Sunday, July 31, 2022

It’s time for some changes, although I’ve already made a start.

In January, my quilting challenge was to make a quilt using Mum’s fabrics. I had a plan but when I started cutting pieces to fit into that plan I realized I needed a new plan because I didn’t have enough variety in the large pieces of fabric. So I decided to make a 3-yard quilt using the yardage I had. Mission accomplished thanks to our sewing week at Panorama. So the January challenge changed to making a backing for my 3-yard quilt using smaller bits of Mum’s fabric.

Someone at the Guild was making crumb quilts and I thought that would be the way I would do the backing. I’d make 12″ blocks by piecing together bits of fabric in whatever shape they turned out to be. I started out that way but using the little bits was going to take forever so I changed my plan. I’m cutting the fabric down to get the largest piece out of a scrap and I’ll put those together for my blocks. I don’t seem to be making much of a dent in the bin where I store Mum’s fabrics so I’m confident I’ll have lots to complete the backing.

I’ve also decided that I need to see a finish – it has been too long since something was completed. So, once I get the backing put together I’m going to sandwich and quilt this project, no matter what other projects crop up on my to-do list.

I’m doing a bit of the same with my hand stitching. These hot days have me hiding out in the basement and I’m making good progress on my Sashiko. I’m going to continue working on it until it is done; I’ll pick up the knitting, Botanical Garden and Peppermint Purple when I get to them. Deloise may feel I have abandoned her on the “as many projects as you want” front but Stacia has picked up the bad habit torch and, I think, has more than one project and book on the go.

And the biggest change of all is that I have handed in my resignation to the Hall Board. For too long now it has seemed like work and after six years I’m ready to be done.

Friday, July 29, 2022

I just talked to someone on the phone who loves the heat. She’ll be happy today as the temperature outside is 29 degrees and feels like 36. I don’t know what I’m doing still upstairs, except that Pat is on a Zoom chat and I kind of thought I could wait it out. I’ve got a fan going but it really isn’t helping a lot. Or maybe it is and it would be even worse without it.

I’ve been working a bit on my Sashiko project while I hide out in the basement so at least I’m not totally wasting my time. I really feel like I need a finish or at least some measurable progress on something. To that end I decided today to make up some blocks for the backing on a quilt. It was going good while I had larger pieces of fabric but I’ve spent a lot of time sewing bits and pieces together and I’ve yet to complete a block.

I’ve finally managed to find a date and time for my first Guild Program Committee meeting. I had been sending out e-mail messages but sat down this afternoon and made a phone call to everyone. I’m pretty sure I have enough ideas to fill the year so it will be a matter of us deciding when we do the classes and demos and who will lead them. I’m also thinking that some of them might have a class they would like to teach. The copyright issue keeps cropping up so we also need to come to some agreement on how we will handle it – mostly for our Block of the Month program.

Okay, this job is done and I’m heading to a cooler room.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

I was out and about this morning and didn’t get anything done in my sewing room during the cool of the morning. I guess it doesn’t help that Pat and I sat out on the cool of the deck for half of it.

I came upstairs after lunch to see if I could do a bit of cutting and make a few phone calls. The calls have been made but there will be no cutting done. I’m heading to the basement!

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Kathryn contacted me last night to see if I was okay; I hadn’t sent an entry for a couple of days and she wondered if I had gone over to Texada. All is well and I’ve stayed put in Powell River. Due to the heat, I haven’t spent much time in my sewing room or at my computer. As long as there is a breeze it isn’t too bad upstairs in the morning but I’m spending my afternoons and evenings in the basement.

I’ll catch you up a bit here. Monday I got two large boxes sent off to Kathryn – things she wanted from my house and things she left behind from their trip. I was able to send everything Expedited for the same cost as what I sent back to myself (regular mail) after my quilting trip; that says more about my quilting trip than it does about post office prices. I thought it was worth the few extra dollars so she’d get them before the weekend. That was about all I accomplished for Monday.

I skipped my Tuesday Guild day – I wanted to keep the house open as long as it was cool outside and be able to shut it up as soon as the sun came around to the front. I worked upstairs for most of the morning but it was very hot by the time I finished. A friend dropped off a bag of “scraps” last week; from that bag of scraps I was able to cut out 39 four-inch squares to work with on the next step of my Tuesday project. I had to dip into my neutral bin for the other 39 squares I needed.

I haven’t been doing much knitting or stitching in the afternoons and evenings. I’ve got a few more rows done on my knitting project; I’m almost done one panel of my curtains but there are a lot more to go. I thought last night that working on my Sashiko would probably be okay while I watch TV but I was too hot to bother going upstairs to dig it out. Fortunately I have several series of the Doc Martin show to watch so I’m not bored even if I don’t do anything else.

I’m getting this post out early today. I have a bit more desk work to do but then I’ll be heading down to the cool of the basement for the rest of the day. This heat wave (as opposed to last year’s heat dome) will last until the weekend so I’m not expecting to get much accomplished this week.