Tuesday, April 3, 2018

I had a good weekend on Texada. The weather didn’t cooperate so we weren’t able to go out for any walks but we did do a nice drive one day; it is always warm when you are inside behind a window. It was warm enough one afternoon that I was able to sit on the deck and read but when I tried the same thing the next day the coolness of the breeze drove me back inside. I did a fair amount of stitching and quite a lot of reading. I seem to go through books faster on my Kindle than I do when I read a “real” book.

When we were out for dinner on Friday night I ran into a couple of women from the Texada Guild. The Guild normally sews for a couple of hours on Monday evening but I don’t go because I take an earlier ferry back to Powell River so I’ll be ready for my Tuesday bees. But since this was a holiday Monday they were stitching for the whole day. I didn’t have a machine or a project with me so I started on a new project idea I had. Mum had several cross stitch patterns for quilt blocks and my idea is to make a quilt using the cross-stitch blocks along with fabric blocks in the same pattern. The fabric blocks will depend on my ability to copy the cross stitch pattern but for the first block I found something easy that I should be able to recreate.

I’m enjoying the idea so much that I did a little stitching this morning while I had my coffee. I did a little more this afternoon when I got home from the bee. Although I may sit a bit longer with the cross stitch it is certainly more productive time than the time I was spending playing MahJong on my iPad!

I had a productive day at the bee. The final fabric for the table runner I’m making Elizabeth arrived last week so last night I trimmed it down and sorted out the pattern. It stitched together very quickly today and it is ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I did up last week’s block from the 1880 Sampler, along with a matching block that I’ll use as a card top. And finally I worked on my April challenge. #5 was the lucky number this month and my project is one I started about three years ago. It involves a lot of snowflakes, which are appliquéd, but I actually didn’t mind doing that today. Is it that I’m getting better or that it was just nice to have a change?

On the way home I stopped at the library to drop off a book and then made my way to the fabric shop. I was looking for a backing fabric for the table runner; I found a perfect piece but there wasn’t enough. I bought it anyway as I can use it either for binding or for something else that uses the same fabric as the table runner. I ordered two fabrics online and bought enough that I wouldn’t have to go back for more. The table runner took very little of what I ordered and I’ve already warned Elizabeth that she’ll be getting presents in that fabric line for a long time!

I’m off now to get myself some supper. I’m hoping I’ll have enough energy after supper that I can come back upstairs to quilt. I’ve been working on this particular quilt for a long time and I have another quilt plus two table toppers waiting.