Haggis Collection

I am back home after a quiet week in Norfolk where I spent some time settling Nella back into Uni life and taking my folks out for coffee. Time passes weirdly quickly without anything much happening there. I did some hand-stitching on my quilted coat pieces and some mending on my Mother’s 50+ year old Bernina Record. 

My sister asked me to help run up some haggis-style beanbags for her Cub Scout group. They are going to be used to play some sort of “catch” game on Burns Night. I made a prototype which passed muster so she did the cutting out while I sewed up 4 more haggis friends. I have no idea what the plural for Haggis might be or even if there is a collective noun;) Their snouts are gathered and tied with linen thread then secured with cable ties. I have visions of them spewing rice all over the village hall if they burst!

Nella and I had a road-trip to North Norfolk one dreary day for a change of scene but we did not go and visit baby seals down the coast since we had Nessie with us. 

The journey home took under 10 hours in my lovely Volvo which is really good going. I am getting used to driving up and down - the next visit will be in just 3 weeks’ time for my Mum’s 80th birthday. We used to visit once a year but since Nella went for her Uni Open Day last April, I have already made 5 trips!

Ubiquitous January Sort Out

 I started the first week of 2023 as I usually do - having a big tidy up;) We put the Christmas decorations away promptly then I decided to shift the electric piano out of my room at last. It didn’t make it all the way up to the top floor but at least it is out of my way and I can watch telly on my computer monitor. 

My inner longarm room needed a good sort-out as it was cluttered up with cardboard boxes. Some were from Christmas and others were machine boxes that I had shifted from under my work table when the other room got flooded. It’s quite difficult trying to tidy up when really I have run out of room for storage but I managed to put some camping gear into the yurt to create a bit of space under one of the longarm machines. It felt like a life-sized game of Tetris but I was quite pleased in the end. 

I had a bit of a nasty cold and Nella was home so I did not feel under any pressure to get back to work. I bought a calendar for the first time since Christmas 2018. I have to come up with some teaching dates but I am finding it difficult to get back into the swing of logistics. Flights within the UK are ridiculously expensive plus who knows when normal train services will resume and who will look after Nessie??

Nella and I drove down to Norfolk on Saturday. She felt that her Christmas holiday had seemed quite short and she was not sure if she was ready to start a new term. It’s good that I can hang around for a few days to take her to the supermarket and get her settled back in. I have brought my crazy-patch coat pieces with me just in case I get time to add some more ugly embroidery stitches. Firstly though, my sister wants me to make half a dozen haggises for her Scout pack to play a Robbie Burns themed game…

A Brand New Year 2023

                                                           #magentamodern

I wonder what will happen in 2023? What new obsessions will fixate me? Since seeing a post on ceramic Christmas trees on Instagram by #magentamodern I have wanted to create a similar collection. I have bought a few books on HAND embroidery so I can embellish my crazy coat. It was meant to be a slow project but it would be good to get it done by my exhibition at the Scottish Quilt Show in March.

2022 was not necessarily what everyone hoped for with a war in Ukraine, strikes and inflation. However, here there were many positives. Nella went off to Uni in Norwich and is thriving. Fergus got back into Music at last and Freya had 2 graduation ceremonies!

There is so much that is unknown about a forthcoming year, things you just don’t expect to happen. At the start of the year that I turned 50 I did not know I would travel to India. At the start of 2020 we did not realise how Covid would turn the world upside-down (and I did not expect to get a Scottie-Dog puppy either.) In 2008 I had no idea that I would still be writing a weekly blog 15 years later!

I don’t have any grand plans for the year ahead but I do intend to get a calendar for the first time in a while as I have been asked to offer some in-person teaching dates. I need to plan a holiday abroad as well as make use of my caravan. I would like to get a bit fitter and by that I don’t mean dieting or jogging - just gaining a bit more stamina on dog-walks;)

I hope to do more filming - anything from documenting my life to making more instructional videos on Youtube. Ideally I would like to come up with an idea for a new show quilt but something still seems to be holding me back. I should try listening to the voice in my head that is advising me that I don’t actually need to have everything worked out yet…

 

Christmas 2022 was The Best!

I don’t know what it is about pre-Christmas week but it either feels like Christmas will never come while at the same time the days go as fast as when calendar pages flip to show time passing in a movie. I did some last minute Christmas shopping in a junk shop which actually meant that I made a couple of fun but unnecessary purchases for myself including vintage orange Tupperware and an ugly lamp.

For the first time since 2018 Nella enjoyed preparing festive food and eating it! This was what really made it our best Christmas in a long time. We did not watch much TV - instead we played a couple of board games, gave up on a Brussel sprouts jigsaw puzzle, rediscovered some old home videos and ate plenty of chocolate. It was a very relaxed holiday and we enjoyed each other’s company. We had a couple of nice walks with Nessie, showing off new hats and jumpers. 

I have not got anything I must do before the New Year except pencil in a few teaching dates for 2023 and attempt to reset the wifi extender password so I can get my fancy wireless printer to talk to my computer again. If I get around to doing any sewing or post-Christmas cooking that will be a bonus!

Pre Christmas in Norwich

 

I had a very festive pre-Christmas week in Glasgow and Norwich. It was Fergus’ 21st birthday so he spent the weekend with his pals and he looked a little worse for wear when Freya and I collected him on Sunday morning. Freya and I did a mini pub crawl in Glasgow with her boyfriend, George, and Nessie, of course.

I was a bit worried about the weather reports for our journey south but we had no problems at all.

Norwich was very cosy and festive - the Christmas lights were lovely and we had a pleasant wander around, buying sprouts from the market, trying to avoid slipping up on the icy pavements. Nella finished her first term at Uni with an A for her work and was full of enthusiasm for her course and her new friends, She has even got next year’s student house sorted out which is very exciting.

We have not been to Norfolk around Christmas time for years and we had a lovely time. When we got home to Crathes we found a lot of snow still on the ground and the river was quite frozen. It will be lovely to have all 3 of my children home for the week and we plan to decorate the tree and do lots of cooking together. I have not added any more stitching to my patchwork coat but there is no hurry to get it done. There are far more precious moments to enjoy with family and memories to make together.

Chilly December Activities

 It has been getting colder this week and we had a little snow. I felt justified in spending only a little time in my workshop then coming inside and watching a Christmas movie while I did something else in the afternoon.

I made a cut-out Scottie Christmas card one afternoon so I could make sure that all of my cards got posted early due to postal strikes in the UK.

I cut my crazy quilt into coat shaped pieces using a “Sew Me Something - Bianca” pattern. I have made this coat previously in boiled wool. I have been attempting to add some hand-stitched motifs but I am really a total novice so it looks pretty rustic. 

I drove Fergus and a couple of pals down to Glasgow to celebrate his 21st birthday and I stayed with Freya. I had a lovely catch-up and dog walk with my chum, Ellen in a dog-friendly cafe. On Saturday Freya, her boyfriend George, Nessie and I went on a mini pub crawl in Finnieston and I discovered that I really liked hot toddy from an enamel mug;)

Despite severe weather warnings we drove from Glasgow to Norwich on Sunday without incident and will be here for a week spending time with family, enjoying a “Fine City” at Christmas time and collecting Nella for the Christmas holidays.

Definitely December

December started with a flurry of activity. On Monday I went to Glasgow for Freya’s Masters graduation. The university looks rather like Hogwarts - all Freya needed was a cat and a pointy hat to look like Prof. Minerva McGonagall. It was a proud day - she worked hard on her Masters for two years as well as coping with a full-time job and covid restrictions that affected her studies.

I had two customer quilts on the go this week and since they were Christmas themed, I decided to put on some festive tunes and do some gift wrapping.  I knotted the second of 2 macrame jam-jars which look far more glamorous in the dark. 

I started on my Lindt advent calendar and was a bit disappointed that the first window held a tiny chocolate ball. I thought it would all be bears and reindeers, whereas it would appear that they are rationed;)

Nessie and I were surprised to see a salmon on one of our walks. At first I thought it was dead as it was not moving but it glided away much to Nessie’s annoyance. 

I don’t plan on starting any new projects this week as I will be getting ready to make a trip to Norfolk and make Fergus a birthday cake. I hope to cut the crazy quilt into coat-shaped pieces, overlock the edges then add some more stitching…

Desperately Seeking some Christmas Spirit

Last Tuesday I went into Aberdeen to do some Christmas shopping but I was sorely disappointed. The pop-up makers’ shop that I wanted to browse was closed, the Christmas market was deserted, many shops had gone bust and everyone looked miserable. I went home lacking any festive spirit. I fared better with some of my online shopping although I do find I get easily distracted. I was looking for a simple hat with ear-flaps but came across an amazing octopus creation instead. 

My workshop is slowly drying out and seems to be less mildewy after I sprinkled the carpet with antibacterial poultry powder which has drying properties and contains a fungicide. I have done a couple of simple gifts for my folks and made a macrame covered jam jar which contains a tea-light. 

Mo commissioned me to cut and embroider some lettered cushions for one of her clients. It looked like a simple job but it actually took several hours to get the velvet letters cut and satin-stitched neatly onto linen.

 While I was doing some admin the other day I put a cheesy Christmas Musical on - “Christmas on the Square”, written by and starring Dolly Parton! Perhaps binge watching Christmas movies might help me to find some Christmas Cheer. 

Crazy Flood

It is a good job that I have been keeping on top of customer quilts because my workshop will be out of action until it dries out! We had a repeat of Storm Frank from 5-6 years ago which was meant to be a one in a hundred years type of weather event. Well, global warming is no myth here as extreme weather becomes increasingly normal. It had been raining persistently for a couple of days but eventually the ground was soaked, and the field drains overflowed. Before I knew it water was pouring in the door, seeping under the walls and coming up the drain. In the end I had to abandon ship and check the situation in daylight. 

I don’t keep much stored on the floor and I managed to shift some cardboard boxes. There was almost an inch of water to mop up, thankfully mud and sewage free. I was glad that I had bought a Vax that can suck up liquid! The problem will be getting the carpet to dry without going mouldy. The dehumidifier does not operate well in low temperatures. I have ordered some antiseptic poultry powder to use as carpet cleaner and another dehumidifier so fingers crossed we don’t get much more rain.

Before all that drama, I did the background quilting on my crazy quilt/coat. I used a variegated thread which maybe I regret. I also added a few of my favourite motifs which I will highlight with paint. While I was reminding myself how to make Qmatic do a double run of stitching, I realised that I could make it do some fancy stitches. I was able to mark out some of the wonky blocks, send the outlines to the Art and Stitch program and get it to do some machine embroidery around the areas that I had chosen. This is quite a slow process so I did some kantha stitching on areas of the quilt while the machine was busy. Considering that I thought this was going to be a longterm hand sewing project, I seem to have gone a bit “off-piste”. 

Nessie had a grand day out meeting up with some other Scottie Dogs. She was a bit puzzled at first as she thinks she is the ONLY Scottie in the world but after a while I let her off the lead and she ran around having great fun. All of the owners thought she was cute and she managed to con about 100 snacks out of them. She would probably quite like a friend to play with but just having one small dog makes life easier if I am staying with Freya or my folks. Anyway, the cats would definitely not be impressed if they had to put up with 2 Nessies!

Ducks in a Row

November may be a bit dreary at times but it tends to be busy as Quilters want projects done in time for Christmas. I will be going to Norfolk for a week or so in December so I need to get all of the jobs done by then. Apart from going out to collect a second-hand mini Dyson hoover from a Facebook Marketplace seller, I have pretty much been in my workshop getting stuff done. 

Using zips to attach quilts on the longarm means I can get the next quilt ready to go and if someone comes in with a rush-job I can unzip and swap non urgent quilts if necessary.

Unless I get more customer quilts in this week, I intend to longarm the crazyish quilt that I got from Ebay. I am going to do an allover design onto it without wadding, just a flannel backing. The idea is to keep it lightweight but stable as I intend to make a coat. In my head I am going to add some hand stitching but we will see if I actually carry out that threat. 

I do need something to stop me from speed reading through a set of 13 grisly detective novels and watching niche Youtube videos. I had to watch a disturbingly nerdy video by a Dyson fan who did a side-by-side comparison of 2 almost identical models to work out which charger plug to order. I viewed several reels about microphones to realise that I had to find a different cable for a mic to work with my Gopro camera. The sound quality when I film at the machine is OK but could be better to match the main camera. 

I ordered 40 tiny ducks from the internet - I only needed one to stick on top of my lens to give me something to focus on where presenting to the camera - the other 39 can be a stocking filler to use for a treasure hunt;)

Under and Over

 

There goes another week! Admittedly, most days are the same these days. The unseasonably warm autumn weather seems to be finished - there was a bit of a storm midweek which blew off the last of the leaves off the cherry trees which are now bare for winter. I was trying to make a video but the rain was hammering loudly on my workshop’s tin roof.

I did a couple of customer quilts, using a favourite pattern, “Stacked Snails” which looks like a modern Baptist Fan.

I came up with another project on the L890 overlocker / coverstitch machine. I fed scraps of binding into the binding attachment and made a lot of straps or belt loops. I wove these to make new fabric which could be turned into mats, purses or even a sunhat. I might make some more and see how they turn out as quilt blocks.

I scrounged an old wooden box from Mo to upcycle into a footstool for Nessie. I added castors which came with ridiculously large screws so each one is only attached by 2 screws instead of 4. The screws have gone through to the inside of the box but I don’t intend to keep anything inside. I have painted it black and will cover it with a pink sheepskin rug (which I am not convinced is real) and if Nessie turns her nose up I will put my feet up on it instead;)

Nella and Freya travelled to Paris separately to see their favourite band, “Wolf Alice”. Nella was very apprehensive to be flying solo via Schipol but she made it despite a long delay. They had a great time even though it was a short trip so that is another milestone in Nella’s new life!