Feels Like Spring

The weather has been perfect all week - no wind, highs of 18C, frosty in the morning. The birds have been singing, trees all have buds on, beautiful sunsets, and I even took off my thermal vest. However, snow is forecast next week:)

I managed to get 2 quilts done for customers. One of them took far longer than it should have because I was trying to use the customer’s Aurifil 40 cotton variegated thread on batiks and the machine hated that combination. After a lot of footering around, I used an 80 needle, reduced the top tension to almost nothing, coated the thread in silicone and ran the machine at its slowest speed. 

For the first time in ages, I caught up with a friend for coffee and she gave me plant pot stickers for the caravan. I finished my quite-posh bunting so really the caravan interior is done, apart from working out how the gas and water works. 

I saved a picture posted on Instagram by Mister Domestic since I thought it particularly apt.  Much has changed indeed over the past couple of years. Nella has reserved a Uni Halls room in Norwich! I have decided to be OK with having no plans other than to keep my business chugging along, hope to enjoy a more carefree summer, get Nella settled into Uni then wait and see what direction (if any) to take…

Not So Swift

 

My caravan is a Challenger SWIFT so I chose a digital quilt design that looked a bit like swallows in flight. I had trouble getting the design to line up as it was not a Bernina file so I spent a morning faffing around in Art and Stitch until I got it to link up nicely. It is a really nice design from Intelligent Quilting but it was slow to stitch out as there is a lot of back-tracking on the wings. I also had some trouble with thread breaking, possibly due to the mix of fabrics used, so I had to slow the speed right down. The quilts look great on the bunks so all I really “need” to do inside the caravan is make bunting.

I picked up some 50p saucers and a cute milk jug to emphasise the kitsch look. I am probably going to go all out and paint the caravan’s exterior so I got some pastelly sample cards. So much for getting an OK caravan and just using it “as-is”…

I had a really nice Tula Pink customer quilt this week and used a Karlee Porter design (Swivel Circle 2) on it which I think has a modern look. The customer sent airy wool wadding so the texture is lovely!

At this rate I will have to get back to some unfinished projects or even have a well needed spring clean in my workshop.

Shall I Make Bunting Next?

 

I was flicking through old notebooks looking for the contact details of a customer who left the wrong number on my answerphone and it was obvious how much more I used to do. There were pages of scribbles of things to do and projects that were underway. Whenever anyone asked what I was up to I would always answer that I was super-busy. Nowadays, I think it is an achievement if I make my bed or collect eggs from my hens.

I did actually do 3 customer quilts this week - one freehand babygro quilt, a small Starwars alphabet quilt and an enormous Christmas one. I am thinking of squeezing in my 2 caravan quilts after the next customer one;)

Despite many spam messages from made-up names on Messenger, I have sold 2 of my microwaves on Facebook Marketplace. If only I could purge more “junk” from the house I might feel inclined to do some dusting. I have no idea how junk shop owners manage. Maybe I should just advertise that my whole house is a junk shop so people can call in and make offers on whatever they fancy. 

I bought a cheap rug online for the caravan that I knew was too big and hoped that I would be able to trim it to size. I hacked it into 2 pieces using kitchen shears and gingerly sewed binding onto the raw edges with a hefty needle inserted into my sewing machine. The caravan interior is probably complete now except that I still have to decide if it would benefit from some bunting…

Too Many Microwaves!

 

Microwave ovens have been mysteriously multiplying here. There is one in the kitchen - as you would expect. There is a rusty-ish one in the workshop which I might use on a rare occasion for dyeing fabric that is too small to go in the washing machine - in other words,  never. I bought one last year to take to Birmingham so Nella could heat food up in the hotel and the caravan came with another one. I was killing time the other day while Nella was in college for the afternoon. Rather dangerously, I found myself aimlessly wandering around Dunelm and spotted a reduced pink retro style microwave hidden behind some boxes. I simply could not resist getting it for my increasingly pink caravan, even though it is not really a necessity;) Now I really must advertise 2 of the unused microwaves for sale and maybe even ditch the old, rusty one. 

Somehow it was a busy week but not much to “show” for it. Nessie had a haircut, I made several phone calls (as yet unanswered) to try and arrange a mobile caravan service. I fitted in a Qmatic lesson for a pupil via Zoom, and Freya came home for the weekend. 

I think I have almost pieced enough blocks for the second caravan quilt…

I quilted one customer quilt. It was nice and straightforward except that with rather a lot of borders, it did get a bit out of hand in places but I managed to get it under control.

I am missing my overlocker which has been in repair for weeks. I did look on Ebay to see if I could get one the same as a backup but there is only one up for sale and its starting price is £800!!

Lovely weather this weekend has hinted that Spring is on its way. I could do with catching up on customer quilts and I should give the outside of the caravan some attention. I have seen some on Pinterest that have been painted with fabulous flowers but for now I may just try to tidy up the scruffy vinyl stripes so it looks less shabby. We have decided to see about getting tickets for a Scottish festival, “Doune the Rabbit Hole”. It is exciting that Nella has suggested this trip since we last went to “Latitude” in 2019, just after she was first diagnosed with anorexia so this one should be a far happier experience:)