Most of the day

Journal

Tuesday, June 30, 2020 (Block 106)

Wreath of Hearts

I didn’t have anything in particular planned for today except laundry. It’s a good thing as I’ve been either on the phone or at my computer all day. And I’m still not done the laundry.

My e-mail account was being migrated to a new platform today and I spent most of the morning trying to get it working. I didn’t relish the idea of spending time on the phone waiting to get through to support; fortunately I was able to solve the issues on my own and I have mail working on my computer, my laptop and my iPad. No change to my e-mail address; it was just a platform change to Telus.

After getting my daily block done I was at loose ends as to what to do next. Tuesdays are generally my bee day and, up until today, I’ve always had something related to the Guild to work on. So what to do instead? I spend a good chunk of time on the phone, on hold, with the Breast Screening program. Not only did it take a long time to talk to anyone but the earliest date for an appointment is September.

Since I’d already spent time on the phone I decided to try another call. I’d been trying to update our Cranberry Hall account info with Telus for a few days but always gave up before I got through to anyone. It was a half-hour wait today but I got everything set up and transferred to my name rather than in the name of a Board member who resigned last year.

The view from my chair

Now that all those tasks are done I’m going out to my deck chair and start a new book.

Log Cabin

Quilting
Approximately 49″ x 49″

I don’t think it has ever taken me so long to really finish a quilt after the quilting is done. I wasn’t very diligent about stitching down the binding and it took me a couple of days. I found a problem spot in the binding and needed to do some repairs and while I was knotting and burying ends I found a seam that didn’t quite catch. It’s all done now though and I can safely say that my UFO for June is finished before the deadline.

I have wanted to make a Log Cabin quilt since I started quilting – I’m drawn to those traditional blocks. At a quilt show on the Island a few years ago I saw a log cabin that I really wanted to make. I found the out-of-print pattern but didn’t take it any further. At some point I realized that I didn’t need to make a huge quilt to test out the technique. I could make a smaller quilt and know whether I wanted to make another larger one. I still haven’t made up my mind on that larger quilt.

My records show that I started this in 2019. I know I finished all the blocks at our Thursday retreat that year. I had the layout planned but it lingered in a bin until it came up on my UFO list.

I purchased the purple and green swirl fabric much before then. The quilt shop was supposed to have some matching fabric to go with it but it took a long time to come in. In the meantime I had found quite a few other greens and purples and I didn’t end up using the matching fabric. I really like the fabric but I’ll use it for something else.

A new quilting book arrived just in time for me to use their suggestions for the quilting. I didn’t follow the book exactly but it gave me a good starting point.

I have no idea where this one will end up – but that isn’t really the purpose of my quilting.

American Dirt

Books

Author: Jeanine Cummins

I loved this book and couldn’t read it fast enough. All the way through I struggled not to go to the end and see how it turned out.

Lydia and her son, Luca, fear for their lives after their entire family are murdered by the leader of a Mexican cartel. Lydia feels the only safe place for them is in the United States. This is an horrendous journey and every decision she makes has life and death consequences.

Quote from the book:

“As Rebeca reveals what scraps of story she does have to Luca, he starts to understand that this is the one thing all migrants have in common, this is the solidarity that exist among them, though they all come from different places and different circumstances, some urban, some rural, some middle-class, some poor, some well educated, some illiterate, Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan, Mexican, Indian, each of them carries some story of suffering on top of that train and into el norte beyond.”

Quote from the author:

“One thing I had to learn while doing research for this book was to strangle the word American out of my own vocabulary. Elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere there’s some exasperation that the United States has co-opted that word, when in fact the American continents contain multitudes of cultures and peoples who consider themselves American, without the hijacked cultural connotations. In my conversations with Mexican people, I seldom heard the word American used to describe a citizen of this country — instead they use a word we don’t even have in English: estadounidense, United States-ian.

What this woman and her son endured is probably very common among immigrants. And I’m going to try to stop using the word American for people from south of the border.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *

Date Day

Journal

Monday, June 29, 2020 (Block 105)

Woven Star

Pat and I went out together this morning for the first time since March 16th. Up until today we hadn’t even been in the same vehicle. Pat goes out occasionally to pick up dinner or to get his prescriptions; I go out occasionally to the library, bank, or post office.

But today we went somewhere together – granted it was just to the dump but it was nice to be out and about together. Before heading to the dump we stopped at Canadian Tire as I needed to pick something up.

When I started sewing this morning my iron was working fine. At one point I got the beep that said the automatic shut-off was kicking in but when I gave it a shake to reheat it something went wrong and it continued beeping. I unplugged it and then started it again with the same problem. I found an iron on sale at CT so that’s what I was purchasing. I saw the iron online first, knew what aisle I was headed for and they had arrows to tell you what direction to go down the aisles and markers at the cashier to help you keep your distance. I also had on my mask so I felt quite comfortable.

When we got home I plugged the old iron in again and it seems to be working fine – both steam and no steam work. I think the only thing that may not work is the automatic shut-off and I can live without that. I usually turn the power bar off if I’m going to be gone more than a few minutes; now I’ll turn it off whenever I leave the room.

I did a bit of repair work on a quilt this afternoon and sorted a few scraps. I’ve got a new knitting project ready for tonight – a new blankie for Taylor.