False alarm

 I was in my sewing room a few days ago when DS came down to tell me something, but instead asked "what's that burning smell?"  I couldn't smell anything but when I came out into the hallway, there was a strong acrid smell of burning plastic.  Cue much alarm as the three of us hunted around the house for something burning, inspecting plug sockets, opening and shutting doors ("Not in here!"), sniffing inside cupboards and out in the garden etc, while I contemplated shutting down the nearby gas boiler as a precaution, despite the freezing temperatures outside. I put DS up a ladder to sniff around the top of the boiler but he pronounced it smell-free up there.  After a while the smell dissipated, without triggering the smoke alarms - leaving us none the wiser but still worried.  Today DH noticed a burned out ancient lightbulb outside my sewing room and when he went to replace it, discovered a burn mark around the plastic fitting. Mystery solved. It wasn't burned out when we were hunting the smell, that must have been its dying moments.  And that constitutes the exciting news in this household during lockdown...

I've been puttering away on the Japanese dollhouse garden.  One of those projects where it looks worse before it looks better.

Fine-tuning the pavilion to fit into the corner, and 

front posts installed.  The nearer post is cut from a dead branch

found on a walk. The little window has cross bars.

The beginnings of the roof.

Not a cat's hairball, but the beginnings of a thatch effect on the roof.

Tatami floor fitted into the pavilion and framed in with strips. Technically

there wouldn't be tatami out in the exposed weather like this, but

it's always sunny in dollshouse land.

The beginnings of a stone water basin (paperclay applied onto a rock)

My spacer beads arrived, and are being painted to become driveway edging stones

I applied some weathering with paint washes to the resin toy bridge.

This week I finished the main tube of the first Jamieson Spindrift wristwarmer.  It's a bit lumpy because I haven't blocked it yet, I'm trying to decide whether to cut the thumb steek first, or block it first then do the thumb steek.

I also finished the ABC chart for the Little Houses cross stitch sampler and have started the next chart for DE.

I've cut out all the pieces for the Mountain Saddlebag pattern and fused the interfacings on, I'm hoping to do some sewing on that this afternoon. Otherwise this week I've continued the handquilting, worked a bit of lace for the Christmas decoration, and continue to sew my bucks edging to the mat fabric.

What have you been up to lately?