Wednesday, March 28, 2018

I haven’t posted in a few days but I’ve been busy. Pat is over at the studio so I’ve been having a crafting retreat all on my own. Mostly I’ve been sewing but there has been some colouring and knitting added to the mix. When I talked to Kathryn a couple of days ago I said that I wasn’t going to post unless I had something to say other than that I had sewn all day. She said I still made it sound interesting so here goes.

I’ve been obsessed with 9-patch blocks since the class on the weekend. The new technique is quite fast as everything is chain pieced – in fact you chain piece, cut, press, chain piece some more, cut, press and you’re done. I did a few more blocks on Monday afternoon, a few more at the bee yesterday and then yesterday afternoon I finished all 78 blocks. I had to press a few of them this morning and then I tried to sort out what I could use for sashing. I think I have a fabric picked but I’ve been doing math for an hour trying to figure out how much I might need. I thought the blocks would be arranged in an 8 x 9 grid but when I added sashing the quilt will be huge so I’ll have to rethink some part of that design. Or maybe run through the math one more time.

I finished a couple of projects on the Island – I’ll report my March UFO challenge later but I was pleased to get the Guild’s February Row-by-Row block finished. We were provided with only a sketch of what the finished project should look like and I was at a loss. Appliqué was out (too many big and tiny pieces); I thought about thread painting but I’ve never done that and it seemed like it would take a lot of time and thread. I decided to try colouring the block; we had a demo on the technique a few years ago at the Guild and Stacia, Deloise and I have a project to do using that technique. So colouring it was.

With February’s Row-by-Row out of the way I was able to finish the block for March at the bee yesterday. A much easier block as it was all pieced. I don’t really see how it is going to fit in with the other blocks but I guess that is the challenge. And speaking of the bee, I came home with a few extra things. The sister of one of our quilters brought some of her fabric and patterns for us to buy – I came home with a nice collection of browns and a few others as well. Another quilter brought me a new Jodi Picoult book (small great things) and I borrowed a table runner book from the Guild library (yes Elizabeth – all the fabric for your table runner has arrived).

I made hot cross buns this morning; I got an early start and had the potatoes boiled and mashed before eight. I make the dough in the bread maker but I had a few issues this morning. One, I missed the part where you added the mashed potatoes so I had to dig a bit through the layers to get them in somewhat the right place. Two, I held back the raisins and peel until the beep but I never actually heard a beep. So when I decided they should be added the dough had already risen quite a bit so not all the fruit mixed in the way it should have. They were out of the oven and ready for tasting by noon; I didn’t put any icing on them but I’m happy with the results.

It was a nice afternoon so I decided that I’d do a walk-around to distribute posters for our next event at Cranberry Hall. Walking down the hill to the ferry terminal was pleasant but walking back up Courtenay Street was a bit of a hike. Fortunately there was enough flat ground before my next stop at 7-Eleven and Capone’s that I had caught my breath and could speak coherently again!

Have I wasted enough time yet? I really intended to quilt all day today so I could stitch binding when I’m on Texada over the weekend – if I stay up late enough I may be able to get it done. I’m off to the movie again tonight.