My dress is almost done! Errr, no, it isn't actually.... Grrrrr

 Yes, I did the final try-on for my dress, thinking that all I needed to do was sew the buttons on - the finish so close I could taste it. Then I realised that my shoulder straps were sitting far too wide on my shoulders and needed to be moved, and also that the bodice facing  was showing through in a very unsightly way to the 'good' side of the dress.  So instead of being finished, I had to spend a couple of hours unpicking two shoulder-strap-buttonholes (which luckily I hadn't yet cut open) and that has left marks on the dress so I needed to wash those areas to try to remove the marks (which was not entirely successful).  Then I needed to make new buttonholes.  In order to solve the show-through, I've had to sew a shaped inner bodice lining to go between the facing/lining layer and the shell layer which I am currently slipstitching in by hand.  Sigh. THEN I can sew the buttons on and it will be finished.  I think I might be coming to the end soon of my dressmaking kick, I'm starting to feel the craving to get back to quilting.

Today's Quilter magazine showed up with the final instalment of the Janet Clare BOM quilt.  It offers two layout options, neither of which I like that much.  You can arrange 24 blocks in four columns with sashing, or make a 25th block and mush them altogether with no sashing.

I guess the vertical column one is better, but what I don't like is how some of the blocks were designed so that the corner detail matches, causing the two blocks to blend together. But only for a couple of pairs of blocks here and there, so it seems disjointed and interrupted.  I didn't sew all of the monthly blocks because I didn't like some of them.  I guess I will have to lay out what I've made and see what I need to make to fill the gaps, then think about a layout.  Ideas/suggestions welcome!

Although our basement has dried out fairly well (and we have an appointment now for mid-November for the new flooring to be fitted), my sewing room has been smelling dank. I was disturbed to find a lower shelf damp to the touch last week, so I've bought a little dehumidifier now.  It's really little - I was expecting from the online picture to receive something about the size of a food processor. Instead it is smaller than a kettle.  But it hums quietly away and collects about a third of a cup of water every day which hopefully is doing some good.  I assume that the flooded void underneath has not dried out very well, it probably doesn't get much air movement down there as there are only a few airbricks into it.  I don't want my fabric to go mouldy. I'm tempted to cut a hole in the floor but that's probably not a good idea and it would wreck the modern laminate flooring.

Our big news this week is that DS passed his final professional exams!!  He was really stressed out, convinced he had completely failed one of them, and that test turned out to be his highest mark.  So he just has to do another six months to complete his program and he will be a Chartered Accountant!  We are very proud of him, it was such a difficult challenge for him having to do online coursework and motivate himself to  keep studying at home.  Our son the Chartered Accountant...

Also this week I murdered the apple tree that fell over in the flood, after picking the final apples from it.  Not only did I murder it, I then dismembered it so that DH could take the remains to the dump.  I felt really guilty because this year's apples were the biggest and best we've ever had from it, almost completely disease free.  But the garden looks so much more open with the tree gone, it was leaning far out onto the lawn trying to get sunlight, and it never seemed to get its roots properly anchored. There just wasn't room for it in that space and there was nowhere else to move it to.  We had one last apple pie and some apple sauce from the final crop.

DH went out to the car to get something, and came in with some bubble wrap he had found in the glove compartment.  He was going to throw it out when he realised there was something inside.  Two things actually: two very tiny bonsai ornaments that I bought a year ago from the bonsai nursery when I did my bonsai course, to use in my Japanese dollshouse.  Obviously I put them into the glove compartment for safekeeping then promptly forgot all about them. They will look nice on some of the ornamental shelves in the tatami room (one day).