Friday, February 18, 2022

I seldom listen to music while I work in my studio but I spent part of the morning copying some CDs onto my computer. On a computer upgrade I lost my CD player so a number of discs sat on a shelf collecting dust behind my monitor. I brought up our portable CD player last night and got the discs loaded today. So when I got started quilting after lunch I decided I should listen to some of them.

First up was Babra Streisand. Diane and I pretty much discussed and loved every song Streisand recorded; the dream was to see her live. I purchased this CD (Wall) after Diane had passed but I was always too emotional to listen to it. Still love her voice and her songs on this one were familiar and soothing.

Next up was Jim & Penny Malmberg from Edmonton. This couple were performers at one of our house concerts; I actually loaded two of their CDs this morning. Not the greatest duo but they were a very fun couple. I think it was probably just as well that we didn’t know Jim was a psychiatrist – we might have been more guarded in our conversations.

My favourite of the afternoon has to be Lennie Gallant though. I think we first saw him in concert at Cap College long before I was a student there. I was certain he was the reason I had to see the Marion Bridge when we did our East Coast trip but I couldn’t see that he had ever recorded it; he’d be brilliant singing it though. We have ten of Lennie’s albums on a thumb drive; I bought it when he performed in Powell River a few years ago.

I’m going to get back now to more Lennie Gallant and my quilting.

Thursday, February 17, 2022

After three days of intense sewing with Stacia and Deloise I didn’t even turn my sewing machine on today; furthermore, I didn’t even want to. But we had a good session and what didn’t get done this time around will wait for our next session in March. We are all very much looking forward to sewing together, in the same room, in June.

On Monday I worked on our basket project. It is slow going as I had to cut strips, sew them together, cut them again and, finally, sew them together once more. I have one basket done, five more bases finished and the strips for the next six ready to stitch together for the final time.

On Tuesday I finished the second project I worked on last month – my crocuses. It isn’t actually finished but it is sandwiched and waiting to be quilted. That is almost like a finish in my world. On the last day I worked on my scrap challenge for the month – Stay at Home blocks. I still have a few more to make and, at this point, I have no idea what it will become.

One evening I finished my 2021 Peppermint Purple stitch-along. Again, not finished because I’ll have to frame it somehow. Deloise has been telling us about a method and tutorials she found online and I’ll definitely give it a try. I currently have three cross stitch projects waiting to be “finished”.

I got a start on my next stitch-along. It is part of a different group and so far, although I’m liking it, I’m not finding it as easy as the Peppermint Purple was. I’m already seven weeks behind and it is going to take a lot of time to catch up. Good thing I have lots of it – even though it seems the days go by faster every week.

Sunday, February 13, 2022

One of the tasks on my list today was to sort through my sewing notions. I did this a month ago when it first came up and it really didn’t need to be done again. But I had added a note to myself about a couple of areas that could be decluttered under this banner. Today I tackled my cards.

I know I haven’t kept all of my greeting cards but I certainly kept a lot of them. And I had them in several different places – in a drawer, in a tin, in a card holder, on top of some bins, and who knows where else I’ll find them in the future. I wasn’t long into the sorting when the task/chore became a wonderful trip down memory lane. I had some beautiful handmade cards and I even found some birthday cards from Dad with notes inside. I’ve kept quite a few of them and added them to my treasure chest.

It wasn’t until after lunch that I started quilting. All the stabilizing was done and I was starting on the blocks today. I had a plan for one of the blocks but once it was executed I decided I needed to add and modify the plan. The first block had 20 ends to tie and bury but after my modifications and some backtracking on the second block I only had two. Now that’s reducing!

When I looked at the quilt I thought there were a lot of different areas that I needed to come up with a plan for. I made my plan for one of the sections and then realized if I did things a bit differently I could get several sections done at once with only two ends to knot and bury. I quilted the coloured portion around the centre and continued the lines through the neutral area which I thought would require a different plan – again reducing the number of ideas I needed to come up with.

I still need a plan for a couple of areas but I’m finished quilting for the day – my brain is overworked. I’ll get set up for my three-day quilting stint with Stacia and Deloise.

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Things were going very well and I was ticking off items on my task list for today – I worked on the Guild archives for half an hour; I worked on my own website for half an hour. Next up was to clean a drawer. I know I’m avoiding a couple of drawers in my sewing room but I had a drawer of lace and ribbon in the room across the hall. Most of the lace went into the donation bin but I kept a bit just in case. I had some Christmas ribbons so they went into the hockey-type bag I keep all my Christmas related paper in. The ribbon I wanted to keep went into a smaller drawer in a different chest of drawers. It didn’t take me long before I had it all sorted but there was still more than fifteen minutes left on the clock.

And that’s where the rabbit hole happened. I had been thinking about the sashiko project I’ll be working on in June and decided I’d see what weight of perle cotton I had – not the right one. So I looked at some online and then went to the web page of the shop I bought my particular panel from. She listed five different threads but they seemed expensive so I started looking up places where I could buy the perle cotton in the right size.

On second thought though I had no idea how much thread I would need so I ended up sending a message to the shop owner. I told her what I’d be working on and asked for her thread recommendation and the amount I’d need. I’m still waiting to hear back but I’ll order whatever thread she suggests in whatever amount she says.

I think this is the second time I’ve gone down this particular rabbit hole. I remember when I purchased this project at Quilt Canada I originally had a set of four very small coaster-type patterns. I think it was Deloise who persuaded me that I should give her the small packages and buy the panel that was on display on the wall – and it is big! If I ever get this done I have no clue what I’ll use it for but getting there is half the fun.