Monday, July 8, 2024

A few days ago I decided to update my daily task list with a number of things that I had removed from rotation after my diagnosis. I have barely been keeping up with the “regular” tasks that come up each day but I felt it was time to get back to some regular divesting. The first task from this old list was to “Clean a Drawer”.

I chose to clean out behind one of the doors in the cabinet I have in my sewing room. The cabinet holds mostly extra office stuff – pens, tape, notepads, and such. I hardly ever go into the cupboard; it contains mostly computer-related items. I weeded out a number of manuals for things I no longer have and then started looking to identify the various cords on the shelves. I kept most of them for the simple reason that I had no idea what they were (or are) for. There were a few software programs that I haven’t run since I switched to the Mac so why I kept them is a mystery.

I also found seven CD’s full of photos ranging back as far as 2005. I know that because there were baby photos of Will and Dylan. I don’t have a CD player on my computer but my laptop does. When I plugged one of the discs into it nothing came up. Thanks to a pair of needle-nosed tweezers I was able to get the CD out.

We have a portable CD-Rom player so I attached it to the Mac with the intention of moving the photos I wanted to keep into my Photos app. So far I have dealt with two of the CD’s so there is still lots to do. I’m enjoying looking through the old photos again; most of them are when the grandkids were small.

There were a few things that went to the garbage, a few things that will be sent to the thrift store and a few things that Pat is going to try his luck at selling. The cupboard is much cleaner now but my desk and work table still have a few things that need to be sorted.

If I load all the photos onto my computer, have I really reduced anything?

July 4, 2024

I came up to my sewing room this morning without a real plan on what I would do. There are so many choices; most of them don’t require a decision so I don’t know why I don’t pick something and just get it done.

I really thought I was finished with this project and washed it in order to remove all the stitching lines. As I was putting away my threads I found a black and white picture of the pattern and realized I had a few spots that needed to be brown that I’d done in green. There were also some spots that were done in brown and should have been green. I worried about how I would make the corrections without the stitching lines; Stacia came to the rescue – stitch beside the wrong colours and once the wrong colours were taken out no one would know. Both she and Deloise said I should leave it but …

My UFO for June was my Farmhouse quilt. It had been sandwiched for ages so quilting was the plan. I finished the large stars without too much difficulty and moved on to the aprons. Because I used Steam-a-Seam there was no way I could quilt over the top of them. I did a few lines of stitching on each of them; when I quilted the background I had to stop at the edge of each apron and start again on the other side. Now I have the formidable task of tying the ends and burying them. I’ve only shown three of the aprons here, but there are ten in all; each apron has approximately eleven ends (on each side) so I’ll be at this for quite some time. July’s UFO will definitely be delayed!

The pieces for my last two chicken blocks have been traced and cut out. I need to prep the background and then get busy whip stitching them down and adding the “fancy” stitches. My stitches aren’t particularly fancy but done is better than worrying about them. It makes a good project for the evenings when we’re watching TV.

I’m anxious to get these finished so I can start on my “real” yo yo project which will required 365 of them. These are my practice pieces and I’m getting better with each attempt. Eventually these will go on a summer wreath but as I make more and more of them I think the wreath might be quite small! I’m anxious to get going on my temperature quilt. Gail and I are making yo yo’s at our Thursday sewing sessions so I’ll get more done this afternoon. These too are good projects for the evening.

And if those weren’t enough choices I’ve been looking online for a dress for Madison’s engagement party.