Back on the Band Wagon and Excitement in the Skies

I played in the Pickering Community Concert Band from 1990- 2002. I played the oboe and sometimes I was the assistant conductor. When I got promoted at my job and my workload increased, I decided to discontinue going. Also, as in many organizations, some of the politics was starting to become irritating and that also helped my decision to not return.

However, after being all geeked up at music camp, I decided I wanted to join the band again. Tonight was the first rehearsal of the season. As the band already has two oboes, I borrowed a clarinet and was given a reed, and got situated in the clarinet section. I was going to play Clarinet III with my new friend, Zoltan, but the way we were sharing the music stand, I couldn't see the conductor so I scooted over one seat and sat beside Dunc and played Clarinet II. 

I haven't even touched a clarinet in 20 years so it was kinda like riding a bicycle. I remembered most of the fingerings. I'm a bit iffy on some of the alternates but I'll get there. 

Some folks had their music on iPads and foot pedals that turns the pages. I may have to get one of those gadgets and see if I can resurrect Skip's old iPad. I'm not sure I even know the code to get into it. I think I'll be old school for a while and use sheet music. 

At music camp, we only had Concert Band an hour a day so playing in a 2 hour rehearsal really blew out my chops. Dunc and I both were struggling on some of those long passages by the last half hour or so. I'm still pretty good with the counting and got most notes but my endurance is gone. I may actually have to practice between rehearsals to get the muscles back in shape. All in all, I think I did pretty well after not having played the clarinet since June of 2007.

Unfortunately, I can't make any of the scheduled concerts this fall. Being one who is 'doing all the things', I only have two weekends free between now and mid-November. The Hallowe'en concert is while I'll be at Stitch North. I did tell the conductor and he seemed disappointed but my weekends should be a little freer in the new year (so far). The weekend of our Christmas concert I'll be cruising up the Rhine on my epic Christmas Market tour so I'm missing it as well.

It was very nice seeing some of the 'originals' from when I belonged to the band before: Cathy, Heidi, Joanne, Louise, Teresa, Hugh, etc.

I have nothing on the schedule tomorrow and we're supposed to get heavy rain so I'll be hurkle-durkling in the morning and probably crafting the rest of the day. I should have done laundry today to hang it out in the fabulous weather but it can wait until Thursday when it's supposed to be nice again.

The other exciting thing that happened today was seeing the Snowbirds fly over the house. One of the elementary schools in Whitby is named after a former Snowbird, Captain Michael VandenBos, who grew up in Whitby. He tragically died as a result of a mid-air collision during a training exercise in 1998. The other pilot was ejected from his plane and survived. The school bearing Captain VandenBos' name opened in 2001 and the dedication ceremony took place on September 4, 2001. 

Captain Michael VandenBos

Every year thereafter the Canadian Forces Snowbirds precision flying team has done a fly-past the first day of the school year at 1pm. Since they always perform at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on Labour Day, they're kinda in the 'neighbourhood' already. 

Today, I was in the kitchen when I heard the jets approaching so ran outside with my phone, hoping to get some photos. They flew just to the west of the house on their way to the school only 5.4 km away. I was so excited I almost missed getting this photo; so excited I didn't completely get my finger out of the way.

After the fly-past, they circled to the east over Oshawa and flew over Whitby again, higher this time. I just snapped photos until I could no longer see them.

The neighbour behind me came out on his deck to see them as well as his wife texted him that this was happening.

I was surprised at how emotional I felt knowing that they were doing this as a tribute to their fallen comrade. What a thrill for the staff and students at the school who assemble outside on opening day of school for the fly-past. And it truly was a thrill for the rest of the Whitby residents who got to see them as well. I have lived in this house for 30 years and today was the first time, I had the presence of mind to run outside to see them. 

The Snowbirds who are based in Moose Jaw SK, are retiring their 55 year-old CT-114 Tudor jets later this fall and will await delivery of their new aircraft in the early 2030s. Their final performance will be the fly-over at the Grey Cup game in Calgary on November 15.

My Brain Was in Overdrive Today

 Today Sharon sent me photos of her Veronica settling into her new home.

"This is Chase, the cat's scratching tree but I really like this king-sized watermelon bed!".

"I get my own toothbrush?

"This is a very comfy bed. We kitty cats like to sleep a lot".

"Do I have to wash all these dishes?!?!"

"I love the great outdoors! What a nice patio chair!".

"Some say I'm very photogenic (whatever that means). I love how my sweater matches these dahlias".

"We ladies always have been partial to roses". 

At stitching this morning we all got a tour of Barb's craft room. She is very organized. One object that caught our eyes was a crocheted sheep. 

Jennifer4 (yes, my Jennifers are numbered) found the pattern on Ravelry "Shoop the African Flower Sheep" by Heidi Bears. Of course I became obsessed with making one and realized I had previously made a blanket for Daisy using the African Flower crochet stitch.

I was all set to run out and buy yarn when Barb reminded me that I had a bunch left over from my Persian Tiles and Mystical Lanterns blankets. Next will be to purchase and download the pattern and start crocheting this.

I gave Jeanette the second project bag. Like the first one, she'll stitch down the binding on the back by hand. She liked the quilting I had done on the back. This afternoon I put Barb's together and this time, machine quilted around the borders of the Queen of the May 2025 on the front.

I also quilted the back - 30º lines, 3 inches apart.

The script lining and border is such a nice touch. It's one of Jane Austen's works, I believe.

And I love, love, love the Wm Morris-ish fabric on the back. You can purchase the panel here. There are two versions to choose from.

I did the binding on this one differently from Jeanette's. I attached the binding to the front then wrapped it around the edges to the back and secured it with pins and some washable glue. Then using my blind hem foot to stitch in the ditch on the front, I attached the binding to the back.  It took a couple of tries. After I adjusted the needle to stitch just to the right of the 'ditch' and used the right colour thread, I got the job done.

A couple of the gals purchased the Needleworker's Companion and Pincushion panel and plan to assemble it at our stitching retreat at the end of the month. Nicola has a good tutorial on YouTube on how to construct it. I was intrigued by the cheater hexie fabric on the exterior. It gave me a good idea about what I could do with the hexies I can make from the striped fabric I already have.

Here it is opened up.

And the back...

I used a bunch of hexies for the back panel of this project bag. 

I still have lots of this fabric left for the Companion project. I'll have a good look at their panels and measure the pieces.

And finally, Judy and Bev have been working on this Sashiko Biscornu project. 

It's kinda faux sashiko as it uses a counted technique rather than drawing the pattern on the fabric and weaving the needle in and out that way. I'll have to check my stash to see if I have any dark blue linen or eveneweave. If not, I could use 22ct white Hardanger fabric with blue threads. 

With the way my head swirled with all these crafty ideas today, it was all I could do to not kit up the biscornu project, too.

Veronica It Is!

I gave the little kitty cat to her new owner, Sharon G, at stitching yesterday. Sharon declared that she shall be named Veronica as well. I hope to post a photo of the two of them really soon.

There were 18 of us at our guild stitch day yesterday. Some of us (ahem) made a few mistakes and had to un-stitch them. One of our gang informed us she had to pick out everything she had stitched that day. Once again I learned the lesson to only have stuff that needs to be filled in when stitching socially. 

All that being said, I did get more done on my  'This Bee's Got Knees'.

I gave Jeanette her project bag so she can handsew the binding onto the back. 

Today I sewed up the other one she gave me to do. I started the second bag which I had cut out previously then realized I had to whip out and buy the right colour thread. Back at home, it came together in fairly short order. 

Although I'm using fusible fleece (with the fusible side towards the lining), I decided to quilt the back with the 30º lines 2 3/4" apart. I used a bit of washable glue to tack down the corners and have left it pinned for Jeanette to stitch down the binding. This YouTube video clearly outlines and excellent and almost foolproof method to attach binding ends. The pertinent part is at minute 23:00.

I really love the Wm Morris-ish fabric, and the lining and border fabric with tiny script. Nicola, the designer, provided extra script and lining fabric as other options to put above the zipper. They could easily be fashioned into a snappy ort tray.

Yesterday Barb asked me to sew up her panel as well so that will be my task tomorrow. I have owned my Bernina machine since 2012 and only just discovered I had the presser foot which would enable me to stitch in the ditch (I'm not sure what it's called). I have always struggled with stitching in the ditch using the regular presser feet so will try this out sometime soon. However, it won't be on Barb's bag. 

She left the binding decision up to me so for this one, so I plan to sew the binding onto the back and machine-sew it down on the front. 

I didn't get a call from the oboe repairer on Friday and he told me he was going on vacation this Tuesday so I doubt I'll get the instrument back until mid-September at the earliest. Still deciding when and what I'll play when I go back to the Pickering band.

And finally, in iPhone trade-in news, the trade-in kit arrived sometime on Friday. It was just a sturdy mailer with the return mailing label inside. I prepared my phone by backing up everything to the Cloud, unattaching it from the 'Find My' feature on my new phone, and restored it to factory settings. Then I gave it a bit of a cleanup, popped it into the mailer, slapped the label onto it, and beetled over to the nearby UPS Store to drop it off. 

I got an email today from the nice people at Apple asking if I was still interested in trading in my old phone to which I replied that I had sent it out on Friday. Fingers are crossed the trade-in amount will get put back on my Apple gift card and credit card soon.

Still Feeling Slothful

I only did a bit of stitching yesterday; on the 'This Bee's Got Knees' project.

Now that the backstitched outline is there, I am much more confident about where I'm placing the motifs.

Just using a scrap of linen, I stitched the centres of the blue scissor case pattern to make a scissor fob. The outer backstitching on the diagonal will be where I whip stitch the two pieces together. I'll also try to remember to insert the cording in the corner before sewing it all up.

I did finish the square stitching for the scissor case but haven't fully finished it yet.

Last night I fully finished the kitty cat I'm giving to one of my guild members at our stitch day on Saturday. It's my version of Esther Braithwaite's 'Kitty Friends'. Basically it is a tube, grafted at the top. Then the ears are sewn diagonally, the head stuffed, then the neck stitches cinched up.

The original pattern has a striped sweater but I did a solid one with the duplicate stitched heart, and as I mentioned in a previous post, a purl round on the second and last rounds of the 'sweater'. In this photo, one ear has been defined with diagonal stitches

The finishing takes almost as long as knitting the tube. To make her a girl, I stitch 6 eyelashes and add a coordinating bow. The recipient is free to name her whatever she likes. I do the nose and whiskers differently from the original pattern, too. Also, the i-cord tail is added.

I took her and her friends outside for a little photo shoot in the planter between my garage doors.

I received my new iPhone last week but still have not received the trade-in kit. I called again today and Apple claims to be sending me yet another trade-in kit (this is the third one) so hopefully I can finish up with that.

I've also resubscribed to Hello Fresh and should be receiving my first meal kit sometime before 8pm tonight. Hopefully it'll be before suppertime so I can make something good for supper.

Heads up! Lego has the Festive Gingerbread House back in stock. Because of the extreme cuteness and inexpensive price tag ($49.99CAD), it sold out really quickly last year. Here's the link if you want one. I'm sure they'll sell out fast again this year.

Quick update

I'm heading into The Big City in about a half hour to take my instrument to the oboe hospital - a repairer in North York so this will be quick.

I got some stitching done yesterday both at stitching in the morning and later in the afternoon. I had added some guideline with turquoise sewing thread a while back (hardly visible in this photo) but my stitching was off by a stitch here and there so decided to do the backstitched border and make sure all the stitched elements stayed within those parameters.

If I dedicated more time to this project, it could be finished in pretty short order. It will be pretty easy to fully finish, too.

I forgot to take the project bag to Jeanette yesterday but will hand it off on Saturday at our stitch day. She gave me a little finished square so I could add the snaps for her so I can give her that on Saturday, too.

Now it's a little ort tray. Unsnapped, it lies flat and tucks into a pocket on a retreat bag for transport.

Although I do have a plethora of projects in various stages of completion, I do derive a lot of enjoyment getting something fully finished. 

Taking It Easy Today.

After all the excitement, activity and fun of the last few weeks and days, I spent today totally indulging myself. It was a pyjama day spent finishing listening to an audiobook (Ann Patchett's 'The Dutch House**), sending messages and emails to lots of folks this morning, and this afternoon, making another retreat mat.

I used 70 squares that were cut from jelly roll strips. It was a lot of sewing but I'm loving the result. The fabric line is 'Hydrangea Passion'.

I had quilted the interior fabric to the batting quite a while ago. I used 6 additional squares to make the lined pocket. Two other strips in the roll were perfect for the binding.

Of course I added my little 'logo'.

This is the back of it. The finished size is 19 1/2" x 13 1/2"This design would also work great for a folio with interior pockets - some of them with zippers. I still have a couple of jelly rolls I could use for this.

I have no idea when or where I purchased this 'fabric roll'.

Looking back in my archives (blog) I see I used some of the strips to make Poppy a project bag back in 2002.

The case for my new iPhone 17 Pro arrived on Friday. The corners look extra durable. My previous phone had more of a silicone case which protected it very well - even when the phone was dropped.

I went for a really pretty case that also came with a screen protector. I haven't installed the screen protector yet as it involved more steps than I had the bandwidth for that day.

Isn't is pretty?

I haven't fully figured out all the capabilities of the new phone so will be doing some research. I await receipt of the trade-in kit so I can get the $225 for the old iPhone 12 Pro that I bought myself for my birthday back in 2021.

I forgot to make note of the progress on the Helix sock. The waste yarn for the afterthought heel was inserted (the yellow stitches under the white line) and the stocking stitch foot is underway.

At stitching on Monday, I had to pick out most of what I did on the project I was working on so I switched to 'This Bee's Got Knees' pincushion and filled in the lighter green on the leaves. 

Not sure what I'll work on tomorrow at stitching but it will need to be something I don't have to carefully count.

** this is the second Ann Patchett book I have listened to and enjoyed. The first one was 'Tom Lake' which I particularly enjoyed because of its setting. I like novels like this that develop the story of people in families and how the relationships evolve over the years. I look forward to reading more of them.