Senior railcard but no bus pass

 I've just ordered my first ever Senior Railcard for the over-60s, how ageing is that? I don't feel like a senior, I feel like a 20 year old trapped in a middleaged plump body.  Annoyingly, the county I live in doesn't provide free bus passes right away for the over 60s, you have to wait until state pension age (currently 67) to get your 'Older Persons bus pass'.  I think I might get free prescriptions though, I need to look into that.  My last ever (possibly) Friday in paid employment passed quietly, there aren't a lot of people in the (virtual) office as it's half term break in various parts of the country this week and next.  I've been biting the bullet and deleting files that I've carefully amassed over the years I've worked there, I won't need them and they are of no use to anyone else.  Still hard to do though, it's difficult to get over the instinctive need to hoard useful information.  There has been a steady trickle of envious people wishing me well in emails and messages which is nice of them, I've also made a point of thanking a few people that have particularly helped me over the years.

We headed out to the caravan today again and loaded up the car to the ceiling with cushions and various other bits and bobs to bring home. We will add them to the vast pile in what was my machine knitting room but currently looks like a storage warehouse.  It was a good test as I want to get a 200cm tall IKEA bookcase for my sewing room, and the cushions are 200cm long, so now we know that an assembled secondhand bookcase will not go in the car without preventing DH from driving.  I had to hold the cushions away from him and bend them open so that he could see his wing mirror. But a flatpack bookcase still in its box would go in.  So I see a trip to IKEA in our future.  My current shorter bookcase is so jammed with quilting and other needlecraft books and magazines that it is completely useless, you can't find anything or even physically get books in or out.  There are probably a few that I don't need so when I am transferring contents between the two cases, I will see if I can have a clear out. 

This week I've been working on the Lowarn bag sewalong and have completed the top zip panel and handles up to the current point in the live video tutorials.  My zips are slightly wobbly as is the top stitching on my handles, but I'm quite pleased with my first-ever bag rivets which went in pretty straight. The final part of the sew-along is tomorrow evening so I may be able to finish this next week.

I also finished Block 5 of the Australian BOM  this week and am fairly pleased with how it's turned out.  I'm still struggling a bit with my bullion stitch, I often have an untidy loop at the end despite trying to hold the loops tight as I pull the thread through.  The five blocks done so far look nice together.

With Block 5 done, I've returned to hand quilting the 25 Block Applique quilt, and some more knitting on the Lenton Rose second fair isle sock - I'm almost finished the leg chart so the heel flap is coming soon.

Quite some time ago, before the pandemic, I acquired an old lace pillow quite cheaply at a lace day I think.  The moveable blocks turned out to be normal expanded polystyrene, not much use for lacemaking as it doesn't hold pins firmly.  I'd looked occasionally for better foam so that I could make replacement blocks, but nothing I could find at the DIY store seemed much better. I even once came home and got some pins and went back to some builders foam I spotted in a skip to push pins in to test it.  But when I was at the St Ives lace fair, I saw that Makit Lace were selling replacement blocks in high density foam for their own pillows.  So I contacted them to see if they would custom cut some blocks for my pillow which they were happy to do. I didn't need them covered as I was able to re-use the old covers, so the replacement blocks were quite cheap.  I washed the covers then sewed them onto the new blocks, so I now have a rejuvenated lace block pillow.

A bit more stash acquisition this week - after months of not buying fabric, I've had three deliveries lately haven't I.  But the budget fabric warehouse Fabric Guild near Leicester is sadly closing down and are clearing down their stocks.  I got six yards of the Hawaiian print for backing, and a half or full yard of the basic prints for the stash.  It was actually quite difficult as their website is only for limited periods of time to control demand, and therefore kept crashing as all the piranhas tore into the goodies, but eventually I managed to pay and complete my cart. I'm sure they'll come in useful at some point.