Sunday, August 21, 2022

I had some computer work to do this morning and I decided that I’d work my way around the room cleaning up what I could. I passed off a couple of Hall duties to another Board member and cleared away some paper and digital files that I/they won’t need any longer. I paid my bills, as well as the Hall’s and I did a bit of prep work for the Guild meeting coming up early in September.

To the left of my desk I had a pile of miscellaneous blocks as well as my postage stamp blocks. I picked out nine of the blocks and set them aside for my Circle of Nine demonstration. Then I trimmed up a few four patches that will eventually go into my postage stamp quilt and put all of that mess away.

I tackled my cutting board next. I cut out five more block of the month packages for the Guild, sorted through their bin of fabric and put it all neatly back in the bin. I was tempted to do a bit of sewing, and even stitched a few seams, before deciding that I needed some cards for the mail next week.

The cards I’m working on are English Paper Pieced and I’m in the midst of doing the prep work for them. My table topper is in my Tuesday bag for hand stitching and, if I get these cards sorted, I’ll add them to the bag.

Pat and I are going to Victoria on Friday for the weekend. Pat’s truck has been acting up and we decided it might be better to take my car instead. Pat drove it to Lund one evening and said he could barely see out the windshield because it was so dirty; he must not have as good eyesight as I do because I never found it to be a problem. Today he decided to wash the car windows. Before he was done he had vacuumed the floors, washed the dashboard and windows, and he even took it through the car wash. Aside from not being able to see well enough I think he was embarrassed to be seen in my messy car!

I’ll get back now to my paper-piecing.

Saturday, August 20, 2022

I’m not sure what got into me over the last couple of days but whatever it is I like it.

I was sorting through a bin yesterday looking for orphan blocks I could use for my Circle of Nine class, as well as samples I could use for the Guild’s reveal party. I found so much stuff in there that I can use elsewhere that the bin is now empty. The stuff, however, is scattered over the surfaces (including floors) of my two rooms.

One of the things I found in the bin was a number of One Block Wonder half blocks that I used in a wall hanging. Not all the blocks that I made fit in the project and I probably should have pitched them immediately. But yesterday it seemed like such a waste to throw them out so I made a small table topper for the deck on Texada. First thing this morning I quilted it and I have it ready to hand stitch the binding. It has turned out that the fabric I picked for the back will now be the front and the pieced part will be the back. Either way it is nice to have something to show for myself in such a short time.

I’ve moved on now to my summer mystery. I’ve been quite a bit behind in it but I’m almost finished Part 3 of 6. I decided to make this more of a priority as I’m sure that there will be a lot of them on display at the next Guild meeting. Since I wasn’t at the final party in June I never got to show the Guild mystery from last year that was designed by the same woman.

So, before I lose my mojo, I’m heading back to my sewing machine.

Friday, August 19, 2022

While we were in Panorama in June Ron was organizing a garage sale at the lake. Stacia asked if I wanted the old dipper from the well at home and I jumped at the chance to have it. As the days moved on Ron found other pots that he thought I might be interested in. Stacia assured me the pots were either Grandma Erickson’s or Great Grandma’s but that may have been a story in order to switch a few things from the garage sale pile to Sherry’s pile. I do remember both of the pots though so I’m assuming Mum used them for something while I was still living at home.

Today I put those old pots to new uses. One holds my fabric scraps that are waiting to be cut and sorted. Another one holds my mad money (note to my kids: don’t look for it in the cookie tin anymore). While we were at a quilt shop in Cranbrook they were displaying buttons in an old pot and what could be more perfect than the dipper to store my button collection (and it will be so much easier to grab them out for Rummoli).

Thursday, August 18, 2022

I wake up every morning more or less knowing what I’m going to do for the day. But life gets in the way and before I can get to my task list I find there are other priorities.

First off is coffee on the deck and work on a crossword. But the dishwasher needed to be emptied, the coffee had to be reheated and dirty dishes loaded again. After coffee and my crossword I thought I’d better get the watering done. While I was at that I did some deadheading and picked the strawberries. Today’s harvest went right into the yogurt I had for breakfast.

After breakfast I watered everything at the front and did more deadheading down there. My reward was another gladiola and a dahlia. The dahlias we got from Elizabeth are huge!

Finally it was time to get started on what I wanted to do for the day – cut some fabric and get organized for my sewing afternoon. But first there were some e-mails that had to be dealt with and a bit of decluttering that should have been done a day or so ago.

I planned to work on my Home Circle (Circle of Nine) in the afternoon. I was surprised that there wasn’t a lot of cutting involved – just some squares in two different fabrics. I had some time before lunch so I did a step in my Summer Mystery. I’m hoping the hard part is over – figuring out which way up the various pieces are supposed to go. In this case my priority should probably have been cutting up some more Blocks of the Month but I just didn’t feel like it.

I was almost out the door for sewing when I got a call from the man who might take over the accounting for the Hall. I had granted him and our President view-only access to the program I use but he couldn’t figure out how to get into it. I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if the problem was on his end. We chatted a bit and he sent me a photo but we didn’t get very far; he is working on a PC and I’m on a Mac so the interface is quite different. We’ll get together in a week or so and try to get it sorted out.

I had a good afternoon at sewing. I might have had the top of the quilt done had I not decided that the arrangement I was using was too bright and I had to readjust. I’ll need to do a bit more cutting before the blocks can be sewn together. There will still be a couple of borders to do but I’m keen to get it finished.

Another hot day today but I’m enjoying my neck fan (thank you Kathryn).