Red - the colour of despair

I finished quilting my Let's Bake quilt at last on my day off, and started clipping off all the loose thread ends and carry-threads on the back.   I finished the clipping off today in the good light coming in my sewing room window, and carried the quilt triumphantly up to the bathroom to give it a good soak to remove the applique glue and quilting markings.

Modern quilters may not be familiar with that moment of panic and despair when you see a telltale blush of pink creeping out from your red fabric into the water.  I couldn't believe it as I watched all my hard work become ruined right in front of my eyes.  I've seen many claims that modern quilting cotton fabrics are all colourfast.  Being old school, I generally still pre-wash all my reds, blacks and dark purples. At the very least I cut off some corners of test fabric, wet them, and leave them to dry on top of some white scrap fabric to see if they will run.  So how this happened I do not know.  I have found what I hope is the rest of the offending fabric with my solids collection and I've thrown it out. I don't know if it was new or old fabric.

Meanwhile I ran downstairs and grabbed the Colour Catchers and started blotting and rinsing and blotting and rinsing.  Several dark pink Colour Catchers later, it seemed like the bleeding was less.  I fetched the Vanish stain remover, the bio detergent and scrubbed the stained background fabric twice, then rinsed and rinsed.  Eventually I gave up.  The red fabric continues to bleed and has dyed the backing fabric and the background fabric.  I had four pieces in the border, where the bleeding isn't as obvious on the front of the quilt. But unfortunately I used the red fabric for a spatula and for two jar lids.  I've left it all to dry then we'll have to see.  It's become worse since I took these pictures. I think I can perform surgery on the border where there isn't as much quilting: unpick the quilting, unpick the seams, pull out and replace the red fabric, then re-seam and requilt.  I can cut off the applique jar lids and spatula and make new ones in different fabric, but I don't know about the heavily quilted background fabric now dyed pink.  I guess I could try spot bleaching it. It's annoying and depressing.  I thought I was almost finished.

Also on my day off, I finished the remedial work on my little dollshouse I want to sell, and I've sent photos off to the auction house to see what they think.  My internal decoration isn't very good (done about 20 years ago and I was never happy with it or with the house I bought) and annoyingly there are a lot of yellowed glue spots inside where previously clear glue has turned yellow over time. I'm hoping the house will appeal to someone who likes antique dollshouses which tend to be similarly wonky and distressed. I think I am too much towards the true-scale realistic end of the preference spectrum when it comes to miniatures.

With the disaster quilt off the sewing table, I've worked on some more blocks for the Janet Clare Mystery BOM.  I am rather going off this mystery quilt.  There are a couple of blocks I don't like so I will have to do something else in their centres, and I don't see how such disparate blocks are going to pull together into one quilt.  I suspect they are going to be sashed like a sampler quilt which is not my favourite look.  I'll wait and see how many blocks we make and what her suggested setting is, then decide what I want to do.

My ribbon collection is all nice and tidy now and waiting to be put back in the cupboard where it lives.  I've cut several spare cards for future acquisitions.

I'm almost finished a pair of fingerless mitts I've been knitting which I don't seem to have blogged.  They were my commuter project until recently, and feature a design of Trinity stitch (like a star) on the backs of the mitts.  It took me about six re-starts to figure out the Trinity stitch, simply because I hadn't read the pattern properly and assumed I was knitting the mitt in the round like I always knit gloves and mitts.  I mean, why wouldn't you knit a glove in the round?  But no, this pattern knits the mitt flat, and if you do it flat then the directions for the Trinity stitch actually work out, go figure.  Also what I thought was a cunning new rib pattern turns out to be boring 2x2 rib when done flat.  Sigh.  Anyway, I'm seaming the mitts up now (ewww, seams inside mitts) so I've started a hat for commuter knitting using the two balls of Rowan felted tweed I got in the closing down sale a while back. For a pattern, I chose the Copy Cat Copy Cat Hat by Heathermaid.  I even got in 45 minutes of paid knitting time at work when we were all granted time to attend our trade union local AGM - I sat in the back row and knit away quite happily on the ribbing band while I listened to the speaker (who couldn't see me).  They were proudly trying out a new tech thing, where you could text in anonymous questions which then popped up on a screen behind the speaker.  Several questions were posted, eventually followed by a plaintive comment with 10 minutes to go and no sign of the speaker concluding his remarks: "Are we going to have any time left to answer these questions?" which made everyone laugh to the speaker's surprise but at least encouraged him to wrap up shortly afterwards.  All in favour of more paid knitting time at work?  Say Aye!

And it's STILL windy

Being battered by wind and rain seems to be the new norm over here. Ever since Storm Denis, the winds have stayed strong and there's been a lot of rain.  It's annoying at work because our old office windows let in a lot of drafts, resulting in a situation where I am actually too hot (because it's always too hot there) but feeling cold from the drafts at the same time. It's the same situation in a few of the rooms of our own house.  We did nip out yesterday and today into the garden during some sunny (but still windy) spells to spread compost around the beds before everything starts growing.  Several pretty groups of crocuses were opening in the sun, and we've got snowdrops, hellebores, cyclamen, bergenia and pulmonarias blooming here and there as well. Hopefully the compost mulch will help keep the weeds down and pep up the beds a bit as well.

I've soldiered on with quilting the Let's Bake quilt, although it's feeling a bit tedious now.  Still more details to be quilted.  I hang it up from time to time on the design wall to identify areas that are still looking oddly puffy now that background quilting has flattened down the fabric around them, but I don't want to flatten the appliques completely.

I finished the little Japanese flower basket zip pouch which is so 'kawaii' (cute). Mostly sewn by hand apart from stitching on one side of the binding by machine. The zip with decorated pull and all the fabrics came with the kit.

I trimmed down the shoulders of the Sublime Eden machine knit waistcoat  and sewed on the button closure.  I wore it to work one day.  The shoulder seam still looks pretty rubbish but overall it looks alright now to a non-knitter. Nobody at work said anything about it, and if it had looked really home-made then I think they might have.

My new project this week has been sorting out my tangled mess of ribbons, lace and cords, after procrastinating about putting away the ric-rac I bought for the Let's Bake Quilt for weeks because my 'system' was such a nightmare.  When I set up my sewing room about five years ago, I attempted to order the ribbons by winding them around bits of foam pipe lagging. It didn't work and almost immediately descended into chaos which has made it difficult to find anything every since.

Looking on Youtube for ideas, the preferred system appears to be cardboard 'filing cards' and as it happens I have loads of white cardboard left over from the backings of 120 dollshouse kits.  So I cut a bunch up into 4.5 x 4 inch cards and started winding ribbon, lace and cord onto the cards in the evenings watching TV.  I'm trying to group like with like.  Already it seems so much easier to spot things.  DH was a bit taken aback at how many different bits I have, but most of them came to me free  or very cheaply (inherited, or cut off things being thrown out, or hanger ribbons cut off garments, picked up on secondhand stalls etc.) Some of them are pretty ancient now but you never know when you might need a little bit of something.

Another thing I've finally stopped procrastinating about is cleaning up the 1:24 dollshouse I want to sell. I've emptied out the contents (the house was never finished but I had collected things for it), have given it a good clean and now I'm touching up the paintwork here and there.  I've also replaced the chimneypot that went missing and will paint it once it's dried. I came across an auction house that specialises in toys so I might approach them to see if they would sell it for me.  The problem with eBay and Facebook is, apart from the risk of the buyer being fraudulent, is having to ship the house - which would be expensive and difficult to do while avoiding damage. I'll take some photos and send them once I've finished the clean up, and see what the auctioneers say.

Storm Bound

Our old house is once again being battered by a storm, this time it's Storm Denis.  The roof survived Storm Ciara as far as I could tell with binoculars on my day off, so hopefully it will continue to withstand the winds. Apparently it is getting up to 80mph in some places but here we are just being lashed by rain and I don't think it's as bad.  Although the cinema down in Rushden apparently lost part of its roof and they've had to close part of the shopping mall it stands in. They said on the radio that thousands of people are without power elsewhere, and of course there is the terrible flooding further north.  Not good.

So it's been a good day to stay in and do crafts.  After many sessions, I have finally finished the stippling in the middle of the Let's Bake Quilt, which has given a pleasant 3-D effect to the appliques.  My stippling is not great but as long as I don't look too closely, I'm fairly pleased.  The next step will be to put the walking foot back on and go in to add detail on the various appliques. I also need to stitch some kind of design on the gingham squares.  Then a wash & block, then binding, and finally sewing on the various button embellishments.

In between stippling sessions on the quilt, I've cut and prepared the pieces for the next set of two blocks for the Janet Clare BOM blocks, so they are ready to sew once I convert the machine back to normal sewing.  I've also pulled out a fun little Japanese kit I bought from one of the Japanese traders at this year's Festival of Quilts in Birmingham: it's a little 'basket of flowers' zip pouch.  The directions are in Japanese of course. I puzzled over them for a while and managed to decipher some of the kana, but I couldn't read most of the kanji so I will be winging it a bit from the picture.

I spent some time preparing the materials to start stitching the Little House Needleworks ABC Samplers that I bought for my birthday a few years ago. These are nine cute little cross stitch houses which I am going to stitch as a single sampler.  I prewashed the Classic Colourworks threads after seeing this recommended online, since they aren't colourfast, and I narrowed the evencount linen using my overlocker so it will fit into my Lapman frame.

I finished the Little Hearts Hat I was knitting with the mini skeins.  It fit but I didn't like how closely it was fitting on my big head: it looked like one of those skull caps people pull on before donning a wig. So I pulled it out back to the ribbing and started the fair isle section again, this time increasing two extra hearts' worth of stitches.  I will also knit it taller before I start the decreases.

Yesterday, before the storm hit, DH and I had a day out since we both had the day off.  We considered heading to Oxford, which we both like, but decided to try somewhere new.  So we went up to Oakham, a classic little market town in Rutland. We hit up the Land's End outlet store, where DH found a couple of shirts but I was disappointed as there was very little stock in my mid-range size. Then we followed the town heritage trail and saw some attractive old buildings, although it was very cold, and had a nice lunch in a pretty tea room with very slow service.  DH found a butcher's selling authentic Melton Mowbray pies so was pleased to bring home a couple of those for his lunches. It seemed to be quite a foody town, there were many bakeries, butchers, farm shops and delis dotted around.  Oakham is also apparently famous for its Victorian level crossing signalbox, used as the archetype signal box for modelmakers Airfix.  We were disappointed not to find any craft or antiques shops, although we did stop at the Rutland Sewing Centre out of town where I got a couple of half yards of background fabric. Everything was full price though  so I wasn't tempted to get more.

Much more to my liking was a stop at the Fabric Guild in Oadby on the way home.  Although they don't seem to have as much big-name brand fabric as they used to when in their former Leicester location, I was still able to get some yards of white background fabric at £4.95 a yard, some packets of bargain trim and velcro, and some pretty Japanese-themed fabric.  Also a book and some .50p secondhand magazines, and a couple of skeins of DMC thread I need for the ABC Sampler (3 skeins for £1).  So a nice haul to bring home and I've got some cheap craft mags to read.

The plan for the white fabric is to use it as background for some scrap quilts using up some of the scraps I have been painstakingly cutting up, once I clear the decks in the sewing room for a new project.

If you are in the UK, hope the storms have left you safe and dry and still with power...

Batten down the hatches

Britain is currently being battered by Storm Ciara, with winds up to 60mph predicted in my local area.  It's being taken quite seriously, nationally there is a speed restriction of 50mph on the railways in case of debris on the lines, travel is being discouraged, some flights have been cancelled, events such as marathons have been cancelled etc.  Here in our old house there is a constantly fluctuating roaring noise of the wind sweeping across the chimney shafts, which you can't get away from as there is a chimney/fireplace in virtually every room.  The cat doesn't like it and is looking unhappy.  I don't like it much either and it's going to go on all day.  So far the garden seems to have survived, let's hope the roof shingles stay on as well.

I had fun sewing a couple more Teacup zip pouches.  It was easier having proper zips although I still found it tricky to get a neat result in the zip area.  Quite fun choosing teacup fabric.

The red one has gone to DS who is going to add contents and

give it to his girlfriend for Valentine's Day.

I've done some more quilting on the Let's Bake Quilt, having now moved into the interior.  With the walking foot, I stitched around the cooker area, cookie sheet and the recipe card, then I fitted the free motion foot and started some medium-sized meandering.  It's taken some tweaking on the new machine to find some settings it seems happy with, and of course it's difficult because you are having to meander around the appliques and fit into narrow areas.  Consequently my texture isn't very even but hopefully I will improve.  A lot to do yet. I'll do some more today.

I've been working on and off on the Sublime Eden machine knit waistcoat which like many simple things has proved difficult to get it to look good.  The pattern doesn't call for any edge finishes.  As the yarn is a wool/cotton blend, it is a bit floppy and doesn't roll as much as unfinished knitted edges normally would.  The bottom edge in particular looked terrible as the machine cast on had left a stretched out floppy edge.  After some experimenting with various crochet finishes, I have slip-stitched a flat crochet chain around the bottom which at least makes it lie flat now.  I'm not happy with the armhole edges, which are just half-heartedly rolling inwards and also looking floppy, although it doesn't look too bad when arms are filling the armhole.  It's the shoulders that have been a bit of a disaster.  I originally did my normal grafting stitch which gives a neat, semi-invisible finish.  But due to the 'steps' in the decreases, this created a lumpy shoulder line which looked terrible.  I should have taken that stitching out but instead I did a straight line of backstitching below that seam, which has resulted in a much straighter shoulder line but left a lot of bulky seam allowance inside which can't be pressed flat due to the original seam line.  I think I am going to have to sew it on the machine to secure ends and cut the excess seam allowance off.  That will have to wait while I have the machine set up for free motion quilting.

Having stitched five of the little cross-stitch gift tags from the free kit, I decided I didn't like the remaining three patterns (two of which looked like far too much counting) and made up the tags ready for next Christmas. Now I just need to put them somewhere that I will find them!

I'm in the final stretch of the giant granny square crochet afghan.  I think I have three more rounds after the one I'm on, and then the border.  Of course each round is taking longer as it grows, even though it's still not very big - more of a knee rug than a blanket.  I'm looking forward to getting it finished and the crate of yarn colours out of the living room.  Still hand-quilting the 25-block applique quilt, as I will be for some time to come.  And yesterday I went to Lace group and worked again on my Bucks Point butterfly mat, although it took a while to remember how to do it since I haven't really worked on it the last few months at all.

And I finished my playthrough of Dark Souls Remastered, actually getting all the way to the end.  Buoyed by this small success, I have returned to Dark Souls 3 where I had previously been stalled at a difficult boss (Aldrich) and after multiple more attempts managed to beat not only him but also Yhorm so Dark Souls 3 is back on the playlist. I'll see how far I can get.  Playing video games is a guilty pleasure because I always feel like I should be doing something more productive like studying Japanese.

Nihongo ga jouzu desu ne / Your Japanese is good!

"Nihongo ga jouzu desu ne" (meaning 'your Japanese is good') is a long running joke /cross to bear for Japanese learners and even foreigners living in Japan (a quick Google reveals many webpages and videos on this topic).  So when my Japan-based Skype partner came out with that phrase in our conversation yesterday, I was torn between laughing out loud and banging my head on my desk.  Because it's a compliment that is trotted out relentlessly by Japanese people to anyone who can mangle at least a couple of words in Japanese, and apparently continues to be said even to 'gaikokujins' (foreigners) who have been living in Japan for years and are fully fluent.  It's generally well-meaning, and I'm sure my tutor said it to both be encouraging and to recognise that I had thrown a few new words into the conversation.  But it's a bit like being told 'You're not fat! Don't be ridiculous! You're not!' when you disclose to a work colleague that you are trying to lose weight - this happened to me on Friday at work.  Sigh...  On the bright side I did lose a pound or so during my first week of cutting out snacks and trying to eat more healthily.  Perhaps every time I feel like snacking, I should go and study Japanese instead and then I would kill two birds with one stone (ha ha, a pun..).

On my day off I joined together the two ends of my Bucks Point bobble wrap and got it onto the bobbin.  It is held in place by drawing up the passive threads in the headside and footside (top and bottom) to gather them snugly.  This is easier said than done, the friction on the thread resists being gathered and it's difficult to do smoothly to avoid bulges and lumps.  I think the pattern was just a smidgen too wide in diameter for my bauble so my wrap isn't laying entirely flat but it's not too bad.  The struggle with the gathering did cause a few picots to disappear as well which I'm sure will be spotted by the lace experts, but all in all it gives a pretty effect on the bauble and will look nice on next year's tree.  I managed to do a much better (although still not indetectable) join on this bauble, compared to the bird's nest first effort last year - the join is just right of centre in this picture.

I've finished quilting in the ditch and quilting a central square in all the border blocks of the Let's Bake Quilt now so I'm ready to move on to quilting the centre. As a palate cleanser, I took a break to replace the cover for my mini Filofax.  Yes, I am a dinosaur who still uses a paper diary. I've had this one since 2008 but it's stayed in good condition because I've kept it inside a homemade slipcover in my bag. I replace the cover every few years, and it was time as the old one had become quite grubby.  I used the old one as a pattern and cut the new one out of two-sided Pellon pelmet fusible interfacing then debated whether to go with the usual solid fabric cover or try something more adventurous.  I decided on the latter, and went with a mini version of the appliqued house tea cosy I made a few years ago from a purchased pattern.

I roughed out a design in pencil on scrap paper, having to make everything smaller to fit a version onto the smaller confines of the diary cover.  I chose a darker background fabric because the cover will be rattling around in my bag and a light colour would get grubby faster. I built the houses up using fabric from some of the 2.5" squares I've cut recently, Steam-a-Seam2 fusible web, and a teflon applique pressing mat, before fusing the constructions to the diary cover.  The embellishment is done with freemotion stitching on my machine (and again, the new machine performed quite well).  It was more difficult to get the detail embroidered due to the tiny size, so it's a bit messier than the teacosy. 

It's something different, I'm pleased with the effect which is a bit Dr. Seuss in spirit.  I'm not sure how long the raw edge applique will stand up to the daily use/abrasion of being in my bag, even though I've stitched over all the raw edges. We'll see.

My zippers finally arrived that I ordered a few weeks ago from a company called Zipperstation.  They are what I wanted and the price was good, but annoying that I had to chase them to get the order delivered. So I think I will make a few more of the teacup zip pouches that I blogged last week, just because they are fun to make.  I seem to be developing an ever-increasing weakness for cutesy items in my old age - or perhaps I've always had it but just didn't have the time to indulge it when I was younger  :)  Maybe that's why all the dollshouses.

I gave in to the garden's insistence that it is spring, and went out and pruned the roses yesterday.  Well, not so much pruned as applied a light haircut.  I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to rose pruning. This year I tried to follow advice from the David Austin Roses site, but that requires working out what type all your different roses actually are and trying to remember if they are repeat flowering or not etc. plus my climbers never seem to look like the pictures in the pruning diagrams.  I like roses and I've currently got a rambler, four climbers, five that I think are shrubs, a carpet rose and a patio rose. I would plant more except that our garden doesn't get much sun so between my inept care and the lack of sun, they never do particularly well.  So pretty though.

Is it spring in your garden yet?