Wednesday, April 17, 2024

I’m making excellent progress on my grad gift, as I should be after several days of non-stop working on it. I’m at the border stage now and we’ve decided to have the project framed in Calgary so that will buy me at least a couple of extra weeks for stitching.

I was worried about the border design and was very disappointed when the stitching didn’t match the pattern at the first corner. I had sorted out how I was going to amend the pattern when I noticed I had made a small error just a few rows back. It was relatively easy to take those stitches out (I’d had a lot of practice in reverse stitching over the last few days). I was very happy when, after fixing my mistake, the first corner matched up perfectly to what the pattern showed.

I had my hair trimmed today. Pat had a meeting so he dropped me off at the salon and I walked home. I’m still using my friend’s cane; it helps a lot on the stairs but whenever I’ve used it for a longer walk my wrist is very sore. I have problems with my wrists all the time – I can’t knead bread, crocheting and knitting bother them, as does walking with my poles. It leaves me wondering if it is better to have a sore knee or sore wrists.

I made it back to my sewing room today. I mailed out my last April card on Monday so it was time to get busy on my May cards. I made a start on one last week but when I came to the point where I had to do some reverse stitching I quit. I’ve fixed that particular problem today and have that card finished. I’ve made a start on a second card and now that I know what I’m doing I think they will move along quite quickly.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

We went out to a concert south of town last night – Nathan Tinkham and Saskia Delaronde. Nathan is a good friend of Pat’s and he’s stayed with us a couple of times for various shows over the years. The hall is just a tad bit smaller than Cranberry Hall but, again, is one of the older ones in the area. It was a good mix of their individual talents and there were even a few people I knew in the crowd.

I’m getting used to my new walking aid – a cane. After I asked, the doctor (as did Audrey) recommended using a cane. Our friend Geoff brought his over for me to try out and I’ve been using it, when I remember, for a couple of days. It really helps going up and down stairs but at most other times it seems awkward to use it. You can’t really carry much in just one hand and I like to have a handful of things when I’m going anywhere. I’ll go out tomorrow to see if I can find a cane of my own.

I am able to do my stitching while we watch TV and I’m taking advantage of that today. I started with curling this morning. We switched back and forth to golf during commercial breaks and then we stuck more with golf as no Canadian teams were playing. We switched back to steady golf when curling was over until it was time to move to the ball game. When ball was over golf was still very much in progress. We’ll be waiting for the hockey game to start after supper. I normally wouldn’t watch golf but I’m enjoying it. I thought I might pick up a few pointers for my mini golf putting skills but so many times the professionals are overshooting the hole or just missing it – much as in my own game!

I’m making some progress on my stitching but there are still quite a few patterns that I want to take out and redo. The mistakes have been corrected but some of the colours don’t show up as well as they should so those are coming out now. I’m still hopeful I’ll have time to get the border done but I want the centre finished first so there will be something finished come graduation day.

Thursday, April 11, 2024

It’s been a busy week.

I had the worst shopping day ever on Monday. Pat picked some of our rhubarb and I wanted to make a crisp (I had to add rhubarb from the freezer). We didn’t have enough oatmeal for the topping so I picked up the list and made a shopping trip. I was almost home before I realized I had forgotten the oatmeal – it was what I went for so I hadn’t bothered to put it on the list. Back I went and was just getting into the car in the parking lot when I realized that hot rhubarb crisp requires ice cream so back I went again. I made sure to go to different cashiers each time so they wouldn’t think I was a complete idiot.

I went to sewing on Tuesday and managed to get one more of my hand-pieced blocks done. It’s a slow, but relaxing, process; I have six blocks of 24 finished. I also got out a survey to the Guild membership regarding the blog that I’ve been responsible for. I’m giving it up and efforts to find someone to take it over have not succeeded. The survey was a last ditch attempt to find someone and, if that fails, get an idea of what to do with the existing blog. I have some ideas that involve more work for me but I’m okay with that so long as I don’t have to do the weekly updates.

Yesterday I had my meet and greet with a new doctor. This is the first time I’ve gone through this and I wasn’t expecting much. My hope was that the doctor would accept me as a patient because I have heard that some doctors have been declining if your health issues don’t seem like they will garner them enough funds.

I was very pleasantly surprised with my doctor and there didn’t seem to be any question as to whether or not he would take me on. He was a lovely man and I didn’t feel rushed at all. He went through my recent medical history and answered all of my questions. He wants to see his patients every three months and that is such a change from my past experience where it often took three months to get an appointment.

I would usually go stitching this afternoon but Gail isn’t feeling well. It was going to be a shorter visit anyway as she had a doctor’s appointment booked for late this afternoon. I should have accomplished more than I did. One more block of sky and a start on a May card. I fully intended to cross stitch this afternoon but we watched curling while we had lunch and that took up most of the afternoon.

We have booked a flight to and from Calgary at the end of May. Ray will give us one of his vehicles so we will drive to and back from Saskatoon before we fly home. It’s been a long time since either of us travelled.

So the pressure is on to get that grad gift finished and framed. Curling starts again in half an hour and I’m going to attempt to cross stitch while we watch.

Sunday, April 7, 2024

I stuck quite well to my new plan on Friday and yesterday. I finished the latest clue for my mystery quilt and moved on to my April UFO. I have had problems with this pattern in the past but the first block went together just fine so I was hopeful the problems were behind me. I cut the next three blocks out; when I started putting together the second block I soon realized there was a problem. The cutting instructions were missing one piece – not really a problem as I had the size required from the layout instructions. Then another section was clearly not the right length in the cutting instructions; it took me until today to sort out which parts needed to be recut and stitched.

The afternoons went well and I managed to reverse stitch a section on my grad gift as well as fill in another section. I finished one knitting project and I liked the pattern so much that I immediately started another one using the same pattern. I’m not liking this one as much because the yarn is too dark to really show off the pattern but finishing it should use up most of the yarn.

Today has been a bit backwards. I would normally spend Sunday morning at my computer but curling had already started by the time I got up so I was downstairs with my coffee to watch what remained of the game. There was a brief break before baseball started; while I watched baseball I started to remove another section of my grad project. Before the game was over we had to shut it off and head out to the movies – One Life with Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter. It was excellent.

I’ve caught up now on my computer work and I think it is too late in the day to start anything that needs too much thought. That means I’ll do a few levels of Candy Crush and/or a couple of other games.