Buy it or Work Out how to Make it?!

 

The obsessive rabbit hole that I fell into this week was all to do with Travel Journals. I have been accumulating stationery for my (grown-up) children to keep holiday diaries like they did when they were little. Obviously, I had to watch copious Youtube videos and several of the channels recommended a pouch by Delfonics to in which to keep all of the bits and bobs. Those pouches are Japanese and cost a minimum of £40.00 so I decided that I could make my own. Firstly, I ordered a pdf pattern which cost me $5.00 then I had to watch 4 painful episodes on YouTube in which the maker kept apologising for making mistakes like the pockets being too small to hold pens. I got the gist and make my first prototype. 

I used very heavy duty canvas which was not conducive to making square corners so the next one I had a go at had rounded corners. The thing was getting the zip band to fit the circumference of the bag panels. It has to be considerably smaller and my maths is not up to figuring out ratios so I worked by trial and error. I spent FAR more time figuring out this project than I should have so if I had bought the Delfonics pouch for £40.00 I would have been quids in;) Well, now I have drafted a pattern which I will refine further to include pockets with gussets and a super-neat lining.  Eventually I will make a Youtube video which I hope will be easy to follow!

Nella had asked if “we” could make her a quilted jacket which meant could I order the fabric, quilt it, cut it out and work out how to put it together. I spent a long, stressful day figuring out how to put the relatively simple jacket together so I could post it to her in Norwich. She is delighted with it but has not sent any photos. My selfie does not really show it off properly…

Since I was spending so much time in the workshop, I managed to get a couple of customer quilts done in the background:)

Is Decluttering Worth the Hassle?

I know there are successful “Sort Your Life Out” experts out there but I have to say that I find decluttering exhausting. I can’t swing a cat in my workshop and Freya might be bringing the contents of her flat here so I am trying to clear out some of the stuff that I don’t actually “need”. I have been listing a few things on Facebook Marketplace but there are a lot of scammers and chancers to look out for. I sold a nice, red formica table and stools that I loved but they were not being used and were taking up floor space. The trouble is that that I am then tempted to use the cash to buy some camera gadget or accessory that I also don’t “need”. Someone wants me to post a heavy vintage leather suitcase and I would love someone to take the antique treadle sewing machine off my hands but I know that they are not very popular here. 

I had a couple of disasters with the Royal Mail this week. For months I have successfully used their parcel pickup service. The Postie brings the label and I don’t have to queue up at the Post Office. I have a new Postie who muddled things up - my sister got my Amazon return, Amazon must have received a crappy old lamp that I sent her and Fergus’ parcel arrived back home because the label ”fell off”. From now on I will be writing on every parcel in Sharpie and taping on the QR code, even though I should not have to;)

I only did one customer quilt this week - blocks that look like wintry windows which had an all-over snowflake pattern.

I finally tackled the cutting out of the Tula Pink butterfly quilt this week and it took 3 tedious days! It was a lot of sorting and organising, not aided by some of the fabrics in the kit being short on quantity. I had to join some scraps together and rummage in my stash for similar colours. Some of the pieces are ridiculously small and the Quiltalong group that has already started stitching agrees that accurate piecing is tricky. There are some very small Drunkard’s Path pieces that I might decide to bondaweb appliqué instead of getting annoyed with piecing them together. Life is too short to get frustrated by what is meant to be a “fun” side project!

Swedish Death Cleaning vs. Sparks Joy

Regular readers of the blog will know that every now and then I enjoy a bit of organisation, usually spurred by procrastination. Previously, I have read Marie Kondo’s book about how your belongings should “Spark Joy” and I have briefly folded my clothes accordingly until I can’t be bothered anymore. The problem is that I have a reasonably capacious old house and a love of junk shops, and if I am honest, could be a bit of a hoarder. 

The term “Swedish Death Cleaning” has piqued my interest - the idea that you should start clearing out your belongings before you die so your children don’t have to. I have no intention of shuffling off my mortal coil just yet but I do have far too much stuff. Freya will soon be bringing all her worldly goods here as she is being evicted from her Glasgow flat and has not found new digs yet. That means this house will have 3 pianos! 

This week I made some space for storage in the summerhouse which is reasonably dry except for the corners. I finally got rid of the Raeburn cooker after a bit of a palaver with a Man and a Van involving car jacks and wooden pallets. I have sold some hair clippers, rustic apple crates and a badge making kit on Facebook Marketplace but this is not even skimming the surface. My plan is to start with the easy stuff that I have not touched for ages but ultimately the kids will have to muck in and they seem to be even more sentimental about “stuff” than I am. I can either sell a surplus piano or two, losing money, or accept that they will have to be stored here until my children get their own houses. Which may be never, according to the latest gloomy news about the property market in the UK. 

One of my biggest problems is obviously quilts - many are getting foosty in one of my damp cupboards. A coracle hangs in my workshop and a 12 totem henge gathers dust on shelves. I have many, many boxes for sewing machines that I have to keep in case they have to be couriered somewhere. I have been ruthless before, occasionally ditching something that I come to regret but I can hardly move in my workshop and I am sure it is blocking my creativity.

It has been an admin heavy week, apart from a customer quilt that looks 3D if you stand far enough back. 

It was really nice to meet a friend on Friday and go for a photography wander around Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen. I have a cute new second-hand Pentax with interchangeable lenses and far too many clever settings for me. I just kept it on Auto and hoped for the best. I have also been working on projects in Art and Stitch, not necessarily according to the manual. I think I lack the patience required to become a digitiser but as a teacher I have to know how it all works and it is not exactly straightforward. 

I am weeks behind on a Quiltalong that I signed up for - the Tula Pink Butterfly quilt. I decided to go by the book and use the same rulers as the group leader but there was a debacle about their delivery and Creative Grids wanted to charge an additional £30.00 for postage. I re-ordered them elsewhere but they still have not appeared. I could crack on without the special rulers but that defeats the point of ordering them. I will just have to fill my time with decluttering…

The Long and the Short of it

I have said it before - Time in Norfolk is elastic. The days pass quickly doing very little. Nella and I had a couple of wanders in the City, admiring the spring blossom. We stumbled upon a textiles exhibition in the Forum, including an entire knitted model of Great Yarmouth!

I took my Mother on an outing to Southwold, despite the squally weather and spotted an amusingly titled beach hut (Star Wars reference).

I did not even open the sewing box that I took with me but I did some of the slideshow about Q-Matic that I am working on.

My fringe was getting in my eyes so I cut it ludicrously short with some annoyingly blunt scissors.

It was a LONG solo drive home so I broke the journey at Freya’s flat in Glasgow, probably for the last time because she is being evicted due to the landlady selling it at short notice. Fergus came to visit and I am relieved to report that he seems to be enjoying life in Glasgow, bunking down with pals and writing songs. Nessie always likes attempting to chase the squirrels in the Botanic Gardens. 

It is very quiet at home now with everyone away but I will crack on with some work and hopefully get started on the marathon cutting for the Tula Pink butterfly quilt…

What was I meant to be doing?

 

Yet again, I have had a week when what I was meant to be doing (on paper) was not what I ended up doing, not that those things were not valid in their own way;) I did get 2 customer quilts done before Nella pointed out that she would like to spend some time with me in the last week of her Easter hols. The custom quilt had to have a few thread tails sewn in and the red flying-geese one was a bit of a challenge because the customer wanted the echo quilting to look exactly as it did in the magazine that the pattern came from. Horizontal straight lines were not a problem but diagonals are very difficult to do on a longarm without a lot of palaver. I started off just doing the diagonals that I could reach but that involved a lot of stops, starts and sewing in thread tails. In the end, as it was not a huge quilt, I decided to do the diagonals on my domestic machine with a walking foot and that was far easier. 

It looks like I have finally sold the cast iron Raeburn stove that I bought years ago that has just sat unused in my garage. The new owners live 300 miles away and want a courier to collect it so I had to track down a pallet so it can be picked up using a fork-lift. I seemed to do a lot of time consuming wee jobs like that - I went to the Vet to pick up cat anti-flea medicine to be told that I had a supply that should last until June but when I double-checked at home there was none and I know that was not my error. I sent my old phone off to be sold for scrap but the company tried to wriggle out of the online quote that they had offered then wanted £8.95 for my broken phone to be sent back to me special delivery. 

Evri seems to have lost another parcel - I ordered a new cutting ruler to tackle the marathon cutting involved in the Tula Pink butterfly quilt but it is still not here after 3 weeks so now I am way behind with the Facebook Group involved in the quilt-along. Meanwhile I got totally embroiled in researching old Pentax cameras and lenses that I can mostly only import from Japan and have now watched ALL of the Youtube videos and read ALL of the reviews. Honestly, it is like a form of addiction when I start looking at Tech online. I need a new quilt project to get me off second-hand camera forums;)

I am in Norfolk this week, splitting my time between visiting Nella and my folks. I might borrow a pressure washer to scrub Nella’s backyard then go to a garden centre to buy some fairy lights and plants. I brought a piece of the quilted coat with me to work on but I don’t suppose I will even look at it…

If Only I Could Get Up Earlier

I have huge admiration for people who get up super early and crack on with their days. I wake up early in order to make a cup of tea to take back to bed then waste time reading the news, checking social media and browsing Ebay for vintage cameras that I don’t need. If I could get my days off to a brisker start then maybe I would find time to keep on top of my To Do list or even make some more Lego plants. 

In my defence, this week I have had some late nights, spending time with Nella and Fergus who have been getting along better than they have in years. We went shopping to get him some essentials to stay in Glasgow with his band mates. Hopefully, he will soon get a job then think about getting a flat of his own. It is quite weird to think about him moving out. He did not go off to Uni like the girls and had a bit of a hiatus with his music career due to Covid. He was both excited and nervous to “leave home” but it is time that he has a taste of city life. 

I have been trying to clear my diary to knuckle down and thoroughly plan the retreat that I am teaching in Devon in June. It will be 4 days of intense software learning, using the Q-matic system and I need to be prepared for all abilities.

I had a challenging customer quilt that took me more than 4 days to complete. It was beautifully pieced with large on-point blocks but there was something a bit off-kilter with the borders that I had to work out. As there was nobody here at the weekend I just powered through to get it done so I can start the week fresh. I need to get my retreat programme sussed as I will be taking Nella back to Norwich next weekend, staying with my folks for a week and I won’t get any work done there;)

Lost and Broken

 No need to be alarmed - the title does not refer to a sad music album that I have written! It has been a week when I seem to have lost and broken more things than usual. I hunted high and low for some Swiss Army knives, blaming everyone else in the house for hoarding them then eventually found them at the back of a drawer where I had put them. When I was unspooling some thread off a Bernina bobbin it jumped out of my hand and disappeared under a really awkward cupboard. I looked everywhere for a quilt that turned up underneath a mattress.

The most annoying thing was that I dropped my phone which was inside a case and bag, smashing the glass on the back which disabled the camera. I had to hang around in Aberdeen for hours while I waited to get if fixed which cost me £100.00 (Apple wanted £459.00!) When I looked at it at home I realised that the back glass had been replaced with a metal panel and the camera was still broken so now if I try to trade it in will be worth even less. I ordered a replacement from Music Magpie which is working well. I could have put up with the broken phone but then would have had to keep a camera handy - it is easy to forget how reliant we have all become on the convenience of smart phones.

I did not seem to get any of the “homework” that I had set myself done this week. I have Nella home for the holidays and helped Fergus to tidy up his CV. I eventually got a customer quilt done - a super Triple Irish chain wedding quilt for recipients in Ireland, quilted with shamrocks. I am tempted to go down at least 2 unnecessary rabbit holes, either piecing a diamond or triangle quilt using up my stash and / or designing some digital sashiko style motifs to work on a panel featuring Japanese motifs with a Zoom pupil. The Tula Pink butterfly quiltalong starts on Monday and I have no idea how I will keep up with that, do customer quilts and get Fergus ready to move to Glasgow!

Cornish Capers

After I finished teaching in Tavistock last Saturday, my friend, Mel who moved from Banchory to Looe in Cornwall, picked me up and we had a lovely couple of days exploring the area. The sun even came out - everyone told me that it seemed to have rained every day since last autumn. I met some lovely people who said, “Proper Job!” a lot, sampled pasties, fudge, and had fun seeking out the filming locations in the light-hearted BBC detective series “Beyond Paradise”. I really had a lovely time, just like being on holiday. 

Unfortunately there was Drama waiting for me at home. Fergus had been all set to move out with his girlfriend to a flat in Glasgow but they split up so all of those plans are over. Thankfully, they had not actually signed the contract. I spent a lot of time this week trying to console him and work out what he is going to do next. The new plan involves him staying on his friends’ sofa until he gets settled, hopefully getting a job quickly then working on some new music.

Apart from that and some Quilt Quine admin which I swear takes me longer to tackle than is necessary, “all” I did was organise myself with a Tula Pink quilt along that I have signed up for online. There was a lot of photocopying and sorting to do. It will be interesting to see if all this preparation makes the construction easier to manage.

Both Freya and Nella arrived home on Saturday evening. Freya is only here briefly for the dentist but Nella has a 3 week break from Uni and plans to work on assignments, projects and do some outings. Obviously I will spend time with her but will also need to spend a bit of time in my workshop, help Fergus write an eye-catching CV, and continue planning for the retreat that I am teaching in Devon in June - (no pressure)!

Visiting Quilt Direct in Tavistock

 I was so determined to make a good impression at Quilt Direct that I got everything organised and was pretty much packed by Monday! I had got all of my customer quilts out of the way so I had to give myself something straightforward to do for a couple of days. I received the new Bernina 475QE that I intend to take with me on teaching trips when I go by car. It is smaller and more modern than the 710 that I have set into a table. I had coveted the turquoise Kaffe Fassett version but there are no more available in the UK so I have enlisted Tracey Pereira’s help to design some jazzy decals for it. 

I quilted a second iris panel in blue, using basting stitches instead of pins to secure it. I think it was a bit smaller than the pink one and I admit that I did not spend quite as much time lining it up precisely to get the digital designs to fit - it looks great but if you look closely, there are a couple of annoying pattern overlaps. 

A dozen sheep appeared in my garden and were behaving so naughtily compared to their friends in the field. They were scoffing the grass and looking around to check that a sheepdog was not about to round them up. I penned them in with hurdles so they could not get onto the track then road and called the farmer. 

I have been making a concerted effort to have more of a presence on social media in order to get people to book for my classes. It is quite an effort to come up with posts, and then check in for views and comments. My social media presence fizzled out around 2019-2020 and I must admit that I did not miss it. It amazes me that some quilters have thousands of comments and views on every post. How do they achieve that? I don’t actually want to be super famous or popular - I just feel embarrassed and a bit of a fraud if my classes don’t get fully booked;)

After a slightly faffy couple of days, I took Nessie to Mo’s and was finally ready for my trip to Quilt Direct in Tavistock, Devon. I flew from Edinburgh to Newquay in Cornwall and could barely see the scenery because of rain and mist. Everyone said that it seems like the weather has been stuck like that all winter. 

Quilt Direct is a well known UK quilt supplies online store and Bernina dealer. They have a lovely open and bright showroom on the edge of Tavistock with every single Bernina machine on display. I don’t think I have seen ALL of the machines in one place before. I was obviously very busy because I took very few pictures during the classes. I must make a sign that I take to classes reminding me do do that. My pupils were very diligent and said that they enjoyed their classes. I did one day on Northern Lights inspired improv/freestyle piecing and the other day was all about the Q-Series. 

There was a cream tea, pasties, and a lovely bunch of folk who deal with customers, machines and orders. I stayed with the owner, Katherine, who made me most welcome in her 400 year old farmhouse on Dartmoor and met 6 ponies, plus Oreo the cat, Kiera the dog and Graham, the head chef:)

The publisher of my (flopped) E-book, Vivienne Wells, came for a visit from Exeter and we reconnected as she has relaunched my book and changed its title from “Deviant Quilting” to “Machine Quilting with The Quilt Quine”. It first came out almost 10 years ago so it could probably do with a rewrite but I don’t think I want to go there.

After a hectic few days, my pal Mel, who moved to Looe from Banchory last year collected me from Tavistock and I will spend the next day and a half exploring her part of Cornwall. I hope the sun comes out just for a little while so I can see the sea!

Social Butterfly

I have not done much social media since pre-Pandemic and I have not missed it! With courses to promote at Quilt Direct in Devon, I have really had to push myself to get back on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube to remind quilters that I still exist. It is more time consuming that you might imagine, searching for photos, coming up with a caption and checking back in for comments. Freya told me that I needed to learn how to make cool online posters as well as making short movies about what I am up to. Hopefully, my classes will be well attended.

Just for fun, I decided to make a mini series on Youtube about everyday gadgets from around the house. I have mentioned a mechanical pencil sharpener, jumper shaver and milk brother, to name a few so far. Some have had over 400 views, which I find quite bizarre.

I caught up with a couple of pending customer quilts, quilted out samplers for my teaching weekend in Devon, made 3 handy “Clam-Up” pouches, and a Youtube demo on how to make side-clamp extenders for the quilt frame!

On Saturday I travelled to Glasgow by train to attend the Scottish Quilt Show for the day. It was lovely to see other quilters from around Scotland and brilliant that “Help ma Boab!” won Gold in the Contemporary category. In addition to a nice, red rosette, I also won a box full of useful haberdashery items, some of which I will try to find other good homes for, since I don’t really “need” any more supplies;)