Best laid plans

 I thought I was going to have a really productive day today, as DH was heading out to visit his parents.  But no.  First I wasted almost an hour fruitlessly searching for a xmas gift that I stitched for a friend, which has vanished into thin air. I've searched where it should be about five times, and looked everywhere else I can think of.  Nope.  Well, at least I could tackle why my Kindle Paperwhite had decided it didn't want to connect to the wi-fi.  One hour and multiple resets, multiple lengthy password entries and a full factory reset of the Kindle later, I finally tried re-starting the fully functional broadband router which had nothing wrong with it at all.  But for some mysterious reason, that made the Kindle agree to connect to it once again.  Aaaaarghhhh!!!!! and with the factory reset I've lost every custom setting I had made including all my folder collections.  

At least I've finished something: Four years after I started, I've finally finished the ABC Sampler from Little House Needleworks.  There are a few counting issues but overall I'm pleased with it, and glad that it's finally done and can be moved out of the living room along with all its accoutrements. I really like the folksy design style of it, and the subtle colour variations of the Classic Colorworks dyed threads.

As an initial display option, I've laced it around a stretched canvas board.  I may get it framed at some point.

I loaded the Envelopes quilt onto the longarm frame and quilted it fairly quickly using a large scale hearts panto. I couldn't find any postal-related pantos but thought the hearts would tie in with 'love letters' and sending good wishes through the post.  What I didn't realise, because I was quilting it sideways and the hearts tipped in both directions and it's the first time I've used this panto, is that the pattern is actually overall directional.  So my hearts are actually upside down compared to the envelopes.  It doesn't show much on the front though, and I will probably be giving this quilt away anyway. I'll label the panto as directional for the future.

Meanwhile, I've started embroidering the 'rim' of the Japanese cups but I'm struggling a bit with the best way to do it.  I started out with a single back stitch in two strands, and that was so subtle that it didn't show at all.  So I tried doubling up with a second line of backstitching in a lighter colour, which is better but still not great and looks a bit untidy.  I think I'm going to try out stem stitch in a lighter colour with three strands and see how that looks.

It's turned a lot colder here now, hovering around 7-11C, so I headed out a few days ago wearing the fingerless gloves I bought from a maker in Shetland during Wool Week.  But the fingers were really quite short, and I found my uncovered fingers were getting really cold.  So I dug around in my stash to find something that would match the gloves, and it turned out my Urudale yarn left over from my own glove project toned in fairly well.  So I unravelled the cast-off on each finger and picked up to knit each finger a bit longer.  I wore them today and they are a lot better now. This photo is really washed out for some reason.

The vintage sewing table is finally finished and back together.  I put five coats of the Finpol onto the top, using the special brush that I also bought from them (which annoyingly was shedding hairs into the finish) and it came out so much better than my first attempt.  It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better than the very damaged finish it had when I bought it.  Now I need to think where the table is going to go and what I will use it for.

I sewed another Double Wedding Ring block.  I feel like I will be 100 years old when this quilt gets finished.

The rest of the week I kept busy with my dollshouse build, sewing binding on the Australian BOM quilt and trying to do some bobbin lace every day because I have really been neglecting the lace for several months now.  A few days ago I heard my first Christmas song on the radio, it feels like it gets earlier every year.  Meanwhile we are still having to rake leaves up every weekend as our trees dump their autumn foliage.

This and that

 Various crafty activities this week.  I tried out my Icelandic hat on a trip to the post office and realised it was still too short despite my tinkering with the crown decreases.  So I ripped it back to the ribbing again, and reknit it one more time with an extra zigzag to increase the length. I also went up a needle size to 4.5mm to make it a little looser.  I did the crown decreases as per the pattern since I already had the extra height.  It's much more comfortable now and I've worn it out a few times, nice and warm.  That's the nice thing about knitting, you can usually have a do-over.  And it's a nice souvenir of my trip.

I managed to produce a second Double Wedding Ring block so I now have two somewhat wonky blocks. I need 16 blocks - two down, 14 to go. 

After quilting the Tilda cot quilt (which I am now binding), I loaded the Japanese tea cup wallhanging onto the frame.  I meandered in the dark border then used my channel locks to quilt a series of vertical lines through the background, 'hopping' over each teacup as I came to it by doing some tiny stitches on either side.  I still need to quilt around each cup then I can take it off and do the hand embroidery to add the rim line to each cup. I like the way the cups are standing out from the background in a 3D effect.

I forgot to blog last week that I had a go at the Kiss clasp box based on the one I saw at Festival of Quilts last year.  I had bought a clasp at the show, and I drew up a pattern for a simple box shape modelled on the one in this video.  The video was helpful in showing how the frame is glued onto the fabric shell.  I used Bosal foam to stiffen my box shape, and hand sewed the corners.  It was a bit tricky to glue on the frame, having an extra pair of arms would have helped.  I used some bulky yarn as I don't have any paper yarn.  It turned out pretty well, apart from a design flaw, and I am using it to store my lacemaking tools in.

This is the design flaw - the frame I picked has big chunky metal balls for the clasp.  These of course make it incredibly top heavy, so all's it wants to do is this if it's empty:

So the lesson here is, don't buy a frame with a big clasp.  It would also be good to get a deeper frame, then you could have a bigger box.  This one is only about two inches deep.

I stripped off the French Polish from the antique sewing table top with meths, so I'm back to bare wood again ready to try again with the new Finpol polish.

And last weekend, we had an outing to Witney Antiques in Witney, west of Oxford, to see their amazing exhibition ‘Choice and Precious Work’: The Needle and Beyond, 1650-1770'.  The shop itself was amazing, they specialise in museum quality embroideries, mostly samplers, and I've never seen so many antique embroideries in one place.  And in such amazingly good condition.  They had an Elizabethan embroidered panel that looked like it had been finished yesterday - only £220,000 and it's yours!  I was rather staggered that there are people that spend the price of a semi-detached house on a piece of embroidery but apparently the shop is well patronised by a global clientele of collectors.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable even going into such an obviously posh shop normally, but the exhibition set up in the large back room is open to the public.

Part of the shop (no photos allowed in the exhibition)

The exhibition of 17th and 18thC embroideries, needlelace, samplers, and other handmade textile related objects unbelievably showcases the work of schoolgirls.  We were lucky enough to be shown around by a PhD specialist in antique embroidery and her stories were so interesting that even DH was absorbed in what we were seeing.  So much of the stitching was so tiny and fine, you just couldn't believe it was done by girls of perhaps 11 years old, probably in candlelight.   The most mindboggling piece was probably the two bobbin lace pictorial panels made around 1660 from human hair instead of thread.  They were framed behind glass but looked so fragile that you were afraid to breathe near them.  Many of the items came from just two or three families who had kept the examples of family needlework safe over the centuries.  It makes me think of all the craft items I've let go over the years - no archive of work from me.  There was a real egg that had been embroidered with needle lace by punching small holes into the egg shell to allow the needle to pass through, nutmegs (once more precious than gold) covered in embroidered casings, quilled picture frames, early decoupage, quite a few Quaker works with tiny stitched Bible sayings, and so much more.  I wish I could have taken photos but it wasn't allowed.

Witney itself had some nice old buildings, so after a fortifying pub lunch, we had a walk around town and down to the lake which was once a huge gravel quarry.  A nice day out.

French polish fail

 I attached the refinished table top to my antique sewing table.

Unfortunately, it became clear that my  attempt to finish the top with French Polish was a complete fail.  Not only is it patchy and streaky, with visible brush lines, but it hasn't dried properly.  Just handling the top while I screwed it on was leaving big fingerprints in the toffee-like finish.  I looked it up online and apparently this is likely due both to the brushed on coats being too thick, and the French polish I used being too old.  Apparently old French polish may never dry, ever.  A week later and mine is better than it was but still imprinting with finger prints.  So the duff polish has all got to come off again from the top.  I've ordered a different French polish product called Finney's Finpol Easy Polish which is supposed to be a lot more foolproof.  Also a polish mop which is a special brush that isn't supposed to leave brush marks.  Sigh.

On the happier side, I finished quilting my Australian BOM vintage needlework quilt and I'm pretty pleased with it.  These are pictures straight off the frame, so it hasn't been trimmed up yet or bound, and there are still a few more embellishments to stitch on to it.  I learned a lot doing this quilt, about using rulers and pantos, and stitching around applique, and got much braver about trying freehand filler designs. 

Once the frame was empty, I loaded on the Tilda Pinwheel small quilt and easily quilted it with a pantograph, much more straightforward!

Another finish this week was my Iceland Lettlopi hat.  A rinse in lukewarm water has fluffed up the yarn nicely, it should be fairly warm.

I have been trying to shingle my dollshouse roof and ran into trouble, and had to re-do parts of it a few times until my son helped me with the math.    I still need to finish the ridgelines.

I made myself a gluten free afternoon tea as a special treat, just using GF products purchased from the supermarket aisle.  It was quite fun and I enjoyed it, but it did still upset my stomach - probably from xanthum gum which I am also sensitive to, which is used by a lot of commercial GF food manufacturers as a thickener.  Still felt like a treat at the time though. Fun to break out the good china, and my handmade patchwork tea cosy.  And the quilted  autumn placemats that I made up from a panel I bought in the Cinque Terres on my Italy trip.

Finishing up a few things

 I finished up a few things this week that I started on the retreat.

I had cut out and started stitching this cute teapot pincushion kit that I think I bought in New Zealand. So this week I turned through the various pieces, stuffed them, assembled lids etc. to finish it off.  So cute!  And quite relaxing to make something small just for fun.

Another kit I had started was this mini clasp purse that I bought at Crib Quilts in Tokyo.  A bit fiddly to sew it into the clasp when it is so small, but again very cute.  I think it's intended as a necklace accessory.

I seamed a backing for the Vintage Linens quilt, cut some binding, and added the whole thing to the 'to be quilted' queue upstairs in the long arm room.

I finally made up my Welsh quilted cushion into a cushion with piping and a zip (thank you Youtube).  I'm pleased it's finished but I'm not entirely pleased with it.  I drew my pencil lines for the quilting design too dark so the resulting necessary scrubbing to get rid of them left the fabric looking a bit scruffy and the sateen has lost most of its shine. Also the 2 oz polyester wadding that I used (recommended by the teacher) doesn't give it much loft so the quilting looks a bit flat to me. I think wool wadding would have been better but I didn't have enough.  And despite having drawn a square design, somehow the cushion looks a little oblong to me - perhaps the cotton sateen shrunk more in one direction?  Regardless, it's finished and it's a nice souvenir of a long weekend in Wales.

I gathered my courage this week and refinished the top of the antique sewing table.  When I originally bought the table,  the top was ruined by a big white streak running through the finish, and the finish itself was virtually coming off by itself.  So I scraped off the old finish on the top surface a while ago but put it to one side while I refitted the interior of the table.  Following some videos on Youtube, I filled in some fissures and cracks with melted coloured wax filler and then started painting coats of French Polish (shellac), sanding in between.  Ideally you apply French Polish with a special cloth pad called a rubber, but that looked hard and a lot riskier with the irregular shape, so I went with brushed coats.  The resulting finish isn't as smooth because it's harder to avoid brush marks, drips etc.  I did 9 brushed coats over two days, rubbing back in between each coat, which hopefully will be enough protection.  I will rub down the final coat and then wax both sides of the top before adding it back onto the table.

I've started knitting my Icelandic Lettlopi hat this week.  It's reminded me how much I don't really like this yarn, it's scratchy and has wiry hairs in it.  I used it a few years ago to knit up slippers that I subsequently felted down to fit.  Glad I didn't buy a sweater's worth!  The pattern calls for a 100st cast on with 4.5mm needles, continuing in 2x2 rib on 3.5 needles for 10 rows.  That was enormous on my head even though I went down a half size due to being a loose knitter.  I tried again with 80 stitches which was a bit tight, so started a third time with 86 stitches which seems about right.  Also 10 rows seemed really mean, I like my ears to be warm.  So I knit enough rows to cover my ears with a turned up rib before increasing to 90 stitches to start the pattern.  Nice to be knitting again, I haven't had a knitting project for a while.

We went out and did a bunch of gardening jobs today.  I bought us a cheap pressure washer recently.  We've never had one before.  So we fired that up today and it was so helpful.  Cleaned out the fountain before we wrapped that up for winter protection, cleaned down a lot of the big pots, and then we cleaned off our brick-laid patios - getting all the muck and moss out from between the bricks and cleaning off a lot of algae and dirt build up.  We'd kind of forgotten that the patio was meant to be brick-coloured, it's been dirt-coloured for a few years now. And the inclined side alley was getting a bit treacherous with algae and moss, so that's all cleaned off now.  There was a learning curve - like not spraying towards the house because I inadvertently managed to blanket the back wall with mud spray and had to hose that off.  We became pretty mud-sprayed ourselves.  We also pulled out the leaf blower and tidied up the first wave of leaf fall from our trees out the front, there will be many more.Tiring but good to get some jobs done.  Are you getting ready for winter?

On retreat

 I'm just back from a two-night weekend sewing retreat at a hotel.  It's so nice to just sew and make things all weekend with no other responsibilities.  Obviously I could do sewing all day at home, but I don't - I either get bored and go do something else, or I get interrupted or distracted or feel obligated to go do something useful like making dinner or laundry.  I didn't even do that much socialising because there was a big noisy class in the same room all running big embroidery machines so it was too noisy for chitchat with neighbours a lot of the time.  It was still nice to be surrounded by all the creativity and kit and people enjoying making things.

I spent a lot of the first day sewing down the rest of the crochet mats and doileys  on my Vintage Linens quilt.  I must have had half a dozen women come up and exclaim over the idea because they also have a collection of mum's/grannie's/auntie's old embroideries and linens and didn't know what to do with them.  It was a job getting the old linens attached fairly flat, a lot of them are a bit loosey-goosey with age but I managed with a few judicious tucks here and there.  I'm planning to quilt this with an allover design to hold everything down evenly.

Then I pulled out my prepared pieces for the Double Wedding Ring quilt and pieced together eight arcs, then puzzled through the not very clear directions on how to join it all together into a block.    I got there in the end, although it still seems like witchcraft to be sewing two completely opposing curves and end up with something that is sort of flat. This block is my total nemesis as I am not a very accurate sewer and generally find repetitive piecing pretty tedious, but it's been on my bucket list for about 30 years. Having produced my 'proof of concept' block, I started churning out pieced arcs - I need 120 more each composed of six pieces.  By the next day I had produced almost 100 but I've run out of some colours so I need to cut some more 'teeth'.  I'm chain-piecing them in sets of six arcs at a time.  I need to starch, press them flat, then cut them all into the final arc shape using the template.

Then I cut out a Fat Cat Dresden Plate quilt, using the Fat Cat Zimmermann ruler that makes a plate with only 12 wedges in it, and using up a Tilda Chic Escape layer cake and some Tilda FQs from my stash.  After that it was a lot of playing - I cut out and partially sewed a little kit for a teapot-shaped pincushion that I bought in New Zealand I think. And I pieced together and started embellishing a kit for a tiny hanging snap-clasp purse that I bought in Tokyo at Crib Quilts - the kit comes with the sweetest little buttons for decoration.

I won a raffle prize - someone had handpieced a little christmas themed bag which holds a large handmade christmas bauble, all beautifully made.

Earlier in the week, I finished my renovation of the sewing table apart from I still need to refinish the tabletop and screw the hinges back on.  But the padded lids for the tray are all done and covered underneath with matching paper.  I'm really pleased with it.  DH asked what I was going to use it for and I realised that I don't want to use it or put anything into it that could scratch or mark the paper!  So I don't know.  After all the work I've put into it, it seems too good to actually use :)  I just want it to stay pristine forever.

Lots of gluing

 Having finished cutting out (hopefully) all the pieces for my Double Wedding Ring, I turned my attention to my sewing table renovation project.  You may remember that it came like this:

Then I stripped it back to this:

An audit of the pieces that came with it revealed that I was missing about 8 small partitions, and a corner lid.  I found some scrap wood that was the same thickness as the existing partitions, and cut out 6 new pieces.  I decided that it would be more useful to have a longer, non-partitioned tray for tools so I am omitting two partitions.  The audit was also the time to reverse engineer how the top tray had been constructed and papered.  It was clear that most of the pieces were slightly different sizes even when they were the same type - I think everything had been hand-cut to go in a specific place.  I have of course lost the original order due to the poor state it arrived in followed by my stripping of the old paper.  I decided not to worry about it and just play it by eye as I went.

So this week I started carefully cutting my lovely Italian paper and covering all the main partitions.

The next big job was to cover the interior of the hanging workbasket which is in a trilobed shape with a flat front and back, so that was tricky and required lots of pattern making with scrap paper.  It was also a chance to get to know how the new Italian paper was going to behave: very well actually. It's strong enough that it doesn't tear easily even when wet with glue.  I'm using cartonnage techniques and the same PVA glue that I use for making boxes.  I don't seem to have taken any photos of the table at this point.  I also covered the base of the top tray.

Once all that was dry, I could start gluing in the partitions, starting with the outer walls and using the inner frame walls to judge where the partitions should be glued.

Then it was time for the corner partitions, then the inner beveled frame, and then finally the internal corners.  It's turned out pretty well, I quite pleased with it so far.

Next I need to install the lid supports - there are covered sections in all four corners, centre front and back, and of course the workbasket cover in the middle.  I need to cut out a replacement lid for the missing one, and the existing lids may need tweaking if my newly created compartments aren't quite the same size as the old ones.  All the lids need recovering: the lids are padded fabric on top and papered underneath.

So all of this gluing and cutting has been taking up most of my sewing room surfaces, but I did shove things to one side to finish off the Hatched and Patched Pincushion pattern that I bought in New Zealand and worked on at the last retreat back in January.  I've stuffed it with crushed walnut shells, it's quite large so it's like a fabric hockey puck.

I've been trying to put in some time on the longarm project every day, quilting the Australian BOM.  I'm on the last lap now, adding quilting to each individual block, which requires a lot of concentration so is quite tiring.  Plus the anxiety of not wanting to ruin it at this stage.

The border is a pantograph in the background, and ruler quilting in the scallops

A different narrow panto of rosebuds in the wider sashing segments

On individual blocks, I am stitching carefully around all 

the elements and then adding quilting to the background as it needs it.

In the evenings, I am finally working the final house in my Little Houses cross stitch sampler.  This has spent so much time parked at the sidelines while I work on other things, it will be good to finish it.

While I was looking for some autumnal quilts to hang up downstairs, I came across this old cushion cover that I made for my son about 15 years ago.  I used templates from a book of applique quilt designs and styled them to look like our two cats that we owned at the time.  Sadly both cats died from various health issues within a few years so this cushion turned into a sad reminder that had to be hidden away.  Now I'm wondering if DS might like it for his new house, if enough time has passed for it to just be a cute cat cushion.  I'll take it over there and see what he says.