Wednesday, September 29, 2021

The day is gone and have nothing to show for it; I’ve puttered the entire day away.

I had some paperwork to do today so I started with that. I put away all my quilting project sheets but noticed I was missing a page on some of the other printing I had done. So a stop at Staples was required.

I got Kathryn’s tablecloth out in the mail today. I put it in an Express envelope so it was easy to get ready. I needed to make a trip to the Post Office.

There were a couple of things I needed to pick up at Walmart so I added those tasks to my list. And since I was going I had a couple of photos that I wanted paper copies of. On my way out of the photo lab I went past a clearance shelf and picked up a couple of fat quarters for a dollar each. Somehow that reminded me that I needed some tapestry needles and it took some time to find them. Then I ran into Carola, my neighbour from down the street, so we had a little chat. She works at Walmart but I usually only see and visit with her when we are yelling across the street as she waits for a ride to work so it was nice to have a quiet chat today.

After the running around was done I had some birthday money from Alex and Will to spend. I went through my quilt list and didn’t find anything I really wanted right away. When Christy was here she took home the project I made with my “Lil’ Twister Tool”. I really liked the process of making that so I purchased a ruler that will let me make twisters from 3″ to 10″ (five different sizes).

We’ve got another storm raging outside and it isn’t going to be as nice for the next few days as we anticipated so we are going to delay our trip to Texada again. Something has come up for Pat on Sunday so we were having to cut our time a bit shorter than we wanted and, because the weather isn’t cooperating, we weren’t going to be able to do the outside work that we thought we needed to do. I hope to spend the next few days working on the projects I had in my Texada bin.

Another clue in my Peppermint Purple Stitch Along was released today. Pat has an online session tonight so maybe I can get it done and not completely waste my day.

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

I’ve been working on the binding for the tablecloth and it is taking so much longer than I thought it would. There may be a couple of reasons for that.

First, I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone and online today. It was a Guild check-in this morning and since I’ve not chatted with anyone since our September meeting there was some catching up to do. I made a start on the binding and then the head of the Program Committee called me and that took another half hour out of my morning. The Show and Tell portion of our Guild check-in was at 12:30 PM and it was a different crew of folks checking in so there was more catching up to do. Then I spent another half hour on the phone dealing with some Hall business.

Secondly, I’m doing a two-colour binding and it seems to be much more difficult to hand stitch down. I’ve added a few notes to the tutorial I was using and I think another time it might go better; I’ll add a bit to the width of one strip and use a scant quarter-inch seam in another place. It is hard on the hands to get the binding turned from front to back with the division of colours in the right spot. It is far from perfect but I’m hoping it will press out properly and, once it has been through the laundry, the imperfections won’t show.

I’d like to get the parcel in the mail tomorrow so I may be stitching tonight rather than crocheting.

Monday, September 27, 2021

The storm took out our power last night for a couple of hours. Fortunately it went out before it was completely dark outside and we were able to make our way upstairs and find the candles before the blackness settled in. Pat watched the progress of the hydro crew from his phone and it was estimated the power would be back on by ten. Ten is my bedtime so I saw no reason not to go to bed at half-past nine. I hadn’t fallen asleep yet when the power came back on so I was able to read for a little bit before turning out the light.

I finished sorting the final bag from Christy’s bin this morning. I have a few more photos to scan but I took the shredded paper downstairs so it is ready for the next recycle day, which I think is tomorrow. I also finished the last bit of quilting on the tablecloth; of course I ran out of bobbin thread with only two short rows to complete.

After lunch I went out to do a few errands. I stopped at Staples to pick up some printing that I needed to have done. Most of it was papers for my quilting project book but there were a few 12-Day sheets that I needed. I hadn’t done any printing all year so there will be some catching up to do in my binder tomorrow.

I’ve been keeping a brown bag open in my sewing room for donation items for the thrift shop. I had almost a full bag so I decided while I was out I would drop it off. From there I went to the drug store and then a stop at the library to drop off a book. I was happy to be out while the weather was a bit nicer, a little bit of sun. Since I’ve been home the wind has picked up again and I see a shower moving in.

I was dreading squaring up the tablecloth for binding. The width of the fabric (both front and back) is about 42″. But when I sandwiched the two I didn’t get them as straight as I would have liked. But I had to work with what I had. I was amazed that when the trimming was done the tablecloth is half-an-inch narrower than planned and just the right length.

My challenge now is to get the two-colour binding done properly.