Home again

 I'm back after a few days in Wales attending a sewing retreat at a hotel.  The retreat itself was quite fun, held in a large bright room with about 30 attendees.  We all had our own 6-foot table to work on, pushed into groups of six so you had tablemates to chat to.  Everyone was really friendly and I learned a lot just by seeing what other people were making and how they were tackling their projects. The event was really well organised and well run, and it was great being able to sew all day with no interruptions.  Unfortunately the hotel itself was pretty tired and shabby and the room wasn't comfortable at all, so it's nice to get home to my own comfy bed. As previously mentioned, the train strike had interfered with my return trip but luckily I was able to get a lift back with a fellow retreater who was driving north past my town.  

My main project, a messenger bag in strange cat fabric I got in Japan

The 'Bento Bag' from the pattern that I bought at the Quilt Guild AGM in May, it collapses flat if you untie the cords. Also in fabric I bought in Japan.

Another wallet from the same pattern I used before, this time configured

as a sewing wallet.

 I was hiring a machine since I didn't want to attempt taking a machine on the train and Underground. They rented me a Janome HD9 which is the heavy-duty machine I was considering purchasing.  It's straight stitch only but sewed like a dream through all kinds of thick bulky layers and only balked at piercing a chunky plastic zipper.  But there was a lot of talk at the retreat about what kinds of machines everyone was using for bagmaking, which tends to demand a more powerful machine that can sew through multiple layers.  Several ladies have industrial machines, which as it turns out are a lot cheaper than buying the £1300 HD9. For example the Jack H2 industrial is about £600. I'm thinking that if I can clear the machine knitting room, I could put an industrial in the room instead.  Apparently they are staggeringly heavy since they come built into an industrial metal table, so it may be a job to get it up two flights of stairs.

I took my lace knitting with me to Wales but it was too dark in the bedroom to knit if you can believe it, so I didn't do much.  Since I've been back, I've been sewing the binding onto the London quilt for DH, it's gotten cold enough now at night that we need quilts on the beds again.  I've also loaded the next quilt onto the frame, number 10, the Cottage Stars quilt.

I haven't done anything on the Australian BOM project for quite a while, I'm a couple of months behind now which paradoxically reduces my motivation to work on it.  

I've done a scary thing: now that Japan has finally opened its borders to individual tourism, I've booked myself onto a four-week language course next spring in northern Japan.  Scary for multiple reasons: I will likely be the oldest student, it's a long time to be in a foreign country, my Japanese isn't very good, I will have to live in a shared house with likely much younger housemates (and no central heating), I'm not good in groups of people for any length of time etc etc etc.  Definitely going to be outside my comfort zone.  But it could be an amazing experience. Or I could end up hating everyone and the country, let's hope not. DH is being incredibly supportive even though he is going to miss me as I will likely be away for about a month and a half altogether.  Luckily with modern technology it's easy to stay in touch nowadays - not like the good old days when the only news from home came by 'Poste Restante' which meant queueing up at some random foreign post office in Cairo or Kathmandu and hoping they were holding mail for you. It was like Christmas when they were, and very sad when you left empty handed.  When I worked in London in 1988, I could get my mail sent to Canada House in Trafalgar Square and collect it from there, bet they don't do that any more. But I digress. So yes, Japan here we come unless they have another COVID wave and shut their borders again.