Practice makes imperfect

Some finishes this week: I finished the ruler work on the Ode to the 1930s sampler quilt and took it off the frame to have a look at it.  There are a lot of mistakes: wobbly stitch in the ditch, thread messes on the back, tension problems I didn't spot at the time, thread build up from going over the same seam too many times etc.  But on the whole I feel ridiculously proud of it.  It's so much more advanced than I could have done on my old domestic machine set up, and the quilting is honouring the block designs rather than just stitching over them in an edge-to-edge design like I have always done in the past.  Yes I had to do a bit of mending with hand stitching here and there, and yes after washing the varying density in quilting has become apparent.  But I learned a huge amount and for my first proper quilt off the frame, I feel like it's pretty much a success.

I've loaded up a new practice sandwich on the frame and I have set up for practicing pantographs now - so I've plugged in the laser pointer, installed the Glide 2 presser foot, and am practicing moving the much bigger machine around a design.  It moves a lot more easily than my old domestic set up, but at the same time it has more inertia. I also have a troublesome 'bump' in my track where two segments of the table join which is throwing off my stitching until I can work out how to smooth it.  Practice makes imperfect in the first instance but I'm getting better.

I made up the two zip pouches from the Japanese designer panel. I used an additional motif intended to be a mini-quilt for one side of the round pouch because I didn't want to make the mini-quilt.

For my fifth and final project from the panel, I am using a rectangle intended to be the top of a shallow zipped box. I didn't think I would find the box very useful, and in another Japanese book I found instructions for a laptop bag. Using the laptop bag as inspiration, I used the panel rectangle to make my own version, sized smaller to fit my panel.  On the plain back, I appliqued several other motifs from the panel that I liked. I'm currently handsewing the pieces together.

So that's the conclusion of the Japanese panel project, and I will need to pick something else from my (vast) project queue to work on in the sewing room now.

In knitting, I finished the Little Cotton Rabbits Wristwarmers and wet-blocked them.  You can see that I struggled a bit to take pictures of my own arms :)  They fit fine, and I could wear them also as fingerless gloves by sticking my thumb out the side slit.  I definitely prefer the seamless one knit in the round, even though it was a pain.  The seam on the one knit flat is quite visible and a bit of a ridge on the inside. Blocking helped with the tension issues but I'm still not very happy with my end result, compared to the beautifully smooth examples of stranded knitting I see on Facebook.

This week I was working on the vestibule / foyer of the Japanese ryokan dollshouse.  I probably should have taken a 'before' picture so that the additions are more obvious. 

Added: a postcard display of vintage Japanese postcards (printed on my inkjet onto photo paper) some contents in the cupboard, desk furnishings, a doll display under the stairs (purchased in Japan), the Lucky Cat figurine, and some ridiculously small guest slippers on the main floor cut from scrapbook paper.

Added: the pot plant set into a decorative thimble, a chair from my stash, a shoe storage cupboard bashed from a 1:24 chest of drawers, some decorations on top of the shoe cupboard purchased in Japan, a hanging scroll cut from a woodblock colouring book.

On the desk: a 1950s phone (from a toy set bought in Japan), a guest book, an ink stone and brush, a set of brass etched keys, and a tiny lucky cat bought in Japan.

DH says I should do the kitchen next, and then the ground floor will be finished.  The kitchen scares me, although I have a lot of reference photos I took in Japan inside museums and old houses.

I spent a lot of time this week taking down Christmas ornaments, clearing off the tree  etc. and took the opportunity to have another big cull - I filled up a laundry basket and another box and managed to donate it all to a local nursing home who were thrilled to take them.  Hopefully I will remember that next Christmas and not spend hours searching for 'missing boxes' in the attic :) It feels good to get more clutter out of the house - there were a lot of things that had become habit to put out, rather than sparking joy as such.  I've also been going through boxes of old photos and throwing away huge numbers of scenery photos with no people in them from old holidays. I had almost a half-inch of photos documenting the building of a new conservatory on a house we sold in 2003!  It still leaves me with a lot of photos, particularly from my son's early years (he was so cute!) but it's a start.

The in-laws have got through a week with their new carers - they have someone coming in every day for an hour. For the first few days the in-laws were hauling themselves out of bed to get fully dressed and be ready for the carer's arrival - when she is meant to be helping them get up! But I think they are getting more used to it now and relaxing a bit, and accepting that there are more tasks that they could benefit from some assistance with. I think they still believe it's only temporary and they will be alright in a few months on their own - which seems very unlikely.

I've started watching New Zealand-related content to prepare for my visit.  I have watched or skimmed through Whale Rider, River Queen, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and have just started Boy, and I found some good documentaries on Youtube about the New Zealand wars. I watched a four-part Netflix series called Great Kiwi Road Trip with Griff Rhys Jones, which was quite good (although I muted some of his more pompous monologues) and it's made me feel more anticipation for my tour which will take me to some of the same destinations.