Winter is coming

We spent some time winterising the garden today, although the afternoon sunshine seemed to mock us later on.  But there have already been a few light frosts so it won't be too much longer before we will be glad we tidied up.  So we've scrubbed out the various bird baths and fountains and moved the smaller ones into the shed, added the smaller garden ornaments, and carried in the garden furniture as well.  The shed is now very full.  I haven't done much to the plants yet, I'll wait until the frost starts killing off the bedding, but I did earth up the fuschias for protection just in case. We also moved the hibiscus off the patio and tucked it next to a southwest-facing wall for winter protection. In a strange seasonal time parallel, I'm looking at booking a cottage for a week next summer before all the good ones get booked up.  DH is a bit boggled, he can't think that far ahead.

It feels like I got more done this week on crafts, mainly because I have lightened up on the time commitment I'm putting into learning Japanese.  I'm still trying to do a bit of Japanese every day but I'm no longer trying to churn through the chapters in a couple of weeks each. I've also paused the Skype lessons since they were stressing me out because I am so rubbish at speaking.

So I worked on the staircase for the Japanese dollshouse and managed to get it painted, varnished, assembled and installed this week.  It just needs the bannister rail added around the landing, which I am currently working on.

During TV knitting, I am still working on the lace edging for the 10-stitch triangle shawl, after some early problems and a lot of reversing, I have now got into the rhythm of it.  I think it is going to ruffle slightly, probably because the book says the edging naturally wants to be a shallow curve, but blocking may help flatten it.

I've also been working on my Christmas House cross-stitch in the evenings.  The whole piece  certainly won't be done for this christmas, but I'm almost finished the christmas kitchen (the room on the right in the picture).

I haven't done any more bobbin lace since the course last weekend, partly because I was waiting for a secondhand pillow stand to arrive.   I wanted a stand because it was doing my back in to hunch over a big pillow resting on a table. Not many people make these stands anymore, so when I saw one on Preloved for £5, I snapped it up.  I also wanted one that would take my existing pillows, because some of them are designed to only fit a specific pillow that is fitted with a bracket underneath.  However, when the stand arrived, it quickly became clear why it was sold.  It was nicely made but extremely wobbly, perhaps a home effort by a skilled handyman?  I spent some time analysing why it was wobbling, and then applied a variety of solutions which have improved it quite a lot. 

• The legs weren't quite even so I've padded a few with adhesive felt to level it.
• the central post had no sideways bracing. I've duct-taped on a couple of shelf brackets, also with adhesive felt on their bottoms to protect the floor.
•  the extendable support wasn't clamping tightly into the lower part of the post. I've drilled a second hole higher up and added a second fixing which has made it more stable.
• the bolts holding the stand together couldn't be sufficiently tightened. I've replaced all but one with proper bolts that can be tightened securely with a spanner.
• the thinner extendable part of the post was twisting under the weight of the lace pillow and bobbins.  I've braced it on either side with a batten held on with two more bolts.

So it's not pretty, but it's a lot more useable now.  It only wobbles slightly now at the top, which is mostly mitigated by sitting up to the pillow with it butting against my chest. I think if I could replace the final bolt on the pivoting head to one that could be tightened more securely, it would help as well.  But it's a wing nut so that you can adjust the pivot, so I would have to look for a bolt that fits a wingnut.  It's fine for now.

So now hopefully I will get a bit more lace made!

I pieced together block 4 of the 30s Sampler Quilt and cut out block 5. I can't remember if I blogged that I had covered a large scrap of cardboard with some flannel for laying out each block as I cut it?  Then I can just carry it to the sewing machine without disarranging anything.  I really need to choose a border fabric to ensure that the fabrics I am picking for blocks will all go with the border.  I don't have anything suitable in my stash so will need to go shopping.  It's fun to work with such scrappy blocks and use up some of my 30s bits and pieces.

It's Halloween at the end of the month so some of my quilted hangings and dollshouse bits are having their moment in the sun.  I also got out my Lego haunted house and put it on display in the hallway.

Craftsy.com is having a week where you can watch all their videos for free, through until next Friday 12th October.  I watched a good class with Sara Lawson on interfacing for structure in bags, but couldn't really find anything else I wanted to watch.  There's something about the Craftsy format I find really tedious. I know they've got to reach the common denominator, but I often find the pace really slow and the content repetitious.  Especially when they tell you that you need to sew the seam from A to B, then you've got to sit there while they actually do it on camera even when it's a really long seam.  In fact I find some classes improved if set to double speed, particularly the really slow speakers.  When you eliminate all of that, and the constant reminders about how to use Craftsy, and the chapter headings etc., some of the classes probably boil down to about 90 minutes tops of actual useful information which isn't much for £30 or £35 at the normal price.  I started to watch another bag making class about sewing storage caddies but had to turn it off when the teacher recommended you to use your rotary cutter to cut foamcore board with !!!  She should know better if she works with fabric and shouldn't be recommending anything so damaging to students.