Limbo-ish

 I've been feeling a bit in limbo this week and it's been hard to concentrate.  A bit like when you are counting down the days to a big slightly scary trip, or perhaps a minor surgery or scary dentist visit -  everything else seems to pale in significance as you wait for the 'big' thing to arrive.  Work seems particularly tedious since all the waffly meetings and endless recycled discussions seem even less relevant than usual.  I am having to suppress a strong urge to shriek, when someone once again questions why our productivity is not hitting our targets, "COULD IT POSSIBLY BE BECAUSE WE WASTE SO MUCH TIME IN THESE EFFING MEETINGS!!!!?????"  I am clinging to some sense of professionalism by my fingernails.

Still feeling like a bit of embroidery while I wait for the next block in the BOM, I dug around in my collection and found a freebie giveaway from a long ago Lace Day to make a bobbin bookmark.  You prick holes in the provided card then stitch thread between the holes to make a picture.  Deceptively simple but harder than it looks to stitch card without bending it or leaving too much slack in the thread, and of course any slight wobble in the holes shows up glaringly.  It doesn't look too bad though.  I will look out for a plastic bookmark sleeve to put it into.

For some light relief last weekend, I sewed a little length of bunting in cheerful colours, copying a picture I saw online.  It's not perfect in execution, my machine was struggling with top-stitching through the bulk of the trim at the points, but it's fun. I've pinned it up over my mirror in my bedroom.

I'm making a push on the tedious strip-pieced star quilt and have now assembled all 36 strips.  They were getting into a tangled mess so after a bit of thought, I hung a laundry airer on my door and draped the strips over that in numerical order.  I've started assembling the rows, which is also tedious since almost every seam junction needs to be pinned so they match up properly.  The end effect looks nice though, I like the soft colours.  I think it will probably benefit from a border but I'll see what it looks like on the bed when it is assembled.

After the bunting, but before the quilt piecing, I took my ancient overlocker apart to investigate why it isn't working very well.  I managed to unscrew and disassemble all of the exterior cosmetic covers and doors, and the base, leaving only the metal exoskeleton like some kind of sci-fi film robot.  I think I was hoping there would be some obvious glob of thread fluff that would explain all the issues it's been having, but there wasn't.  There was a decent amount of fluff which I cleaned all out, I also drizzled oil onto every moving part that I could spot.  Then I managed to put it all back together without any screws left over, although the screws have not necessarily gone back in where they came from as they were different shapes and I stupidly didn't keep track of what came from where.  I plugged the machine in afterwards and ran it without thread, it immediately sounds much smoother and quieter, whirring rather than rattling, so perhaps the thorough cleaning and oiling did it some good.  I need to thread it up to check how the sewing quality is, but since I normally pull the threads through rather than threading from scratch, I am putting that fun job off for now.  I still think I probably need a new one though.  I did a bit of research online, there is no comprehensive bricks and mortar overlocker supplier anywhere near me.  There are a few models on display here and there but I will probably have to rely mainly on reviews when deciding what to get.  I would like to buy from Sewing Machines Direct in Wales, whom I bought my main sewing machine from, so am looking primarily at their models but they don't seem to have much in the midrange.  I'm wondering about the Jaguar machine (formerly Frister & Rossman) but I'm not familiar with that brand.

Another ancient thing I tackled this week was an unfinished quilt top that I bought on my first trip to America in the early 90s, I think from a Mennonite quilter that we visited on our tour. She was selling off some old period fabric and unfinished blocks and I bought a bag of scrap fabric which I have dipped into occasionally for scrap quilts and I think also this top. I think the blocks are a variation on the Anvil pattern. This top was stiff with dirt and stains and a weird brown colour overall, I assume it was really cheap which is probably why I bought it because I don't love it, and it's been living in the back of a cupboard for decades.  I didn't think of taking a 'before' picture, sorry.  The top  is pieced out of a variety of light scraps in original 30s prints (probably feedsack prints), and three different red fabrics, so could be from mid or early 20thC. I strongly suspected the red colour was going to run.  To tackle the weird brown colour,  I soaked the top for 24 hours in Retro Clean as recommended by Kelly Cline for vintage linens.  The water immediately turned brown and went darker and darker.  After 24 hours, the lighter fabrics around the red plaid that makes up the majority of the blocks had become much whiter and clearer, losing most of their brown tint.  However the two other reds used in blocks at the two ends of the top are obviously running as their light fabrics are now a delicate pink, and one red has faded almost to a pink now when before it wasn't too different from the red plaid.  So probably only the red plaid blocks are going to be usable.  It's drying now.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I could either piece more blocks in coordinating fabric to make it bigger, or perhaps just add a border to make a throw.

What's your oldest UFO that you've been hanging on to?

Things are moving on

 I gave my notice at work this week.  My manager looked tired and envious and said she would go if she could.  I'm not telling very many people yet but I did tell my friend on the team, who is very jealous and accused me of abandoning her - she is desperate to go as well but is hanging on to pay for some home improvements and to help her adult kids out.  I have to use up all my leave and flexi before I go as they won't buy it out, so I will actually be leaving a little earlier than I thought. I think I now have 18 working days left.  

I interviewed four financial advisors and have chosen one, an apparently sensible woman whom I hit it off with.  So I've started to feed her the information she needs like scanned pension statements and currently I'm trying to work out what our daily expenses add up to.  This is not the woman who needed to be nagged - that one turned out to be a tired looking mother who talked about her kids but really had no questions or information for me, and when I asked about her fees she didn't even know as her company has recently been absorbed by another.  The fourth interview, a man, was a total disaster: I didn't even get to finish my first few sentences before he jumped in because he knew exactly what I needed and told me so in a 10-minute monologue that was so boring I actually started looking at Facebook while waiting for him to run down. In the end I had to literally wave my hand to get his attention so that I could ask a few questions, I only got one out before he started talking over me and launched into another lengthy monologue. Having had enough of that, I made 'I'm leaving now, thank you so much' remarks at various points but he was completely oblivious.  In the end, I literally had to pretend that someone was at the door and bid him a hasty farewell.  oh my god.  And he had lots of good reviews.  Perhaps he writes them himself.

DH surprised me this week with a cross-stitch picture of our caravan that I had no idea he was even working on. He bought a little kit of a caravan xmas card on impulse, and then realised he could redesign it to look like our caravan.  He borrowed some threads from my stash and worked on it in secret.  I've added some fabric borders and stretched it onto card, and turned it into a fridge magnet.  It will be a nice memory of the holidays once we are into winter.

I finished sewing the Clothkits blouse this week.  It's turned out alright.  My old overlocker has made the seam allowances look like a dog was chewing on them - I am thinking of treating myself to a new one as a retirement present.  The sleeves are a bit too long and the back neck a bit too high, but otherwise it fits me fine  To me it looks very 1980s but I like the print details on the neck and cuff frills. I didn't know I could sew a button-up blouse so I feel a sense of achievement.  I kind of wish I had traced the pattern off before I cut it out now. But on the other hand, I am unlikely to be wearing a fancy blouse these days since I don't go to an office any more.

I found I was kind of missing the embroidery this week so I dug out a felt kit I bought on sale a few years ago.  It contains wool felt and embroidery thread to make a little bird house and two birds.  I wasn't keen on the birds but I thought the house was cute. 

The wool felt turned out to be somewhat flimsy and some of it didn't feel great quality.  I was sceptical that the house was going to turn out as nicely defined as the picture.  I went to look at their website which has a lot of cute things but I was amused to see their sample of the birdhouse kit (pic below) is indeed quite bulgy. It also costs more than I paid for mine.

I tried my best with the embroidery. The pattern doesn't include any actual embroidery design so you have to free-style it based on the single picture on the front of the kit. I ignored the instructions to cut out the pieces first because I found it much easier to embroider the felt while it was all one big sheet. I used some of the stitches I've learned with the BOM, like colonial knots.

To compensate for the flimsy felt, I backed the embroidered felt with fusible woven interfacing before cutting out the pieces.  Once I had the house mostly assembled, I put a piece of card in the base to help with stability, and added some aquarium gravel for a bit of weight before firmly stuffing the remainder. I'm fairly pleased with it, it's colourful and cute.  It could be a hanging ornament, or a pincushion.

Sumo has started again so I did a lot of the stitching on the birdhouse while watching the highlights each evening recorded from NHK Japan.  I've also done a bit of cross-stitch on the Little Houses sampler and even a bit of hand quilting on the applique quilt.

A big time suck this week has been a new-to-me video game called Ashen, which is quite similar to Dark Souls.  As usual it took me a while to get into it, I always go through a period at the beginning of a new game where I hate everything that's different and of course my character is weak and feeble so my rubbish fighting skills leave me totally exposed.  But now that my character is levelling up and I have some decent weapons, I'm enjoying running around and exploring.  Due to my age no doubt, I find after an hour or so of gaming that my right hand is seizing up so I'm having to limit my gameplay which DS thinks is hilarious after a childhood of being told that he is doing too much gaming.  Just wait, karma will get you one day when you're older too...

Well, I'm not doing that again

 I had my first craft group day out since the pandemic today, and found that actually it just feels far too soon.  It was the first Saturday meeting of the lace group I used to go to, although they have already held a couple of meetings on workdays.  Attendance was low  and people trickled in gradually  due to confusion over whether it started at 1:30, 1:45 or 2pm, but it was the almost total lack of COVID precautions that really got to me.  I was the only one of the first four arrivals to be wearing a mask, and there was no social distancing in place.  I asked on entering what the COVID policies were and received a baffled look, and the reply that it was up to me, I could do whatever I felt comfortable with, if I wanted my own table or to wear a mask then feel free.  There were lots of management signs around the hall with instructions about sanitising hands etc which were ignored, and people were mingling freely.  I took a table by myself but both of my mask-free neighbours on adjoining tables had coughing fits during the afternoon off and on so it just all felt really dodgy, plus one of them announced she had only received her second COVID jab a couple of days ago (!) so it wouldn't even have given full protection yet.  I had brought my own hand sanitiser so was able to sanitise after using the common pen to sign the attendance book etc. but didn't see anyone else bothering.  It's funny because DH and I  have been out and about several times in the summer and I thought I was okay about being out in public, but I guess the difference is that normally I am in control of my own movements and of the distance I am maintaining from others, whereas here I was somewhat trapped by social convention not to behave too differently from the others. It just felt like the risk vastly outweighed whatever benefit I was gaining, as I didn't know any of the others particularly well.  I got DH to pick me up early and  I don't think I will go again for a while, maybe not until infection rates hopefully calm down next year.  It is very surprising to see people at an organised event behaving like everything's fine and back to normal, particularly given the age demographic of lacemakers.  However they did take my phone number so they'll be able to let me know if we've all been infected by someone at the meeting...  I was working on my Bucks butterfly mat and have made a good start on the final repeat.  I've had to order some more of the Madeira embroidery floss that I am using as a gimp as I just do not have enough for the final butterfly.

I tried on my first Lenten Rose sock and was pleasantly surprised to find it fits okay, perhaps slightly loose but that's better than being too tight which is always the risk with a fair isle sock.  It is surprisingly difficult to take a picture of your own foot.

I finished block 4 of the Australian BOM - the only addition will be a large metal scissors charm to be sewn on in the far distant future after the quilt is quilted.  The next block will be block 5 which will be one-quarter of the way through the 20 block quilt.

Feeling pleasantly caught up on the BOM, I turned my attention to the Clothkits blouse panel that I bought secondhand a few weeks ago.  Although technically in my size, the designers expect you to have a waistline which I do not, so I've cut out a size 16 in the shoulders and an 18 for the tummy. It's a bit odd to be cutting on printed lines since fabric is fluid and not necessarily square, so a purportedly straight printed line may not actually be straight in ruler terms. It also means that the printed lines can show through to the right side so I had to add a bit of concealing fabric when I did the collar facing as there were printed lines on the seam allowance too close to be trimmed away.  The blouse is a bit cartoon-y /folksy in style, but it's sort of fun to see how it will look since I only have a diagram not a photo of the finished article, which makes it like a mystery sewing project. There is a very clever 'bust' dart which is actually in the shoulder, with the dart line hidden behind one of the pin tucks which makes the shaping invisible.

I have plodded on with the strip-pieced quilt and have made it to strip 32 of 36.  For a break from the tedium, I sewed together a few strips so you can start to see how the polygons combine to make stars.

I had a new experience last weekend which was tabletop wargaming.  DH has spent a good chunk of lockdown painting all the models for a Games Workshop game called Blackstone Fortress.  To celebrate the big finish, we sat down as a family to try playing the game.  It's all completely beyond me (and DH to some extent) but luckily it was child's play for our resident expert DS, who raced through the rulebooks, set it all out and told us what to do.  I was dead weight, just rolling dice when I was told to, but I managed two hours of being on best behaviour before pleading to be allowed to knit on my second Lenten Rose sock in between turns. It was a fun thing to do as a family and the other two enjoyed themselves. My character survived (unlike DH's) and even took out some of the bad guys.

I pulled some quilts from my collection to display on the metal stand I bought last week, they look nice.  I just need to find the right place to put it as all our rooms are getting rather crowded.  Too much coming in to the house and not enough going out (mostly my fault to be honest). The front and rear quilts are 30s quilts I bought when on holiday in America, the middle quilt was an unfinished top I picked up there as well and after rearranging some blocks and adding a border, I quilted it myself.  The little one on the shelf is a wallhanging I made many years ago from a magazine block of the month.

The spell of hot weather has continued, punctuated by occasional heavy rain, which has been nice even though I am generally stuck indoors for work. 23 working days left to go!  I interviewed my first financial advisor yesterday, whom I'm sure is very good but I think gold-plate standard as his initial assessment fee was twice what I was thinking I would be paying overall, and then the annual fee was going to be half again more.  I've got a couple more interviews next week although I may set up a couple more as one of the interviewees only got back to me when the referral site checked with me whether she had or not, then obviously nagged her so that I got an email the same day at 9:35pm. We'll see.

Why am I scared?

 The paperwork for my final salary pension arrived this week, confirming that I will get the money at the time I expected (there was no reason to doubt this but I think I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop). So now I feel it's okay to give notice to my current employers that I will be leaving at the end of October.  I'm thinking I will do that in a couple of weeks on the 15th, so giving six weeks notice (I have to give a minimum of a month) which seems reasonable.  But for some reason I feel quite fearful of taking that step. I guess there is a certain element of burning bridges, no going back etc.  I'm worried my manager is going to be shocked. And I hate being the centre of attention so absolutely am not looking forward to being singled out for daring to, getting to soon to be departing and the subsequent impact on the work and production figures, everyone wanting to know how come I'm going, why don't I want a big virtual party (shudder) etc.  And to a large extent it's probably because I have been working for about 37 years apart from breaks for education and having a child, I've always had to work, and I think deep down it just feels really wrong that I won't be working in future.  Especially when DH (and DS) will still be working for many years to come, which is going to be weird when they are both still working from home.  It is going to be strange. I expect I'll get used to it.

This week I finished Block 3 of the Australian BOM and actually got caught up!  Block 4 arrived two days later.  I wanted to wait until the Clover Wonderfuse web arrived but it appears it is shipping from America (even though I ordered it on Amazon) and won't be here for another couple of weeks. So I'll probably go ahead with Steam a Seam 2 Lite again for Block 4.  I don't feel Block 3 turned out as well as the first two blocks.  It's alright but a bit clumsy.  I am not ruling out the possibility of re-doing some of the earlier blocks at the end of the process, if I get a lot better at embroidery.

I finished the first Lenten Rose fair-isle sock.  I don't know what happened with this but for some reason my tension is rubbish.  The deep pink yarn is smoother and the stitches aren't too bad, but  stitches in the light pink yarn (hand-dye indie brand) are all over the map. Presumably it is sticker than the darker yarn?  As it was fair isle, I was trying hard not to over-tension my floats and I may have gone too far the other way as the sock is quite loose on my sock stretcher so likely going to be big on my foot as well.  I used to be good at this...

I also finished knitting and assembling the penguin which was a free magazine kit so not the greatest quality.  I like knitting toys and it's sort of cute - very reminiscent of Pingu if you've ever seen those stop-motion shows.

Some stash acquisition this week:  We went to Cambridge with the caravan last weekend for the bank holiday. One of the things I had pre-booked was a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is in a stunning building and had an interesting gift shop as well.

In the gift shop I bought this tea towel which is digitally printed with an image of an embroidered band sampler from 1720, and is so realistic that when I first saw it in the shop I thought it was actually stitched.  I bought one for me to use possibly for sewing a bag, and one for m-i-l as a gift.

Today we went over to the storage yard to do a few bits on the caravan, and then as we were nearby we stopped into Daventry to the Bramble Patch quilt shop. It's quite a large shop by British standards. I don't normally visit there as everything is full price and expensive, and in the past I was unimpressed with their service, but they do stock all the latest fabric ranges.  There was a class being taught in the large hall which made me feel a bit sad and nostalgic, I haven't been to a class for so long.  Even before the pandemic, because they are often expensive and generally to make a thing, and if you don't want the thing then it's a bit pointless.  I looked it up and the people I saw today had paid £50 each just to work on their own project with the company/assistance of a teacher from the shop for the day.  I can work on my own projects at home for free, lol.  I think I still miss not having a quilt club to go to, after running my own for so long before we moved.  

But I picked up some thread, some decorative buttons and some sale fabric bundles: a scrap bag of Lewis & Irene Bunny Hop remnants, and a pack of six FQs for £10 which is much more my kind of price than the going rate of £3.50 or up for new fabric.  Near to the quilt shop is a secondhand bookstore which we also visited but there are a couple of antique shops in the same building.    On one antiques stall I got some cotton lace which I'm sure will be useful for something and wasn't expensive.

Also at the antique shop I spotted this great triple tier metal towel rail which came home with me. I'm hoping to display some of my smaller quilts on it, or perhaps some of my vintage linens. Isn't it cute?

29 working days to go!