Scaffolding and vertigo

 The last few days were very noisy as a pair of scaffolders arrived to erect scaffolding towers around the house, so that our rotten wood windows can be repaired and painted.  Various plants were squashed and we can't park in our own drive for the foreseeable future, but it's all ready for the handyman to start next week.

This is the view out of most of our windows now.

One of our tasks this weekend is to climb the scaffolding and wipe down all of the window frames and glass. Our windows almost never get cleaned because they are too high up for anything but the longest brush on a pole. And not only do the windowcleaners want exorbitant amounts of money to turn out for that, but at that height they are basically only slapping the glass with the wet brush and not actually effecting any cleaning. So we are wiping off the worst of the grime before the handyman starts. 

 Unfortunately, I have suffered vertigo since childhood and it has become much worse in my mature years.  I managed to climb up to the topmost platform in the picture above, but had to stay on my knees and couldn't stand up. And I definitely couldn't look down, and the slight swaying of the tower as DH moved around was making me dizzy.  I still managed to help with the work, but on the side gables where there is a further upper floor, DH had to climb up to the top platform on his own.  We've done two sides today, and will do the other two sides tomorrow.  We'll have to repeat the process once the handyman is all done his work, but just to clean the glass again so that will be quicker.

I finished sewing the binding on two more quilts this week:

The vintage top bought from an antiques dealer and quilted.

A hexie lap quilt with shaped side edges.

I tried to take part in an online FB workshop to make a little hinged box designed by an Australian designer called 'Boxed and bound'. I got everything cut out and ready, but unfortunately the workshop fell through due to a number of technical difficulties that the UK teacher seemed unable to resolve.  I didn't have assembly instructions but managed to complete the box on my own anyway by following cartonnage principles.  I got it mostly right and the box is quite cute, like a book. I used my Scan'n'Cut to cut out the card and decorative papers.

I've cast on for a Latvian mitten from the book Mittens of Latvia by Maruta Grasmane. The cast on went alright, with a single Latvian braid. But the chart is knitted in three colours, a hurdle I have tried and failed to jump in the past. I knit continental so I'm fine with two strands: I hold one over each index finger.  Three strands I find very difficult to wrangle. I've tried multiple ways of holding them, have watched many Youtube videos, and am still struggling. I'll see how I go.

Now that all the quilt binding has been machined on, I have turned to other projects on the list.  One such item, on the list since I bought my 'new' Janome machine four years ago, was to try out all the stitches that came with the machine.  I watched an interesting Youtube video about the domestic sewing machine industry and planned obsolescence the other day (can't find the link now) that quoted statistics from sewing machine servicepeople that something like 60% of home sewers only ever use zigzag and straight stitches on their machines.  It was tedious but I stitched out most of the over 200 stitch patterns to see what they're like.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much better some of them looked than the little icon printed on the machine index.  I used some pieces of firm twill fabric from one of DS's old lab coats and purposely didn't apply any stabiliser, so that I could see which stitches were more likely to pull or distort.   I have stapled the samples onto the wall next to my machine and I will endeavour to use more of the machine's stitches. It certainly makes me feel like doing a crazy quilt.

Another project in the queue was a sewing themed panel that I bought sometime in the last few years.  There was one big panel about 19x22.5" and several smaller panels of c 5.5".  I had a sort of plan worked out on graph paper so cut out the various panels and started sashing them up.  It worked out fairly well. I'm not sure what I'm making yet but I think it will likely be a wall hanging.  I'm going to make some 8-pointed star blocks like the one in the upper LH corner of the main panel picture.

I've been gradually progressing on the Christmas porch project over the last few weeks.  Adding all the bits is my least favourite part but I had a basket full of various Christmas items accumulated over the years from which to choose.  I've used two strings of colour lights on the porch railings and a string of clear lights on the garden tree, both of which will connect to battery packs in the finished item.  I would still like to add some snow but that's very hard to get looking natural, we'll see.

My bobbin lace friends came over this week and I managed to finish off another sample of Bruges Lace - this is a tri-lobed leaf about 2.5" high which came out fairly alright, just some tension issues with the pivot stitches.

And the exciting news this week is that, in a triumph of optimism over graph paper calculations, I have purchased a secondhand Handiquilter Simply Sixteen mid-arm machine which will sit on a 10-foot frame. It was a good buy because although it's an older machine, the seller had it all set up with all the accessories which would otherwise be additional extras if I bought a new one.  I went with the 16" throat also on the thinking that the machine is a bit smaller/less tall, so more likely to squeeze under the slanted ceiling.  I've ordered castors for the frame from Handiquilter so that I'll be able to move the frame around in the limited space depending on whether I want to work from the front or from the back.

  That meant that I had to empty out the attic room. Luckily, I had already put a lot of effort into downsizing my formerly-vast machine knitting stash.  So in a few hours, with DH's help, I was able to transform the room from this:

to this:

Due to the projecting fireplace and the slanting ceiling, I will only barely scrape the minimum working space around the frame. It's going to be a tight squeeze indeed and working conditions will not be optimal, but the machine will hopefully be great.  Kind of the reverse of my previous arrangements where I had a great room downstairs in the dining room to work in, with lots of natural light, but a heavily-bodged frame and basic straight-stitch domestic machine.  Really looking forward to having stitch regulation to help make my quilting look better.  With a 16" throat, I think I will be able to do up to around 10" deep pantograph designs depending on the quilt roll diameter.  The machine also comes with a ruler base so I could potentially learn how to use rulers.  The seller and I are jointly paying Handiquilter to dissassemble the frame at her house and deliver and construct it at my house, which saves a lot of aggro  and time for both of us.  It should be coming next week.

The cat is very excited about the new machine as you can tell