God save our Queen

 I'm pretty sure the whole world has heard the tremendously sad news that we have lost our Queen. Somehow it has come as a huge shock, even though I knew she was 96 and you could see how frail she looked during her recent Jubilee appearances.  And yet somehow it seemed like she would always continue as a constant presence, a bedrock and touchstone for the country and for the Commonwealth, as she has done for my entire life. The unfolding historic events have dominated the media ever since the first announcement of concern by her doctors, with 24/7 coverage the first few days and possibly still today.  I haven't been watching very much of it, but the tributes I have seen have made me feel tremendously sad.  I have heard many people referring to this feeling that we have somehow lost a family member - she touched so many people's lives in so many ways.  I saw her in person at least once, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show back in 1982, just casually in her car at the show. And of course she has been a part of so many other times in my life, if only on television: every Christmas afternoon, every difficult time the nation has faced, during COVID, during the Olympics, and the various Jubilees and Royal Weddings.  It is just not going to be the same with a King on the throne, and without Queen Elizabeth's serene and stately presence holding the whole Royal circus together. And it's a hard wince every time I hear the 21st century's version of Mrs Fitzherbert referred to as 'Queen Consort' - just no, no with a capital N.  It all feels like one more huge unwelcome upheaval at a time when so much else is going to pieces.  And doesn't that make me sound like a stereotypical old woman.

I finished quilting the eight quilt on the frame, the Tilda Wreath quilt.  It's come out decently well - some of the flowers are a bit wobbly and an overall inspection would reveal that they aren't perhaps lined up exactly due the vagaries of my homemade rollers (and my piecing). But I'm happy with it.

I'm just in the process of loading the 9th quilt onto the frame, which is the Mennonite Axe Head top that I turned into a Christmas quilt by adding a 'tree' border.  I've had to abandon my infant plans to get  a proper longarm machine.  Detailed measurements and drawing out the attic room on graph paper have shown that there just isn't enough headroom to be able to work at either a Handiquilter or an Innova frame up there.  It's quite frustrating but that's how it is.  So the only solution would be to turn the former DS room/new guest room into a quilting room, and maybe set up a substitute (and far inferior) guest room in the attic room instead.  We rarely have guests, but I think when DS has only just moved out, that it might seem a step too far in terms of dispossessing him out of this house. Maybe in a few years, we'll see.

I also finished the Chinese kit house in a dome that I have been working on occasionally for several months.  I'm sort of pleased/not pleased with it.  For its size (about 6 inches  tall) there is a tremendous amount of detail and several battery lights add some realism and charm. It's an unusual 3D design of a cut-away house, that still manages to include architectural features such as stairs, balconies, shutters, an outdoor patio, a pergola etc.  It sits on a stand which incorporates a music box playing an unfamiliar classical tune as well as hiding the battery pack. Yet, as is the nature of these kits, the majority of it is made from paper, bits of ribbon and fabric, lengths of wire, faux foliage, cardboard etc. and the crudeness of many parts and the flexible notion of scale does not stand up well on closer inspection.  It was fairly fiddly to do. I was particularly disappointed when I unwrapped the plastic dome as a final step, to find that it was cracked up one side.  The crack can be located inconspicuously to the side of the house, but still.

Shown with a ballpoint pen for scale

With the lights on

I've been plugging away on Month 15 of the Austrlian BOM and worked on some of the elements during a brief visit with ChookyBlue and the Australian zoom call last night.  I also spent quite a bit of time prepping kits for a messenger bag I will be making on retreat in October, and a second folding wallet and the Japanese box bag pattern I bought at the Quilters' Guild AGM weekend. Because I will be heading off to the retreat pretty soon after I get back from Italy so I need to get it all ready ahead of time.

We picked our caravan up today after its warranty work - it now has a working grill and they've replaced the water pressure switch which will hopefully sort the issue of the water pump running on. However, they want to have it back again in a few weeks because they found that the oven switch that controls the gas flow to the grill and oven isn't functioning properly so they've raised another warranty claim.  It's good that they caught that, and that it will be fixed, but it means four more 40-mile round trips for us plus having to empty the caravan into the car/house and back again. I hope next season we don't have any problems at all and we can just enjoy the van.

I received a lovely surprise in the post from my former Japanese teacher - I had sent her some things for her baby and the Japanese custom is to reciprocate gifts.  She knows I like sumo, so arranged for me to receive the rankings poster from the last tournament in Nagoya, and a fan which apparently lists all the names of the holders of the top rank Yokozuna in sumo (I can't read the kanji characters but I looked it up).  The next tournament starts tomorrow, so I am excited for it.