Monday, August 29, 2016

I had some cards to get ready for the mail first thing this morning. When I looked at the calendar I’m not sure why I didn’t send them sooner because they may arrive late. In fact very late if the rumours of a postal strike are true. I didn’t go to the main post office today as I had a package to pick up at the postal outlet; one of their mail slots was covered over with a sign “Closed due to postal strike”. The regular red mail boxes didn’t have any signage so maybe they were just getting ready. The package I picked up was the yarn for Christy’s sweater – the same pattern as the one I made for Taylor.

Since I started on cards I continued with the theme. I picked out the binding for two cards, got backing, batting and binding ready for four more cards, and I found patterns and fabric for four new cards. Once I put these together I’ll be done with September’s cards.

I have my Blossoms sashing packed for the bee tomorrow as well as my Leaders and Enders and my Celtic Crystals. I was prepared to fix the placemat I did last week but didn’t have any more of either the focus fabric or the contrasting fabric. Rather than start from scratch I’ll just make this one a bit smaller. I have my camera charging and my camera case in my lunch bag so I won’t forget it tomorrow.

I still have lots of Farmer’s Wife blocks prepped so I skipped them today and did a bit more cutting from my scrap bin. I’ve pulled out everything that I think I want to cut down for myself and filled another bag of bits for Carola. I’ve given up on the knitting project I have been working on (it just didn’t look good) so I found another pattern to make with the same yarn. This one is intended for Gavin and I’m hoping the pattern I picked will be the same size as the one I gave up on. I’ll compare the two measurements before I start.

I finished the basting on one of the pieces (well 96 of the pieces actually) for my I’m a Farmer’s Daughter quilt so I cut 63 cardboard templates and fabric for the next batch to baste. They go quite quickly in the evenings when we’re watching TV.

I’ve managed to get a bit of cross stitch in this afternoon as well as some cleaning. I love a day when all goes according to the plan!

Sunday, August 28, 2016

It was cloudy and windy yesterday but we woke up this morning to more wind and … rain! Pat checked the forecast and it is to be rainy all week. Although I don’t like the hot weather I’m not ready for fall yet. Hopefully this is just a glitch and we’ll get the sun back for September.

I watched another water polo match this morning and this time Canada came out on top. They don’t play tomorrow and their next game translates to a time that is very early in the morning or very late at night. Either way, I expect to be sound asleep and miss it. I’m learning a bit more about the game. There are whistles and horns going almost constantly; I think it is because the players are being mean to one another (penalties don’t seem to be called) or that the time for taking a shot has run out.

I finished appliquéing my blossoms to their background squares. I’ll cut the sashing on Tuesday (or maybe tomorrow) but I’m done with sewing for today. I finished filling an old pillow case of scraps and got it stitched together as a dog pillow. The Guild donates them to the SPCA and it is nice that every little bit of fabric has a purpose.

I picked out a fall cross stitch last night so I’ll be joining the SAL. The pattern is one of Mum’s Hummel’s; I had already planned to make it for Emma (a long time ago) but it fits the criteria so it will be a good incentive to get it done. I’m missing a few colours of floss so unless I can find it locally I may be asking for Kathryn’s help.

For now I’m back to my Advent Calendar.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

I came upstairs to my studio just in time for the live feed (from Montenegro) of Brody’s water polo match. Sadly Canada didn’t come out winners but there is another game tomorrow and, if I did the time change right, I’ll be able to watch it as well. The stands from the camera angle looked absolutely empty but I could hear some cheering and I know Kevin and Tracie (and maybe Josh) were in attendance. In fact at one point I’m sure I heard “Go Saskatchewan”!

Because I had such a productive day yesterday I decided to slack off a bit today. Last week I did four Farmer’s Wife blocks so I thought if I did three today I’d be done early. Maybe it was because I was spending too much time watching the game but the first block took the entire morning. The blocks in the afternoon went a bit faster; number two was done just past two and that seemed too early to quit so I moved on to the third one which I’ve just now finished.

I want to continue with these blocks but I’m in no hurry. At one point I hoped to show the quilt in our spring quilt show but now that I’m working on I’m a Farmer’s Daughter I think it would be fun to display them in the same show. I won’t take the Farmer’s Wife out of rotation, but if I have to use my Saturdays to finish other projects it won’t matter.

One of the cross stitch groups I follow on Facebook just announced a new SAL (Stitch-Along); the theme is to be Hallowe’en or Fall. I’m sure in the many, many books and leaflets I have I can come up with something that fits the criteria. I just need to remember to keep it small!

Friday, August 26, 2016

Although I didn’t finish a thing today I’m very happy with my day. I started by emptying my bin onto my table to see what I had to work with; I’m ending the day with five projects ready for quilting, and two more that just need a bit of finishing before they are ready.

This quilt top was finished so I just had to pull out the backing for it. It will be a donation to the Oncology Ward at the hospital when it is done.

I attached the final borders to this Community Quilt; this was my Leader and Ender project from last year. I had another quilt top that needed to have the corners mitred so this was my practice run. The quilters all say to use our donation quilts for practice so that’s what I did.

Next I was off to run some errands and make a stop at the fabric shop to find backings for the projects I made in France. I purchased a couple of fabrics but ended up using one of the new fabrics and one I had in my stash. Pat really likes these so I think they will be staying here.

This Fat Cats and Dogs quilt only needed the borders mitred. Why it took me so long to get at it I’ll never know. I found the mitred corners quite easy; they aren’t perfect but I’m happy with them. This one is rather large and had to be folded in order to get it to lay flat on my floor.

I had quite a bit of work to do on this one but I was happy to get it finished. I was going to add another border but decided with the flange it really didn’t need anything more.