I Forgot!!!

 

 A Customer Quilt

I have been writing a weekly blog since 2008 and it has become a ritual or habit that I write something every Sunday unless I am busy travelling but this week I actually FORGOT to do it. Perhaps it is because Nella and I are trying to keep weekends sacrosanct since she has started college? Instead of catching up on customer quilts or working on projects we have been trying to do as little as possible.

At any rate here are some photos from the past week…:)

Cutting into a quilt to make a coat

 Visit to a Chinese Supermarket

 Sunset at Brigton Farm

 We went to the Theatre!

 Nessie's new Raincoat

 Homemade Tofu

 Another Customer Quilt

Virtually Busy

 

As I write my weekly blog I scroll through my camera roll to see what I have been up to during the week. This week there were only 2 photos of a mushroom ring in the garden and a very nice customer quilt. It would seem that I have done very little of any consequence yet I have felt constantly busy. 

Nella and I had a trip into town for coffee and books, we walked Nessie daily as usual and she was busy working on college projects. I did some tidying and mending, taught a Qmatic class by Zoom and did a follow-up video afterwards. So I have not exactly been idle - I just did not have any photographic evidence or a project to prove that I have not been playing on “Animal Crossing” all week!

Coos and Coats

The cows in the field next door escaped this week. After exploring our driveway and leaving a couple of cow-pats, they trundled off down the track and trotted speedily up the road, causing a bit of a traffic jam. I phoned the farmer as soon as I saw the herd dispersing and he quickly rounded them all up again.

I quilted the Bewitched quilt (to be repurposed into a coat) using a Karlee Porter design called “Swivel Circle 2”. The gold lame looks fab, of course and it has made me wonder if I should invest in some new, shiny gold boots;) 

Images of quilted coats filled my Instagram feed after I posted a photo of my progress and I sent a link to Nella on how to make a quilted hoodie. We found a suitable looking sacrificial quilt on Ebay. It was made from 1980’s furnishing fabrics, minimally and badly quilted with a hideous satin ribbon binding. We cut up a teddy fleece blanket and over-quilted it with a simple meandering pattern. The resulting quilt was thick and heavy, not ideally suited for garment making. She drew around a hoodie to make a rough pattern and it went together reasonably well, although the sleeves and the body did not quite line up so some jiggery-pokery had to be deployed. We broke 5 needles and could not overlock anything due to the bulk but it looks OK and she likes wearing it. IF we ever make another one, I will make sure that we use a very thin, cotton quilt!

Nella and I decided to go to the local firework display since the weather was reasonable and there had not been a bonfire in Banchory at all in 2020. In all the years of living here I ave never seen such a huge crowd. It seemed that there were no other organised displays in the area and even the Aberdeen Beach show had been cancelled again. We stood at the edge of the park, not wanting to venture deep into the throng and as usual, the firework show was great. Some of the coffee shops were open late so we got a takeaway afterwards. 

I got one customer quilt done, using a nice digital pattern called Marmalade. After a couple of weeks of having nothing on the go it looks like I will have a steady stream running up to Christmas. I suppose I will have to start thinking about doing some C-shopping and / or making before too long…

Halloween 2021

 

Another week just flew by, probably because we had been away and we took most of Tuesday to catch up with ourselves. I had to think of a project since I had no customer quilts waiting (although there are now quite a few, all of a sudden). I dug out a long-forgotten reincarnation of “Bewitched” that I had intended to become a show quilt once but then realised that it was not really show-worthy. It seems to be all the rage on the internet to make coats from quilts so I have jumped on the band-wagon and will use the Wiksten Haori/Unfolding jacket pattern. It has also inspired Nella to make a quilted hoodie out of an old quilt. I was not prepared for her to sacrifice a family quilt so we ordered a scruffy one from Ebay.

Other things that we footered about with this week included having a go at making Tofu. Of course we can buy it but it is always fun to give these things a go. It worked fairly well so we soaked it in a marinade and took it with us when we visited Freya for the second weekend in a row because she had invited Nella to a grown-up Halloween party. Nella has really struggling lately with motivation for anorexia recovery so we decided it was a good idea to go to the party despite having cold feet at the last minute. We are hoping to go to Edinburgh for a wee trip soon just to keep reminding her that Life can be fun!