Superwoman Sometimes

I completed 2 customer quilts this week using Bernina Qmatic. I am pleased to say that I have sussed how to realign the safe area which was a puzzle to me for a while. It is very accurate at matching where the next row of a design should be placed. An issue that I need to solve is when customer quilts are not totally square and the size of the borders varies throughout the quilt. 

In anticipation of the new Q24 being delivered I rearranged some stuff in my two rooms. Although I have a lot of space, it is not well designed with sloping ceilings, bits of wall that stick out, windows where blank walls would be more useful and a lack of wall sockets. I have to keep all of the Bernina boxes for the Q24 that is on loan and they used to be stuffed under the APQS machine. Since the new Q24 is a couple of feet shorter, I can store the boxes at one end of the room. I wanted to hide them behind a hanging quilt so I installed an IKEA curtain wire with a tension mechanism. The wood that I had to fix screws into was very hard so I found it difficult to get them in all the way and for some reason the tension mechanism wanted to unravel itself so my solution was to wrap that end in duck tape! Of course I could not find a quilt that was exactly the right size to hang so I folded over the top 6 inches of my Fancy Forest and attached curtain clips to hang  it from the curtain wire. 

I laid out all of my Warli screen prints and realised that I probably have more than enough to make a quilt - in fact I may even make a double-sided one if I have time. I was not thrilled with the quality of the print using my new screen so have decided to re-expose it so the images are crisper. I want to keep the Warli spiral design so I bought my own screen since the college ones will be wiped when the course finishes. I plan to print the Warli spirals onto some long cotton scarves when I make my mind up about whether to dye them or not. I ran off a few prints of the design that I drew based on circular mantra stitching and I love the way it turned out.

The Aberdeen delivery company commissioned to deliver the new Q24 phoned to enquire whether I had a forklift as it was all loaded on a hefty pallet. I explained that the usual procedure would be to take the plastic wrap off the pallet and carry the boxes separately. I was not impressed when one guy instead of two arrived with a truck that did not even have a lifting tailgate. Thanks to my porter’s trolley and some determination we managed to manhandle the boxes off the truck. 

I spent more than 2 days slowly assembling the new Q24 frame single-handed. If you don’t have to do it regularly it is easy to forget the easiest way of doing things and a few of the fixings are now different to the original installation manual. I got there in the end and I am looking forward to trying it out when I get a long enough extension cable. 

My kids have been mortified by the Landy’s latest anomaly which is that the alarm kept going off randomly every time the doors opened or closed and quite often while driving along. It turns out that the driver’s door lock is broken so I have temporarily had to tape it shut with pink Scottie dog duck tape until I can get it fixed. I have a nasty feeling I may have to get an entirely new door since the whole thing is rusty. 

Fergus refused to be taken to his first solo performance at a pub in Aberdeen in a car that gave the impression that it may have been stolen so we had to squeeze his gear into the Beetle. Quite a few of his college friends turned up and declared that he did a great set. He has since been booked as a support act for a few local gigs so it looks like I will be the “Roadie” until he passes his driving test and gets his own transport.