A Lot of Stitches

 

After a weekend of torrential rain, the sun finally came back out on Monday and started drying everything out. Luckily, no water flooded into my workshop this time. The river was incredibly high when Nessie and I went for a walk. Instead of being a once in 20 years occurrence, it seems to happen annually now. 

I set myself ups for a busy week, knowing that I am going to Norfolk later this week. I did some online teaching, in person teaching and a couple of customer quilts. 

In a phone conversation with a Bernina Q-matic owner, she mentioned that her 1 year old machine had done 2 million stitches after 16 quilts which I thought sounded pretty high. Out of interest I checked my stitch counter, bearing in mind that I know it has been zeroed in the past and that I actually have another machine. I have had this machine since 2015, when it launched in the UK and it has done more than 51 million stitches! It is probably due for a spa experience;)

I don’t seem to go anywhere interesting most weeks but I did have an “outing” to Asda. I hate Asda because it is so big but it does have a really good “exotic” section of spices and foods from around the world. I stocked up on spices because I wanted to recreate the Art Masala mix that Nadia Hussain made on her latest BBC cooking programme. I made her jalfrezi recipe and it was was superb - almost as good as the fudge doughnuts that a client brought from St Andrews;)

Abandon Ship!

Despite my Q-matic system being a bit temperamental since it needs a new cable, I managed to keep it going and completed some customer quilts. I had to watch it more closely than usual so I was not able to go away and work on anything else, although I did manage to put a few stitches onto the quilted coat back. I have 2 front pieces still to go, depending on how much embellishment I feel it needs.

I decided to take my caravan on a Last Hurrah for the year to head north to Moray for a Scottie Dog meet up. The weather was not forecast to be great but there were signs that it would improve. I am fine with towing but not happy about stopping. I stupidly missed my turn and ended up making a huge detour via Fraserburgh and lots of coastal villages in some scary high winds. As I approached the camping field where I had booked to stay the road was closed so I went on another mystery tour, finally arriving hours after I had planned. It was raining heavily, rained hard all night and was still raining the next morning. 

By now there was an Amber rain warning and water was starting to run off the fields onto the roads. Nessie and I had a walk on the beach at Nairn where we saw intrepid paddle-boarders and we got soaked. 

The Scottie Dog event was cancelled and the weather was worsening so I decided we might as well head home. The caravan had sunk into the field so I was not able to hitch up and I phoned the farmer in a bit of a panic to be told that everyone was too busy to come to my rescue. Eventually, I realised that I could crank the legs up a bit more to raise the tow hitch and we were able to make our escape! The journey home was uneventful and I am glad that we got out when we did because it just continued to lash with rain. There was quite a lot of flooding in Scotland and at home we had to dig a trench outside my workshop to divert the water running off the field. Nessie has decided that she won’t be going out until it dries up a bit which suits me fine as I will enjoy a cosy, lazy Sunday at home:)

Some Good, Bad and Ugly Stuff

The lingering cold that I had after my Glasgow trip turned out to be Covid. I was not especially unwell but lacking in energy and had no sense of taste. I hunkered down in the workshop and just got on with some quilting. It was not that easy actually, because my machine keeps conking out and giving me error messages which I tell it to ignore before starting again. New wiring has been ordered which should arrive in mid-October so hopefully we will keep limping along. 

I received a letter from Police Scotland informing me that I was caught by a speed camera on the motorway near Stirling. I really have no excuse because the car has cruise control. I hope I don’t receive a huge fine or have to appear in court!

I had to come up with firmer ideas and a list of requirements for the Quilt Retreat that I will be doing at Quilt Direct in Devon next June and it reminded me that I will have to be an absolute Q-Matic expert so I can answer any question that someone might ask. I have set myself the task of going through every single page in the ArtnStitch manual and have bought all of the advanced online classes. I did a couple of classes at Bernina University in 2019 but there is only so much you can learn in short sessions in a large class. I also took a couple of Zoom classes a while back but I confess that I did not really understand them at the time. The answer, just like with free motion quilting is PRACTISE!

Speaking of free motion - when I taught my class in Glasgow I noticed that one participant had a BSR (Bernina stitch regulator). I thought that would be a handy tool to have when I give demos or lessons on domestic quilting so I looked them up online. I was shocked to discover that they are currently priced at £625.00 and even on Ebay they are selling for over £300.00 plus postage from the USA. I spotted one for sale in the UK with no bidders and “won” my auction for considerably less than that:) 

I decided to spend my whole Saturday experimenting with ideas in my workshop. These are not necessarily ideas that will go anywhere but I wanted to see what would happen. As is often the case, gadgets and feet don’t always work as well as they say in their blurb and need some adjustments to be made. My current fascination is ruffles which are usually seen on garments, not quilts. I also wanted to have a go at making fringes and test out the BSR which arrived by post. By the end of the day I had not produced anything impressive but it was worth doing. I often think that is a useful exercise because some ideas turn out not to be good ones, while others need some developing. There was one good thing though - the “bargain" BSR works perfectly!

What Else Did I do in Glasgow?

 

I decided to make the most of my new National Trust membership and visited Pollock House, where the National Trust for Scotland was founded. Since I had no commitments, I allowed a very keen curator to tell me all about it. She was a knowledgeable historian and told me about witch trials, philanthropy, slavery and the art collection. I met Ellen there for lunch in the old kitchen and we had a wander around the gardens once the rain stopped. In the evening we enjoyed a very nice curry:)

On Tuesday evening I gave a talk to The Glasgow Gathering of Quilters in Scotstoun and my slideshow about my Daft 3D creations seemed to go down well. The next day was a workshop based on improvisational curved piecing techniques using Northern Lights inspired fabrics. I offered several techniques on making slightly wavy seams to more curvy seams and added the options of using bondaweb or appliqué to make bendy shapes. Despite being an owner of several cameras and a smart-phone, I did not remember to take any photos! 

Back home I had a few days of pottering around, just trying to put things away tidily. I wish I had a smaller Sew-Ezi table and a smaller sewing machine to take to workshops. If I start teaching “on tour” more again I should look into that. I am trying to convince myself that I do not have to magically sort my workshop out in one day. I rearranged my bookcase then rummaged through some fabric boxes without throwing anything out. I told myself that I should hang onto the scraps since fabric is now so expensive. 

I attached a keyboard tray to my Q24 monitor so I don’t have to keep moving my makeshift desk that is actually an IKEA mini ironing board. It was a bit of a faff and I am not convinced that it is sturdy enough but it looks quite professional. 

I decided to get started on a quilt restoration where several of the patches had entirely rotted away. I originally thought that I would unpick sections and fit in some new pieces but because it had been a hand project, it was not seamed how you might expect. I decided that it would be better to appliqué some new patches on top and to reinforce those that could be saved from the back. It should now be stable enough to quilt onto its original backing. 

When I was having my minor tidy-up, I found that I still have both crazy coat front pieces to embroider. I could have spent a damp Sunday doing that but I chose to lose myself in a hefty Tudor thriller instead (Revelation, Book 4 in the Shardlake series). 

Some Glasgow Adventures

 This week was rather busy as I got myself organised to teach 2 workshops in Glasgow. I had 3 customer quilts to complete, hand-outs to prepare and some samples to produce. I drew several examples of quilting designs and laminated them until my aged laminator decided to swallow some whole. I tried taking it apart but I decided it was a lost cause. I think in future I might actually stitch the examples as well for reference. 

I stopped in Dundee on the way to Glasgow to visit the Tartan Exhibition at the V&A. It was a really diverse collection and I am glad that I went. 

I taught a day’s workshop for the Glasgow Modern Quilt Group on domestic machine quilting, covering walking foot, free motion and ruler quilting. The participants said that they learned some good tips and enjoyed their time experimenting with the different techniques. I took some of my quilts along to show them off;)

When I was booked to teach 2 separate workshops in Glasgow, I thought it would save travel costs to stay in the city for a few days. I stayed in Freya’s flat but she was actually away camping so I had to entertain myself. I walked to the University and wandered around the Hunterian Museum which houses fossils and gruesome medical exhibits, amongst other artefacts. Next I visited the Kelvingrove Art Gallery which houses amazing paintings and many different collections. There was a special Mary Quant exhibition and I had hoped to take photos for Nella but photography was banned and the guidebook was £30.00!

I fancied some lunch after all that culture so I found myself at a street-food warehouse called Dockyard Social, where I had a pick-n-mix of pakoras. 

It was raining on my long walk back to Freya’s flat near The Botanic Gardens and amazingly, I managed to find some curtain hooks in a wee shop, suitable to fix the hideous curtains that were clinging on by 2 hooks. I had an afternoon of hoovering and furniture shifting because obviously I could not just fix the offending curtains - I felt compelled to get stuck into the entire room while left to my own devices. Her flat mates came home just before I had finished but luckily they did not mind the changes and were glad that the curtains looked more respectable, even though I don’t think anyone should actually attempt to draw them!

Tomorrow I plan to visit a National Trust property on my way to stay with Ellen. Hopefully it won’t rain constantly and we will find interesting things to do. 

No Biggie

 

After another epic drive north I spent the next day trying to get reorganised. My workshop could do with a big sort out but I am trying to remind myself that it does not all need to be done at once. Indeed, the universe does not even care whether I do it at all. I have a mega customer quilt to get done before I leave to teach 2 groups in Glasgow next week. It was frustrating that the Qmatic system kept stopping with an error message that there was a problem with the sewhead. On closer inspection, I discovered that the wiring sleeve was disintegrating through wear but I managed to fix it with insulting tape and have ordered some new parts. Tempting as it is to speed the quilting up on a big quilt, more haste gives less speed if something goes wrong. I am having to keep a close eye on this one as there is a lot of back-tracking and if there is a hiccup it can be tricky to find the right place to restart. 

In the garden I picked another batch of blueberries and managed to find some non-waspy plums so even though the kids are all away I should make a crumble.

It would have been easy not to make the effort to drive almost 3 hours to Stirlingshire to attend a Scottie Dog meet-up but I am glad that I did. Nessie behaved impeccably and did not join in with the cacophony of barking. She won the waggiest tail competition and charmed the judges with her fairy wings, taking second place in best of show. 

I have picked up a forgotten project and while Qmatic stitches the customer quilt I am adding some more hand-stitching to my quilted coat. It is one of those projects that I could declare finished enough or just keep going ad-infinitum.

Another 500 Miles

  

 On Wednesday last week I clocked up another 500+ miles driving down to Norfolk but without a caravan it seemed easy to get up some speed and drive for 10 hours. 

Just before we arrived in Norfolk there had been a summer thunderstorm - warm humid conditions were perfect for fungi and I spotted a fine specimen of Chicken of the Woods growing on a willow tree by the river. Freya was very impressed so I have put some in the freezer so I can take it home for her. When cooked it is firm and actually tastes like quite like chicken.

Since I joined the National Trust in the Peak District, we decided to visit Horsey Wind Pump which had been used for draining the marshes in the early twentieth century.

Years ago when I was a student I could not wait to pack up my Uni room and move into my 2nd year flat but Nella was happier just moving a couple of boxes every other day. I really wanted to buy her something nice for her privately rented student house but she was irritated by my interference and frequent texts from junk shops, wanting to organise everything by herself. Fergus and girlfriend, Ellie came to stay in Norfolk for a few days which was great but he and Nella lapsed back into a bit of sibling rivalry. Between them and my folks who have decided that they are “old”, I could do with some time to recharge my batteries. I plan to head back north on Wednesday and get stuck into a huge customer quilt and get ready for my forthcoming Glasgow workshops.