Monday, April 25, 2022

I expected rain this morning and was looking forward to a full day in my sewing room. The sun was shining when I got up so, after walking up to the mail box, I started the yard work. I finished clearing the bed along the side of the house; the blueberries aren’t looking very good and I think we might have lost the red current. We’ll get some fertilizer and new soil on them and hope for the best. I pulled most of the weeds (there are always several small ones I miss), planted some sunflowers and transplanted some periwinkle.

I finished up about the time Pat finished his first online session of the day. We sat outside on the downstairs patio and had our coffee. It was nice to be out there but all we did was look at the yard and think about what needed to be transplanted to where and what needed to have a good trimming. We also found some spots where we’ll put in some colour – after talking about pansies this morning with the cousins I think I’ll be getting some of them.

I was able to get one card top done after lunch. I was paper piecing using the freezer-paper method and although I had a few issues the one pattern worked four times. When it was all done and I put the pieces together it was completely wrong. I went back to the book and convinced myself that the error was in the pattern and nothing I did. There was no way the four squares I made could turn into the four triangles in the photo.

Now that I’ve had another look at my paper-piecing pattern and the pattern in the book I realize they are different. I was making the Iowa Star but the picture I was looking at was Stars Above. I adjusted the fabric colours when I made the first top but now I wish that I’d done it more like the photo in the book (the right photo). I have a couple more to make so I’ll do them a bit differently than I originally planned.

With that mess behind me I cut out a couple of blocks for the Guild bee tomorrow. I’ll pack up my sewing machine and accessories before supper and then I’m going to work on my Peppermint Purple project (Pat has a long online session tonight).