An Epic Week

It has been a truly epic week, starting out in Glasgow where Nella and I went to stay with Freya to see a band which cancelled at the last minute. At any rate, we went out for tea, followed by ice cream and stayed the night so Nella could get a train the next day to stay with her lovely cousin in Exeter. This was a huge adventure for her, having not been anywhere unaccompanied since she was about 14. She managed the long journey and had a great week experiencing life as a student, partying, playing bingo and making new friends.

While she was a way I spent  more time than usual in my workshop. I had 2 customer quilts on the go, one of which was huge at 3m square. While that was going on I prepared the 304 pleated squares for Nella’s puff quilt.

I have decided to make 4 small wall quilts to hang alongside Rainbow Warliors on the longarm stand at FoQ. They will all feature one of my large doily screen prints in silver. I got silver powder absolutely everywhere before I mixed it with binder to make silver ink. The screen that I made is really too big for one person to handle easily so some of the prints had bits missing – the best one was on blue fabric. I will add some simplified Rainbow Warriors blocks to each small quilt until they are 30” x 40”, trying not to get carried away with embellishments. 

I used another of my gadgets, the Brother Scan-Cut machine, to cut lots of tiny walri figures from glitter vinyl and I will heat-press them onto 2 ½” squares. The idea is to get Qmatic to do automated quilting to show off what it can do.

I caught up with Mo and her wire-haired dachshund puppies for coffee on Friday. I could be quite tempted to get Nessie a wee sister but I have to be sensible, especially as my newly mended overlocker has now seized up completely…

Just Pootling

I have to remind myself that I have been away from home for the past 3 weekends and psychologically that is busy, even if there is no major project going on. I worked slowly on a couple of customer quilts, had a half-hearted attempt at making pleated facemarks (Nella’s request), and had a lovely, overdue catch-up with Mo who has wire-haired dachshund puppies. 

There was a full day without electricity for some sort of maintenance and I really wondered what I was going to do all day without power and wifi. I determined that I would learn how to operate the water supply and loo in the caravan. I cleaned all of the tanks, filled them back up with water and attached the basic pump. Despite all that there was no water supply, even though everything had been working fine when the Caravan Man was here. What I had not realised was that many of the functions in the caravan rely on a 12v battery supply, even when it is plugged into the mains. This includes the water pump and loo flush. I would rather it was a manual pump because then I would not have to remember to charge the battery. Needless to say, the battery was flat because someone (probably me) had left something on that drained it. Eventually, I will make a Youtube video aimed at idiot caravan beginners like me that explain these basic procedures. Honestly, I read the owner’s manual but I could not find a clear explanation about what runs off mains and what only runs off the battery! 

I did a very basic project with my Cricut Joy cutting machine. I used scraps of vinyl and cut out circles to stick onto the caravan taps to indicate hot and cold water. I wished I had come up with a more exciting design, maybe with additional flowers but for now I just need to see if they will stay stuck on even if they get wet. 

I realised that I do actually have 2 sewing projects that I started and forgot about. There is my quilted coat and also a funky bird wall hanging. I need to work out whether I have all of the pieces and see if I can get back to them. 

Norwich Visit

(Beach Huts near Lowestoft)

My only mission last week was to complete a customer quilt and get the caravan serviced. I accomplished both:) The quilt is for a friend’s grandson in New Zealand and I am sure he will love all of the different feature fabrics. 

I was nervous about the caravan inspection but it went surprisingly well. There were signs of damp but it is not really a problem for me unless I get rained on in bed. The Caravan Man did not say a word about the interior decoration and he said it was entirely roadworthy but could do with new tyres. He even got the gas working so I should be able to try it out soon, even if it is just for a sleepover in the garden.

Nella and I drove to Norfolk on Thursday and completed the trip within 10-ish hours. We had a great day at Norwich University of the Arts on Friday. The tours were amazing and I went into buildings that I never knew existed. The equipment was all top-notch and the staff and student ambassadors were all very welcoming. Nella and I are both very excited by what her course and life in Norwich will offer. It really is “A Fine City” and we had a lovely wander around the lanes, checking out cafes and eclectic, independent shops. 

Nessie made herself at home with my parents while we were out and enjoyed walkies to the river in Loddon to watch the boats and ducks. She has not had to wear her raincoat at all and we have enjoyed not being wrapped up in thick jumpers as the weather was positively spring-like. 

We are planning another mooch around the city before heading back to Scotland and will look forward to planning Nella’s student life here.

Feels Like Spring

The weather has been perfect all week – no wind, highs of 18C, frosty in the morning. The birds have been singing, trees all have buds on, beautiful sunsets, and I even took off my thermal vest. However, snow is forecast next week:)

I managed to get 2 quilts done for customers. One of them took far longer than it should have because I was trying to use the customer’s Aurifil 40 cotton variegated thread on batiks and the machine hated that combination. After a lot of footering around, I used an 80 needle, reduced the top tension to almost nothing, coated the thread in silicone and ran the machine at its slowest speed. 

For the first time in ages, I caught up with a friend for coffee and she gave me plant pot stickers for the caravan. I finished my quite-posh bunting so really the caravan interior is done, apart from working out how the gas and water works. 

I saved a picture posted on Instagram by Mister Domestic since I thought it particularly apt.  Much has changed indeed over the past couple of years. Nella has reserved a Uni Halls room in Norwich! I have decided to be OK with having no plans other than to keep my business chugging along, hope to enjoy a more carefree summer, get Nella settled into Uni then wait and see what direction (if any) to take…

Not So Swift

My caravan is a Challenger SWIFT so I chose a digital quilt design that looked a bit like swallows in flight. I had trouble getting the design to line up as it was not a Bernina file so I spent a morning faffing around in Art and Stitch until I got it to link up nicely. It is a really nice design from Intelligent Quilting but it was slow to stitch out as there is a lot of back-tracking on the wings. I also had some trouble with thread breaking, possibly due to the mix of fabrics used, so I had to slow the speed right down. The quilts look great on the bunks so all I really “need” to do inside the caravan is make bunting.

I picked up some 50p saucers and a cute milk jug to emphasise the kitsch look. I am probably going to go all out and paint the caravan’s exterior so I got some pastelly sample cards. So much for getting an OK caravan and just using it “as-is”…

I had a really nice Tula Pink customer quilt this week and used a Karlee Porter design (Swivel Circle 2) on it which I think has a modern look. The customer sent airy wool wadding so the texture is lovely!

At this rate I will have to get back to some unfinished projects or even have a well needed spring clean in my workshop.

Shall I make Bunting Next?

I was flicking through old notebooks looking for the contact details of a customer who left the wrong number on my answerphone and it was obvious how much more I used to do. There were pages of scribbles of things to do and projects that were underway. Whenever anyone asked what I was up to I would always answer that I was super-busy. Nowadays, I think it is an achievement if I make my bed or collect eggs from my hens.

I did actually do 3 customer quilts this week – one freehand babygro quilt, a small Starwars alphabet quilt and an enormous Christmas one. I am thinking of squeezing in my 2 caravan quilts after the next customer one;)

Despite many spam messages from made-up names on Messenger, I have sold 2 of my microwaves on Facebook Marketplace. If only I could purge more “junk” from the house I might feel inclined to do some dusting. I have no idea how junk shop owners manage. Maybe I should just advertise that my whole house is a junk shop so people can call in and make offers on whatever they fancy. 

I bought a cheap rug online for the caravan that I knew was too big and hoped that I would be able to trim it to size. I hacked it into 2 pieces using kitchen shears and gingerly sewed binding onto the raw edges with a hefty needle inserted into my sewing machine. The caravan interior is probably complete now except that I still have to decide if it would benefit from some bunting…

Too Many Microwaves!

Microwave ovens have been mysteriously multiplying here. There is one in the kitchen – as you would expect. There is a rusty-ish one in the workshop which I might use on a rare occasion for dyeing fabric that is too small to go in the washing machine – in other words,  never. I bought one last year to take to Birmingham so Nella could heat food up in the hotel and the caravan came with another one. I was killing time the other day while Nella was in college for the afternoon. Rather dangerously, I found myself aimlessly wandering around Dunelm and spotted a reduced pink retro style microwave hidden behind some boxes. I simply could not resist getting it for my increasingly pink caravan, even though it is not really a necessity;) Now I really must advertise 2 of the unused microwaves for sale and maybe even ditch the old, rusty one. 

Somehow it was a busy week but not much to “show” for it. Nessie had a haircut, I made several phone calls (as yet unanswered) to try and arrange a mobile caravan service. I fitted in a Qmatic lesson for a pupil via Zoom, and Freya came home for the weekend. 

I think I have almost pieced enough blocks for the second caravan quilt…

I quilted one customer quilt. It was nice and straightforward except that with rather a lot of borders, it did get a bit out of hand in places but I managed to get it under control.

I am missing my overlocker which has been in repair for weeks. I did look on Ebay to see if I could get one the same as a backup but there is only one up for sale and its starting price is £800!!

Lovely weather this weekend has hinted that Spring is on its way. I could do with catching up on customer quilts and I should give the outside of the caravan some attention. I have seen some on Pinterest that have been painted with fabulous flowers but for now I may just try to tidy up the scruffy vinyl stripes so it looks less shabby. We have decided to see about getting tickets for a Scottish festival, “Doune the Rabbit Hole”. It is exciting that Nella has suggested this trip since we last went to “Latitude” in 2019, just after she was first diagnosed with anorexia so this one should be a far happier experience:)

Online Shopping Caveat

I can spend hours shopping online, usually reading all the reviews and checking for bargains. It generally works out well and is obviously convenient but sometimes my purchases do not quite meet my expectations.

I ordered a wool gilet because I love my scruffy, old, fleece body warmer from Boden that is years old. Disappointingly, the XL size was too big in the shoulders but did not zip up. To make matters worse, all of the binding was done in brown brushed nylon! I have an absolute horror of all things nylon, including tights, so that item was quickly dispatched back to where it came from.

Weeks ago I ordered a small battery cuckoo clock for my caravan from Ebay. OK, it was cheap and it eventually arrived from China but it was even naffer than I expected. Surprisingly, it ticks very loudly so I have banished it to the loo. I had an old framed embroidery that I decided could cover up some old damp patches. I decided to cut up a vintage tablecloth and frame parts of that too to make a set. The picture frames from Amazon had very flimsy glass which just shattered when I so much as looked at them – rather than send them back, I simply framed them up without the glass. 

I am making 2 quilts for the caravan bunks and need 2 lots of backing so I ordered a kingsized tropical duvet cover. I did not notice that it was actually polycotton and even worse, I did not see the giant snakes amongst the vegetation! Never mind – it will do.

I have pretty much completed the interior revamp of the caravan, complete with black glittery worktops. The fairy lights have been cable-tied into place and I am building up a “library” of vintage Observer books, a couple of which I picked up for £1.00 at the Red Cross Shop. One of them was published in 1972 and the original price on its dust jacket was 45p. 

I managed to complete 2 customer quilts this week, including a semi-custom one. Now that my caravan project is under control (inside at least), I should crack on with some straight-forward customer quilts, unless I sneak in my caravan quilts first;)

Shabby to Chic

It was refreshing to work on some straightforward customer quilts this week. I loved the mixture of fabrics used in the 3 “scrappy” quilts. This eclectic approach made me reconsider ordering a batch of Liberty prints for my caravan quilts and I found all sorts of floral prints already in my stash. I almost could not be bothered to start a quilt and I struggled to get going but once I had made up a test block, I decided to cut out enough for an entire quilt.

Nella had some college deadlines to fulfil, one of which was a transformation of men’s shirts into a different wearable garment. I think she did rather well, attaching a skirt of ruffles onto a halter top. 

The caravan got a thorough clean inside then it was sugar-soaped and sanded because I decided that it would look fresher all painted white. I have realised that it has suffered from significant damp at some stage, hopefully not leaking now but there are bubbles on its inside walls. I started painting it using a chalk paint and it feels like it will take me ages! The first coat looks streaky so I hope a second covering will be an amazing transformation. I just want to get to the point where we will be able to dress it up with fake plants and a disco ball:)

Off to a Leisurely Start in 2022

The year has got off to a leisurely start – I have worked on a tricky customer quilt a little at a time. There was a hiccup when I had to rip out some FMQ that I was not happy with and replaced it with a small, traditional stipple. I am happy with the radiating lines in the red section but the next bit looks challenging as the quilt is too full in its outer areas. Ideally, I would like to finish it in the next week or so to get back to more straightforward quilts. Typically, for January, the workshop is very cold and not particularly inviting. 

I bought a new gadget on sale on a bit of a whim. I have had fun learning how to use a Circuit Joy cutting machine, making vinyl decals and labels. 

I have to remind myself that the only person putting pressure on me to get anything done is me. We are still in a Pandemic and Nella still needs much support so all I really “need” to do is just get through Life one day at a time;)

Coos and Cosy Coats

The cows in the field next door escaped this week. After exploring our driveway and leaving a couple of cow-pats, they trundled off down the track and trotted speedily up the road, causing a bit of a traffic jam. I phoned the farmer as soon as I saw the herd dispersing and he quickly rounded them all up again.

I quilted the Bewitched quilt (to be repurposed into a coat) using a Karlee Porter design called “Swivel Circle 2”. The gold lame looks fab, of course and it has made me wonder if I should invest in some new, shiny gold boots;) 

Images of quilted coats filled my Instagram feed after I posted a photo of my progress and I sent a link to Nella on how to make a quilted hoodie. We found a suitable looking sacrificial quilt on Ebay. It was made from 1980’s furnishing fabrics, minimally and badly quilted with a hideous satin ribbon binding. We cut up a teddy fleece blanket and over-quilted it with a simple meandering pattern. The resulting quilt was thick and heavy, not ideally suited for garment making. She drew around a hoodie to make a rough pattern and it went together reasonably well, although the sleeves and the body did not quite line up so some jiggery-pokery had to be deployed. We broke 5 needles and could not overlock anything due to the bulk but it looks OK and she likes wearing it. IF we ever make another one, I will make sure that we use a very thin, cotton quilt!

Nella and I decided to go to the local firework display since the weather was reasonable and there had not been a bonfire in Banchory at all in 2020. In all the years of living here I ave never seen such a huge crowd. It seemed that there were no other organised displays in the area and even the Aberdeen Beach show had been cancelled again. We stood at the edge of the park, not wanting to venture deep into the throng and as usual, the firework show was great. Some of the coffee shops were open late so we got a takeaway afterwards. 

I got one customer quilt done, using a nice digital pattern called Marmalade. After a couple of weeks of having nothing on the go it looks like I will have a steady stream running up to Christmas. I suppose I will have to start thinking about doing some C-shopping and / or making before too long…

Halloween 2021

Another week just flew by, probably because we had been away and we took most of Tuesday to catch up with ourselves. I had to think of a project since I had no customer quilts waiting (although there are now quite a few, all of a sudden). I dug out a long-forgotten reincarnation of “Bewitched” that I had intended to become a show quilt once but then realised that it was not really show-worthy. It seems to be all the rage on the internet to make coats from quilts so I have jumped on the band-wagon and will use the Wiksten Haori/Unfolding jacket pattern. It has also inspired Nella to make a quilted hoodie out of an old quilt. I was not prepared for her to sacrifice a family quilt so we ordered a scruffy one from Ebay.

Other things that we footered about with this week included having a go at making Tofu. Of course we can buy it but it is always fun to give these things a go. It worked fairly well so we soaked it in a marinade and took it with us when we visited Freya for the second weekend in a row because she had invited Nella to a grown-up Halloween party. Nella has really struggling lately with motivation for anorexia recovery so we decided it was a good idea to go to the party despite having cold feet at the last minute. We are hoping to go to Edinburgh for a wee trip soon just to keep reminding her that Life can be fun!

Mellow Autumn Days

It has been mid-term for Nella so there was no need to rush anywhere. I got her quilt all joined together with a majority of the points matching and downloaded a pumpkin-patch  digital quilt design from Intelligent Quilting. It was quite a busy pattern so it took most of a day but it looked cute and was dense enough to hold all of the pieces down. I had the binding ready to go so I attached it as soon as it came off the frame and the quilt was on Nella’s bed by Tuesday evening!

We had an outing on Wednesday to St. Andrews, via Dundee. We checked out 2 fabric warehouses in Dundee which mostly stocked stretch jersey or upholstery fabrics. Nella bought some cinnamon coloured corduroy but otherwise we did not find anything that we could not leave without. 

It was strange to visit St. Andrews without Freya – I think the last time was 2 years ago since the 4th year of her degree fizzled out without a graduation ceremony due to the pandemic. The town was very busy with students and visitors and it was tricky to find a cafe without a long queue. We just mooched around some favourite shops and wandered on the beach for a few hours, enjoying a very nice day together in glorious autumn sunshine.

I finally got around to filming the process of making “zippered leaders” for a longarm quilt frame. Nell was the main camera person and I somehow forgot the use another camera for B-roll. It will take her a while to edit it all together, even if it all makes sense. I am not even sure who the video is for – I can’t exactly highlight it for Bernina owners since I am showing them how to make a non-branded product. Perhaps it is just one of those “because I can” projects. I think I would like to teach via the medium of video but only if I think it is really good;)  To confound myself even further, I will write up the instructions for my fictional pupils. At any rate, I now have a very smart set of Q24 zippered leaders for sale because the zips I used are a different size to the ones I have myself. 

Overdue Upgrades

Although I am a great fan of new gadgets, sometimes I just seem to keep clinging onto older, less efficient ones. I have a fabulous lapis-blue fridge that I have had for almost 25 years but the seals aren’t great so I have to constantly wipe down condensation on the door. I will be heart-broken when I eventually have to give up on my fridge because I can no longer source any parts. 

Our central heating boiler broke down in March but we still have not done anything about it. An old, granite house really needs some heating all year round to combat damp. This week I ordered a new printer to replace the old one that still works, except that it prints with added streaks and lines. The new printer is much bigger so I needed to make space in a tight corner of my room. When I shifted the bookcase and small table that housed the old printer, I discovered that everything behind them was foosty with black mould so some deep cleaning was required.

It seems that I have finally found a buyer for my 15 year old Landrover – an enthusiastic who will lovingly restore it. Landy’s replacement is a luxurious, 10 year old Volvo estate. I was very specific in my search so it is gold, with cream leather seats and a sunroof. I love the Volvo’s auto gearbox and secretly will not miss the Landy’s leaks, rattles and grouchy gear changes.

I made a few blocks for Nella’s autumn quilt and used the Bernina 1008 for one of them. It does not have a ¼” foot and its standard foot either does what I would call a generous ¼” seam or a scant one. I opted for the scant one but after I did a few more blocks on the Bernina 710, I noticed that the block done with the scanty seams was almost half an inch bigger so the lesson there is to stick to using the same machine throughout a project;)

Although I had planned on making another “movie” on how to construct zippered leaders for the Q24, time got away with me while I was sorting out all of my overdue upgrades. At least I managed to quilt one customer’s hexagon quilt with all-over camelia flowers so I felt that I had spent some useful time out in my workshop. 

Technically Speaking

I eased myself gently into the week by making Nella and Fergus each a key fob to attach to USB sticks. I had sort of forgotten how the ScannCut machine worked so there were a few abortive attempts before I got the fuzzy T-shirt vinyl to stick to the mat the right way up. In the end I remembered that I had to mirror the letters so they would be the right way round after they got stuck down by the heat press. It all takes so much time to remember how to use gadgets after not playing with them for a while. 

It took me the best part of 3 whole days to re-film an instructional video on how to set up a simple all-over pattern on a quilt using Q-matic. I was determined to stream 2 camera views and share my computer screen, recording the whole shebang into Zoom. For some reason I could not get my 2 cameras to behave in OBS (open broadcasting software) and by the time I worked out how to proceed the camera batteries were dead! I decided to order some fabric while I waited for them to recharge…

Eventually, I started to film my one-woman video – subsequently interrupted by the phone ringing, Nessie barking at the Postie and one or other camera randomly cutting out. If there were bloopers, viewers would witness a lot of swearing, muttering and huffing. Nella is managing to splice it all together in I-Movie which I should learn to do myself, I suppose. 

For ages I have been complaining that I don’t have a project so Nella suggested that I should make her an autumnal quilt since it is her favourite season. I decided that I could make another Goosey-Guddle quilt, based on a 30’s Feedsack quilt that I rescued from E-bay. I made the original GG quilt for Freya to go away to St. Andrews Uni 5 years ago. Of course, I could not find any written instructions on my computer but I did find some rough jottings in an old notebook so I decided to write them out properly and check that they actually worked. I ordered far too much fabric but in my defence, it is a quilt that needs to look you have rummaged through a scrap-bag. It’s not like I am spending any money on quilt trips these days so I don’t feel guilty. I am making myself 20 block kits and filing them into plastic pockets so I can easily take a couple into the house to sew if I find myself at a loose end;)