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.
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