Almost Like a Stitching Retreat Weekend

On Saturday, we had our guild stitch day. We had a great turnout. Most of us stayed until about 3. I went home and did more stitching. 

The next day, Jen1 and Poppy were scheduled to come over for a sewing class. Unfortunately, Jen1 was ‘under the weather’ so Poppy was the only one sewing a Dumpling Dish. Jeanette joined us for stitching and Barb arrived after lunch. 

Poppy did a great job using the fabric that matched the Drop Zone bag last time we had ‘Geri’s Academy of Sewing’.

The Dumpling Dish turned out really well.

It opens right out like a bowl

A very handy container.

Jeanette has pledged to fully finish a project every week and knocked off three of them at my place. Barb worked on her round robin for the Toronto Guild.

At one point, Jeanette happily declared that this was almost like a retreat weekend with guild stitching the day before and stitching all day at my place, except we went home to sleep.

I did a little bit of stitching on my ‘The Light of Winter’. I didn’t try to do anything that involved counting so worked on the ‘snow’ beside the walkway to the house.

Prompted by a glamour shot-type photo a friend posted on Facebook before Christmas, I've been fooling around on ChatGPT.  Yesterday I had fun asking it to have Ernest doing different activities:

playing the oboe (but he's not holding it quite right but has a good embouchure and the instrument is pretty accurate),

making a snow angel,

and sledding (my current Facebook profile photo).

Oh my goodness, such cuteness! It's crazy the amusement I'm getting out of this.

Last night I finished the 30th and final octagon on the Persian Tiles blanket and crocheted the rest of the granny squares. Then I started crocheting the large triangles that go on the sides.

This morning I was supposed to host Monday morning stitching but we had quite a bit of snow overnight and it was supposed to continue snowing until just past noon. Rather than have everyone traveling in those conditions, I made the executive decision to postpone until next Monday. It’s the first time we’ve had to cancel Monday morning stitching for the weather. I was quite late with my announcement and MaryK had already cleared off her car. Fortunately everyone got my message before heading to my place. Since we were all showered and dressed, we had found time in the morning to do whatever we wanted.

So I had Ernest doing a couple more activities:

clearing the snow with a snowblower,

then having a snowball fight with his friends, Rusty, Reginald, and Davis (my current Facebook cover photo).

Yesterday Buster went downhill skiing.  He lives in Sarnia at Judy L's so must have had a fun day out.

So if I can make photos of a 5" high stuffed, knitted bear do these things, it really makes you realize that any photo you see on social media could very well be fake - AI generated. 

I should have taken down the Christmas stuff with my 'found time' today but instead I crocheted most of the day and started sewing the Persian Tiles blanket together.

I’d do some seaming, then crochet another triangle, then sew some more, then crochet some more. See where the triangles will go on the edges? Even with these 6 octagons sewn together, I have it draped on my legs keeping them warm. 

Mid afternoon I heard the snow clearing guy snow blowing my walkway, driveway, and sidewalk. We are scheduled to get freezing rain so don’t know if I’ll even go out tomorrow. 

I do plan to sleep in a bit and will probably listen to my audiobook whilst luxuriating under the cozy covers. Jeanette and I refer to this activity as ‘hurkle durkling’ - a Scottish term meaning to stay in bed long after the time one should be getting up.

Then I will tackle some things around here. At least that is the plan.