The Non Tattie Holidays

For years my children had 2 weeks off school in October for the Tattie Holidays. Up until around the 1970’s children could take part in the potato harvest in Scotland, gleaning what was left and earning pocket money. We no longer have those holidays since they have all left school but we like to get together to celebrate Nella’s birthday on October 24th. 

I had a lot to do before my break from work as I had a few quilts with a tight deadline that had to be returned to their owners by the end of October. I also had two delightful DIY quilter friends in for a day. 

My other responsibility was to get teaching materials and the teaching studio ready for a Sewing Mastery class to be held while I am away.

At my cottage I was amazed when my rickrack cactus produced flowers. I did some research and was warned that the flower would bloom for one night only so I was worried that I would miss the event. In the end it did come out spectacularly for a couple of days and smelled exotic. 

I spent the weekend at my parents’ house in Norfolk with Nella and Freya who drove herself down from Glasgow. We had a lovely outing to Blickling Hall which had beautiful autumnal oaks and chestnut trees. The girls will be busy with work and Uni during the week until Fergus arrives later in the week. It will be great to enjoy some family time and I might also make an effort to hoover my car.

Not a Goose to be Found

Another autumn week went by in a flash! I am busy with customer quilts, several of which also required binding. I have a couple of tight deadlines because the clients are flying off to Australia and Houston and want to take the quilts with them. I went along to the Doughtys Fabric roadshow in a Cornish village Hall where I bought 3m of fabric to line the coat that has been on the go for ages since I “lost” its lining fabric in my move.

Nessie had a fancy haircut and the groomer decreed that she should attend the hairdresser every 8 weeks! She looks very smart but I wouldn’t dream of going to get my own hair done that often;)

Trees are starting to show off their autumn colours and I found a lovely clump of little puff ball mushrooms.

On Wednesday evening I ventured into town to experience the Tavistock Goose Fair at which there were no geese for sale. There were many trashy market stalls, food trucks and an impressive funfair which did not impress Nessie. The streets were rammed with people - I don’t think it is something I will rush to attend annually but now I know what it is all about.

My sister was enthusing about how wonderful it is to borrow books and magazines on a Kindle from the library. However, I had to buy a half-price Kindle Fire since the basic E-readers are not compatible. I enjoyed making it a sleeve which somehow ended up half an inch too short when I put it together so I added a frill so it would not annoy me. I has made me think that it would be fun to add frills to patchwork notebook covers (and other things like the seams of my unfinished coat) so that might be a new project for me…

Making and Baking

Despite telling myself that after a busy work week I should try to do fewer weekend chores, I seemed to still be buzzing around with my hoover and checklist. It was a very busy week at work with classes running every day, including my 2 day overlocker workshop. Everything went very well but there was a lot of reorganising to do at the end of each day to make the classroom ready for the next round of tuition.  

I decided not to go anywhere over the weekend and I don’t know how I would have fitted in an outing anyway. Nessie and I ventured out to the park to watch the ceremony in honour of Polo, the town’s stray cat as he was made a “Catizen” by the mayor. 

I made quite a lot of messes in my kitchen and created piles of washing up. I put my lime pickle into jars and started another batch. I made more apple, date and apricot chutney,  2 apple cakes which looked ugly but tasted great, and a huge pot of soup.

I was glad that the weather was wet and windy as it meant I could hunker down at the sewing machine to make a notebook cover for Nella’s birthday. The fancy stitching takes far longer than you expect (every time) and I always wish I had remembered to add some sort of elastic closure. I don’t have my overlocker at home so I missed out decorative cover-stitch and fringing but hopefully, she will like the scraps that I selected.

PS - who needs a fancy iron that turns itself off? My old one just keeps going and I now command Alexa to turn it on and off with a smart plug!

Too Many Chores!

I have far too many self imposed chores that are hampering potential sewing time! This weekend I have planted a pot of bulb lasagne, washed floors, cleaned windows, erected a fairy light bedecked rose arch, made lime pickle, blanched and frozen veg, done laundry, put up more kitchen shelves, dealt with cobwebs, and sterilised jam jars!

At work a retreat was in full swing which means lots of washing up, cutting fabric, finding matching threads and getting a large customer quilt done for one of the course participants. 

I should have been making more samples for my L890 course this week but I did manage to embellish a half finished project and turn it into a lever arch file cover, which is what I intend my pupils to make on their creative day. 

I need to have stern words with myself to do fewer household jobs and allow more time for outings to the seaside and making things such as a notebook cover for Nella’s birthday. It is funny that she requested this since my children were usually mortified by my fabric homework book covers when they were at school;)

Weekends are too Short!

 

I had such a busy doing nothing in particular weekend that I almost forgot to update my blog! Firstly, I had quite a few quilts to do at work then I went in on my day off to quilt the strippy quilt that I made myself from fabrics bought at Malvern last autumn.

One of the customer quilts was a vintage 1980s hand pieced quilt that its maker was finally persuaded to get finished. The filigree design really lifted it I think. 

My own quilt was done with a modern baptist fan design and neon pink thread. I considered adding prairie points but then told myself it is just an everyday quilt that Nessie is allowed to sleep on so just putting a scrappy binding around it would suffice. 

My weekend was spent faffing around doing household chores, groceries, organising my shed and cutting back some soggy dead flowers in my garden. I brushed Nessie in anticipation of a dog show in the park but it was cancelled due to an incorrect weather forecast. She was not particularly bothered. 

Although I quite enjoy just pottering around at the weekend I must try to do something different for a change. I keep meaning to rejoin the National Trust except it seems a bit pointless if the properties might be closed over the winter. If only I had a hobby…;)

A Year in Devon

 

It is exactly a year since I ran away from home to Devon and lived in an old caravan until I found my wee cottage. I have now experienced all of the seasons, including what seems to be an early, wet autumn. The conkers on the trees in the park are huge. Nessie and I are now familiar with the regulars in the park, including the 2 resident geese. I was glad that I invested in a decent second hand raincoat and have now added some reflective heat-press flowers so cars can see me in the dark. 

I have done lots of DIY such as repainting the entire cottage interior, putting up shelves, fixing the shed and got quite into container gardening. The summer pots look past it now so I need some autumn/winter plants to fill the gaps. I decided to paint the shed floor with a donated tin of red floor paint but it is taking forever to dry in the cool, damp weather so I have not finished it yet. All of the chores are of my own making so if I don’t feel like dusting I really don’t have to;)

It was a crazy busy week at work with 2 days devoted to giving one-to-one lessons to a retired couple who knew absolutely nothing about sewing. I got them to make a zipped, piped cushion and put button holes on a jacket. By the end of the week I had done zilch quilts so went in on Friday to get cracking on 2 customer quilts as I now have a backlog of a dozen!

Despite already having several hand-sewing projects on the go, I decided to have a go at making “Bubble Pods”. They have loads of minuscule darts and are an absolute scutter so I can’t see myself churning them out as Christmas gifts.

Shortbread and Shenanigans

Matt Wilding visited Quilt Direct to discuss his bag making class and brought amazing patchwork shortbread.

I finished an autumnal customer quilt and started 2 Halloween quilts.

I made a silly video about some fairly useless clip-on lenses for your specs.

I had a play with some Aurifil spools to consider what colours I might put in a Quilt Quine collection.

My friend at work had completed an amazing Ethereal embroidered quilt so I did some stitch in the ditch to hold it together then added the binding.

Nessie and I had a lovely walk on Dartmoor and was amazed at how many berries all of the Hawthorn trees have which made the trees look red.

I went on an IKEA trip and bought a couple of shelves to reorganise my shed:)

House Leeks and Leaks

Top of my weekend job list was to paint over the water damage in my bedroom, having had a nice long hot summer to dry out. However, we have had some “proper” rain bursts this week and the wall was wet again. I have not really encountered horribly wet weather since living here, unlike the relentlessly wet winter the year before. Everything is so dry that the trees are dropping their leaves very early and when it rains it dries up almost straight away. I have ordered a waterproof raincoat (second-hand from Vinted), not just a shower Mac. I have loads of coats but they are all designed for cold weather. The Mac I bought is a sludge colour, not my taste but less than a third of the cost of a new one!

I wondered how my house leeks would fare in their sheltered “theatre”. They are definitely not soggy which is a good thing as they should be given minimal water according to the RHS website. I am still amazed at what can be grown outside here. When I repotted them all from their tin cans the soil was hot. The tins have all been re-planted with hardy violas and I would like to put in some autumn flowering plants in my pots as the summer ones seem to have given up. 

At work I have been taking photos of traded-in Bernina machines and checking that they are in good working order.

In between all of my other work tasks I decided to bind the Bloom and Grow L890 quilt using the binder attachment. I previously made a Youtube video about this contraption but I was frustrated with it for a while as it did not co-operate to begin with. There are quite a few sewing gadgets that are fiddly to operate that are supposed to make life easier but end up taking longer. I got it working nicely in the end and will make a new video on how it works. I have decided that the point of the binding attachment which attaches the binding to both sides at once is SPEED and I don’t have to work out how to turn neatly mitred corners as this is best done on a sewing machine. Instead the binding will be attached as 4 separate sides, like an Amish quilt and the corners of the outer strips can just be folded under and secured. 

Inspired by TV’s “Sewing Bee”, I shortened a pair of flowery dungarees by removing a 4” strip of wide leg then rejoining them with French seams. The spare fabric was repurposed into patch pockets since I can’t abide pocketless garments. I am doing the same with a jersey dress that I could have sold for £1.00 on Vinted or improved so I will actually wear it.