The garden is confused

Despite the stormy weather and some frosty mornings, the weather has remained basically mild which seems to have confused the garden.  Although the snowdrops are starting to flower on schedule, other things that shouldn't be growing yet have burst into life:  the mophead hydrangea has produced many new leaves when it should only be just starting to bud, a summer flowering clematis has likewise thrown out a bunch of new leaves, the photinia tree/shrub is dutifully turning red which shouldn't happen until the spring, and various daffodil bulbs seem a lot taller out of the ground than expected at this time of year.  I hope they don't all get a shock if it turns properly cold again. Stupid global warming...  Meanwhile I am sitting here at my desk with a handmade quilt wrapped around my legs and a handknitted shawl bundled around my neck, because our old house takes a while to warm up in the mornings.

This week I finally broke the back of the epic scrap fabric cutting  labour, cutting the last of the scraps into strips.  There remains a number of shorter strips that need to be sub-cut into squares but at least I could clear all the scrap bins off my sewing table.  While I watch TV at night, I am sorting the longer strips by colour, so far I've done the 1.5" bin and this is a picture of the 2" bin.  I've also finished sub-cutting all the 1.5" squares and sorted them by colour and put them into individual baggies. I'll do the same to the other bins once I finish sub-cutting their size squares.

Clearing off my sewing table meant that I could finally start machine quilting the Let's Bake Quilt.  I'm starting off by stitching in the ditch of the border blocks, and stitching a little square around each border block through the middles of the strips. It's not too bad for maneuvering since the quilt is only about 64" square and this machine has an 11" throat.  The new sewing machine is behaving well and the built in dual feed foot seems to work quite well also, keeping the layers well aligned.

I've done some more planning for the Japanese dollshouse fit-out, trawling the other bloggers for ideas and looking at sites online for resources.  There are a few Asian sites that do good-looking bento boxes and oriental cooking accessories, but they are all in 1/12th scale.  As my house is only 1/20th scale, one of their bento boxes is the size of an entire table top in my house. I looked around online for a while but it looks like I will have to make a lot of stuff myself.  I did find some square cereal bowls on A Miniature Marvel here in the UK which I think will be ok for large bento platters in my scale, and also they had a few plain ceramic jars which can be large kitchen storage jars or possibly be decorated as ornamental jars.

I spent a pleasant day at a local lace day yesterday, and managed to get to the end of my Bucks Point Christmas Bauble Wrap.  I just need to join it back to its beginning now to create a tube that will fit over the bauble, and darn in the ends.  I've been regretting my decision to thriftily re-use prewound bobbins left over from a bigger project.  There was a lot of thread left on each bobbin when cut off the previous project, so rather than throw it all out, I knotted the bobbins into pairs then wound the knot off onto one bobbin so that I could re-use the pairs for this small project.  It started out well but then as I came to each knot eventually, I then had to finagle working the knot out of the project and doubling up the thread to secure the loose end.  Easy enough for a single knot but then they started coming thick and fast and became really annoying.  The doubled thread won't really show on a Christmas ornament but it spoiled my enjoyment of the lacemaking. Thread is not that expensive so I think in future I won't bother unless it's for a tiny project where I can can wind off sufficient in one go.  There was a capacious secondhand table loaded down with someone else's collection of craft supplies in multiple hobbies.  I came away with some more doublepoint knitting needles, some lace patterns and a lace booklet, a book on sewing fabric-covered boxes, and a couple of kits (bad picture below) for making handmade sewing boxes that open up with drop down sides.  I made a hexagonal one of these about 20 years ago and found it quite a fiddle to do, plus being too big to be useful, but these kits were virtually free and the birdhouse in particular looks cute.  My plan is to live to be at least 102 years old while retaining sufficient physical capabilities to complete all my hoard of projects...

Speaking of lifespan, DH and I were at the mall on the weekend and I tried on some clothing in an excellently appointed changing room, that even had two opposing mirrors so that you can see in 360 degrees how much weight you put on over Christmas.  That was a big shock.  I weighed myself at home and found that it has become serious, which I had kind of known anyway since I can only wear my loosest trousers these days.  The two of us did a serious weight loss regime back in 2014, and DH has kept his down by going to the gym twice a week.  After losing a stone and a half, I resumed my normal lifestyle but obviously the weight has been creeping back up.  So I'm going to try to eat less and more healthily for the next few months and see if I can't get the weight down a bit. 'Gambarimasu' as the Japanese say: I will try my best.

Back to school

My christmas school vacation is coming to an end this week because my Japanese evening class is re-starting.  We went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant recently with some of the other students and some Japanese study tutors, and I was able to use a few words of Japanese plus understand a bit of what the Japanese people were saying.  But basically I'm still pretty terrible.  We both had a bento box main meal - for some reason everything tastes so much better when you eat it out of little compartments!  :)  When I got home, I ordered a couple of bento compartmentalised boxes for us to use at lunchtime.  Perhaps it's because I wasn't allowed TV dinners when I was a kid? (when TV dinners used to come in little compartment trays like airplane food, before 'ready meals' were a thing - showing my age here.)

I've been making a push this week on cutting up fabric scraps and the end is in sight, what a huge labour it has been.  But it is sort of satisfying to have transformed a crate of crumpled scraps into neat piles of strips and squares. I just hope I use them one day.  On my day off though, I took some time out for a bit of fun and made this cute little teacup pouch from this Youtube video.  It has a zip closure and a pocket on the back

So cute!  I used a teacup fabric for the lining as well.  It was a lot of fun to make apart from I had major problems with my zip.  I had a white nylon zip of the correct length, but as I now know it is important that the zip tape be soft so you can fold the ends of the tape under out of the way.  My zip tape was the cheap modern kind that had been melted with plastic for about 3/8th of an inch at either end making the melted bit quite rigid.  It did NOT want to fold out of the way no matter what I tried, and I ended up having to take the pouch apart, cut off the rigid part of the tape, and re-sew the pouch a bit smaller.  I've now ordered some more zips that have a normal metal stop and I might make the pouch again once those arrive.  Oh, and I didn't stuff my handle with tweezers like the video did, life is too short.  I just ran several lengths of soft chunky yarn through the fabric tube which worked fine.

The quilting frame is back up in the living room and I'm trying to do some regular stints on the handquilting.

And I went back to Wilko and bought another of the cheap storage boxes. This one I popped the lid off and labelled all the compartments, and put the tray into the drawer of my sewing table to hold all my sewing machine feet.  I feel so organised!  Much easier to find the foot I want now, and also to remember what all the feet are for.

I've started a new hat using the pack of five icecream colour mini skeins I got at Fibre East.  It's a free pattern with rows of little hearts.  I suspect I might have a lot of yarn left over, perhaps I can make matching wristers.

I finished machine knitting the Sublime Eden vest/waistcoat and I'm blocking the back first.  It seems my tension gauge was not exact (deja vu) so the back has come out a bit larger than it needs to be.  The yarn is a wool/cotton blend so I suppose there's a chance it might shrink up a bit as it dries. The pleats at the bottom are particularly noticeable which is because my machine cast on edge is flaring (I used a crochet cast on).  I may need to undo the cast on onto knitting needles and re-cast off, we'll see. It's unclear from the picture whether the hem is supposed to roll, or whether the yarn is so obedient that the stocking stitch will just lie flat with no hem treatment.  The yarn comes as a five colour cake. I wound off each colour as a separate skein which is why my stripes don't look exactly like the picture.  I also swapped in a darker colour for the right front, I'm wide enough without drawing attention to my hips with a band of white.

At work we have been challenged to do something 'fun' tomorrow because it is Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year.  I think when we are crafters, we're less likely to be depressed because we are busy creating. Also, what would be most fun for me would be not to go to work at all, but I don't think that's what they have in mind.

January bleahs

I survived my first week back at work and now contemplate without enthusiasm the weeks to come. I don't think I was the only one feeling grumpy - there is a general air of depressed drudgery amongst my colleagues  and the overcast rainy weather isn't helping.

I haven't done much craftwise this week because I've spent/wasted so much time cutting up fabric scraps.  DH has now heroically ironed everything that was in the crate but I am far behind on cutting it up into shapes despite several hours of work. I still feel very ambivalent about the task- am I really going to piece scrap quilts from these cuttings when I could be using my limited sewing time to play with my nice fabric??  Maybe when I retire.  After it's all cut up, I will group the strips and squares into colour families and see what I've got.

This is what's left to cut, plus another pile on my cutting board.

Part of the ironing pile were several 1.25 inch white strips plus some 2 inch strips.  I was sort of vaguely wondering what they were from, and I threw out the 1.25 inch strips because the smallest I am cutting is 1.5 inch.  I kept cutting for about another 15 minutes before I put 2 and 2 together, and realised that the reason the white fabric looked familar is because it is the binding fabric I will use for my 25 block applique quilt that I'm handquilting.  I always cut the binding strips when I finish the top, since it could be years before the quilting is done.  Obviously the binding strips fell off the hanger where they were stored and ended up in the scrap box.  So I had to rescue them out of the bin and hope that I've still got enough.

I have set the 25 block applique quilt back up in the living room and am back at the job of hand quilting it.  I'm almost to the end of my second pass which is halfway up the second row of blocks, so ages to go yet. My reach with my right arm lets me easily quilt half of the 18 inch blocks at a time, so two more passes until I reach the halfway mark.

I caught up on the rest of the Janet Clare BOM blocks although I've left one applique block blank as I didn't like the proposed design.  I will wait to see what the rest of the blocks look like at the end before deciding what to do with the blank. This represents the first three chapters.

I've started making a plan for what accessories will go into the rooms of my Japanese dollshouse, starting by looking at the inspiration photos I took in Japan and at what the other blogger/builders chose to do. I've been feeling guilty about neglecting the house since I finished the main build, it would be good to get it 'finished'.

In the evenings I've been making a push on my giant granny square crochet afghan which is still only about pram-quilt size. I'd like to get it done and out of the living room. My crochet tension remains terrible.  I've also been stitching another free cross-stitch kit, this one for little gift tags that I will use next Christmas (if I remember I've got them).  Not sure where they get the 'luxury' from.  What is a luxury gift tag anyway?  Perhaps Tiffany's do gold plated tags encrusted with diamonds?

And I've done some more on my bobbin lace bauble wrap, taking it out to lace gatherings last weekend and this weekend.  I think it is going to look nice on a bright red bauble. I'm over the halfway point now. This is Bucks Point lace, with an interesting double gimp that splits up to make the green cloth stitch features before recombining for the next ring. I've used some clear/silver beads instead of tallies.

I've actually been machine knitting.  I pulled out my next handknitting project which is a Sublime pattern for a multi-colour waistcoat and realised that it was basically made up of simple stocking stitch rectangles.  This type of project is why I keep the machines, instead of wasting ages on boring knitting where my purl rows would show as ridges due to my tension.  So I worked three tension swatches on my Brother 260 until I got close to the required DK tension, and I've knit the back and a front so far.  I'm having trouble with the cast on and may have to re-do it by hand.  The waistcoat is supposed to have a simple rolled hem but the machine cast on is flaring instead of rolling.  I'll see how it looks after blocking.  It hasn't been straightforward even though the pattern is so simple, partly user error and partly fighting the yarn which is a wool/cotton blend that wants to snap if it snags. I'm hoping I might be able to wear the waistcoat to work if it looks alright.

Born to knit, forced to work

I purchased a motto button a few years ago at a knitting show with the above slogan on it. I've always been tempted to wear it to work one day - maybe in my final week before retirement...  My long two-week holiday comes to an end today and it's back to work tomorrow. I think it is going to be a horrible shock - I have slipped easily into a low-stress relaxing lifestyle with lots of hobbies and have even been on a huge reading jag.  Not looking forward to returning to the world of commuting, mildly annoying colleagues, repetitive work, stupid customers and having to sit at a desk staring at a computer all day.  Just a few more years to go...

I have actually managed to work through most of the jobs on my holiday list so I feel like I have accomplished quite a lot.  I put away the huge stack of filing, have cleaned both the dollshouse room and sewing room, deep-cleaned the fridge, took down and put away all the xmas decorations including the tree and outside lights, did some housekeeping on my PC and email folders and tackled various other things I've been procrastinating about.  I've tried to keep up with Japanese practice but that has been slipping without a weekly class to go to.

I've even been tackling the enormous and overflowing box of scraps that has been building up for a few years in my sewing room.  I'm slowly cutting them into hopefully more useful strips and squares for scrap quilts.  It is a thankless, tedious job even with DH helping by ironing them flat for me.  I feel like I've been doing it forever and we're not even halfway down the box yet.  Partly it is so full because when I tidied up my sewing room last Christmas, I demoted various older fabrics and project leftovers to the scrap box.  I'm cutting squares and strips in 1.5 inches, 2 inches, 2.5 inches, 3.5 inches and rectangles in 2x3.5 and 2.5 x 4.5. I've also started cutting some 5-inch charm squares.  Hopefully it isn't all a total waste of time and I will use them for projects.

Even the cat is 'helping'

The backing fabric arrived for my Let's Bake Quilt so I sandwiched that up ready for quilting, using the dining table.  My plan is to quilt this on the sit-down machine once I get through all the scrap cutting and get my sewing table cleared off.

While I was waiting for the backing fabric to arrive, I started on the Janet Clare Block of the Month being published in Today's Quilter magazine.  I've collected three instalments so far so I have six blocks to make to catch up.  Here are the first three.  I don't know how many blocks there will be - if it lasts a year then I suppose there will be 24 blocks.  I'm not sure about the different toned back ground fabrics, that's what it looked like in the picture of each individual block but perhaps the tones are meant to be closer.  I'm making this from stash rather than using the designer's fabric line.

For this project I have started using the Bloc-Loc rulers that I bought at the NEC quilt festival.  They make trimming the half-square triangle to size so easy!  My HSTs never turn out the right size or even square (unless I use Thangles or some similar grid tool) and it's harder for my eyesight now to exactly line up a diagonal line along a seamline for trimming.  But with the Bloc-Loc, you just butt the groove in the underside of the ruler up against the ridge of the seam allowance and trim away to create an accurate square. It was great, especially for the little 1-inch finished HSTs in the middle block.

I finished the decorated quilted hanger that I was working on last week with a strip of vintage crochet lace from my collection, just a bit of fun. The flowers are decorated with yo-yos and some beading, and a bit  of embroidery.  It seems really 1980s-interprets-Victorian to me for some reason. Too pretty to use.

Just before we took the tree down, I managed to finish up the two free cross-stitch kits and put them into the Boots photo display ornament (half price in the sales) like the one I saw on Facebook. So it was  briefly hung on the tree overnight and will be a nice suprise next year because I will have forgotten about it. It's a clever way to display some stitching - thank you anonymous Facebook creator!

Happy new year - let's hope 2020 isn't as disastrous as it threatens to be (at least for the UK anyway).