A Quiet Sunday at Home

Trish and I are enjoying Sunday. Trish is busy working (grading papers) and I'm, well not working. I have done some housework (dishes and the laundry is in progress). We did a bulk of the cleaning yesterday. We had lattes and chocolate croissants for breakfast from Madelaine's up the street. I have a few articles I want to read in the Sunday Star, but that can wait. I will need to make a trip to the grocery store, but first I need to figure out what I feel like cooking this week.

I had Friday off. I finally took the old desktop computer and monitor to Re-Boot to donate. The highlight of Friday was finishing the baby quilt for Nette. Yesterday I took some photos for my archives. Of course the cats were happy to help model with it. The quilt is now in the wash. I'll give it to Nette tomorrow at work. I send the extra fabric from the backing to Wendy to get a custom made changing cloth made (I'll post photos when I receive it). Wendy and two friends are in the process of setting up a small business. I have to find out if they have a website yet (I'll post a link for it).

I can now focus on finishing hand quilting Mish Mash. I also need to cut Allison's fabric for her Mish Mash. Once those projects are completed I can start on my next quilt. Allison got me two fat quarters of Kaffe Fassett from the quilt store on Bronte that is going out of business. I need to decide if I want to use the Kaffe Fassett or Amy Butler for my next quilt. Oh the terrible dilemmas I have. I'm going to use the left over fabric from Nette's quilt to practice making the blocks for the next quilt. Trish had the great idea of using the sample blocks and making oven pads out of them.

I still have to take the extra yarn from my Twisted vest back to Romni. Maybe next weekend. I am currently without a knitting project. I think I'm okay with that, I hope the shaking is from an excess of coffee.

Hopefully today we will have time to work in the garden. There is a lot of work to go. At the very least I need to water. Here a clematis. There are two other ones growing on the south fence, but there late bloomers.

More later.

L

Spring Snow

Last Friday (March 30th) I used my Volunteer Day from work to help sell daffodils for the Canadian Cancer Society. There were three of us from work selling. It was a lot of fun. We sold out of flowers. I'm not sure how much money we raised, but it was at least $1000, probably closer to $1200. On the weekend I had a nasty stomach bug. I called in sick on Monday. So I worked three days this week and am exhausted. Why are short weeks also so tiring?

All winter I thought there was a dog that was regularly running in the backyard and leaving "presents". I was convinced of this early in the morning as I'm leaving for work. By the time I'd get home, I'd be awake and using logic. I mean, how can a dog regularly get into our yard from the street. I know there far too many irresponsible dog owners in our neighbourhood. The people who think that the leash works if they have it in their hand but not attached to the dog's collar. I hate these people. I understand taking the leash off in a dog park. But walking down Bathurst is not safe... On Monday while I was looking out the window thinking of the possibilities of spring I saw a dog in our yard, in the process of leaving me a "present". I went out back to find its human to clean up after it. The dog ran to the back right corner and went under the fence to get home. I blocked the hole in the fence with a planter box. This dog was completely unsupervised wandering the backyards of Albany. Great humans. At least I'm not crazy. Okay not crazy about confusing a dog and a raccoon.

It has been snowing here. A light dusting of snow is on the garden. Foliage is starting to emerge from the soil. Most of the daylilies have appeared.

I have been working on Trish's sweater vest. Last night I was in the process of the starting the v-neck of the front, when I realised that I had managed to stop knitting one of the middle ribs. I had to take out almost 10 inches of knitting. OUCH! But I will survive. It was far too noticable mistake to try to pretend it didn't happen. What makes it hard is that I'm knitting using a 4mm needle. I still think I can get it done for Trish's birthday later this month.

Here is Calle modelling the sweater vest. I'm not sure the colour of the vest compliments her colouring...

I have a plan for baby quilt I'm going to make. It involves circles and applique, oh my. The fabric that I got at the Quilter's Palette will look great.

This is a sampling of the fabric I have.

Now all I need is to learn how to sew in circles for the applique. Oh and more fusible web.

I should start knitting. I have some time to make up. I also want to get some housework out of the way.

More later.

L

Mid-Week Report

I have quilted one row of blocks on Mish Mash (6 of 18 bigger blocks are done). There is still much work to be done. But it is easier to work on it during the weekend. By the time I get home from work and have dinner it is almost 7pm and it is rather bulky. And as reminder, my blog is called OCD_Slacker...

Here is a photo from Sunday's work.

This is the last block on the middle row. This weekend I started another row.

I also need to start thinking about the baby quilt. Maybe I'll spend some time this weekend cutting fabric. I have until July... but at the pace I quilt... I should start soon.

I have been working on Trish's sweater vest. I have found out how to "purl through the back of the loop." It is knit on 4mm needles. Yes that is 4mm. Very small and slow. I have knit 4 inches of the back so far.

I'm getting ready for the Walk for MS on April 15th. To sponsor me you can goto www.supercitieswalk.com. Click on the "Get online with the Super Cities Walk for MS" button on the right hand side. On the next page click on the "Pledge A Walker" button. Enter my name in the "Find A Walker" field. Then enter the amount you want to donate to the MS Society. Thank you in advance for your support.

I should get back to knitting.

More later.

L

Daylight Saving Time

The weather has been warm since Friday. Tomorrow the high is suppose to 9. I'm glad the snow is melting. It was startng to look and dirty. No doubt there will be new snow to replace the old stuff.

Last weekend I gave Allison her Christmas cardigan to get a zipper for it, since I had not found one yet (not that I looked very hard). Maybe she'll get one this week and she can give me the sweater and zipper to sew on Saturday.

Allison and I are meeting at the Quilter's Palette (http://www.quilterspalette.ca/) for their Open House on Saturday (March 17). I need to get some fabric for a baby quilt for Nette at work.

I have been busy handquilting Mish Mash. So far I have four of the 18 large blocks quilted. It is going well. I'm just a little slow. I'll take pictures once I have a little more quilted. It seems a little odd working with the old Amy Butler fabric after spending time looking at her new line.

On Wednesday Trish and I went to the Canada Blooms show. Saw a lot of beautiful flowers. I bought some more native plants for the back shade garden. They are from the Wildflower Farm (http://www.wildflowerfarm.ca/). Most of my native plants came from them.

We saw Patsy as we were leaving. I was thinking about her and Kathy as I wandered around the show. Several years ago I saw them at the show. Caroline was at the show with them but had gone off on her own for a few minutes. We had a good chat. She had to go and catch her bus back home. I forgot the camera, so I have no pictures. I'll definitely take photos of the new plants once they are planted.

I have signed Allison and Len up to join at this year's Walk for MS (April 15th). My work team has 7 people so far (including Allison and Len).

I should go and check on dinner.

More later.

L