Un-Happy Villages

  This week I took an online workshop to make a 'Happy Villages' wallhanging, taught by the technique's creator Karen Eckmeier.  In six hours we made a start on collaging our oddly shaped template-cut scraps into a 'village' and started adding rooftops, windows, doors etc.  The technique seems fairly simple when Karen explains it and she's a good teacher, having been teaching this class since 2005 I think.  Unfortunately, I totally sucked at it, and found the six hour workshop mentally and physically exhausting.  So no happy village for me and my village came perilously close to ending up in the bin several times.  The collage technique that Karen showed, where she quickly nested together several odd shapes into an organic whole, seemed to be completely beyond me.  I don't do jigsaw puzzles and really struggled to get  my pieces to fit together properly. Karen also effortlessly freehand cut beautiful trees, peaked roofs and windows - I couldn't do it. I would cut a triangular roof, it would be crooked, I would trim it, still crooked, trim it again, now it's too small for the building it was going on; I'd cut a door and it would be crooked; I would try to cut eight matching windows and they were five different sizes.  My pieces kept falling off or got knocked askew, half the fabric I had prepared was the wrong colour so I had to pull more - my sewing room looks like a bomb went off in it now.  My wallhanging is starting to look like a village now but still needs a lot of doors and windows and detail.  Karen's quilts are amazing - she gave us a slideshow and her imagination is incredible, everything from undersea villages to villages on the moon.  Once the collage is finished and tacked down with basting glue, you apply a layer of tulled over the whole picture to hold down the pieces and then quilt around all the shapes.  I've ordered a copy of her book in case owning it will magically make me better at the process.

My second attempt at collaging - the first was awful so I had a re-do

With some roofs and windows added, starting to look more like a village now. But I don't like how chaotic my colours are, it looks messy. I also don't like how out of proportion the various buildings are, although Karen said not to worry about proportion or perspective.

I posted the pretty Mother's Day card that I made first class. It should have got there Thursday or Friday, and it's gone missing so my m-i-l won't have it for Mothers Day tomorrow.  Really annoying, I hope it turns up eventually.

I finished the 'EFG' block of my Little Houses cross stitch sampler.  It's looking really good I think.  I have one more row of three to add at the bottom.

This week I finished the Ripstop nylon backpack and I've been field testing it when I go out.  It's working quite well apart from the rain flap on the top zip, being fairly flimsy in this thin fabric, constantly gets jammed in the zipper so I'll have to try to fix that.  I hacked the Youtube tutorial to add an extra zipped pocket on the front, two waterbottle pockets, a laptop sleeve inside, and a security zipped pocket on the back plus a trolley sleeve.  The intention is for this to be my travel daypack so I'll take it to Paducah next month.  If I were to make it again, I would choose a Cordura type fabric I think which would be a bit more rugged.

It's felt strange this week not having my son living with us any longer. I keep thinking I hear him upstairs, and it feels really quiet during the day when DH is working.  I've been compensating by throwing myself into decorating my son's old room.  When he lived in it, it was a gloomy cave, with dark grey walls and a navy carpet that we inherited when we bought the house, plus he rarely opened his blind so as to avoid glare on his PC screen.  The walls were all marked up and had various holes left over from former curtain rods etc.  I emptied the room out with DH's help, cleaned it all up and filled the holes, and started by painting the ceiling beam (stripped by the former owners) and the ceiling.  Then I cut in all the corners and angles, and rollered a first coat of paint on the walls.  All hard work for my upper body but I definitely feel that doing Aquafit twice a week has made me a lot stronger than I used to be before retirement.  I've ordered a new blind, new light fixtures and we ordered a new carpet, along with a new bed and mattress, so it will be all changed when it's done. Meanwhile the furniture is cluttering up other parts of the house. We haven't told DS yet that we've basically gutted his room in case it hurts his feelings.  Meanwhile he is happily settling in to his new place and everything seems to be going well for them which is great.

old colour - looking less gloomy because the blind is open

New colour on walls (first coat) and on ceiling.

Spring has sprung and the clocks go forward tonight - we get the time change wrong almost every year so I will probably have no idea what the right time is for the next few days.  The daffodils are blooming in the garden and also our magnolia tree is looking lovely.  It's hitting about 15 degrees C in the afternoons, so warm enough to go out without a coat on, but still quite chilly at night.