Lockdown week 2 - the craft goes on

Thus ends my second week locked down at home, on paid holiday.  I have to keep telling myself that it's the weekend now, because obviously for me there is almost no difference except that DS and DH aren't working like they do on a weekday. I've been building myself a nest in the living room - like a bird adding twigs I am creating an ever-widening circle of craft projects which won't stop until I have achieved world domination bwah ha ha ha hah...

But it is starting to feel a bit samey now, and although we are so fortunate to have lots of room and a garden, I am feeling a bit confined.  I did go out yesterday for our once-weekly shop, which was a bit scary and also very difficult to manage on my own.  I have no upper body strength so once the trolley got full I was really struggling to steer. There's a lot more to choose from in the shops now, and limits have been lifted on some items.  I even found some toilet paper!

Starting on Monday, I wrote myself a daily jobs list which has helped keep me in some sort of framework through the week.  Every day I tick off that I have:

- checked work emails and checked in with my manager
- checked the news headlines and BBC news site briefly
- done at least 30 minutes of exercise
- done one hour of Japanese study
- listened to native Japanese audio (usually Youtube) for at least 30 minutes (which I tend to do while sewing)
- done or continued at least one job from my longterm household jobs list
- done at least 30 minutes of hand quilting daily
- no more than 60 minutes of video gaming daily.

I haven't managed everything on the list every single day, but having a list (and using the kitchen timer) has given me some structure and a sense of achievement as I cross things off.  The rest of the day is free time.  And the jobs lists includes a lot of long-term procrastinated tasks that I've been meaning to tackle for a while, like scanning in precious documents for safety, so great to be getting some of those done.

One of the waiting jobs was to oil and wax polish my vintage handcranked sewing machine that I bought a while ago.  I gave it a good clean and oil and investigated the various components, and then waxed it with the same wax I bought for my Featherweight machine.  It's operating much more smoothly now and is nice and shiny, and the oil should help keep it in order.  I just use it for decoration, but it does actually sew.

Some other jobs I tackled this week:

- unpicked the closing seams on the cross stitch zip pouch I made last week, and inserted panels of plastic cross stitch canvas into the front and back to stiffen them up.  It feels a lot better now.

- collected all my lavender bags which I use in my drawers and linen cupboard, emptied out the old lavender and refilled with fresh (well, actually leftover lavender from the last time I filled the bags but stored in a plastic bag so fresh-er).

- sewed padded slide-on shoulder pieces to make the straps of a lightweight travel knapsack more comfortable.

- sewed carry handles onto the sides of my soft-sided sewing machine trolley so that it can be safely lifted into the car (if I ever get to go out again).  This was an extremely awkward object to maneuver under the machine but the machine stitched through all the layers with no problems.

- I unpicked the heavy cotton yukata (kimono) that I bought secondhand in Japan a few years ago, and pressed then frankenstein-ed the long narrow panels into yardage with my serger. I cut out a pair of simple pyjama bottoms from the yardage and seamed those up with my serger.  I had run out of waist elastic so I've ordered some, but here's a pic with some temporary elastic in the waistband.  Working on this brought back such nice memories of Japan and buying the yukata from a shop in Kyoto. And I've still got some big pieces left over from the sleeves that I could make into bags or something else.

This week I pressed the strip sets I had previously sewed and then cut out all the hexagons for my machine pieced hexagon quilt.  I've got most of the hexie halves sewn together now but I'm having trouble because there isn't sufficient contrast in the two jelly rolls I have used.  The many printed background light fabrics are all reading like they are the same fabric, so the effect is of polkadots and circles against a light background.  I will have to play around to find a layout that suits what I have. The colours are quite pretty though.

I've done some more work on my Bucks Butterfly Mat and am now on the third repeat of six. You can't see the butterflies very well against the blue pattern film.

I finished (finally) the giant granny square afghan which has come out about the size of a lap robe so not incredibly useful but I like the colours.  I really didn't enjoy doing this but I'm glad I persevered and have an FO.  Washing it and hanging to dry has flattened out a lot of the tension issues thankfully.

It's been nice this week to take the time to do some detailed hand stitching.  I've been making clothes for the felt doll that I made in October, using the patterns from the book.  It's been quite fun to add cute little details like embroidery and trim.  Since taking the first two pictures, I've gone on to make a matching handbag and I'm making a couple of pinafore dresses as well.  Not sure what I will do with her, she is very cute but far too fragile to give to a young child.  It would have to be a much older child or an adult who collects cute things.

Our magnolia tree has been blooming for almost two weeks now.  To begin with, the buds are quite tight and by the end they are splayed open, gorgeous when the morning sunlight hits them.  It's nice to see it this year, we missed the annual two-week show almost entirely last year when we were away on holiday.

How's the lock down going for you?  We are so lucky that we get along and have enough room so that we are not on top of each other. My son's girlfriend is stuck in a one-bedroom apartment by herself and isn't feeling very happy.  My in-laws, who live about two hours away, are supposed to be staying in the house as she is diabetic and f-i-l has lung issues so both in the vulnerable category.  M-i-l assured me that they are being extra careful, and not going out, apart from going to the corner shop yesterday to get groceries then back again today for a newspaper and a few more things.  I told her off and said it's not worth the risk to keep going out,  she said 'yes dear' in a subdued voice but I don't think with any real conviction. I expect she'll be back there in a few days. I personally don't think a newspaper is worth dying for, but I suppose they lived through the war and blah blah blah.  They had the washing machine people in a few days ago to deliver and plumb in a new machine as well.  It's like herding cats.  I hope your relatives are behaving themselves better and that you are staying safe and well.