Tangents and Trains

 

My workshop finally has working facilities with hot and cold running water. The antique sink is back in action but I need to find it a plug. I am delighted at all of these modern conveniences but I will have to make time to paint the walls and floor in the loo and we have just lost an hour already this week with the clocks changing. I also have to deal with a massive backlog of laundry since the washing machine was out of action while all this plumbing went on. I will have to train the children to fold and iron for pocket money.

 

Trading Standards did an excellent job of chasing the company that owed me money for the returned office screen. However, the refund will go out of my bank account again immediately to pay for an abnormal quantity of Velcro and cotton tape.

A box of spares arrived from APQS for me to try to sort out my Stitch Regulator but I really haven't got time to stop quilting and do servicing. I am doing most of the quilting in manual mode and only using the temperamental SR for Quiltazoid circles and spiros. I have been enjoying using it this week to give me big chunks of circles that can be filled in. One of this week's panels was loosely inspired by old Welsh quilting designs. I have managed to quilt 3 panels this week, including Cindy's "Train Wreck" panel and currently only have 2 completely unquilted panels in my workshop. There are others in transit but it is nice to think that I am making good progress. I would like to bind all of these during the week and then I will have done more than 50% of the wall panels myself – the rest will have been done by Stunt Quilters. I now have 2 Stunt Crocheters who are making circles and rosettes to use as embellishments on some of the panels with circles. I had made some covered buttons but they don't sit flat enough and tend to dangle down a bit. I am still determined to conquer my crochet dyslexia one of these rainy days.

 

I went off on a bit of a tangent when I decided to look at laptop bags on the Internet. There were some boring functional ones and some very funky but expensive ones. I decided that I could run one up despite being a bit busy. It didn't actually take all that long once I decided what to do based on a school reading book bag. I think it could be enhanced with a bit of lace or a crocheted flower but I can do that later on.

 

I was about to book a train down to Glasgow to meet Tracy for the start of the USA trip when a national train strike was announced from April 6^th. I looked up "Megabus" and found that the journey is the same length of time and far cheaper. As long as I can get my luggage on board, I don't mind how I travel.

 

After spending every day and evening in my workshop I went on a trip to Aberdeen with Mo on Friday to buy some gear for the trip. We have been friends for several years but amazingly, we have never gone on a clothes buying expedition. It was very successful and she persuaded me to get a couple of things that were nicer than I would have chosen if I had gone by myself. We were very impressed with Debenhams which is a shop that I usually walk past – there were Betty Jackson and John Rocha concessions that we really liked (as I sit here on Sunday evening typing in my old jeans and striped hippy jumper). I could have bought silver lame knickers in Primark but settled for cotton out of comfort! We managed to spend all day in town, also managing to buy the paint for the Yurt door and a litre bottle of gin for my suitcase.

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