Carzzz

 

I reorganised a corner of my workshop to accommodate the new filing cabinets, instead of figuring out how to make trolleys for them so they could be shifted about. Obviously, this led to a game of furniture Tetris to try and fit everything back in. There was a filing cabinet sized gap that was too tight by a few mm so I chiselled some lumps of concrete off the wall and prised off a section of skirting board. This was quite a feat for a muggy Monday afternoon but hopefully there won’t be any more rearranging to do for a while.

Another time-wasting activity for me currently is perfecting the ingredients and cooking time for no-knead overnight bread. I have a new cast-iron tin with a lid, as well as a ridiculously over-sized Dutch oven for a goose. I feel that I have to get good use out of the baking gear or else find somewhere to store it other than inside the oven where I tend to forget about it until I need to cook something.

Apart from a couple of dodgy offers from Facebook Marketplace on my Landy that seem to involve cash and blurry photos of obviously stolen cars, I currently have an interested party who is a Landrover enthusiast. The major stumbling block is that as usual, it needs work for its MOT, which could prove costly. In the meantime I have been boring myself looking  online for a Volvo estate car that is affordable, reliable and not ancient. 

I plan to get 2 customer quilts done at the start of the week then concentrate on packing for FOQ. So far I have printed out all of my paperwork, gathered together all of my threads and gadgets, and got a face-visor. Freya is travelling to Birmingham by train to be Nella’s chaperone and I need to take some supplies plus a microwave. I can see myself making a few checklists lists in the week ahead!

Poo Brown to Pretty Pink Transformation

 

Ages ago I bought a set of old, Polish bentwood chairs for £2.00 each. I like to imagine they were made in pre-war or Cold War era Krakow;) Somebody had painted over the original wood in what can only be described as poo-brown gloss. I kept meaning to repaint them but never got around to it until this week. It has been very hot here and we really had to be outside in the shade so I decided to start on a couple of the chairs. I used a pale pink chalk paint which did not require any prep since I hate sanding. The paint dried extremely quickly and is not the neatest finish by any stretch of the imagination but since the old poo-brown gloss was already drippy, I think the end result is an improvement. It is funny how painted or stripped furniture goes in and out of fashion. As a student I painted some hideous Victorian furniture with yellow gloss. I daresay someone has now covered it all up with ubiquitous French grey chalk paint by now. 

I finally finished all of the ruler lines on the cat quilt which looked very smart when it was all done. 

I got a small all-over quilt done and thought I had caught up with everything in time to get super-organised for FOQ when 5 more quilts got dropped off - I am certainly not complaining! 

I gave another Zoom lesson on Friday which worked fairly well but I am still not happy with my camera setup so I spent a long time on Youtube trying to figure out how to get 3 camera views showing at once with only one audio source. It is not easy to find the exact information that I want. I hope to get it sussed so that every time I arrange a lesson the sound and video works seamlessly from the beginning - no camera dropping out. I had previously managed to add an extra camera by joining my own meeting by phone but for some reason this time that mucked everything up. I intend to spend a whole day on this until I get it to work consistently. 

Old and New Tech

I made a big decision that it was time to let the Landy go to a new owner. I have advertised it for sale since I can only ever just about afford to scrape it through its MOT each year and not spend any money doing it up. Even I have to admit that it is not suitable for long trips. It has served me well over the past 15 years and it is now time to look for a new-to-me car that is more comfortable.

I got two all-over quilts done while having a custom job going on in the background. The customer requested straight lines, avoiding the appliqués, which takes more time than you would think. 

My other major achievement was giving a Zoom lesson on how to use the quilt machine with computer. My pupil is very much a techno beginner but a most diligent student. I used my GoPro camera behind me to livestream while speaking to her using my phone AND sharing my computer screen! I decided that it would be useful to make a video without interruptions of how to get started so I hung a camera from the ceiling then discovered that if I have a Zoom meeting by myself, I could talk via a web-cam, share the screen and record the whole thing. I will get Fergus to edit all together and fast-forward through the quilting. I have already thought of improvements for the next video… 

More Quilts

 

I have been chipping away steadily at customer quilts. They have all been straightforward, even though a couple were pretty big. The next one is to be custom straight lines, avoiding areas of appliqué so that may take a while.

Nella and I had a midweek trip to the cinema to see “The Heights” - a Lin Manuel Miranda musical about a Latin community in New York. It was very clever and really enjoyable. The outing helped to break up a mundane week and it is important for Nella to realise that she can do all sorts of things if she re-engages with Life.

I remembered that I had to label, check and pack “Rainbow Warriors” to send to FOQ. Fortunately, I had already done the blocking so I just needed to flatten it out after a year in the cupboard. It is quite large and I have the issue of the giant sequins so fitting it into a box could be a challenge. If the prairie points get squashed they may stick out at odd angles. I just hope it hangs nicely at the show!