Tuesday, January 3, 2017

It was so good to be back at my machine at the bee today. I’ve missed a few, and last week was a bit of a sewing disaster! Our friends still had my car because they were stuck on the Island when the ferry didn’t run on Boxing Day. Pat was going to drive me but at the last minute a friend called to say she would pick me up. Since I was going in an unfamiliar vehicle I decided to take only some hand stitching.

I packed up my Farmer’s Daughter bins (yes, there are at least three of them holding blocks in various stages) and headed out. I opened up my bin to begin stitching a block together and realized I hadn’t brought along my thread. The thread I use to stitch the pieces together is very fine and no one at the Guild had any. I was annoyed, but no problem because I had some basting I could do. Then I realized that I had set up my new Yazzii bag (from Houston) as my hand sewing kit and I left it on my cutting table when I carried things downstairs. I called Pat and tried to explain where the things I needed were located; he found the Yazzii bag but brought the wrong bin of threads. That was probably my fault as I may have told him to look on the left side of my thread holder rather than on the right side. In my own defence it had been a complete change in sewing plans when I decided not to take my machine, and I was still in the middle of redesigning my room.

Today was much better, but I very carefully packed up what I needed and even woke up in the night and remembered there were a couple of things I needed to add. I’ve got all the outer blocks done on my Celtic Crystal quilt; I’ve been managing one block a day at the bee but the block I worked on today already had been a work-in-progress for one whole day. I couldn’t figure out why it was taking me so long but I felt better when I realized I was making four blocks rather than just one. I pressed all the fabric I washed yesterday so I’m set to go on to the next steps – the centre medallion and the borders.

I finished up another set of mitts last night so I’ll get a package off to Elizabeth in the next day or so. I’m slowly (very slowly) using up yarn; it is often a challenge to find something to make with the small amounts I have left. I’ve started a new toque (for the Salvation Army basket) and I’m going to look for a triangular scarf pattern for the yarn I have left from this last effort.