another one due in three days. I tried to renew them and was successful in all but one so I guess I should spend more time reading than stitching over the next few days. The library doesn’t charge any fines; they have a “Fines” jar on the counter and my understanding is you put in something if you are late with a book. All that may change though because they have found asbestos in the building they have been renovating for our new library. The new library was supposed to open this fall and then that was moved to February when a “Stop Work” order was issued because the contractor didn’t have the correct building permits. Last week they issued another “Stop Work” order due to the asbestos so who knows if we’ll ever get a new library. Since the current location is just across the street from home I don’t mind all these delays.

I don’t think my lighting is good enough downstairs to stitch charms while we watch TV so I guess I’ll continue with my knitting tonight.

Monday, November 14, 2016

I had a great weekend on Texada – good friends, good food, and lots of stitching.

On the 40 minute ferry ride over to Texada we watched a couple of hump back whales as they were making their way south, perhaps to Hawaii. They were huge! I’ve seen Orcas quite a few times, but these were my first hump backs. The ferry ride home was a completely different adventure. The winds were howling and the rain was pouring and I wasn’t sure the ferry was even going to run, but it did. The waves were huge out in the open water and they were crashing over the windows of the upper deck. Apparently some vehicles were moving around on the car deck but nothing hit anything so we were all able to drive off when we docked in Powell River. Although I didn’t feel any motion sickness, it was definitely the roughest crossing I’ve ever had.

I can’t show you any of my weekend stitching as it was all Christmas related. I finished the tops of four cards on Friday and I did a bit of cross stitching Friday evening. Saturday I worked on a series of five gifts, which were all finished to the point that I needed my better machine for the appliqué. Sunday was another cross stitching day but we packed up shortly after one so it wasn’t a full day.

I have, however, had a full day of cross stitching today and I’m doing my happy dance because I have the centre panel stitching all finished. I’ll take it to the bee tomorrow and see about adding some borders and a backing. I still have charms left to do but Stacia, Deloise and I thought if I got the centre done I could send packages of charms as they were completed, as long as I had more charms done than the number of days before Christmas. I still have some work to do concerning what is going into the Advent Calendars this year; I’m aiming for something completely different so it may take longer than usual to get that sorted.

I’m off now to get my bag packed for tomorrow’s bee.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

It’s time to pack another suitcase; I’m off to Texada Island for the Guild’s fall retreat. I spent a lot of time this past week choosing and cutting fabric for my projects. I think the only way any Christmas gifts are going to be made is if I do them this weekend. I have more packed than I can possibly get done, but even one or two finishes will make me happy. Any extra spare time I’ve had this week has been spent working on my cross stitch project.

We always do a “Friday Night” project at retreat; we are given a supply list but we don’t know what we are to make. I read the supply list and, although I could have pulled the fabric from my stash, it called for a couple of zippers and some fusible products that I don’t have. Given the two zippers I expect it will be a bag or pouch of some sort so I decided I wouldn’t participate. My Friday night project will be more work on my cross stitch.

Saturday night includes a Strip Poker game – playing for strips of fabric! The colours were to be lime green and black and I don’t have any of those colours in my stash. So, again, I’ve decided not to participate; my gamble will be whether or not I get my cross stitch done before the end of the month.

Since our trip to Houston I don’t feel bad about not purchasing new supplies. I’m anxious to get my Christmas projects finished and my quilt show entries completed. After that I have a new plan for finishing up some works in progress as well as allowing me to start a few new projects. I’m more motivated than ever to concentrate on my own work rather than participating in projects that aren’t on my lists. To that end I’ve even started unsubscribing to some of the blogs; they are just too tempting with “free” patterns, new books and new tools.

I’ve been back at my knitting in the evenings. Elizabeth requested more mitts so I have one pair finished; the headband to match is almost done and I think I’ll have enough yarn for a scarf. I’m using up some of my yarn and I almost have a bin emptied!

Now I’d better pack up my cross stitch, make my appetizer for tomorrow’s supper and pack a suitcase.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

It has taken a few days to get back into the routine of “life after the show”. It was a wonderful few days spent with Stacia and Deloise; we could have enjoyed our visit anywhere but the fact that it happened at an International Quilt Show made it so much better. Even Alex was impressed when I told him the vendor area was the equivalent of nine (yes 9) football fields. No wonder we had trouble keeping our purchases under our allowable limit for getting back into Canada duty free!

The quilt exhibits were absolutely amazing; it was like walking through an art gallery. They were so amazing that I was able to enjoy them for their beauty knowing that I would never make anything that came close to their beauty. There were a few favourites though and I did get some ideas from them. We saw demos and tours by some of the exhibitors, and I can’t even begin to describe the samples we saw in almost every vendor’s booth.

It was interesting that all three of us were drawn to the same vendors. My purchases were mainly kits for wool felt embroidery and “regular” embroidery (no doubt a reflection of the redwork class I just finished). There were a few new tools that came home with me, and I have a couple of new techniques that I’m anxious to try. There is no way I can show you my purchases, but here are just a few of my many favourites from the show.