Monday August 4th - train travel again

I'm in the middle of four days of trekking up to London for a series of fairly routine tests, scans, and what have you connected with the heart/lung condition that I have. Thursday and Friday last week, Monday and Tuesday this week.

It is a tedious journey, not improved by being on the early train today (and tomorrow). Imagine doing that trip every day for work - ugh.

Anyway, so far the test results have been encouraging, in that they seem to indicate that my condition is stable. For me that is a positive result; systemic sclerosis is not something that can be cured. They just try and slow it down, and treat the consequences as they arise. So "stable" equals "yippee"!

But that's not what I'm posting about. I spent my waking hours on the train working out what to do with yesterday's "make". When we got home, I made this:

 
I cut four squares from the quilting sample I made, and hand-stitched the borders from some bias binding that I had leftover from I don't know when or why. But I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to finishing the other three. I'm not good at repetition. I suspect I have quite a low boredom threshold.

It did make me think about all those women working away at Tear Fund and Christina Aid workshops all over the world, stitching away at all the hand-made textile good for sale in the catalogues. Hats off to their perseverance at getting on with the job.

There's no fear that any of you will be receiving a set of handmade fabric coasters for Christmas, by the way. At least, not these ones. I still regard these as prototypes and I am unlikely to go into full production in the forseeable future.  

Sunday 3rd August - making things 3

No 1 Son has a habit of posting very technical blogs. Best Beloved finds them interesting and amusing. They could be in Greek as far as I am concerned.

That opening paragraph is by way of being a warning...

This is what I made today:

It is my first ever attempt at free-motion machine quilting. I have learned a lot in the process, including when it is time to say "it's just a sample" and stop before things start becoming seriously ugly.

My sewing machine came in a dinosuar egg - I bought it because it is Extremely Portable and my mother had the previous model - almost identical except that mine has a three-step-zig-zag - the height of technical innovation back in 1979, and hers only had a normal zig-zag.

Everything, except the instruction books, (which luckily I still have) folds up inside the machine. And, lookee, lookee, isn't this wantable? Flip open a secret door and you find all the bits and pieces (except the oil which I used up many years ago).

Oh Elna Lotus, I love you.

I selected the darning foot (visible in its brown nest to the right) and the button plate, in shadow, next to the darning foot, and tried to fit them. Then I read the instructions and all became clear.

The button plate prevents the serrated feed dogs (now covered by the plate) from feeding the material through under the needle when you set it all in motion. The darning foot has a little circle of metal pressing down on the fabric which acts as a mini-embroidery hoop, stretching the fabric flat as the needle plunges down to catch the bobbin thread.

I discovered the hard way that a 70 gauge needle was too fine, and that it is important to get the button plate firmly clicked down, and that I had been missing the final step in threading the machine for the last ten-fifteen-twenty? years. Anyway, after two broken needles, and a tangle of waste yarn

I managed to do a reasonable first attempt at free-motion all-over quilting. The middle isn't complete because the failed early attempts meant that I emptied the bobbin before I managed to finish the job. I did try to get it all going again, but there was a serious problem with the lower tension and so I ripped that last bit out.





Actually, there was a minor problem with the lower tension throughout the whole exercise, which I shall have to address next time. If you look closely at this picture of the underside you can see a lot of loopiness - this could be happening when I kept stopping to re-position the sample, but I suspect that I need to tighten the bobbin tension (using the screwdriver in the secret compartment) next time.

Here's a handy hint - there have been a number of sad stories of cats needing to be taken to the vet after they have licked up stray threads, and having expensive operations to remove the tangle from their innards. Somewhere, someone suggested that you take a small bottle with a plastic cap, cut a cross in the cap, and force your threads into the bottle. This dried herb bottle has proved ideal, and lives in my sewing kit.


Well, there you go. A technical post of my very own.

Monday 28th July - Finished

It's always nice when what was meant to be a quick project is completed.

I started this when Best Beloved was over in America last Autumn. The patchwork top was completed in two days, using pre-cut squares from Oxfam, and a blue cotton sun dress I bought on the beach in Bali some time in the 1970s.

It was quilting the layers together that was such a beast of a job - each of the forty-nine Oxfam squares has been hand-quilted round the edge, sometimes at the seam line, sometimes further in. The padded layer is an old fleece cot blanket, which is what made the quilting so hard - it is too thick, so I had to do the downward and upward stitches as two separate movements. Never Again! is the conclusion to that particular experiment!

The backing is an old yellowy flowery duvet cover, dating from before BB and I were married. Yellow? Well, I went through a phase of experimenting with Dylon dyes a decade or so ago.

I like the idea of the quilt being made from old, recycled bits and pieces. I'm always a bit ambivalent about buying perfectly good brand new material and then chopping it all up and sewing it together again.

This is all part of the "de-cluttering" that is going on in our house - finishing off things, putting things away, tidying. I even put all my sewing things away and got rid of the left-over fabric scraps before posting this.

Coffee break, and then on to tidy/clear/chuck/recycle the next area of clutter and "stuff" in our house.

April 9th - Tewkesbury 6 - Deerhurst some more

We walked a short distance, past this tree with a gaping hole in its trunk

 and just the other side was the River Severn, flowing innocuously, but deceptively fast when you took a second look. Fast enough that the ducks on the water were fairly whizzing past, and preferred to fly back upstream rather than swim..




Looking back, we could see the tower of St Mary the Virgin, the parish church, and all that remains of the Saxon Minster. That was our next destination, just a few minute walk.

When we got there, past two sets of formidable steel floodgates firmly mounted to solid walls, and the remains of the old defences close by, we saw a sign:

Angels are becoming a sort of ostinato. You can just make it out, up high, on a wall at the east end of the church. The original circular apse was replaced by a later seven-sided building, which was later demolished, leaving just this angel. 

 Here he is in close-up, a photograph of a photograph from the information board inside the church.

The church interior, what's left, which is plenty, is stunning. Two more pictures from the information board:

 And one of a pair of Saxon carved beasts either side of the entrance door.

We left in peace, and came back to the Gatehouse for lunch (via shopping for milk and firewood for the log fire).

He went out for a prowl afterwards, while I stayed in, listening to music and getting on with working on the current patchwork quilt - this one -

I'm at the stage of quilting around each of the patterned squares to layer up the filling (an old fleece cot blanket which was second hand when I got it) and the backing - the remains of a duvet cover that he already had when I married him. So far, on this holiday, I have done 9 squares. That's not bad, as they take at least 15 minutes each. It's the right task for here because I can tuck myself under the rest of the quilt while I am working on a section - very cosy and warm.

Mon 30th Dec - Update on a Good Day

Today is ending well. I have got some work done in preparation for the new term which is approaching at a deceptive speed. I have quilted two more squares of the current quilt, and added some more inches to the current Tunisian crochet strip without having to then rip it back again.

The trebuchet and the catapult are complete and fully operational. Hey! Look! I've managed to upload a videoclip!

That one only just missed the cat who was asleep at the other end of the room.

We have supped on slow roast lamb. A sort of Jamie Oliver recipe as follows (posted here for daughter, who partook of the repast, and son/father who might like to have a go at this sometime);
Preheat oven to 200C
In the bottom of a roasting tray, put a bay leaf or two, some sprigs of rosemary and a handful of parsley, if you have them. On top, lay a shoulder (or a half shoulder for just 2 or 3 of you) of lamb. Surround the lamb with chunks of leek (1), quartered onion (2), chunks of carrot (3), and celery (2 sticks). The numbers in brackets are how many I used this time, along with a whole shoulder. Add all the cloves from a head of garlic - I peel them which isn't too tricky if you ever-so-slightly crush them, enough to loosen the papery skin. Add liquid - in this case a whole bottle of mediumly decent red wine. You could use tinned tomatoes - I would have done if we'd had any - as part of the liquid, or dry cider, or decent stock. If you have a half leg in a smaller baking dish, then use less liquid.
Cover with a double layer of foil and put  the oven, turning it down to 170C. Leave it alone for three and a half or four hours. The veg will be soft, the garlic delicious and mild, and the meat falling off the bone.

He would have followed this with Christmas Pudding (that's why I timed the meal for an early supper) but ate too much lamb and so has no room.

Maybe we'll polish off a mince pie a bit later on.

Saturday 16th November - Another project started!

All craft projects are now on hold;

the blanket made of knitted squares,

the quilt

 the Tunisian crochet blanket

 until the latest Top Secret Project, started today, is finished.

I'm saying no more to anyone about it, so don't ask. I'll let you know when it is completed. If it gets completed.

Sunday 6th October - The New Quilt

I started at about 9am, and gently chugged on through the day. It's going to be good to clear another "pending" project - a couple more days should see it finished.

It started with a rash purchase of a packet of cotton squares (reduced, of course, that's why I couldn't resist it!) from Oxfam, about a year ago.

From time to time I laid them out, but couldn't think how to use them. There were so many that I didn't like very much. (There are two or three of each fabric)

In the end, I decided the best thing to do would be just whang them together, any-old-how, and let them get on with each other as best they could. However, when I started doing the calculations, there weren't going to be enough for a quilt cover. I had a rummage through my boxes of bits and pieces, and found a full-length blue flowery batik print cotton dress, of a similar weight to the Oxfam squares, that I bought years ago. It is a wrap-over sun-dress that never fitted properly and tended to unwrap itself too often for happiness.

I also found a piece of old yellow duvet cover that I had dyed blue; it's really much bluer than this photograph. So that was the backing solved. An old cot blanket, that came with the second-hand cot I bought for my son, would be the padding. I much prefer re-using things as much as possible when I make quilts.

The blanket needed de-fluffing and washing, so I used a damp rubber glove to remove the fur and fluff, and washed it in the bath (the washing machine filter is blocked, remember?). I left it on the line to drip.

It was a glorious day

I was delayed by not being able to find my shoes. In the end I just wallowed around in His shoes for the short trip to the line and back.

The squares from the dress worked perfectly; I made up the horizontal strips, but was a little worried that I wouldn't have enough of them, so I added a spare strip from the dress to the top and the bottom. It took a bit of fiddling around to decide where the strips should go, and in the end I got fed up and just sewed them together.

 

 

Here's the finished top, with another go at photographing the backing fabric. I've added another strip from the dress to the middle, just in case there still wasn't enough length. I can adjust it later when I layer everything up together. All finished by 6pm, with breaks for emails and television and lunch and tea and whenever I felt like doing something different.