Moving On

I had another unusually busy week long arming which makes me happy! There was a house quilt, postage stamp squares and a Kaffe Fassett diamonds one. In addition, there was class preparation to do and sewing machine demos plus an interesting phone call where the customer was irritated by me asking what brand of thread she was using - all she could tell me was that it was “cotton”. 

So now for some Big News… I am moving to Norfolk! It all boils down to Big Family Stuff and I want to be around so I can help out. Plus Nella is there and Fergus is seriously considering leaving Glasgow to relocate to Norwich. 

All in all it was a pretty stressful week - handing in my notice, alerting my landlady, booking a van. I have loved Tavistock but in the end it was not easy to make weekend trips to visit Family from almost Cornwall. For the time being I will move in with my Mother then we will all work out whether to live together communally or close to each other but separately. 

I aim to set my longarm up and resume quilting as The Quilt Quine. I will look for a wee job and will need to get my act together to sort out a divorce settlement at last.

The move will happen in mid October and I have already started trying to get rid of my furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Initially I thought I would shift everything then I realised it would not all fit into the van so I am being ruthless (ish) and leaving my Victorian cupboards, comfy armchair, garden furniture and all of my plants in pots! 

Since I am a bit of a magpie, I have quite a lot of knick-knacks and rather a lot of vintage orange Tupperware. I think the boxes I ordered might be a bit big so I need to try and not make them too heavy.

I have started to take down pictures, fill holes and touch up the paint. The house will certainly be in a better state when I hand it back than it was when I moved in;)

Some Customer Quilts

 

I had an enjoyably busy week working on customer quilts and also making a sampler with some fun OESD e2e designs. One of the quilts only just fitted on the frame but I got through it in the end:)

Mixed Makes Week

I made all sorts of different things this week, not all of them easy or useful. At work I have made some ruffled samples to prepare for a forthcoming class. People seem to have mixed feelings about whether ruffles are IN or OUT;)

I tested out the new 790 Ultra to see if it did all that it claims to. It performed very well but I think if I had several thousand pounds to spend I would still opt for the top of the range 990 which has a camera and can do pretty much anything.

I gave 2 new Bernina x Liberty edition owners a condensed tutorial so they could go home and play with their machines.

I had a longarm DIY pupil for the day who opted for a computerised allover pattern on one of her quilts.

I rummaged in my tattie growing box to dig up some respectable spuds which I roasted in the air-fryer. There is a pint-sized red hollyhock in the back garden and lots of miniature tomatoes.

I spent a long evening making damson jam. My kitchen looked like a murder scene as I had to get all of the stones out of the small plums. Bright red juice was splattered on the tablecloth, me the floor and I am glad to report that Nessie kept out of the way. I have 5 kg of special-offer sugar left so I really hope I can forage a bumper crop of brambles!

On Sunday morning I spent a most enjoyable couple of hours doing a fused glass class with my work pal, Jo. She made a cute greenhouse and I copied the teacher’s example flower sun-catcher in blues. It was really fun to go and do something different and after it has been in the kiln I will have something to hang in my kitchen window:)

12 Days Straight

This weekend I have been recovering from working 12 days straight, including FoQ. When I worked for myself I could unwind gradually and last year I headed up to Glasgow. This past week was far too long and I did very little at the weekend, even going for a Sunday afternoon snooze.

Nessie went for a hair-do but the groomer insisted on leaving her ears shaggy so she now looks like a gremlin. 

I made some mindless Hama beads to finish off my kitchen doorway but when I move I will have to repaint because I stuck them up with a glue gun and the paint will come off.

It has remained hot so I have had to water every evening but my Padron peppers ℅ Matt Wilding are coming along. I had a few tatties from the bargain seed potatoes but they are a floury variety so a bit disappointing.

I made some more vegan ice cream in the Ninja Creami - rhubarb and custard flavour, which was delicious. All it took was a drained tin of rhubarb, a carton of Alpro vegan custard, a bit of pink food colour, a spoonful of vanilla paste and a splash of Oatly cream.

I was sent some catwalk photos from the FoQ fashion show of me showing off my coat of many colours.

This week I might make foraged damson jam and cut out a dress pattern but it is forecast to be hot so I might just do nothing at all apart from evening watering;) 

FoQ 2026

Another Festival of Quilts is already over! I first attended as a visitor with 3 small children in tow in 2006, represented APQS for a few years and Bernina UK Q-Series long-arm machines for the past 10 years. I think I missed 3 shows in all those years, possibly 2007, 2009 and 2020 (like everyone else). I do not have a complete set of pin badges for every year and this year they were sold out by Day 2. I took quite a few photos of competition quilts and their labels and decided to put them in a Flickr album rather than cluttering up the blog. I hope they did not get too jumbled up. There are also plenty of posts from folk on Instagram - my photos were a bit rushed, taken first thing before the show opened. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sewlinzi/albums/72177720334973766/

It was a busy, friendly show with plenty to see and buy. I even spoke to some non sewing ladies who came up on a coach trip from Essex for a day out.

The Bernina UK team had a huge upgrade to the Moxy hotel this year which is on the NEC site. It was enjoyable to walk to the show and stroll to a choice of restaurants in the evening. I am happy to report that I got taken out for curry in the city centre and that every mouthful was delicious.

Although I did not have a quilt in the show, I entered the fashion show at the last minute and was cheered loudly for strutting down the catwalk in my quilted coat. I believe that I should have won the Kaffe Fassett iron but it was awarded to an American participant who won’t be able to plug it in at her USA house;)

I was a bit naughty scootering around but I did not run anyone over. I probably should not have been flying my mini drone first thing in the morning but I was not causing a public nuisance. 

My  silly scooter tour is on YouTube. 

https://youtu.be/HCcHMrNXooE?si=JJ_SjDcQvydZ7VUn

Nessie had a super holiday staying with a friend, demanded much attention, ball throwing, biscuits and made herself very comfortable on the beds.

I got back to my house at 11pm, went to bed then was up early to start work again at 9.00am on Monday morning. By Saturday I will have worked 12 days in a row - zzz!