A Quiet Week in Norfolk

 I spent a quiet week in Norfolk as Nella settled in at Uni. I met up with her a couple of times in Norwich but mostly she was trying to socialise as much as possible and make new friends. It was not actually Freshers’ Week yet so things were a bit slow. Nella could not get used to everyone staying in bed until at least lunchtime. She is really looking forward to things getting going, joining societies and getting stuck into studying. 

I usually have a good poke around junk shops when in Norfolk but without my usual “crew” I only went to one which was rammed to the rafters with all sorts of junk that I did not need.  I just spent the week pottering with my parents and taking for Nessie for wee wanders. I had a couple of trouser alterations to do on my Mum’s vintage Bernina. 

It will be weird as I head North without Nella and she feels like she has been on a short holiday. Luckily, it is her birthday in a month so I will be back quite soon for a visit. I will just have to keep myself busy and get regular updates from her on Facetime. 

Off She Goes!

 This week was all about Nella getting ready to go off to Uni. I kept adding things that I thought were essential for student life such as a pepper grinder and stove-top coffee maker. She kept telling me that she had too much stuff;) I made her a round cushion shaped like a Loveheart Sweetie. Qmatic stitched out the lettering and I had planned to use the L890 to add chain stitching from the reverse. However, I don’t have the clear foot so I could not see where the needle was going. Instead, to highlight the lettering I painted inside with pink acrylic. 

The traffic down South was heavy on Friday and it took 12 hours to get to Norfolk so it was dark when we arrived. I was glad that such a long trip was done in my comfortable Volvo and not the utilitarian Landrover.

Norwich was hectic on Saturday with all of the Freshers moving in on top of the football traffic. There were long waits for the one lift to haul of the stuff up to the 5th floor. Nella was paranoid that she had more than anyone else but some people arrived with hire vans so I think she was actually equipped quite modestly. She got her room set up then worried that nobody was around in the flat’s kitchen while in fact they were all out for a final dinner with their parents. It is nice that I will be around for a week or so, staying with my folks until she gets settled in. We had a little wander around the city and agreed that it should be a really cool place to study for the next 3 years.

I had to leave Nessie with my folks while I took Nella to her Uni accommodation and they left her on her own while they went out. She was obviously not impressed as she destroyed some curtains and started on the carpet of the room where they left her. I was mortified - she has never caused any damage before, even as a puppy! It looks like I will have a curtain making project to do while I am visiting this week.

An Historic Week

 It has been quite a week in the UK! Just 2 days after swearing in the new Prime Minister at Balmoral, The Queen died aged 96 in one of her favourite places. The News has been filled with royal tributes and trivia as we become the subjects of a King for the first time in 70 years. We went down to the gates at Crathes Castle to witness Queen Elizabeth II make her final journey via Edinburgh to London for her state funeral in a week. It was a surreal moment as she has been the monarch for my entire life.

I had one of those weeks in which it would be difficult to say what I actually “achieved”. I guess there was a lot of research from which electric blanket to buy, assuming that it might be a cold winter with expensive fuel bills, to how to do spiral lettering using the Bernina Q-matic. I may have an idea for a quilt so I have been working some things out. 

I filmed a short video on how to do chain-stitch quilting on the Bernina L890 and can still see further uses of chain stitch…

The supplies that I have been accumulating for Nella’s Uni departure have been mounting up in my workshop and that is before she has even packed any clothes, books and craft supplies! She was quite sad to do her last shift at the Castle cafe where she has made some good friends. It is only just hitting her that she has less than a week left here - she is both nervous and excited. I think the week to come will go by in a flash and be quite emotional.

Tech Trials

Like many quilters, I am acutely aware that I accumulate far too much stuff that I don’t use so I sold my Bernette Funlock (coverstitch machine) on Ebay and sent it off to its new owner with a courier. The new owner tried it out but the handwheel was jammed. Since it worked perfectly before dispatch, I think it got dropped in transit. Now I have to waste time and do battle with the courier to get compensation. 

I was encouraged to purchase a gimbal for my camera by some enthusiastic YouTube videographers. I followed the tricky procedure to balance the camera on 3 axes, watched countless videos, read the manual but could not get the gimbal to do what it was meant to do. I was determined not to be beaten but in the end I decided that it was all a bit much of a palaver so I returned it. I also bought a wide angle lens that attached to the camera with sticky stuff but it kept falling off so that went back too.

I finished painting my filing cabinets then staged them to look nice in the background of videos. As part of a challenge by Bernina UK to find ways that Quilters can use the L890 coverstitch/overlock machine, I spent 2 days making a video on how to do Quilt As You Go. First I had to figure out how to make the technique work then I had to film the process using 2 cameras. I use a GoPro to show what happens  at the sewing machine. I tried to mount it to the top of the L890 with a bendy arm but it kept coming unstuck. The other camera was on a tripod that kept threatening to topple over. I got it done in the end then edited the 2 lots of footage (without sweary bloopers) and will upload it to Youtube when everyone is out and does not need to use the already sluggish internet.

Other activities for the week included working on a large hexagon quilt for a customer and not getting around to making bramble jelly.

Freya paid us a surprise visit for a few days to see Nella before she sets off for Norwich. She is up to her eyes trying to get her Masters dissertation finished but we did manage to find time to go out for tea and have a bonfire. 

I still have not been hit by inspiration for a new project or been led to complete something already considered. I should probably just lose myself in the making of an everyday quilt for the time being.