Monday, March 14, 2022

I spent some time this morning working on sorting my fabric. I managed to empty a basket and promptly moved it into the room across the hall to store my knitting/crochet donations in. I finished the last of the six scarves last night and they took up all the remaining room in the bin I’ve been keeping my donations in. When the winter weather comes I may take one of them out for myself.

Before lunch I finished stitching the binding down on the tablecloth. One of the things I really like about finishing a project is that I’m able to tick it off the list – and I have a lot of different lists. But try as I might I couldn’t find that particular project listed anywhere; I guess the satisfaction of having it done will have to suffice.

From that point on everything I did was all about getting ready for another day. I finished the quilting on Kathryn’s next calendar block and cut the binding so I can sew it on tomorrow at the bee. I trimmed off the tablecloth and had enough to make a table runner for Kathryn; binding for that is also ready to go tomorrow.

I usually work on cards on a Tuesday but the cards I’m making for April all are complicated or done with paper piecing and I didn’t want to take all that “stuff” to the bee. I’m also making a couple of projects (rather than cards) for a couple of others but they both involved zippers and that didn’t seem like a good thing to be doing in public (sometimes zippers bring out my bad language).

I wrapped a couple of packages for the mail tomorrow. I’ll drop them off on my way to sewing.

I pulled out my scrappy project for the month. I’m pretty sure I’ll get to it but probably won’t have a lot of extra time after the bindings are done so I wanted something simple. I’ll get my machine packed up and, with the bit of time I have left this afternoon, I’ll dig out That Fairy Tale Quilt and see where I’m at with it. I want to take it to Texada next week if we go.

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Of course, with the time change, I started an hour later this morning. But that doesn’t really explain why I’ve had a hard time getting my energy going today.

For a short (very short) period of time I thought I might get started quilting my March UFO but that didn’t happen. Making the 2-colour binding took forever but I finally got it done. I trimmed the tablecloth down to the right size and started attaching the binding. I neglected to highlight a procedure in my notes on the tutorial because I stitched the binding to the wrong side in the first go. Fortunately the entire quilt wasn’t done before I realized. I got that corrected and the binding is ready to be hand stitched. I’ll get that started now but I’m quite certain, even if dinner is an hour later than usual, that I won’t get it finished.

I’ve been listening to music today – some very mellow selections from Andrea L’Heureux, The Lucky Sisters, Suzanne Ciani, and Cindy Church. Maybe I should have gone for some more raucous tunes.

One more scarf to knit tonight and then I’ll be done with the extra yarn that creates such a mess!

Saturday, March 12, 2022

I had a little bit of Hall work to do today but there were no computer-related tasks so I was ready to move on to something else early in the day. I cleaned out a couple of drawers in my sewing room and I had time before heading out for a hair trim to tie and bury some knots in my April calendar project.

When I came home I started a kitchen task. Pat and I had noticed that we had very little counter space on which to work. From one edge to the next was lined up with appliances – the microwave, the set of knives in a holder, the paper towel rack, the tea chest, the air fryer, the toaster, the mixer, and the juicer. On the other side of the sink we have the coffee pot and our Soda Stream. We use it all but something had to go – if not out the door then at least to somewhere else.

So I started cleaning off a shelf in our pantry. That led to cleaning off another shelf and then a third shelf. Before I was done I had to call Pat upstairs to see what needed to be kept and what I had to find room for back in the pantry.

We put the air fryer into the pantry and added a couple of items to the give-away pile – the urn we used for heating water for tea for the house concerts and a Brita jug that we don’t use. We’ll take the espresso maker to Texada – maybe we’ll use it there. I have a plan for where I’ll move the juicer and the mixer but that involves clearing out our large corner cupboard and I’d already spent more than my allotted thirty minutes on the task.

I have finished the quilting on Kathryn’s tablecloth. It turned out longer than the first one; in fact I think it might be too long. I’m waiting to hear from Kathryn about that. I didn’t have any fabric that would work for binding on the reversible sides; I was going to go up to the fabric shop but she was already closed for the day. I dug around in my fabrics and I’m going to make a two-colour binding. The last time I did this (for her first tablecloth) I made a few notes on my tutorial so hopefully it will go together better this time.

I’ll continue making the binding but I doubt I’ll get it finished before dinner.

Friday, March 11, 2022

Due to the changes in the Public Health Orders announced yesterday I had to spend some time this morning updating the Rental Agreement for the Hall. I’ve tried to make it generic enough that when the Orders change again (as I know they will on April 8) I won’t have many changes to make to the document. I also had to update the Hall’s website, although I don’t think anyone ever looks at it. It took me until after two to get all my decluttering and cleaning tasks done.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday are my quilting days and I started today with the Spring/Summer tablecloth. After I had the machine threaded I wanted to do a sample of the stitch I planned to use but when I started sewing it made an odd (and not a good) sound. I had cleaned it a short while ago so I thought maybe I hadn’t got my bobbin case in the right spot. I took the plate off the machine, reset the bobbin and started again.

I still had the noise. I was thinking I’d have to make an emergency call to the technician we have in town but before I called I thought I’d check everything that I had touched with my cleaning. I was checking the needle when I realized I didn’t have it as high into the shaft as it should have been. When I fixed that the problem was solved.

Even though I didn’t have much time at it I have the tablecloth about half quilted. What did I ever do before I discovered the mattress stitch? I’m hopeful that I can have it finished by tomorrow. I have another quilt in the pile ready to be done so having a quick finish is a good thing; I won’t be ahead of schedule but I won’t be behind (yet) either.