Winter blues

 I've been feeling a bit 'meh' lately - partly the weather, partly my perpetual poor sleeping, but to a large extent because of retirement I think. I know it's only been 2 1/2 months so it's early days yet, and I know I must still be in the mental adjustment period.  It's not that I miss work, but I think I am feeling the lack of an operating framework and purpose. I'm busy every day and getting stuff done, but I don't feel settled or relaxed.  'ganbarimasu' as the Japanese are fond of saying, which can have many meanings ranging from 'I try to do my best' through to 'I am barely hanging in there by the tips of my fingertips as I continue the struggle'. 

I did feel energised after joining in with a marathon quilting call held on Zoom last weekend.  Organised by an Australian with superpowered stamina, Chookyblue started the call at 6am her time and kept going for about 15 hours I think.  Quilters from around the world joined and left during the day.  It started at 7pm for me and I did three hours working on the Brumby Pouch from Minikins Season 3 by Sew Sweetness. I had to call it a night because I was getting tired, but when I woke up the next morning I checked online and they were still going!  So I rejoined from 8:30am UK time for another couple of hours in my PJs, and finished my pouch.  It's much more fun sewing with company, I miss that. 

DS has accepted my offer to make him a smaller size of the pouch and we have agreed fabric choices, so that's waiting on my sewing table.

I'm on the penultimate block of the Tilda Wreath Quilt so that's almost over.  And very excitingly, I am virtually finished the handquilting on the 25-block applique quilt that I've been working since 2007.  I think I started handquilting it in late 2019, so 'only' two years of quilting.  The next step will be to hand wash the quilt crossing all 10 fingers and toes that the reds don't bleed into the white background.  I hope I pre-washed or tested them all, but 14 years ago who knows what I was thinking.

The postman brought two six-yard lengths of backing fabric ordered in the new year's sales from Fabric Giant.  I tend to order backing fabric on spec when I spot something cheap enough but still decent quality.

I finished knitting the Just Keeping Warm hat and have tried it outside during our latest cold snap.  It's pretty warm but also quite bulky, it feels a bit like wearing a felt bucket on my head. The brim fits nicely around my head but then there is a lot of crown going on before the decreases, like a beret had a baby with a beanie hat.  I'm slightly tempted to unpick it and shorten the crown section but then it might stick out oddly.  The handmake ceramic buttons were in my stash, some long ago find.

In another blast from the past, I excavated from the back of a cupboard an ancient dollshouse roombox kit that I acquired in 2008 from Iris Boughton. She was selling it off cheap because it was the last remaining kit from a class she used to teach.  It came with minimal instructions since the class would have taken you through construction, but she emailed me a couple of photos of a finished example afterwards.  The kit dates back to the heady good old days when dedicated people slaved to put together fully comprehensive kits for little recompense, just to help out their dollshouse club or their friends. So there are little packets of pre-cut pre-painted (now yellowed) skirting board, mouldings, window components pre-painted yellowed doors, mystery templates, mystery packets of MDF triangles that are something to do with the garden and so on.  I pulled the kit out now because it seems like a relatively low-risk re-introduction to the hobby, which I need to get back into if I am every going to tackle my cupboards full of dollshouse kits.

The first job was to pull out all the little packets and start puzzling through the instructions, trying to work out what is what and what goes where.

The outer shell, and some templates which turned out to be for the floor

The interior has an interesting angled perspective, and the first job was to assemble the components of the walls . There will be views out of the windows and bulbs above the openings to simulate daylight (if the electrics in the kit still work that is).

Once I had walls, I started looking for wallpaper.  This is the contents of my wallpaper cupboard, which turned out to be about 40% rubbish, and the remaining 60% was mostly brick and slate papers or tiles, or smaller scale papers. I had inherited some pieces of actual real-life wallpaper that looked a bit in scale, which we used to be grateful to find in the old days but now looks impossibly naff; crumpled bits of giftwrap; ancient stick-on faux marble out of scale, etc etc .  I had a big weed out of rubbish and am going to try to make some cardboard portfolios to hold the remainder in a flat usable condition.  But there was nothing suitable for my roombox, so I had to raid my scrapbook paper stash instead. Then I had to try to remember how to apply wallpaper without getting glue all over it or cutting raggedy edges.

Before I could glue the wallpapered walls in place, I had to create a floor.  This is made from individual 'planks' of real wood veneer that I acquired in a closing down sale a few years ago. I had to be careful to stay within the lines of the floor template so that my walls would glue in accurately.

Meanwhile I was repainting the yellowed wood trim in a white acrylic. I appear to have failed to have taken any photos of the process of gluing in the walls and adding the window and door.  

This is a photo from the 'trying out furniture arrangement' stage.  I had thought I was going to use a nice vintage wicker bedroom suite I bought secondhand a while ago.  But it turns out that the odd shape of the room, interrupted additionally by the door and window, makes furniture arrangement a real challenge.  The bedroom suite fit  but the bed took up most of the room and it all looked too crowded.  I hauled out my boxes of 'furniture awaiting homes' and tried out various arrangements of living rooms, studys etc. without much success.  The above picture is the best so far in terms of visual balance but feels dull. Obviously accessories and installing the wood trim will pep it up a bit but I don't know. I suppose for an introductory project it doesn't have to be stunning.

My exploration of the world of papercrafting continues.  I have worked through one of the two Udemy courses I purchased in the sale, all about how to use the design software for my Brother Scan N Cut.  And I've been watching Youtube videos about papercrafting and cardmaking.  It's not a hobby that I've previously felt very drawn to but now that I have the machine and a starter stash of cardstock, the potential is attracting me.  I made a very simple card for a friend using some of the paper I got for christmas, and used my machine to cut the scalloped layer. I hope she likes it.