Settling In

I have completed my official first “normal” week at Quilt Direct, getting up every morning and getting to work on time. The 45+ minute journey is getting easier, apart from the lane leading to the main road which will never get easier. 

Monday was a bit intense with so much to do, stock-taking after the Open Days and not really having a plan. After that I got out my notebook to prioritise what needs doing which is very  much subject to change. I had an all-day pupil on one of my days which was great and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. One of my jobs which is very time consuming is putting together a catalogue of quilting designs. It is by no means exhaustive, just something to get customer quilts started. I have had quite a few enquiries from my Scottish customers so we need to get pricing and postage agreed. 

Another of my missions is to make some samples for the L890 overlocker. This involves experimenting with threads and stitches, sometimes dealing with tangles if I have been over ambitious. 

There are all sorts of other things I could be doing if time allows. I would like to photograph all of the quilts that are stored on top of cupboards, print those pictures then attach them onto a label so it is easy to identify where to find particular projects. 

I had a 3-day weekend to fill so I explored Okehampton and faffed around for ages in each of its smallish supermarkets. Instead of buying posh Waitrose strawberries, I opted for the cheaper Lidl strawbs which turned out to be rather jammy so you do get what you pay for. Okehampton had a standard mixture of shops, including a couple of charity shops, cafes and hairdressers but I thought the small guitar shop / cafe looked cool. 

I drove down a fair distance into Cornwall to Penryn near Falmouth to meet Mel and visit Enys Gardens which was hosting an antiques fair. There was a good selection of stalls, some of which were selling things that I let go for a song prior to moving. It was a lovely sunny day and the gardens were amazing - a historical plant collector had planted specimens from New Zealand and Patagonia and we even saw a banana tree with mini bananas which makes me think it must be frost-free there. 

I stayed in Looe on Saturday night but the next day was blowing a hoolie which meant no beach trip for Nessie. Instead we offered advice on how Mel could tackle her first on-point quilt before deciding that it would be wise to head home before the storm got worse. The distance is not that great but it takes ages to get anywhere here as there are not many straight roads so it took me more than 2 hours to get back, with a detour and fuel stop. 

I have been listening to the rain pummel the caravan roof, got my stuff sorted for work and will enjoy a pasty for my tea:) We will have to get our timing just right for walkies otherwise we will get soaked - again!