Summer time

 We had a mini heatwave for several days, up to 29C a few days. While I hate hot weather, I remain incredibly thankful that it was only 29 and not 42C like previous summers or what's going on in Greece. But because of the hot weather I didn't go out very much, and I had to switch to longarming in the morning before the attic room got too hot in the afternoon.  The garden has needed regular watering and I've also spent a few hours hacking back the weeds that have sprung up since before our caravan holiday.

I finished the Lone Star reproduction quilt apart from blocking and binding.  It feels really good to have finally got this quilted - I bought the kit at Houston  22 years ago so it's been on the UFO list a really long time.  It turned out fairly well, I don't love my design in the border but it's not too visible on the right side. But the continuous curve quilting on the star went well.  I then spent a few hours clipping off all the micro-tacks that were basting the quilt, very fiddly.  I like the Micro-stitch gun because it's quick, the tacks don't rust, they don't add bulk to the roll on the frame, and you can stitch over them.  But they are a PITB to remove.   I had basted the quilt on my old frame because I thought I would be quilting it at my sit-down machine - I didn't know I would get a longarm. The quilt has been through the washing machine now on a cold cycle and is drying outside - I was very relieved that the washaway blue marker I had used for the straight lines all came out. It had been on there so long that it had turned a very dark green.

I've given the longarm and frame a good clean and loaded up the next UFO, which is the Giggleswick Mill quilt by Di Ford.  It's another reproduction quilt, featuring half-square triangles that I can do continuous curve on again, and broderie perse applique which I guess I'll have to stitch around. It's not as old, I put it together in 2020 from fabric I had bought a few years beforehand. (the photo dates from when I based the sandwich on my old frame)

I've sewn the binding onto my Little Red Houses quilt so I'm handstitching that down during evening TV time.  Because I decided to cut scallops into the side edges, I couldn't use the straight of grain binding strips I had pre-cut - and I didn't have any more of that fabric.  I found another fabric to use on the scallops which is unobtrusive, but the junction between the two different fabrics at the corners looks a bit untidy. 

The Cathe Holden fabric that I ordered has shown up.  Three different prints from her 'Curated in Color' line, and two fabrics from 'Junk Journal'.  I love the Curated prints, all three are different collages of antique ephemera.  Not sure what I'll do with them, you would lose the effect if you cut them up. It needs something where you could use a big piece like a totebag or a frame quilt. Perhaps I will just keep it and pat it affectionately from time to time.

I've spent a fair bit of time on the Mckinley dollshouse this week because it's nice and cool in the dollhouse room.  Most of that has been prep and painting, so I don't actually have a lot to show for it yet. It's going ok, I still don't feel like I know where I am going with it. 

The other big time-suck this week has been the unexpected early birthday present from my son of the 'Shadow of the Erdtree' DLC for Elden Ring.  I thought I would have to wait a long time until it went on sale.  I hadn't played Elden Ring since I became Elden Lord in October 2022, so it's taken a while to get going -  because I couldn't remember anything about my character, my skills or my inventory.  I chose to go back to a save from before finishing the game, so that I could go straight into the DLC without having to complete any preliminaries.  So far I am having fun exploring the first map region.  Luckily they have already patched the DLC to downgrade the difficulty, which will help me - I'm an explorer not a fighter :)