May 16, 2020

Well, this is the weirdest Victoria Day Weekend I have ever spent. Usually, this weekend is a weekend to celebrate the warmer weather, check on the cottage if you have one and enjoy a few days off work. This pandemic has us all so disoriented that one of my neighbours barely knew that it was Saturday today, let alone a long weekend. I knew that it was Victoria Day because my work calendar told me that I am off on Monday for the holiday, but we can not go anywhere or enjoy a sunny afternoon at the pub. We have done some physically distant visits with the fella's sisters for coffee and some neighbours popped by this afternoon for beers shared over the fence. The weather may be not particularly summer-like and we may be under pandemic restrictions, but dammit, we are going to sit out in the back yard and drink beer!

I have been stitching away at this quilt, slowly but surely. This picture fails to show how much I managed to finish yesterday as I spent my day off relaxing and stitching. The baby is due in 2 months so there is still time to get it stitched, but my fingers need to fly a little faster with the needle and thread.

The ort jar is filling up nicely with the orts from the quilt on top of the flamingo project orts. The flamingo is in the hands of a friend who is much more skilled with a sewing machine than I am. I could have finished the pillow, but I would have had to hand sew the cover. My girl friend assures me that it will be easy for her to finish once she saw the project and fully understood what I was trying to acoomplish.

One of my neighbours was decluttering a few weeks ago and offered up several colouring books for free. There were 6 or 7 colouring books plus this post card book. I kept this book and a couple of the big books before offering up t my neighbourhood the others along with some novels that I had read. I have an idea of randomly going through my address book and sending out the postcards to my friends and family. I love to send and receive mail so I got to thinking about how I could send out some love and best wishes with my handiwork, my pandemic project as it were.

So, dear reader, I hope that you are keeping busy with your stitching and that, more importantly, you are safe and healthy! Happy stitching!

October 1/17

Mother Nature has been a bit bipolar recently. We had a heatwave last week where temperatures were well into the 30C territory and I went swimming in an outdoor pool this past Tuesday. By Friday, the temperatures were cool enough that I pulled out my winter coat to sit around the fire on both Friday and Saturday night. I did not need a coat this afternoon to sit out and work on my pallet tree as the temps were in the low teens, but I did start to get cramped up and stopped painting the red parts because I was getting chilled. I need to do some more work to fill out the ribbons so that they do not look so stringy and to fill out a few spots to make it all more balanced. Overall, I am pleased with how it is turning out.

Here is the last of the CADPAT bibs that I finished stitching tonight. This bib is the last one in my stash with the terry cloth backing so I am undecided about whether I will stitch any more of them. A military friend has a baby due in December so one of the bibs will go out in the mail in a month or so as they are now posted on the West Coast.

My ort jar is not filling up very quickly. The arrival of cooler evenings means that the jar will fill up much more quickly as I stitch away while winter does its thing outside.

February 5, 2017

Apparently, I am not the only person who is fascinated by orts. I came across this blog and post today while I was blog surfing. The idea of the TUSAL (totally useless stitch a long) made me giggle because every stitcher creates orts and every stitcher can participate in a TUSAL. Here is my contribution to the TUSAL as of 5 minutes ago, a little mason jar that has served me well for many years. I stash orts, fabric ends and various stitching detritus in there, including a piece of popcorn this time!

There has been some stitching today in between ice skating on a local pond and now I am on my way out to let our dog run free on the golf course. What a lovely Sunday!

Mitten number five has been mostly completed today. The backstitching is the only hing left to do and will have to wait until tomorrow as my fingers are starting to hurt. Of course, this pattern comes from pinterest. The ort jar is about to be emptied and the scrap thread back is getting lighter as each piece is stitched. Win-win in my books!

January 1, 2017

Very little stitching was done today as we went to watch "Rogue One", the latest Star Wars movie. Instead, I present my ort jar for posterity and to ask what other people do with their scraps and bits while stitching. I like to keep my bits until either the current project is complete or the jar is full. Perhaps it is a sign of minor hoarding or a measure of accomplishment. I love emptying the jar and starting over. I also love to look over to see the colours and textures in the jar as it fills with the scraps.

I have almost completed the stitching on the three cats piece and will post my progress on that tomorrow. The final finishing is still undecided despite my determination to see projects through to completion. Completion is something I struggle with which has resulted in a box of stitched pieces that need finishing. My not-resolution to completely finish some pieces this year!