Gold Snakeskin and Silver Spandex

On Bank Holiday Monday I informed my children that the next time I take them shopping collectively will be when they are all over 25 years old. Everyone got something in the end but no-one enjoyed browsing in the same shops. I was pleased with my purchase of a set of plastic boxes that had London Underground stations printed onto the lids but I unwisely allowed Fenella to buy a "make your own giraffe kit". When we tackled it later on I found the instructions impossible to follow, it had two leg pieces missing and it moulted fur fabric all over my sewing machine.

I spent a day in school where I had to teach data handling - explaining range, median, mean, mode and histograms. I wish Miss Rudland, who bullied me into passing my O-level maths exam third time lucky could see me now!

I had an interesting invitation to attend the Vintage Festival in Northants in July and take the Yurt as an exhibit. It looks like a really cool event that I could take the children to if I hire a trailer for the Yurt and a load of camping gear. If the logistics all fall into place then we could have fun at the roller disco, pogo to The Damned, and make bunting at one of the "upcycling" craft workshops.

I made the decision to suspend customer quilts and unnecessary side projects until my Houston entries are finished so the background of the sunflower quilt is not finished yet. I have been tempted to run up a few ipad and kindle covers but I am being strong willed and trying to resist the urge to quilt some oilcloth.

I quilted the gold Norse birdman again onto some gold vinyl snakeskin. I don't think the definition is quite as good as it is on the very basic lame as it already has some texture. I now have the choice of painting in some shading or retrimming the already bound original to the uniform size that I have decided on for the Houston entries.

I had a near meltdown when I was told that the copper lurex silk lame was lost in the post and that the supplier had none left. I ordered some more copper pieces of spandex, chiffon and taffeta online and just have to hope that one of them will do the job.

I started confidently on the new version of the silver helmet but to my horror I discovered that the ruler base on the longarm was scuffing off the metallic surface. This is because I quilt these pieces upside down with the metallic fabric as the backing. I decided to start again with a new piece of silver spandex which meant that I had to draw the whole design out yet again and I had to follow all of the lines carefully without using a ruler. In the end, I think the new version of the helmet is actually better than the original. I may even consider pinning the finished one back onto the quilt frame to add more quilting behind the Celtic motifs.