Friday, August 12, 2022

I am ever so slowly catching up on my task list. With this week’s finish of Ashford Square I have completed everything that was listed on my January UFO list. The quilt with Mum’s fabric is done (scrappy), the Guild Challenge placemats that were supposed to be done for June are ready to quilt (piecing) and Gavin’s Log Cabin was ready in time for his birthday in April (quilting). Now, on to February’s list!

It has been awhile since I spent any time out in the yard. It was cooler today so Pat and I worked outside most of the morning. He pulled a few weeds and sprayed one side of the patio with weed killer; I cleared the weeds from the other side of the patio. I’ve more or less given up on the gardener as far as helping with the weeding; I’m okay with that as long as he will do the blackberries in the rose wall and keep the boulevard mowed.

After lunch I came upstairs and got a card top finished. I thought this was going to be the last one from the book but there is one more to do. I have lots of cards required for September so I expect I’ll get to that last one soon. Last night when I unwrapped my Sashiko sampler I was disappointed to see I have four more sections to do, not the two I thought there were. I know math can be an issue for me but I used to know how to count!

I’ve been making phone calls this afternoon lining up leaders for the Guild classes and demos. All but one have been settled but I had to do some convincing for a couple of the sessions.

I’ll head downstairs now and do some more work on my sampler.

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Finally I got back to my Thursday sewing. It has been almost a month since Gail and I got together and, as you can imagine, there was a lot of catching up to do. In fact all we did was catch up; neither of us did any sewing. I wasn’t there for long so I didn’t plan to do anything. Pat’s truck has been acting up so he wanted to take the car out to Lund for his performance tonight so I had to be home early.

I finished up the last of the 10″ blocks yesterday and today I got another 12″ block done; just one more postage stamp block to go and then they will both be ready to put together for my Circle of Nine class. After the samples are done I may try to get one of them quilted before the “reveal” at the end of September.

I have to start thinking soon about any quilts I want to get done for the quilt show – very soon in fact. I have two that I really want to put in the show and neither one of them is finished. Hopefully when I actually step down from the Hall I’ll have a bit more time for myself.

I’m off now to do some more Sashiko stitching in the cool of the basement.

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

It was quite warm in the house yesterday and we had the fan on in the bedroom all night. It is cooler today and we have a good breeze as well. I hung laundry on the line this morning; the first load was pretty much dry before I had the second load ready to hang.

After the Hall meeting last night I had quite a few things to organize and pass along. I also had to do a few updates to my Guild work after the sewing session yesterday. It took until noon to get both tasks finished.

Since Guild work was disrupting my sleep at five this morning I decided I should tackle some of the necessary sewing this afternoon. I need nine blocks in various sizes for my Circle of Nine class so I dug out the calendar blocks I had made during our Covid isolation and figured out how many more I needed to make up the required nine in the various sizes. Right now I have the 15″ blocks done (and I’ll finish off the quilt top on this one), I need two more 12″ blocks, and I needed only one more of the 10″ blocks.

I was able to dig into my scraps (collected by size) and came up with everything I needed. I have the sixteen half-square triangles made and trimmed and, hopefully, by the end of the day I’ll have the 10″ blocks finished.

But before I do that I’m going to bring in my laundry. The wind has picked up even more and there was a chance of a shower in the forecast.

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

I’ve been missing in action for the past two days but I didn’t want to bore you. I spent both of those days quilting and then working on Sashiko in the evening. It might bore you to hear about it a couple of days in a row but I quite enjoyed myself.

I finished the binding on the quilt just a few minutes ago. I used the yardage I had from Mum’s stash for the front and pieced together bits of her remaining fabric for the back. Pat thinks what I call the back could be the front so I guess we’ll call it reversible. He’s even suggested that we hang it in the living room rather than throw it on the spare bed which is what I intended to do with it.

My Program Committee work is coming together nicely. I was able to meet with the booking person at the Legion this morning and we have all the dates confirmed for the remainder of the year. They haven’t started booking into 2023 yet but I’ll pass along the dates I’m looking for so we’ll be “in” early. Next up I need to start contacting the teachers we hope will lead the demos and classes that we’ve picked.

I have to get samples ready for the Circle of Nine class. Although the class isn’t until next Spring I need samples for the end of September. I purchased fabric for one of the quilts I’ll be using this method for and I have almost enough postage stamp blocks for another. I’ll try to get blocks of different sizes done so there is a variety of ideas. Those blocks will be my Thursday project until they are done.

Pat has talked about taking the fence down for a long time; I wanted to replace it with something else but Pat thought the cost would be very high. He made a start at taking it down several weeks ago but didn’t have any success. But yesterday he bought a new hammer and gloves and really got to work. He’s got all but about half a dozen panels down and all, including the ones that still need to come down, have been given away. I’m not a fan of how it looks but I’m trying to think positively and Pat is coming up with all sorts of ideas on things we can plant.

I’ve got a Hall meeting tonight so I’d best get ready for it.