When I was little if you were “At your Auntie’s / Granny’s House”, normal rules did not apply. My sister and her boys came to visit for their half-term hols and they were allowed to do pretty much what they liked;) Luckily, we had decent weather almost all week so we went for long walks with Nessie and had a trip to Aberdeen on the wet day. Other than that it was very relaxed with video games, crafts and snacks. The boys thought my cluttered house was great as it contains every known gadget, book and musical instrument yet there is no cold water in the bathroom and the kitchen ceiling threatens to collapse at any time.
My only quilt related activities were sending “Help ma Boab” off to ICHF Events for the Scottish Quilt Show and making a couple of short promotional videos for my forthcoming teaching weekend at Quilt Direct in Devon. One of the videos was a tongue in cheek scone test, wondering if Devon or Cornwall won on the jam vs. cream debate. I have a bit of an admin / catch-up type of week ahead and will make sure that I am thoroughly prepared for my teaching trip. I might even practise those blasted Beziers!
I spent a lot of my week testing out the Tech that I needed to use to do my Zoom lecture and demo for the Scottish branch of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles. I was using the MacBook Air that I got from Music Magpie and a usbc hub since the MacAir hardly has any ports where you can plug in gadgets. It turns out that there is more than one version of a basic usb port! I wanted to use 2 Camlinks in order to livestream images from my 2 GoPro cameras but they needed a faster port than usual, 3.0 instead of 2.0. Having ordered a new usbc hub I had to return it because the ports were too close together and the 2 quite fat Camlinks could not both fit. Let’s just say, the Postie was kept busy with my Amazon exchanges until I got the right gadget;)
That was not the only stumbling block – I could not get a microphone to work reliably until I realised that I had one that could connect to the Mac via Bluetooth. Despite that, when I practise Zoom with my sister there was no sound. I was so paranoid that I also did a practise run with the Region co-ordinator and Nella. None of this was helped by the fact that the wifi was also being temperamental. To my horror, when I logged onto the meeting 15 minutes before the start there was again no sound but in the end it was suggested that I leave then rejoin the meeting and after that everything ran smoothly. I had a face camera, a slideshow and 2 work stations with day 2 other cameras. What a relief when I got through the whole presentation and people seemed to have enjoyed it:)
That was my first big commitment of the year. The next one to concentrate on is a teaching weekend at Quilt Direct in Devon in mid March. I was asked by one of the Zoom participants if I was going to enter FOQ this year but I said that I was not going to push myself to a deadline when I need to concentrate on my teaching commitments without getting my knickers in a twist;)
In addition to all of my Tech trauma, I managed to get 3 smallish customer quilts done. The forthcoming one this week will be another big one at 100” square.
I had intended to make a short Art & Stitch video this week but I went a bit off-piste wondering if an old drawing tablet might be useful (it wasn’t) and I tried to get to grips with computer drawing using a Bezier arc/line tool which I found almost impossible.
At least I have found my planner useful… it was really good having decided what to eat each night, even though I have a lot of risotto left over since Fergus decided McDonalds would be more appealing. Because it was scheduled in, I went swimming twice and things actually felt a little less chaotic. I need to keep up the good start;)
Christmas with one extra person and a dog seemed more chaotic than usual. I did not get to do my jigsaw puzzle much because there was nowhere safe to leave it out. I have often accused Nessie of eating one piece so leaving set up with a curious puppy did not seem like a good idea. Nessie ended up mostly opting out of the sitting room – she and Fizzle kept out of the way, probably hatching plans for revenge.
Freya made me a cute little sconce from clay, Nella gifted me a non-alcoholic blood orange cordial and Fergus got me edibles (chocolate – not magic mushrooms!) My sister gave me a fabulous swimming hat with rubber petals because I expressed a desire to try out the local pool.
We had 2 bouts of very heavy rain which caused more flooding hereabouts so I have not bothered to give my workshop a pre-New Year tidy as I still have sandbags and towels by the door.
The kitchen was a bit chaotic – George brought a haunch of venison that did not fit in the oven and he was not accustomed to our casual approach to oven temperatures or timings. I got a bit flustered and accidentally turned the top oven onto the grill function so my hot oil for spuds created one or two slightly alarming flames.
It was lovely to have guests for the holidays but I think we all (especially Nessie) secretly heaved a sigh of relief when they departed. I will be heading to Norfolk with Nella so it will feel like an extended holiday but at some point January will hit me hard and I will have to get stuck into lists/projects/quilts!
I had to collect Nella from Aberdeen bus station so went for a wee wander around Union Square shopping centre while I waited. I went into the new Seasalt shop which already had a sale on. I stroked the velvet dresses to see if they were as wrong as the ones I had seen in Norwich and to my horror, I discovered that all of the nap was running in the wrong direction. When I helpfully informed the sales assistant, she insisted snippily that the designers would have requested that. It made me shudder to think that if I ran my hands down my imaginary party frock, the fabric would feel bristly!
The week was spent endlessly making grocery lists, trying not to eat the food that I was stock-piling for Actual Christmas. In between hot chocolates and schmaltzy Christmas films, I did at least some “Art and Stitch” practice.
Freya arrived with boyfriend, George and his rather scatty young collie, Poppy. Poppy has made it her mission to terrorise Nessie. Freya unwisely got in the middle of a dog fracas and got hit in the face which broke off her front tooth crown (that she smashed when canoeing at Uni). Obviously, dentists are all closed for the hols… Poppy has also decided that it is a good idea to poop under the Christmas tree even after she has been outside to go to the toilet. The seagrass matting that we have is not the ideal type of flooring from which to remove squashed-in poop. Nessie and Fizz have decided to spend Christmas together in my room, minding their own business. On Christmas Eve morning everyone is walking on eggshells, hoping there won’t be any more drama. I honestly think I should write a sit-com. I am almost tempted to pour a large gin and cranberry, despite having been teetotal for almost a year;)
When my children were younger Christmas did not begin until after Fergus’ birthday on December 11th. We have an artificial tree now so it has been up with only its lights on, waiting for Nella to “dress” it when she arrives home. I must admit that I sort of miss the frantic round of Christmas concerts and performances. The trouble is that since the festive season starts so early nowadays, the whole thing is spread out and there seems to be no definite Christmas period (for me, at least). All of the Christmas Fayres are over already and I never go into Aberdeen where there probably are not any jolly carollers anyway;)
Fergus was 22 this week and I made him a semi festive cake. It was gingerbread with cream cheese frosting and cranberry sauce in between the layers. It was meant to be one of those “naked” cakes ie. inexpertly iced. I had a shortage of plain cream cheese so mine was a bit bald. I had bought 3 cartons of the stuff but had not checked the labels and discovered that they were the garlic and herb version! It tasted great – the sharp cranberry sauce helped to cut through the super-sweet frosting. I put together a fancy breakfast box as he is a bit of a foodie. I was going to order it online but the company did not deliver here. He was very pleased and gets to keep the IKEA crate.
I finished the bunny cushion but forgot to take a photo before I wrapped it. A DIY customer who has been waiting a while came and completed her grand-daughter’s quilt. I continued to work my way through digitising tutorials for Art and Stitch. There is a lot that I don’t feel I would ever want to bother with but I need to know how it all works. I have also signed up for a pricey digital Quilt-a-Long but I am treating it as a learning experience.
Other than that, I have tried to wrap some gifts, scrawled a few cards, done some grocery shopping, and cleared the junk out of Nella’s room that had been dumped by other members of the household who did not want it in their rooms! Nessie had a pre-Christmas trim and was not impressed while Fizz remains oblivious to everything.
Freya and I celebrated Nella’s 20th Birthday with her in Norfolk. As a child, Nella always used to request a different birthday cake every year and this year it was meant to be a pink angel cake (vegan). Like a Bakeoff contestant, I should have practised at home because using egg replacement, an unfamiliar oven with a dodgy thermostat and oddly shallow tins was all a bit much and I ended up having 3 attempts until I had an edible result. The first batch rose, dropped bits all over the oven then when I thought I had switched it off, I had actually turned on the grill so I burnt it!
I wore a frock to take Nella out for dinner but my Dad commented that it was a bit jazzy and was I dressed up as a Vegan?
Freya was busy working remotely most of the week but she had a day off mid-week and we went to a pumpkin farm.
I had originally planned to drive home in one trip but with more heavy rain forecast, I stayed with Freya overnight in Glasgow. She lives right next to the Botanic Gardens where there is a seasonal event called “Glas-Glow”. Nessie always enjoys a walk around there as she thinks she might catch squirrels. There was a super display of pumpkins there by local school children. I drove the rest of the way home on Sunday but it took ages due to the weather, roadworks and detours.
I decided to leave my unpacking until Monday morning and after that I had to reorganise my workshop. Even though I had shifted some furniture in case of a flood, Storm Babet caused more water seepage than the last time we had a bad storm. Such events used to be rare but now they seem to be at least an annual event. Fortunately, it had all been mopped up by the time I got home and I just had to have a bit of a tidy-up.
I have loaded an experimental project onto my quilt frame. I am hoping to make non-slip sofa covers to replace the hideous stretchy nylon ones. I have 2 lovely red leather vintage sofas but keep them covered up so pets can sit on them too;) The “quilt” is red fluffy fabric and rubbery stuff to stop rugs from slipping (no wadding) so it will be interesting to see if that works.
After a weekend of torrential rain, the sun finally came back out on Monday and started drying everything out. Luckily, no water flooded into my workshop this time. The river was incredibly high when Nessie and I went for a walk. Instead of being a once in 20 years occurrence, it seems to happen annually now.
I set myself ups for a busy week, knowing that I am going to Norfolk later this week. I did some online teaching, in person teaching and a couple of customer quilts.
In a phone conversation with a Bernina Q-matic owner, she mentioned that her 1 year old machine had done 2 million stitches after 16 quilts which I thought sounded pretty high. Out of interest I checked my stitch counter, bearing in mind that I know it has been zeroed in the past and that I actually have another machine. I have had this machine since 2015, when it launched in the UK and it has done more than 51 million stitches! It is probably due for a spa experience;)
I don’t seem to go anywhere interesting most weeks but I did have an “outing” to Asda. I hate Asda because it is so big but it does have a really good “exotic” section of spices and foods from around the world. I stocked up on spices because I wanted to recreate the Art Masala mix that Nadia Hussain made on her latest BBC cooking programme. I made her jalfrezi recipe and it was was superb – almost as good as the fudge doughnuts that a client brought from St Andrews;)
After another epic drive north I spent the next day trying to get reorganised. My workshop could do with a big sort out but I am trying to remind myself that it does not all need to be done at once. Indeed, the universe does not even care whether I do it at all. I have a mega customer quilt to get done before I leave to teach 2 groups in Glasgow next week. It was frustrating that the Qmatic system kept stopping with an error message that there was a problem with the sewhead. On closer inspection, I discovered that the wiring sleeve was disintegrating through wear but I managed to fix it with insulting tape and have ordered some new parts. Tempting as it is to speed the quilting up on a big quilt, more haste gives less speed if something goes wrong. I am having to keep a close eye on this one as there is a lot of back-tracking and if there is a hiccup it can be tricky to find the right place to restart.
In the garden I picked another batch of blueberries and managed to find some non-waspy plums so even though the kids are all away I should make a crumble.
It would have been easy not to make the effort to drive almost 3 hours to Stirlingshire to attend a Scottie Dog meet-up but I am glad that I did. Nessie behaved impeccably and did not join in with the cacophony of barking. She won the waggiest tail competition and charmed the judges with her fairy wings, taking second place in best of show.
I have picked up a forgotten project and while Qmatic stitches the customer quilt I am adding some more hand-stitching to my quilted coat. It is one of those projects that I could declare finished enough or just keep going ad-infinitum.
This week I got down to putting together some class specs and requirements. It has been a while since I came up with “lesson plans” so I struggled with the discipline. I usually aim to plan more than is required which is what most primary school teachers do to keep the fast workers occupied. I will be teaching my Northern Lights improv curves class in Glasgow next month but I decided to add another element which is improv bridges. I am experimenting with machine appliqué methods. The original class was just free-cut strips but I decided to give the pupils more options and offer some people more of a challenge.
There were some foodie makes – English muffins, which were a success and vegan strawberry tarts which looked like triffids.
Because I seemed to be so ahead of the game with my preparation for FoQ ( I am bound to have forgotten something) I managed to do a customer quilt that I said would not be done until later in August:)
Nella, Nessie and I had a day out in St Andrews and met 2 other Scotties. Nessie thought she was a celebrity when several American tourists stopped to talk to her.
My FoQ samples looked pretty good once they were stuffed with cushion pads but I made myself practise sit-down quilting on another sample. My FMQ skills are very rusty and I will have to do a lot of secret playing to be a convincing teacher at FoQ;) The Bernina Q16 / Q20 is bound to be easier to use than my domestic machine as there is more table space and a stitch regulator! BUT I will be teaching domestic machine quilting next month so I need to hone my skills for that.
Because I seemed to be so ahead of the game with my preparation for FoQ ( I am bound to have forgotten something) I managed to do a customer quilt that I said would not be done until later in August:)
It was a bit of a damp July week here so Nella and I undertook more autumnal activities including jam and bread-making. She altered the neckline of a dress that she had made and worked on some impressive crochet.
I spent my entire week getting the binding done on Help Ma Boab. I had planned to finish the edge with silver machine blanket stitching but the edges were as bulky as a carpet so I settled for some kantha-style hand stitching. I am still wondering about adding beads to the outside edge (I tested this on a small sample) but that is probably over-kill;) All I really have to do now is hand-stitch the reverse of the binding, hanging sleeve and label and tidy any loose threads.
Nella and I spent the weekend with Freya, her boyfriend (George) and his Mum. We tramped around Edinburgh which was heaving with tourists like ourselves, dodging rain showers. We visited the National Portrait Gallery which was fascinating. On Sunday we had tickets for the much anticipated Banksy exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Glasgow. It was an amazing exhibition, definitely the best I have attended, anywhere, ever! Photos were not allowed which made the audience engage more fully with the artwork and I think everyone there must have read every single label. It is incredible how Banksy has managed to keep his identity a secret for so many years and not be caught on camera. We felt that we “knew” the artist from the quotes that were displayed yet he remains an enigma.
My mission this week is to finish Help Ma Boab and get it ready to post. IF I still want to add beads after that I would theoretically have time but possibly not the inclination…
When I was editing my latest Q-matic videos last weekend my computer told me that its memory was full and so was its external hard drive. Immediately I started deleting stuff that I thought I did not need anymore but it made no difference so I contacted Apple support. After wasting several hours trouble-shooting it was deemed necessary to take it to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. I spent 6 hours there on Monday! It turned out that it had got clogged up with too many backups so the computer got wiped then reinstalled. Hopefully everything was saved on iCloud or at least stored on the backup – I guess I won’t know until I am searching for something.
That stressful experience of the Mac Meltdown took me a while to reset the rest of my week. I eventually rescued and sorted out my videos which was a relief. I celebrated by making a couples of cakes – lemon drizzle and an everyday fruitcake:)
I got a customer quilt done and spent the rest of the week trying out some ideas for my possible quilt idea, including some couching with cord and different threads. I have a scrap of an antique Indian tribal bodice that I want to recreate in my own way. That piece of fabric is sort of what inspired Rainbow Warliors so we will see what happens next.
I ordered a disco-ball plant pot so felt the need to make it a macrame hanger which took about 2 hours more than it should have after I got the hank of yarn in an utter tangle. I need a plant for it but have an awful habit of letting plants die so maybe I will put an artificial one in it, especially if I mean to hang it up.
I decided to have a relaxing Saturday making a By Annie gadget bag. Of course it would have been cheaper and easier to order one from Amazon;) Firstly I had to quilt a piece of Soft n Stable on the longarm the day before then figure out the under-illustrated instructions. They were not that complicated really – I just could not follow them! The finished bag is really nice but I would change a few things if I did it again. The main thing was that the layers were far too thick and I broke a few needles. Getting the binding on was really tricky – I think it could have been wider and I did not enjoy finishing it off by hand. We will see if I can face making any more as potential Christmas presents but now that I have worked it out I really should;)
I don’t know what it is about pre-Christmas week but it either feels like Christmas will never come while at the same time the days go as fast as when calendar pages flip to show time passing in a movie. I did some last minute Christmas shopping in a junk shop which actually meant that I made a couple of fun but unnecessary purchases for myself including vintage orange Tupperware and an ugly lamp.
For the first time since 2018 Nella enjoyed preparing festive food and eating it! This was what really made it our best Christmas in a long time. We did not watch much TV – instead we played a couple of board games, gave up on a Brussel sprouts jigsaw puzzle, rediscovered some old home videos and ate plenty of chocolate. It was a very relaxed holiday and we enjoyed each other’s company. We had a couple of nice walks with Nessie, showing off new hats and jumpers.
I have not got anything I must do before the New Year except pencil in a few teaching dates for 2023 and attempt to reset the wifi extender password so I can get my fancy wireless printer to talk to my computer again. If I get around to doing any sewing or post-Christmas cooking that will be a bonus!
I have caught up with all of my customer quilts for now so I had time to finish a few things off in the caravan. The dead battery finally got recharged and I was able to get the water pump going at last. I now know how to get the gas going so I practised making toast in the grill. I thought it would be fun to be able to lie in bed and get Alexa to turn gadgets on so I invested in a couple of smart plugs. I can now command Alexa to switch the kettle, heater and lights on! I am not sure if she will be able to do that when I am on a campsite and have to use a different wifi connection without too much jiggery-pokery;)
Nella, Nessie and I had a very comfortable sleepover in the caravan followed by breakfast and agreed that it was far nicer than camping in a tent.
Since Spring is in full swing I have more eggs than I can get through myself so I made a batch of delicious lemon curd. I got some spare blankets out of a cupboard-of-doom in the house, thought I should reorganise it, scrub the damp patches and repaint but then just shut the door and walked away.
It was good to have some “spare” time this week to catch up and do some experimenting with Qmatic before a session with my Zoom pupil. I will type out some notes and make a video summary before I forget.
I have not yet had compensation from KLM for my cancelled flight and the ensuing expenses of around £500.00 I am not at all impressed by how difficult it has been to get in touch with customer services so that will be my top priority this week.
I did have a look at a an unfinished patchwork project, found that I had cut out the pattern pieces and gathered some fabric but that has not yet progressed further.
I am so glad to report that Christmas 2021 has been a far happier time here than it was a year ago. Obviously, the Covid pandemic is still prevalent and nobody has yet come up with an instant solution for climate change BUT all 3 of my children are home for Christmas. Last year Nella was on a hunger strike during a short pass home from a psychiatric unit – this year she has been battling anorexia and tried to join in as much as possible. She is so happy to be here and hopeful for the year ahead.
Christmas Day was very casual – I had my usual cooking frenzy on Christmas Eve but kept it all simple and did not bother with a fancy table setting or crystal dishes for the sauces. We did not even watch any telly because Nella taught us how to play Dobble and Uno. There were lots of lovely parcels to open throughout the day, including several pre-loved items and I received a super home-made knitted hat from Nella.
Boxing Day has been even more chilled out so far – we have plenty of leftovers to eat, we enjoyed a walk up to the stone circle in Durris and intent to spend the rest of the day watching a film or reading – bliss!
We are edging towards Christmas and have been getting into a festive spirit. I wrapped all of my gifts scruffily in brown paper. It was meant to be printed with a rubber wallpaper roller but the paint took ages to arrive so it remained naked.
Nella has been working at Crathes Castle for the Christmas Light festival. She has been dressed as The Grinch, Olaf the snowman and an Elf in freezing conditions. The lights in the walled garden were spectacular and it was a lovely experience.
I made Date and Apple chutney twice using my Granny’s vague recipe. She wrote down rough amounts and simply said to cook in a low oven for a couple of hours. The first batch got forgotten and turned into treacle but the second round was much better.
Freya has arrived home for the holidays so I feel that our low-key festivities can now begin:)
thequiltquine 