Thursday, August 25, 2016

Today was my “office day” and it has taken me nearly all day to accomplish it. My own paper work took very little time and I just might have made some time to order a new cross stitch pattern for myself! I was happy with the pattern I picked for my Canada 150 project but then someone in one of the Facebook groups I belong to posted this. Since I have a whole year (or a lifetime) to stitch my Canada 150 projects I decided to order it.

The Cranberry Hall accounting took up the remainder of the morning; I have a package of information to take to the accountant tomorrow. I don’t think it is in the shape that he would like it (and I’ll do better at my year end) but I didn’t feel like starting over and organizing the paperwork from a year ago.

Most of the afternoon has been spent working on Pat’s accounts. His year end is at the end of the month so I’m trying to catch up on as much as possible before then.

There isn’t much time left in the afternoon but I’ll use it by shredding a bit of paper, sorting out my Finish-It-Up-Friday bin and then doing some cross stitching.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

I made great progress on my cards today. I have four done; two of them are quilted and just need binding added. It certainly helped to have four patterns printed and fabric chosen. I may be on to something with this prep day. I’m still not done September cards though so I can’t ease up just yet.

I signed up for a class at the University this morning – no, I’m not looking to advance my career but they are offering a course called The Contemplative Stitch Series. There are a total of five classes but I’m only interested in one – Boro and Sashiko – I guess that is two but they are both taught in the same session. Luckily I was able to register for just the one class. Boro embroidery appears similar to the Sue Spargo stitches I’ve learned but a refresher will be good since I haven’t finished the project I started with that class.

Tomorrow is office day and it would be wise to use the rest of the afternoon to get a head start – I know there is a lot of Cranberry Hall work to do. But wise is seldom the most fun so I think I’ll grab my book and read on the back deck until dinner.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Remember last week when I mused that because I had all the fabric cut I might be able to get four Celtic Crystal blocks done today. Well that didn’t happen. It was past lunch before I finished my first block. I knew there wouldn’t be time to finish another one (unless I stayed until dinner time) but I was okay because I had the other placemat to put together.

The problem with working with your own design is that there are no directions on how to put it together. I had a middle section and two outer borders to put together and the first time around I put the pieces in the wrong places. No problem – short seams and a quick take apart. Next time things went together perfectly but when I went to add the borders to the top and bottom the centre was three inches too short – I did the math wrong! I calculated the pieces by adding the quarter-inch but when I was adding them up to equal 18″ I didn’t take into account that the pieces in the middle were smaller. I can fix things by adding larger side borders but I didn’t have any of the fabric with me so I packaged it up and left for the day.

Writing the Guild blog was easy as I forgot to take my camera with me – maybe prepping too far in advance (e.g., the day before rather than the morning of) isn’t the best idea for me.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Today was a prep day and I’ve got enough kits put together to last me several weeks.

I packed my Best Press so I’m set to go with my Celtic Crystals tomorrow. I also kitted up another placemat that will be a quick finish. Wednesday is for cards and I have four of those kitted – I’m still working on the September list so I’m not ahead of the game yet. I’m way ahead on my Farmer’s Wife plans; I printed the paper-pieced patterns for seven more blocks and pulled fabric for each of them. At best I can get three done on a Saturday so I can probably skip them next prep day. I got the basting stitches all removed from my Blossoms and hope to finish the appliqué on Sunday.

I’m determined to make Finish-It-Up-Friday work. Although I didn’t look in the bin my plan is to get at least one more top ready for quilting; I know I have a couple of quilts in there that just need the border added. If I decide to quilt my projects from France I’ll have to make a trip to the fabric store – never a chore! Once my Blossoms are finished I will set aside Friday, Saturday and Sunday to quilt. Some of the projects are small and once I get at them they will probably be easy enough to get done in a day. For the larger pieces, once I start quilting, I don’t want to be interrupted with other projects so I may have to skip my Farmer’s Wife blocks for a week or two.

On top of all that I managed to sort through some scraps; some got cut into smaller pieces, some were cut for my Leader and Ender project, and some went into a bag to give to Carola. She uses the tiniest scraps to make crumb quilts!

I think I’ll do a bit more hand stitching before supper. I finished up a knitting project so I’m back to basting pieces for I’m a Farmer’s Daughter in the evenings.