Time and Tides

Apparently there are places in the world experiencing droughts.  Not us!  No Sir!   Greyness and deluges.  Makes me wonder what spring will be like.  Most of Manitoba is an old lake bottom and the mighty Red runs up it.  Even here in what some call the Sandilands has water where water never was before.  I am just thankful my hobby room dike is holding.

I don't know about the tides but the water waxes and wanes as the rain comes and goes.

While my dear Processor of Food rotates tomatoes and cucumbers through the canning process I am trying to process my own lists.

The lap quilt for my daughter is fruit/food based.  The main body was stewed up assembled and then it was time to finish processing.  Because I worked on it at our club house I carefully used painters tape to keep track of what went where and actually got most of it down during the meeting.
 

I kinda liked the yellow inner border but we went with the small plaid.  

 

Then the next decision was the final border.  Plain it is.  We will make the backing a bit more exciting.

In preparation for machine quilting I had to pin the dickens out of the quilt sandwich. (gee, this is really turning into a food blog!)

 I experimented with 4 kinds of variegated thread.  Variegated is my 'go to' as I think it somewhat mimics the shadows that actual hand quilting has.
 

 I do all my stabilizing or in the ditch quilting and then I limber up my fingers and undo all those pins.   Some diagonal quilting but not too much more as this is a soft and cozy couch quilt and while I like lots of quilting I have learned that too much makes it quite stiff.
 

 Outlining for the inner border and I am thinking a kinda plaid for the outer border.  And this is where things go awry. (And didn't I spend an awful lot of time in the dictionary trying to get that word spelt right!)  I hate marking and my drafting skills are dismal.  So the end result is more argyle than homespun.  It is what it is!  lol

Determined to use what I have;  I used one piece of plaid and one piece of print.  I do LUV that print.  But I am so over saving the good stuff.  I have enough print to do the binding and I think it works because I need to bring a bit of colour, print, and general busyness out to the edge to relate to the centre.  I need to 'fix' a few argyles on the ends ( why it takes me 3 borders to see how to do that ....!!!)  And then to cut and sew on the binding.  That leaves a bit of hand sewing the binding  down as I process whats next on my list.

I am making good use of my time but it is definitely being gobbled up!

Back to kitchen central.  I worked away on getting the big plank sanded down for the kitchen shelf.  It is ready for sealing and I could do the decorative shutters at the same time.

The theme for the Guild Quilt Retreat is Harvest.  The gal who is on the committee is desirous to just keep a simple sewing affair as opposed to a teaching.  We all have long lists of things to do.  But I had the bright idea to make everyone a 'soup mix in a jar'.  You know those craft sale buys where all the dry ingredients are in the jar and the cookie recipe is supplied.  Cute!  Oh, My!!!  I am having way too much fun. Duck soup!  Elephant soup! Wash day soup, Chicken soup!  Shoot!  I am even making stacks of hubby's recipe books with interesting recipes  that can be interpreted into fabric medleys.  My sewing table will soon be covered in 'vegetables'!!!

Oh, and I found a new recipe!  For a messenger bag that may come in handy for sightseeing. Time permitting and the creek don't rise!

And then 'un soupcon' of variation to all this processing- my travel capsule.  The outlook for our stay in 'gay Parie' is, wait for it....  rain.  Why am I not surprised!  Must be those lovely paintings of misty promenades full of umbrella clad couples strolling arm in arm!  Since my rubber boots don't quite make the cut, I'll need two pair of sturdy shoes, one drying out while the other submerges.  Layers, definitely layers. 

But all that will be for next time.  Time and tides are surging ahead.