the heating is on

 It has definitely turned autumnal now.  We were resisting putting the heating on despite cold evenings, because the afternoons were still warm.  But that seems to have gone away now so we put the heat on a few nights ago.  The winter clothes have come out from under the bed, and I've brought down a few winter coats from the spare closet.  The government is warning that we could have some severe storms this winter due to climate change and El Nino.  They've recommended that British people lay in emergency supplies to cope with up to three days without power and/or water.  Everyone I've spoken to is just ignoring this as very unlikely to happen.  I have compromised by stocking up some water and buying a little campstove (so we can still have tea, one of life's necessities) but I think typically we would have 3 days of food on hand already. Also due to the chilly evenings, I've put a quilt back on the bed.  This is one I made many years ago out of vintage Dresden Plate blocks that I purchased from an antiques dealer at the Houston International Quilt show.  I had seen them but left them, but elsewhere in the enormous show was a sample quilt with this layout in modern fabrics.  I counted the plates then went back to the antique dealer and counted the vintage blocks - there were exactly the right number.  So it was meant to be.  A friend gave me some antique muslin to use as matching background fabric, another friend drew the quilting pattern, and a Mennonite friend of theirs did the handquilting.  So it was a real group project.  I added the icecream cone border in modern repro fabrics.

Hard to believe that I was sweltering in 31C humidity in St Kitts back in the spring.  I finished quilting the wallhanging but have yet to trim it up and bind it.  I ended up using it as a practice piece for mostly ruler work.  It's a bit wonky, I didn't manage symetry very well in several places, but it was good practice. And done is better than perfect.

I had some fun pulling out my Christmas fabrics, and sewing a Christmas project bag in preparation for my christmas cross stitch project which I will start on 1 December.

Still no sign of the replacement artwork for my 1:48 Bliss dollshouse, hopefully it will turn up soon.  In the meantime, I completed another kit from my stash.  This is a 1:150 model of a traditional Japanese farmhouse which I think I picked up in a museum gift shop in Japan.  It was a flatpack of laser cut thin fibre board with paper details.  I felt it needed a base so I printed one on the 3D printer.  I explored several similar old farmhouses on visits to open air museums in Japan.

So this turned up today:

I've been occasionally checking the UK stocks of portable air conditioning units, which sold out almost completely during our summer of heatwaves, and haven't recovered yet.  When I checked on Friday, the AI said everything was still sold out, but it directed me to another page which said that Meaco were taking pre-orders for when stock would come back in.  So I went to the Meaco site and ordered one, expecting to get an email telling me to expect one in the spring.  Instead I got an email saying it would be delivered today!  I must have just hit the sweet spot of a re-stock.  So maybe next summer's heat waves will be more bearable and I won't have to sleep in the livingroom or the basement.

We drove up to the caravan today and emptied most of it, bringing home a full carload to stash away in the attic.  We'll make another trip to pick up the last few things.  Normally we would give it a good wash for the winter, but all the hosepipe bans from the summer's drought are still in effect and our storage yard has closed their caravan washing area.  Many people caravan all winter but we don't see the point if it is miserable and cold outside.