Ta-da! (and some boring stuff)

I finished off my waistcoat and I am relieved to say that it fits fairly well. The operation of turning it into a garment was really weird as I had to pull the whole thing through the armholes after sewing some of the seams. Joining the side seams was even stranger and seemed to involve hand-sewing but I just did some tricky ironing and topstitched the sides shut. Mo covered some buttons for me using scraps from the project and I have ordered Norwegian cardigan clasps to close it at the top. As with all adventures into dressmaking, I might tackle this one again but change quite a few of the construction methods. 

Feeling rather inspired, I searched the internet for a dressmaking mannequin that is fatter than my Lady Valet. Her dials are difficult to turn and she is nowhere near as generously sized as I was led to believe;) 

I bid rather more than I had intended for a vintage, made-in-england size B Diana on Ebay but hopefully my new friend, “Daphne” and I will become firm friends. 

Feeling frustrated with having so many odds and ends to attend to, I realised that the only way to move on would be to deal with some really boring tasks. Hence, I have been mercilessly sorting through digital photos. Many of those related to the Quilted Yurts and they seemed to be scattered and duplicated all over my laptop in different locations. This led to organising gazillions of other photos, including files from before 2008. My Mac’s trashcan contained 27000 items! I was worried that my computer was going to have a nervous breakdown when it keep freezing as I moved dozens of items around its desktop. 

After sorting out my paperwork, I was reminded that my outgoings far exceed my quilt related income so it is just as well that I have kept up my annual Scottish teacher registration just in case.

Many other little tasks were crossed off my list such as booking Freya’s travels for her Tallship Race in the summer, dealing with “official” emails on behalf of the Parent Council and at least thinking about the peeling paint on the bathroom ceiling.

Another satisfying job that I got done was packing the Yurt into 2 boxes, making a note of their dimensions then struggling to suspend them from the luggage scales. I almost have all of the copies of the Yurt documents and photos ready to load onto a USB stick so I expect it won’t be much longer before I am ready to send everything off to Paducah.

I dealt with 2 more items from my unfinished quilts basket. A huge Indian bedspread was quilted with more wavy lines but it is almost impossible to see any quilting at all. There are not any beds large enough for such a quilt in my house so I may try to sell it. Next, I tried to quilt a very simple pantograph on an ugly Ebay quilt top but soon realised that it needed far more dense quilting to deal with its bulges and ripples. I ended up adding freehand loops in between all of the rows. At least it looked more “vintage” after a hot wash and tumble but I really don’t know where that one will end up - it looks like it should be taken camping;)