Long Summer Work Days

Last Monday was a scorcher at 26 Celsius and I felt slightly guilty that my main activity of the day was spent inside on my computer, trying to sort out some messy digital quilt designs. It was only summer for one day because the rest of the week was half that temperature here in Scotland, which is OK for quilting. 

Nella went off to Glasgow to stay with Freya and spend time with Fergus so I felt that I could spend as much time in my workshop as I liked since we have such long, light evenings. I had a couple of Zoom teaching sessions and worked my way through 3 customer quilts.

While the machine was busy stitching I pieced together the blocks of the Tula Pink butterfly quilt into larger sections and completed 2 top wings. They are mirror images of each other and it is important not to get any pieces muddled up!

Sunday is being spent loading a van with Fergus’ stuff for his flat move on Monday. At least I am watching the van being loaded, staking my rights firmly as the Driver just to drive and not shift the gear;)

What is my Time worth?

The trouble with being a Maker is that I tend to think I can make something better or cheaper than buying something. For instance, I love linen bed sets but they are so expensive. I investigated buying wide linen to make Fergus a duvet set but it was at least £50.00 per metre just for plain colours which would not be as economical as purchasing a set. 

I went to a vintage shop this week and bought half a dozen old linen sheets for £30.00 altogether. I decided to washing machine dye them in different shades of green then tear them into strips and rejoin them with my overlocker. It took me about 3 days to dye the linen, cut it up and remake it into a reversible duvet cover, fitted sheet and 2 pillow cases. It was satisfying to do this but did not really make economic sense and if I am honest, did not make as nice a set if I had bought it in a really nice check. Perhaps I should have made something a bit more “patchwork” but that would have taken even longer!

At any rate, he thinks it looks nice - he is struggling with being away from home but I hope things will improve when he and his pals move into a new flat next week where he will have his own room, rather than dossing on their sofa. He has been going through a bit of an existential crisis, hating working in Cafe Nero. I hope he will find something more fun like an independent coffee shop when he moves from the East End into the Southside. He certainly had a confidence boost when King Tut’s in Glasgow booked his band for a newcomers’ session in mid July.

At the vintage shop I also bought a Turkish style rug for Freya’s flat for £40.00 which I thought was pretty reasonable.

I sent my pattern instructions and Youtube video to an experienced bag maker to look over. She came up trumps and made a pouch which looks great and said that the instructions and video were easy to follow which was my plan:)

The summer solstice this year was actually dry, which made a pleasant change and Nella took a lovely photo of a dramatic sunset. 

A customer quilt got done during the week. It was for a raffle so I kept the quilting simple and classic to suit all tastes and it turned out well.

Other than that, I did a Zoom teaching session, learned how to do a French seam (fitted sheet), got a puncture and made some sub-par shortbread (should have stuck to a classic recipe with a touch of ground rice). 

A Slow and Damp Summer Week

 

We had a pleasantly low-key and damp summer week here in N E Scotland. It was cold and I had to use my electric blanket at night. Freya was here to get her front teeth fitted at last then she worked from home for a couple of days while Nella crafted. 

Fergus sent a great photo of him with some pals at the Scotland vs. Germany football match in a Glasgow pub. He is very homesick but knows that he has to be in Glasgow to give his music career a decent shot. Hopefully he will feel better when he moves into a new flat next month and gets a room of his own. 

I had a fun Elizabeth Hartman dinosaur quilt to do for a customer and I thought that the Monstera pattern worked well.

I uploaded a Youtube tutorial on how to make a stationery pouch with instructions. Hopefully I made it super easy to follow - I did make at least 4 prototypes in the end.

While the machine quilted lots of Swiss cheese plants, I bit the bullet and decided to get all of the dreaded curved piecing out of the way on the Tula Pink butterfly quilt. It was not all that bad with just a couple of dodgy seams overall. All I have left to do is a few straightforward blocks, then I have to try and get it all together without muddling up too many pieces!

Five Go Mad in Devon

 

All 3 of my grown up children and Nessie came with me on a working holiday to Quilt Direct in Devon and we all had a wonderful time! I was so busy teaching and doing some filming that I did not take a single photo but the gang took lots of good ones on their travels  along the North and South coasts of Devon and Cornwall. I had a couple of days out with them to explore the area and enjoyed local delicacies, obviously! The weather was pretty good and we stayed in a delightful cottage in Tavistock, an historic stannary and market town on the edge of Dartmoor. It was quite a long way from Scotland but so worth it and I am sure we will do it again. It was wonderful that we all got along so well and all of us are keen to do more low key holidays with each other for as long as we can;)

I May Have Overpacked

I write this blog update from (so far) sunny Devon! I had a busy week - finishing off the now green chairs, trimming all of the Tula Pink butterfly HSTs to a uniform 2.5” square, filming how to make the stationery supplies pouch, under packing clothes and over packing on tech. My car was full on my way to Glasgow as I had a table and 4 chairs for Freya, one small dog and myself. After I finally got rid of the furniture at Freya’s new place on the Southside, I created a lot more space but had to put the seats back up. 

Freya brought a medium sized backpack and her tortoise in a small box then very early on Saturday morning, we had to collect Fergus, who had been on a Glasgow subway pub crawl. When we finally woke him up he got in the car with another backpack and a guitar. We still had to collect Nella later from a small station in Cornwall with her suitcase! The journey down to Tavistock took just over 8 hours with both of my passengers sleeping most of the way. Freya was worn out after taking several days to move to her new flat and Fergus was sleeping off his epic night out.

I have rented a lovely little Duke of Bedford cottage (a Victorian social housing project) with its own garden which Nessie thinks is amazing, although she is not as impressed by the steep stairs inside. I am on a working “holiday” in Tavistock at Quilt Direct where I will be doing some tuition and videography this week. I will have Sunday and Wednesday off plus evenings, of course, and Fergus can drive the girls around or they can laze around if they prefer. I brought them a bag full of stationery supplies if they want to make scrap books. We are so happy to be together since the last time we all went on holiday together was with Bumble to Auchiltibuie in 2017. We hold that up as one of our most memorable holidays and so far the vibe of this trip feels similar:)