Sunday, February 26, 2017

Yesterday morning I ripped the paper templates off three sides of the Blossoms quilt, tied in all of the ends, and proceeded to trace out and pin my last ten templates. Since I had lots of time before my afternoon appointment I decided to get a start on the last border. All was going well; when I was down to one last spiral set I realized that when I quilted the five sets above this last one I had caught the backing in the quilting. I had to rip all of them out, and taking out quilting stitches is a lot harder than taking out a seam. I got one set done before leaving for the afternoon.

I was scheduled to sell Guild Raffle Tickets at Quality Foods for a couple of hours in the afternoon. After the morning I had I suggested to Pat that I hoped whoever I was working with was someone I liked because “I wasn’t in the mood”. Fortunately the person I worked with said she saw my name on the list and said “I can work with her” so we had a good time visiting, and we sold a few tickets. Then I rushed home to get ready for our evening out.

Pat’s friend, Evan, was playing at an event at the golf course and he and his wife had invited us to sit at their table. It was Hawaiian night and most people were dressed for the occasion. We knew they were serving Maui ribs but didn’t get the message about wearing our brightest and best Hawaiian gear. Many of the people attending were members of the Rotary Club – Evan and Jill are active members. The woman who runs the quilt shop was sitting at our table so I had more fun than I expected. The Rotarians are all very nice but I don’t think I could keep up with them when they are in a party mood!

This morning it was back to reality – more ripping and then more quilting. I finished the quilting and, since I had the sleeve and binding already prepped, I was able to get all the sewing done before lunch. I know I said I was taking the rest of the day off when the quilt was finished but I was so happy to be done I haven’t even minded doing the laundry and some cleaning this afternoon.

Maybe that is because I’ve celebrated the finish in a couple of other ways – before I was actually finished. A Guild member had a sewing machine for sale and advertised it on our Guild Facebook page. I was interested when I saw it but I didn’t need a new machine. But it kept niggling at me so I asked a few questions and downloaded the manual. It is an older model Janome but Myrt says it does free-motion quilting. Pearl, my current traveling machine, doesn’t do free motion and is heavier by a few pounds than this model. By Friday afternoon I had decided I deserved it and bought it. I’ll pick it up on Thursday at the Guild meeting.

The Guild offers a Spring Retreat but I have never gone. In past years it has been on Texada and it was always full before I got my name in. Last year it was held a bit closer to home, at the Wilderness Centre on Haywire Bay. My understanding was that the conditions were rustic but everyone had a good time and the conditions weren’t that rough. The last time I was at the quilt shop Deb mentioned that I wasn’t on the retreat list; she convinced me I should go. She still had about half of her list empty so I said I needed to check the calendar at home before committing. When I saw her last night she said she only had two spaces left. I assured her I wanted to go so, a couple of weeks after the quilt show, I’ll be off for a long weekend of stitching.

Pat is out tonight but I just can’t take another night away. I may do something practical, like prepare for my meetings next week, or I may reward myself by starting a new knitting pattern and relaxing. I can’t imagine the rewards I’ll be granting myself when I get the next quilt done!