A Quiet Week in Norfolk

 I spent a quiet week in Norfolk as Nella settled in at Uni. I met up with her a couple of times in Norwich but mostly she was trying to socialise as much as possible and make new friends. It was not actually Freshers’ Week yet so things were a bit slow. Nella could not get used to everyone staying in bed until at least lunchtime. She is really looking forward to things getting going, joining societies and getting stuck into studying. 

I usually have a good poke around junk shops when in Norfolk but without my usual “crew” I only went to one which was rammed to the rafters with all sorts of junk that I did not need.  I just spent the week pottering with my parents and taking for Nessie for wee wanders. I had a couple of trouser alterations to do on my Mum’s vintage Bernina. 

It will be weird as I head North without Nella and she feels like she has been on a short holiday. Luckily, it is her birthday in a month so I will be back quite soon for a visit. I will just have to keep myself busy and get regular updates from her on Facetime. 

Off She Goes!

 This week was all about Nella getting ready to go off to Uni. I kept adding things that I thought were essential for student life such as a pepper grinder and stove-top coffee maker. She kept telling me that she had too much stuff;) I made her a round cushion shaped like a Loveheart Sweetie. Qmatic stitched out the lettering and I had planned to use the L890 to add chain stitching from the reverse. However, I don’t have the clear foot so I could not see where the needle was going. Instead, to highlight the lettering I painted inside with pink acrylic. 

The traffic down South was heavy on Friday and it took 12 hours to get to Norfolk so it was dark when we arrived. I was glad that such a long trip was done in my comfortable Volvo and not the utilitarian Landrover.

Norwich was hectic on Saturday with all of the Freshers moving in on top of the football traffic. There were long waits for the one lift to haul of the stuff up to the 5th floor. Nella was paranoid that she had more than anyone else but some people arrived with hire vans so I think she was actually equipped quite modestly. She got her room set up then worried that nobody was around in the flat’s kitchen while in fact they were all out for a final dinner with their parents. It is nice that I will be around for a week or so, staying with my folks until she gets settled in. We had a little wander around the city and agreed that it should be a really cool place to study for the next 3 years.

I had to leave Nessie with my folks while I took Nella to her Uni accommodation and they left her on her own while they went out. She was obviously not impressed as she destroyed some curtains and started on the carpet of the room where they left her. I was mortified - she has never caused any damage before, even as a puppy! It looks like I will have a curtain making project to do while I am visiting this week.

An Historic Week

 It has been quite a week in the UK! Just 2 days after swearing in the new Prime Minister at Balmoral, The Queen died aged 96 in one of her favourite places. The News has been filled with royal tributes and trivia as we become the subjects of a King for the first time in 70 years. We went down to the gates at Crathes Castle to witness Queen Elizabeth II make her final journey via Edinburgh to London for her state funeral in a week. It was a surreal moment as she has been the monarch for my entire life.

I had one of those weeks in which it would be difficult to say what I actually “achieved”. I guess there was a lot of research from which electric blanket to buy, assuming that it might be a cold winter with expensive fuel bills, to how to do spiral lettering using the Bernina Q-matic. I may have an idea for a quilt so I have been working some things out. 

I filmed a short video on how to do chain-stitch quilting on the Bernina L890 and can still see further uses of chain stitch…

The supplies that I have been accumulating for Nella’s Uni departure have been mounting up in my workshop and that is before she has even packed any clothes, books and craft supplies! She was quite sad to do her last shift at the Castle cafe where she has made some good friends. It is only just hitting her that she has less than a week left here - she is both nervous and excited. I think the week to come will go by in a flash and be quite emotional.

Tech Trials

Like many quilters, I am acutely aware that I accumulate far too much stuff that I don’t use so I sold my Bernette Funlock (coverstitch machine) on Ebay and sent it off to its new owner with a courier. The new owner tried it out but the handwheel was jammed. Since it worked perfectly before dispatch, I think it got dropped in transit. Now I have to waste time and do battle with the courier to get compensation. 

I was encouraged to purchase a gimbal for my camera by some enthusiastic YouTube videographers. I followed the tricky procedure to balance the camera on 3 axes, watched countless videos, read the manual but could not get the gimbal to do what it was meant to do. I was determined not to be beaten but in the end I decided that it was all a bit much of a palaver so I returned it. I also bought a wide angle lens that attached to the camera with sticky stuff but it kept falling off so that went back too.

I finished painting my filing cabinets then staged them to look nice in the background of videos. As part of a challenge by Bernina UK to find ways that Quilters can use the L890 coverstitch/overlock machine, I spent 2 days making a video on how to do Quilt As You Go. First I had to figure out how to make the technique work then I had to film the process using 2 cameras. I use a GoPro to show what happens  at the sewing machine. I tried to mount it to the top of the L890 with a bendy arm but it kept coming unstuck. The other camera was on a tripod that kept threatening to topple over. I got it done in the end then edited the 2 lots of footage (without sweary bloopers) and will upload it to Youtube when everyone is out and does not need to use the already sluggish internet.

Other activities for the week included working on a large hexagon quilt for a customer and not getting around to making bramble jelly.

Freya paid us a surprise visit for a few days to see Nella before she sets off for Norwich. She is up to her eyes trying to get her Masters dissertation finished but we did manage to find time to go out for tea and have a bonfire. 

I still have not been hit by inspiration for a new project or been led to complete something already considered. I should probably just lose myself in the making of an everyday quilt for the time being.

Pinky Promise

 

What is it about having a long To Do list that makes me want to start something new? I came back from FoQ with plenty of things to do or finish but then decided that my filing cabinets looked drab and needed a facelift. I used to enjoy painting furniture to give it a new lease of life but I really did not enjoy this job. I should have emptied them, taken them outside, sanded them then given them a quick spray-paint. However, I decided to leave them in situ then paint with primer and pink top coat - only the parts that could be seen. After 4 coats they are still patchy! The trouble with starting a project like that is that it highlights other scruffy furniture and could well snowball into a major operation. 

I still have to complete the caravan stickers - I really need to start and finish one job at a time;) I am tempted to start a quilt but at the same time I still need to make more videos showing how quilters can use the Bernina L890. On the subject of videos, I uploaded a tour of FoQ to Youtube. The walkthrough footage is a bit shaky because I am still getting used to my new camera but I did manage to edit it all myself:) 

Despite all of my faffing this week, I managed to get 2 small customer quilts done and sorted through some of the stuff that Nella needs to take to Uni. There are only 3 weeks to go - she is both nervous and excited! It is really beginning to feel autumnal here after a great summer. The blackberries are fantastic, the nights are drawing in and there is a slight nip in the air. Change is afoot…

Festival of Quilts UK 2022

I reckon it can take me about 5 minutes to pack for a trip but days to get around to putting it all away. I spend several days afterwards trying to catch up with myself, including writing my blog. I am hoping to make a vlog of my experiences this year using video footage that I took as I had a look around the show. 

FoQ 2022 was far better than last year! There was more space, more exhibits and more people:) It was great to be busy demonstrating the Bernina Q-Series machines, except for a day when there was a train strike that seemed to reduce visitor numbers. I kept Q-matic busy showing how automated quilting works and we even did a couple of charity Linus quilts during a quiet spell on Saturday afternoon. 

I had a wonderful surprise when Julie Tebay from Minnesota came to catch up. We rode an elephant together in India but this time she was on a more sedate tour of England. Cecille Flegg kindly brought me chocolate when I was wilting. 

I drove Luana Rubin to Stratford upon Avon to have dinner and see a Shakespeare production at the RSC. It was fantastic but I was a bit confused as to why this production of “As You Like It” seemed so different to the play that I studied at school. During the interval I noticed a poster then realised that I was actually watching “All’s Well That Ends Well”!

As usual there were quilts that I loved for their skill, ingenuity and creativity, and a couple of winners that I may not have chosen if I was a judge. Speaking of which, I had to laugh when I saw some of their photos on the floor one morning as if a disgruntled participant had torn them off the wall in a fury. I am just going to say - I am not impressed by the trend for taking tatty old quilts that are in a terrible state then adding some bits of wool or plastic and declaring, bizarrely that they are ART…

It was fun being interviewed by Brandy Lynn Maslowski for her podcast, “Quilter on Fire.” I did not get introduced to the legendary Kaffe Fassett, who had a special gallery with Bernina for the launch of some special edition sewing machines. I observed that there are some quilters who are extremely good at self-promotion on social media, some with big egos to match. There are also many other quieter, talented quilters who need to shout louder;)

 

Some Like it Hot (and Sticky)

For most of this week it has been scorching hot weather again and I don’t really like it! However, I bought an ice cream maker and had a go at making vegan ice cream. So far I have tried strawberry, cherry and blueberry. I am still working on the perfect recipe without dairy but I think the most successful one used vegan condensed milk. 

Nella was away in Orkney with her friend so I pretended I was on holiday and just pottered around. I filmed a couple of short overlocker demos and with my Editor in Chief away, I had to figure out how to edit the videos in iMovie myself. They are not fancy but I managed to cobble them together, cutting out the bloopers. 

I decided to do all sorts of things I think I never have time for and I discovered that the second-hand backup overlocker can do a fancy wave stitch which I think could look cool on quilt binding. 

The most time consuming activity was cutting out more caravan stickers on my Scan-n-Cut machine. I did not paint the caravan because I thought it would take too long but sticking o hundreds of flowers onto the caravan with vinyl transfer tape has taken forever and I have no idea what will happen the next time I need to wash it!

Alongside churning ice cream and cutting out stickers, I did one customer quilt and won’t attempt to do any more until Festival of Quilts which is next week:)

Cousin Capers

 

Linzi and Karen

                                            Nella, Cousin Elodie, Cousin Estelle, Nella's friend - Kirsty, Cousin Lena

This week I had visitors which is very unusual. My favourite cousins from The New Forest were on an epic caravan tour of Scotland and spent a couple of days with us before starting their journey back south. We had a lovely time eating together, playing board games and visiting Crathes Castle. We visited them last year when Nella was still unwell so this time was so much more fun. We decided that we would love to meet up with our caravans some time, maybe in the Lake District. 

Speaking of caravans, I have been adorning mine with hundreds of vinyl stickers. It has taken ages and I am still not sure if it looks rather like a child’s exercise book cover. I have not yet finished and have no idea how they will wear but I think they look fun. 

I finished quilting the pink whole cloth quilt and got things lined up fairly well. In my opinion it was far more time consuming than doing it freehand but I did learn lots about computerised quilting. I just need to bind it to finish it off then decide what to do with it…

Sparkly and Sticky

Yet again I started a job that I had not planned - it was just meant to be a minor try-out but I got carried away. I decided to paint some of the trims on the caravan a dusky pink then glaze with a sparkly varnish. The glitter did not seem to spread evenly and it just looked dirty. The trouble is that even clear varnish dries yellowish. I decided to sand that off and go back to pink! I have a huge collection of flower-power stickers to attach but I think I may need some help to apply them.

I felt like I was on TV’s “Repair Shop” when I fixed the damaged tow hitch cover. I attached pieces of a plastic box to an area that was broken, splinted that with sticky fibre glass then squished in some plastic filler. I wish I could garner up the same enthusiasm to fix things in my house;)

I spent much of the week working on a Q-Matic whole-cloth quilt just as a practice exercise. I matched up most of the elements accurately and now I feel confident that I could teach those techniques to pupils. 

I can’t believe that August starts on Monday. This year is certainly moving at some pace!