Tuesday, March 8, 2022

I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the Tuesday bees until I went back today. So good to see everyone and also to see what they have been working on. I didn’t even mind having to come home and write up a blog post. I had another lesson on sandwiching with boards; my previous understanding was that they had to be spray-basted when they were done this way but they can also be pinned using this method. I think I have some boards in a closet that I’d be able to use for this; I might give it a try for that Community Quilt that I was waiting on spray for.

I was working on Kathryn’s calendar block today; I like it so much I may have to keep it! The top still needs some borders and, since I’m piecing the back, I still have a bit of work to do. I got further along than I expected though. My cake went over well and a couple of the ladies went back for seconds. There is still lots left for supper tonight; Pat complained last night when he couldn’t have any for dessert.

I answered a few Hall messages and took care of a bit of work from the Board meeting last night. I still need to get the March newsletter sent out but, as we aren’t doing much at the Hall of late, there isn’t a lot of news to include.

I’m in charge of dinner tonight – chicken, baked potatoes and salad. Pat suggested I make pancakes but I assured him I had other recipes. Pancakes have often been my go-to meal when he’s teaching a guitar lesson.

Monday, March 7, 2022

I had a lovely long chat with the cousins this morning but, as usual, when Pat asked what was new I couldn’t think of anything to tell him. Do we really chat for 90 minutes and not have anything worth reporting on?

I got my crocuses wrapped and into the mail this morning, along with a couple of other items. I couldn’t believe it when I pulled into the parking lot at the post office – it was practically full. When I got to the door there was a gentleman waiting outside because there were already five people inside. The sign limiting customers to five had been taken down quite awhile ago but it was a beautiful day and I didn’t mind standing outside. While we chatted the man pointed across the street and asked if I’d seen “that”. “That” turned out to be gas priced at 209.9! It was a bit lower (199.9) at the two other stations on the way home but I think I’d better get out my walking boots.

It was lunch time before I got home and after lunch I made my carrot cake. The last time I made it I forgot to add the pineapple and it was a little dry (saved only by the cream cheese icing). I remembered everything this time around so it should taste okay. I’ll ice it after supper.

I’ve booked tickets for my June trip to Saskatoon and back. Pat will join me when I get back from our sewing session at Panorama and we’ll fly home together. I didn’t have any WestJet dollars to lower the ticket prices but perhaps with the increase in gas prices I still got a bargain.

I did a bit of tidying in my sewing room. I wanted to get That Fairy Tale quilt out to see where I was at with it but I don’t think that is going to happen. I need to pack things up for my sewing tomorrow with the Guild and I still have to gather up some notes for the Board meeting tonight.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

I feel like I should be heading to bed or at least heading for a nap but I’m going to try and keep going until it really is bedtime.

I was able to get started on my sandwiching before lunch. First up was Kathryn’s Spring/Summer tablecloth. I had trouble getting the two pieces of fabric aligned right with the Fall/Winter one so I tried something different. It looks like it might be a bit better but I won’t really know until I start quilting it.

Then I moved on to my Farmhouse quilt. Yesterday I had no idea how I might quilt it but today, after working with it for awhile, I think I have a plan. I really don’t like the pieced backing but if it is hung on a wall I guess no one will see it. Even though it was spray basted I added a lot of pins – almost to the point that I was out of them again. I always pin around the borders but, because I was running out of spray, I wanted to be sure I had a solid sandwich.

I didn’t have enough spay for the Community Quilt and I didn’t have enough pins for basting so that will have to wait until next time. I got the backing fabric trimmed down to size before I put the tables away.

My back was quite sore by the time I finished but I had promised myself I would wash the windows on my car. I tried to do a quick wipe on them at one point when it was rainy and they were quite a mess as, with all the traffic, the dust is incredible. I hope I don’t become one of “those” car people who are washing their car every weekend – I’m sure I won’t!

It was nice enough that had the chair cushions been easily accessible I probably would have sat outside. But I really didn’t want to go into the shed to find them and wipe them and the chairs down so I sat inside and stitched the binding on my crocuses. I’ll have them in the mail tomorrow.

Saturday, March 5, 2022

It took until almost noon to finish my cleaning and decluttering tasks. One of my tasks was to clean out a drawer so I thought while Pat had his breakfast clearing out the recipe book drawer would be a good one to tackle. Turns out that even though we never use the recipe books there were very few that we wanted to put in the donation box.

Another fun decluttering task that came up was a clean out of my patterns. I’ve gone through my paper patterns and they’ll need to be done again but today I worked on my digital patterns – quilt-alongs to be precise. I had quite a few that I knew just by looking at them that I no longer wanted to make them. There were also a couple that I still wanted to make but I was missing one or two of the steps for. I had to dive into the internet but, with the exception of one pattern, I was able to find and save all the missing pieces. They were all freebies so no loss for the ones I trashed.

I pulled out my March quilting UFO project and the flannel fabric I purchased for backing. Then I went looking for and found the alternate fabric I wanted to use but I didn’t have enough of it. I did a very quick search online to see if I could get more but I’m hopeful that even had I found some I wouldn’t have made a purchase. The quilt is most likely going to hang so I really didn’t want flannel on the back.

I dug through more fabric and decided I’d try making a back from fabric that was left from the quilt top. There wasn’t any one fabric that was large enough so I knew I was going to have to piece something together. I’ve tried this before and wasn’t very successful but I ended up with four pieces that I thought would make a large enough backing.

But before I could piece them together I wanted to finish the quilting and binding on my crocus project. I had already changed thread colours five times so I wanted to be done with it before changing threads for piecing the back. I’ve got that project ready for hand stitching.

I also managed to get my Farmhouse quilt backing and batting cut, as well as the batting cut for Kathryn’s Spring/Summer tablecloth. The quilt I brought home from the Guild had a lot of extra batting attached but I suspect that was in case it was being done by one of the long armers. I’ve trimmed it up and I know there will be loads of fabric for the backing.

I really wanted to get outside and get the spray basting done today but I’ll have to plan that for tomorrow. It’s a bit early to quit for the day but I’m done!