Time rushes on

 Suddenly it's the weekend again - I don't know where the week went.  I seemed to be a bit more productive this week apart from feeling coldish - DH was as well which resulted in us taking our first rapid flow tests today.  Both negative thankfully and my nose still hurts a little from being swabbed. It used to be normal to feel a bit coldish for most of the winter but now you automatically start wondering if you've got plague.

After I had given the new desk two coats of beeswax  and reinstalled all the hardware, the boys brought it upstairs and we rearranged the living room a bit to accommodate it.  It actually looks really nice, gleaming softly under the lights.  It is now hiding a lot of my craft clutter. I can open the desk flap when I am watching TV and arrange all my  bits to hand, then hide it all away when I'm done for the evening.

I've been using the new desk arrangement to work on Block 5 of the Australian BOM.  I've tried using the Clover Wonderfuse for the applique on this block.  It is certainly much easier to sew through than the Steam a Seam Lite fusible web, and isn't gumming up my needle at all.  On the other hand it doesn't seem to adhere the fabric nearly as well, more of a clinging in place than a solid fuse but perhaps I didn't get the temperature right.

On Thursday I ended up alone in the house for the day as both DS and DH had gone to London for work. It felt strange, I haven't been alone all day since before lockdown, but it gave me the freedom to get a lot done without being distracted or feeling I had to make any meals.  The first thing I tackled was the disaster formerly known as my knitting room. It's basically been a glorified storage cupboard for years, I don't like being up there because it's generally too hot or cold, too far from the front door to hear the doorbell, too far from everyone else and the sloping ceiling makes me feel slightly claustrophic.  So it had been some time since I had done anything except dump old projects and grab materials for new projects -  there was stuff strewn everywhere and about 40 or so knitting needles waiting to be sized and put away in the right place.  It took over an hour to put it more in order but was quite satisfying.

I popped over to Aldi to buy something for my private luncheon and ended up coming home with various craft impulse buys as you do.

My sewing machine has gone off for its service so I spent part of the afternoon cutting out pieces for my next quilt, the Tula Pink wreath quilt.  I was using my June Tailor Shape Cut ruler, such an amazing tool for cutting lots of identical strips and squares, so much easier than just using a 24-inch ruler by itself.

I may have also done some online fabric shopping, to rectify the green deficiency I identified last week. The village scene fabric was an extra, I thought it was so cute.

Today I had a lovely surprise in the post which was a 1:24th retro caravan lasercut model kit from Seaside Miniatures - a retirement/early Christmas present from my friend Anita - thank you!  It will be fun to try to make it look cute and vintage.   I certainly won't be short of things to do in retirement.

On our lunch hour today, DH drove me and my overlocker over to the semi-local repair shop so that's two machines off to have some spa treatment.  The engineer was actually minding the shop so I could give it directly to him.  He seemed undismayed that I had taken the covers off myself for cleaning but looked a bit dubious about the prospect of finding where the leftover screw should go. 

I'm going to follow a free online sewalong for the Lowarn bag, so have bought the pattern, chosen some fabric and ordered the hardware. It a sort of mini duffle bag with a central zipped opening. There is a more advanced version with end pockets but I'm going to try the no-pockets easier version. The designer is streaming live Youtube videos for the tutorial. For once it is a UK designer so it's much easier because she uses materials you can get in the UK, instead of glues and interfacings that are only available in America or at sky high imported prices. Hopefully it will be fun.