Over-preparing as a coping method

 With my departure to St Kitts looming next week, this week has been mostly about over-preparing while trying not to get too stressed out. The tour organisation has been pretty loosy-goosy, conducted mostly by webchat with dozens of messages, so it has been hard to keep up with the latest information and requirements which I have found stressful.  I finalised my quilt project preparations and packed it up - as a result of all my illicit pre-work, I don't actually have to take too much with me, just a little pouch of hand sewing tools and of course the pack of blocks/patterns/spare fabric/sashing etc. Meanwhile St Kitts has gone up to 32C and humid, which I am just going to wilt in (although the Australian/NZ quilters in my zoom call yesterday were laughing that I thought that was really hot).  So I panic-ordered some linen blend trousers on Amazon and then had to alter the waistband to fit yesterday.  Conveniently, the UK suddenly shot up to 29C in my area yesterday.  So I pulled out the clothes I was thinking of taking and put on various outfits and tried walking up and down the hot street outside my house to see how they felt.  This helped me winnow down t-shirt selection and  revealed a few scratchy seam allowances and that my polyester beach dress isn't actually very cool, but there were some winners - the linen trousers felt nice with the breeze we had, and the Uniqlo sleeveless tank tops with built-in bras that I bought in Nantes were surprisingly comfortable and cool.  I decided to take another skirt then had to alter the waistband of that as well because I've lost some weight. So now I have clothes strewn all over the bedroom like my wardrobe exploded - I'm going to start packing today which will tidy up. I'm probably taking too much but it's hard to know when you've never been somewhere before.  It was up to 32/33C in Japan but that was a dry heat, plus you have to dress more conservatively there, so not really equivalent. I am definitely taking my little handheld battery fan that I bought in Japan, love it.  For craft projects I am taking one of my cross-stitch House SAL blocks, a new knitted lace shawl for the plane, and a sashiko kit I got in japan to possibly stitch in the workshop if I can get away with it.

I really wanted to get my needlepoint cushion finished before I went, and managed to do that.  I like it a lot better now that it's made into a cushion, it looks nice on the windowseat.  I did block the canvas to straighten it and flatten the stitches a bit, but you can still see irregularities where my impatient just-get-it-done stitching was less than perfect.  It shows it's homemade.  I found a hack for the cushion cover - I went to B&M looking for cushion pads (the only store I can walk to that would have them) and found it was cheaper to buy a pre-made cushion than a pack of two pads.  So I chose a pre-made cushion in a coordinating colour to the needlepoint, took the front off, then re-used the matching back, zipper and pad for my cushion - just had to cut them down to the smaller size of my cushion.

I felt like sewing one day so I tried out a quick project bag tutorial on Youtube. I used one of the pre-quilted fabric pieces that I quilted on the side of my quilt frame on the excess backing/wadding a few projects ago.  I prefer project bags with a see-through front so I can see what's in them, but this was a satisfying quick win. I had a cute button charm to hang on the zip pull, to go with the fabric.

I made a start on the cross-stitch pattern I bought at the January cross-stitch retreat 'Quilted Tiny Town'.  This is on 32-count evenweave so I am having to use magnification to stitch it, my eyes just aren't up to stitching that small anymore.  So it takes a bit more concentration but will be a cute project.

I used the 3D printer to print some more accessories for my little caravan project, which is progressing slowly.  I've just glued the wheels on but need to work out how to support the front of the towing A-frame so it stays level on the display base.

My progress on the knitted shawl has ground to a halt as there appears to be an error in the charts and my stitch count (correct at the completion of chart 4) does not match the stitch count at the start of chart 5.  Nobody seems to have knit this yet on Ravelry, so there's no errata yet.  So that's hibernating until I get back.

Our garden is looking really lush, a fortunate effect of all the rainy weather followed by sudden sunshine.  The roses are all either blooming or budding, the hollyhocks are waist height getting buds ready to bloom later, the irises are still flowering, and we've unpacked the fountain from its winter cocoon and it is running pleasantly when we have lunch out there.  This is the best time for our garden, before it all starts drying out and getting diseases and blackspot by the summer.  I feel lucky to be seeing it - the last few years I was away in April and May and missed its prime.

Dithering

 This week seems to have passed by in a blur of post-trip laundry and paperwork, peripheral involvement in my f-i-l being in hospital with a broken hip (he's doing ok), hacking back the weed bonanza in the garden while trying to keep up with tying in / supporting all the spring growth, ferrying stuff back to our caravan in the storage yard to get it ready for the summer, and getting ready for my next trip abroad coming up in another week.

I have been working in the evenings on the French needlepoint, and am stitching the final top strip.  Still not loving it but hoping it will look better made up into a cushion.

But mostly I've been dithering about the quilt project for the quilting trip I am going on to St Kitts in a week.  The group project is an exclusive design by the UK teacher for a wallhanging of five blocks, featuring motifs associated with the islands including a version of their flag.  We've already been provided with templates and some brief instructions for fabric requirements and block size, with the idea that we may choose to pre-cut our blocks and sashing.  We've been told that there will be minimal equipment available for the classes apart from a cutting mat and rotary cutter (and presumably an iron as they haven't said to bring one), and that we need to bring all our own tools and supplies to be able to fuse the block designs and hand piece the blocks and sashing.  There is a quite a lot of time allotted for working on the wallhanging, about 25 hours over several days.

So I started out thinking I would just print out the templates (we've been warned that there are no printing facilities at the destination so we need to print everything at home) and precut my blocks and sashing in my own sewing room rather than trying to do it in class on a borrowed mat.  But some of the fused blocks have a lot of pieces to trace and cut, like the hibiscus flower, and I realised it would just be so much easier to just run my Steam-a-Seam fusible web sheets through the printer and print the templates directly rather than doing all that tracing.  And then I was thinking how much nicer it would be to cut out the appliques comfortably in front of the telly at my leisure with good light, so I did that.  And since I had them cut out, it seemed easier to just fuse them at home so I don't have to queue up to use a dubious hotel iron in the class.  And that meant I had to generate some layout diagrams for placing the applique - at which point I'm thinking "this is really hard, how are we going to do this in class?"  so it seemed easier to do the fusing here and then not have to take so much marking and tracing equipment with me.  And before I know it, I've got 2/3rds of the blocks finished and now I'm worried I will get in trouble for doing too much pre-work, or that I've done the blocks wrong compared to what the teacher has planned.  I suppose there is a chance the teacher will come with pre-traced vinyl overlays for laying out the applique, and clever work-arounds for constructing the project with minimal equipment.  I know I'm overthinking all of this.  I need to stop the busy-brain and just get everything ready so I can pack the project, but I really don't want to have to take a bunch of equipment that I just have to bring home again - I only want to take one suitcase. And I didn't have the right green compared to the sample we've been shown, so I tried to emergency order some more green from one supplier this week who turned out to be out of stock.  Nobody else had that same fabric, so I ordered some solid green instead which came today but I'm not sure it's the right green either - so hard to compare to an image on a monitor screen.  Bleah.  So in general I am feeling a bit stressed about the trip but of course am getting no sympathy 'oh you poor dear having to go the Caribbean....', lol.

I can calm my nerves with some alcohol: my order of Pineau de Charente showed up - this is a fortified dessert wine that the gite owners introduced us to last week which is a speciality of their region in France.  I quite liked it, so ordered a couple of bottles when I got home. Nice for a pre-dinner apertif.

I haven't really been doing any other crafts this week apart from 3D printing a folding tablet stand to hold my knitting chart magnet board.  I did order some embroidery floss and 25-count waste canvas in preparation for stitching the French monograms from the book I bought last week.  I'm going to the Big Stitch event in June so that will be one of the projects I take with me.

Living the dream in France (for a week)

 I'm just back from my gite holiday in France, staying in a fairly remote but very pretty converted farmhouse to the north of the Charente area (near Poitiers).  The hosts were lovely and looked after the four of us very well, including driving us on outings to various incredibly scenic towns such as Chauvigny, Angles sur l'Anglin, Montmorillon and Saint-Sevin.  It seems to be a requirement for township here to have a medieval bridge, a ruined fortress on a hill looming over a scenic river, and at least one picturesque but brooding Romanesque church with painted frescoes inside. All the buildings are made out of a beautiful cream-beige limestone so they all match, and there were roses flowering everywhere beautifully. Walking around each town was just lovely, every view could be a postcard, it was all so beautiful and historic.  The retreat was full board, so no cooking or washing up, and the farmhouse was in the middle of huge fields with no traffic noise at all.

However I did run into a linguistic issue - which wasn't my abysmal French.  It was billed as a tapestry retreat, and since I've had my weaving hat on for a year, and the low-res photos of the tutor's work were all geometric, I thought it was going to be tapestry weaving.  I completely forgot that the Brits use 'tapestry' as a catch-all term for both needlepoint and woven tapestry fabrics.  So it turned out to be a needlepoint retreat.  I've done needlepoint in the past, it's not my favourite, but it's ok.  On the first day we had to sketch our design out - when I thought I was going to be weaving something geometric, I had in mind copying a quilt block.  So I did that anyway in needlepoint.  I'm not in love with either my design or the colours I was able to select (a mix of the tutor's stash and also some I had brought from home) but I like it well enough to intend to finish it. This is on 13point canvas and the yarn is tapestry 4-ply weight (which seems to be about a DK weight).  It's going to be a cushion.

Tuition was minimal, it was more of a 'relax and stitch' type of retreat.  The weather started out fairly grey and wet, but went up to 25C by the end of the week. We were taken to a few of the local markets during the week, and stumbled across a few brocante shops.  We visited a small haberdashery craft store in Chauvigny, where I picked up a few bits of quilt fabric, a lightweight vinyl with a Japanese pattern on it, and some very decorative webbing strap.

Angles sur l'Anglin  (said to be one of the most beautiful villages in France) was once the home of the traditional craft of  'Les Jours d'Angles', a type of counted pulled thread whitework on fine linen.  There was a display and a video about it in the tourist information office, as well as books on the technique.  I managed to resist embracing a new hobby, but did pick up a book about the tradition.

I found a great cross-stitch book in a charity shop, and picked up some vintage linens at a brocante to potentially stitch the wonderful monograms (from the cover) onto.

Also from the charity shop, I picked up a pretty embroidered tablecloth, and a traycloth.  And in a brocante I found these charming ladies' newspapers filled with fashions and needlecraft patterns.

When I wasn't stitching, I was doing a bit of knitting on my lace shawl.  So it was a fairly relaxing week, too much eating and drinking (although I resisted most of the wine as I'm not really a wine drinker), and a chance to live the gite dream for a week without any of the gite responsibilities that come with it.

Lots of laundry to do when I got home, and a week of paperwork to catch up, the garden desperately needs weeding, and the May sumo tournament has started.  I've got two weeks to get ready then I'm off again, to St Kitts for the quilting retreat.  So I need to start prepping the fabrics for that project.

Sleeping in sunbeams

 We've had a spell of warm weather this week, up to 22C, although it has stayed fairly breezy.  So instead of doing anything productive, I have spent several hours in the afternoons reading or dozing in the garden.  It's nice to be retired.

I did finish my little cross stitch house, and turned it into a little display pillow with a velvet back.

I felt like sewing something, so I drafted my own pattern for a scissors case, based on one that I saw online some time ago, which was designed by Charise Creates Sewing Patterns.  Mine is a different size, made to fit my fabric scissors.  Just a bit of fun. I used one of the metal zippers I bought in Japan, and one of the little charms from Korea.

I've continued to work on the 1:24 scale retro caravan project.  I've made a base for it, and also 3D-printed various accessories plus a folding table and chair set for the outside part of the scene, and designed and printed the exterior window and door frames so that I could install the windows.  It's so cool to think 'I need a hassock' and just design and print a flat-topped mushroom shape in the right scale, ready for upholstery.  I can't see myself working much with wood in future.

I spent some time this week working on the long term plan to relocate in England somewhere.  We plan to sell this big house with all its maintenance needs and garden in probably six years or so, before I get too old and feeble to look after it properly or to manage the stress of a house move.  Ideally we would find somewhere a little smaller that's all on one floor, without too much of a garden.  However there is a big shortage of bungalows (single storey houses) in the UK compared to the huge demand from retirees and people who need accessibility.  New bungalows aren't being constructed because developers can get far more money building a house (or several houses) on a plot.  So I spent some time researching climate (winter lows and summer highs) and looking on property websites for single storey houses with access to shops, health care and a train station.  Sadly the places in the south that have the mildest winters and coolest summers, tend to be rural areas not so great for retirees because of limited transport and long distances to health care facilities.  Anywhere remotely suitable has been long ago overrun with buyers and housing stock is scarce and expensive. We may end up just staying in our current town, even though we don't love it here but it's alright.  I anticipate difficulties in selling our house because it is not a typical family home, so I think we will probably have to sell first and then rent while we trawl the market.  Not looking forward to it at all but it has to be done.  We have seen DH's parents become more and more feeble and incapable, trapped in a home they should have moved out of years ago that they just can't manage now.  So we want to do some futureproofing for ourselves.

I'm more or less packed up and ready for the airport tomorrow.  I hope the tapestry retreat will be good.  If I like doing tapestry, I think I can also do it on my little table loom but I'm not sure how much access you need for weaving the various patches of colour.  I'll be back next weekend so DH gets a week on his own - he is looking forward to having the 3D printer all to himself for a week, lol.