January 3rd - all is calm but maybe not as well as it could be.

 As mentioned, we are in the midst of daily radiation for my husband's hand - the skin cancer is deep and surgery was not an option if he wanted to keep the use of his thumb and first finger.  So daily, we head to the hospital.  The good news for me is that appointments are scheduled for after noon so I can enjoy playing tennis 3 times a week and get my exercise while having fun.  He also has an appointment for renal artery stents mid January and it will be day surgery with him spending at least 6 hours in recovery before he will be released.  After than will be femoral artery stents but that isn't considered to be critical so the date could be any time this spring.  But, radiation will continue to mid February and makes me appreciate free parking for cancer patients. 

I continued to work on my Christmas, Advent, and mystery box projects that had accumulated in drawers for the last few years and I have almost finished anything that is seasonal for this time of year.  I do have some hand embroidery snowflakes, a small glass case requiring hand stitching to the metal frame and others that are more timeless.  

However, I did pull out two Valentine's projects and it would be nice to have them done by the first or second week of February.  There were two table runners and I am going to combine them into one project. I also have three blocks I made early December in white/pink/red and aqua that we decided would look on my dining room table for February so they need to be assembled with sashing, quilted and bound.  

I managed to piece my cardinal and only added a small border as I wanted it to finish at 12.5" to fit my small stand in my stairwell.  It will look bright and happy during winter ugly weather.  

It was interesting that two different Advent Boxes from 2023 had the same project instructions with different fabrics but, each had the fancy zippers.  A very super simple project and am now sad that I gave away all my fancy zippers because I wasn't sure where or how to use them.  I used my own fabric for the lighter ones - a canvas with scissors on it that worked well with the colour of the zippers.  The reason for that was that I didn't do a good job of putting the fabric with the patterns when I got them.  For those that haven't done an Advent bag, the various companies tend to give the parts of a project over two or three days.  You get the fabric one day, pattern another day and then notions on the third day. This year I took care to make sure I put all of the parts together into one bag so there is no confusion of wondering what goes with which? 

This was an example of combined projects.  The canvas fabric and lining (as well as the rest of the fabric pieces) came with a pattern by Cherry Tree Quilts in Summerland (a summer box).  I really didn't need another tote so I grabbed the two larger pieces of fabric and used them with the fabric bag pattern which was from a different Advent Box (Watergirl Quilts in Ontario).  The bag pattern was from 2023 and I liked the pattern because it gives 5 different sizes and cutting for each.  Simple project but it is also completed! 

These are two more smaller project. A drawstring bag and a cell phone bag for around the neck. I am hoping my passport fits in the mesh side. Otherwise it will be for guild meetings with a zippered pocket for coins.

I am in the midst of taking Christmas down though my outside sides tend to add a bit of brightness on these dark, wet, dreary nights so they might get to stay up a little longer.  

For January, I am about to start stitching blocks together from our past modern guild sew ins.   Sadly, we might not have more sew ins since the senior's center decided to change our costs from being very reasonable for a Saturday to us paying over $50 per hour which would be over $300 for a day of using the room which is a massive jump and if we had 10 people sewing, it would be over $30 each for the day.  Nothing is provided other than the space with a small kitchen and bathrooms and storage cupboard.  Until someone can find us something more reasonable to rent and use, our time together once a month is gone.  

Plus, I have my Valentine's projects to work on... it will be mid February before we realize it so time to get the sewing machine purring on these projects. 

I don't have many pictures today and I am not writing a list of what I want to accomplish but will post as I finish up some the projects on my wish list.  

Happy New Year to all and hopefully, healthy, happy and financially stable.