A month into retirement, how did that happen?

 DS shocked me a few days ago by mentioning that I'd been retired for a full month now - I immediately pooh-poohed this because I knew it had only been a few weeks. Until he recited the dates to me to prove his case.  How did this happen?  How did one-twelfth of a year suddenly go past? I really don't feel like I've done very much yet.

I've just been in my sewing room cutting out pieces for my Haori coat from the lucky cat motif fabric I showed some weeks ago.  I'm using this video for reference, but have resized all the measurements to hopefully fit myself.  I've done a mockup of the upper torso to try it on for size, and tweaked my measurements a bit.  I'm using a nice printed jersey for the lining, and a contrast collar in another Japanese fabric.

I also started piecing together the Tilda Flower Wreath Quilt that I cut out a few weeks ago.  This is a modern quilt comprised principally of snowball blocks, so there is a lot of piecing to create just one block and I need to sew nine big blocks.  I started out by arranging my flower blocks in nine groups to try to spread the colours around.

Then I laid out the pieces for one block, mixing in leaf colours and flower centres, again aiming for a mix.

Sewing is basically endless chains of four squares as you add snowball blocks to each flower 'petal'.  Snipping the chains quickly became tedious so I took time out to knock up a crude thread cutter from scraps of wood and an old rotary blade, which speeds up the thread cutting process immensely. You can buy these in plastic but they cost about £17 or so.

I finally completed the first block, I like how it looks, sort of modern-cottagey.  It's going to be a time consuming sew, but I think it will look great when the quilt is done.

Another project I worked on this week was a little cartonnage sewing booklet, using the handwoven tweed fabric sample that I bought on our Cumbria holiday this summer.  I based it on a design I saw online but made up my own measurements to fit my little square of tweed.  The end result probably isn't terrible useful, and I should have made the spine deeper so that the book would close more easily. But it was a chance to practice my cartonnage techniques as I would like to do more of that in future.  I also found out that the PVA glue I bought in Wilko is far too watery for cartonnage and I basically had to start the interior over again after ruining the first pieces, luckily I had enough of the inside fabrics.  Choosing coordinating fabric was a bit difficult, the apparently-blue tweed in fact has tangerine and lime green and other colour strands running through it. I decorated the cover with a handmade ceramic button I had in my stash.

I finally conquered my fear of the box, and opened my new Brother Scan N Cut.  The machine comes with a little starter project to make a folding gift bag so I fired it up and made the bag.  I was surprised at how much I had picked up just from watching a few Youtube videos while I was making up my mind whether I wanted to get a machine or not.

The starter pack gift box

Then I downloaded a free pattern to cut out a little gift box which just fits the baubles I am giving my lace friends for christmas, so I made a few of those out of some scrapbooking paper I had in my stash.

Then I was tidying up my recipe box and was wishing I had more dividers, and realised I could just create a shape in the design space and cut them out on the machine myself.  

I still haven't actually read the manual yet but I did start on it today.

On the knitting side of things, I finally finished the second Lenton Rose sock.  For some reason I really struggled with the second one. I don't usually suffer from Second Sock Syndrome but I think because you have to work from a chart and can't just knit in a relaxed way, it wasn't doing it for me.  Also I don't think my two yarns have played well together, there is a definite tension issue going on which is not all my fault.  But they are nice and cosy which is good as the weather has turned quite cold here now.

On the retirement front, I have done a bit more decluttering and today we did a deep clean of DS's office, formerly known as the dining room, which hadn't had a proper clean since before lockdown.  So there were some major dust bunny collections underneath where DS doesn't normally hoover, plus lots of cobwebs and other sins.  We had a bit of excitement when we moved an antique Wernicke stacking bookcase that I keep sets of vintage china in, in order to hoover behind it. The base suddenly partially collapsed, leaving the four bookcase components teetering under the weight of all the china sets.  DS and I worked hastily to remove all the china to safety while DH held the bookcase up.  I've taken the base downstairs and glued it back together, and will add a few more glue blocks for safety once the initial glue-up has set.  Maybe I had too much weight in it, but books would have been heavy as well.  Probably just the c100 year old glue giving up.  I've been quite ruthless about not putting back some of the clutter, and have added to the charity pile plus listed a few things on Facebook. (which is always annoying - today I've had someone ask me to post the item I had listed as collect only, then complain about the postage price for tracked postage and why didn't I just send it cheaply via MyHermes, then announced she doesn't do Paypal only bank transfers so she's not having it after all since I am averse to handing out my bank details to random Facebook users because I'm just funny like that).

In the wake of the Harrogate show, and in the spirit of a more interesting retirement, I have now joined both the Quilters Guild and the Cross Stitch Guild.  It was an effort to join the former, I am still holding a bit of a grudge after a run-in with what was then a very hidebound and oldfashioned organisation 20 years ago when I used to run a quilting group.  I've been told that it's all completely different now and a new younger brigade has taken over, so we'll see.  You have to fill out a paper form and post it to them, and can't join online, so not so modern so far.  The Cross Stitch Guild seems primarily a marketing arm for their own designs but very efficiently run and I received a comprehensive welcome pack within a few days. They also run stitching weekends which I might be interested in attending

And I made cookies.  One of my aspirations for retirement is to learn how bake gluten free stuff.  Since I was never much good at baking normal stuff, and gluten free baking seems to require something akin to a chemistry degree particularly when you are also allergic to Xanthum gum as I am, this may be a bridge too far.  But the cookies were nice, even the normies (DS and DH) liked them.