Grumpy old woman

 This week has made me grumpy as I have been trying to get to grips with 'new' technology and grousing because it isn't as easy to use as the good old stuff.  First of all my laptop, which I bought almost a year ago but have only used for joining Zoom calls in the sewing room.  I'm going to take it to Japan, which means I have to learn how to use it. Or in other words, how to make it work as much like my desktop PC as possible.  This has involved much comparison as to what software I am using on the PC so that I can get it installed on the laptop, tweaking the laptop display so that I can actually see it, getting through all the 'you have logged into your account from a different device and we are now very alarmed' emails from my various online providers, trying to remember what my passwords actually are for accounts that normally open automatically, and the piece de resistance which was discovering the laptop doesn't actually have an ethernet port so I've had to order an adapter from Amazon.  But better to get all this sorted out before leaving the home bubble.  I am actually writing this blog on it, trying to get used to the keyboard. And yes, I know I am a dinosaur and that laptops have been a mainstay of the work world since the Noughties, but I've never had to stoop to using one and desktop PCs are just superior in every way apart from portability in my opinion.  Another trial has been getting to grips with the social media account the Japan language school has set up for us, using an app called LINE which is very popular in Japan.  You can only use it on your phone or tablet, so I am having to navigate it and type on my phone. I hate typing on my phone, I have fingers like sausages so between that and predictive text, I spent half the time going backwards to make corrections. But it's a chance for the students to get to know each other before class starts.  So far there seem to be about six Americans and two other Brits, and no non-English speaking students as yet.

This week I finished the Cartonnage box and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.  I feel like I am getting a bit better at producing a neat result. The fabric is from a little set of fat quarters I found randomly at a sale table. The knob is one we had kicking around in the workshop.

I have been progressing the House SAL cross stitch, I've finished the cross stitching and am now adding the back stitch.  So much backstitching on this to add all the details. I'd like to get it done before I go.

I'm also trying to get the Australian BOM quilt top together before I go.  After my painstaking choice of inner sashing fabric in pink last week, I assembled the inner top and stepped back to look at it - then realised the pink was the wrong choice.  Although that pink is featured in the embroidery colours, the main pink in the piecing is a cooler less vivid pink, and my choice of sashing just looked wrong. So I was pretty stumped since I had exhausted my stash and available shopping opportunities.  But I happened across the bag of scraps where I have been saving every tiny leftover bit of fabric from the kits just in case, and I suddenly thought that maybe I could make a pieced sashing out of that. At first I tried 2.5" squares like those already in the quilt. So I pieced a few shorter strips of those and tried them out on the design wall but they didn't look great. Also I wasn't going to have enough scraps of sufficient size to cut that many squares.  But also in the quilt are some narrower 1" sashing bars. So I tried cutting down my squares to 1.5" bars, and sewing them together to create 1" wide striped sashing.  That looked a lot better so I ironed all my scraps and started cutting out 1.5" x 2.5" bars and assembling them into sashing.  Then I took the top apart again, removed the pink sashing, and inserted the striped sashing instead.  I am pretty happy with it now, I think the inner top looks a lot more unified without being divided by a plain sashing, and the stripes add a touch of energy to the wishy-washiness. And of course the sashing goes well with the blocks since they are all the same fabrics. The top is getting big enough now that it's hard to get a good picture of it.

I received some happy mail this week from an Etsy shop called AmberMakesCo, who create original digitally printed fabric panels. I saw the thatched cottage panel featured in a cross stitch magazine and then saw the little sewing kit when I went to their web shop.  The packaging was adorable and the quality of the fabric seems quite good.  The digital printing is very sharp.  I look forward to making these up when I get back. So interesting to see an original quality panel design instead of what you see in quilt shops which are also often not such good quality fabric.

There, my first blog on the laptop. So hopefully I will be able to blog from Japan if I have time. 

We interrupt this program...

 Japan trip preparations had to be set aside for a while this week when I realised that I had better get my Estonian summer knitting holiday sorted out before I go, because it will be getting late for booking flights etc. by the time I get back. So instead of researching Tokyo destinations, I have been looking into how to fly to Tallinn - which turns out to be relatively difficult from where I live.  However, I discovered that it is quite easy to get a ferry to Tallinn from Helsinki, and Helsinki has far more airlines flying to it. So after a bit of research into what there is to see in Helsinki and Tallinn, I was able to plan out an itinerary and get my flights booked. I'm starting to feel like a travel agent. In a similar vein, I've been having to sort out various things like caravan insurance and house insurance that are renewing while I am away.

Then it was back to Japan prep.  I've got my shinkansen ticket booked now, and the train ticket to Heathrow airport.  After conferring with a few of my online Japanese language partners, I have finalised my gift preparation and have sewn 10 fabric gift bags for the people of higher status (teachers, school management). Apparently it is not the done thing to give the same gift to everyone regardless of status, so I've got the teachers some Cadbury's chocolate products.

Also this week, I cut out all the scallops for my Australian BOM quilt and glued down the curved edge over the freezer paper ready for machine applique.  I only had a limited amount of fabric in the kit and was really struggling to fit all the scallops on it - until I looked at the photograph of the finished quilt and realised that I had totally misinterpreted the 'Cut this many' instructions on the scallop pattern and only needed half as much as I thought.  Then I pinned the quilt pieces up on the design wall and started auditioning border fabrics.  It turns out that the digital printed lace fabric I was hoping to use looked too 'cold' against the quilt (that's it hiding behind the blocks, although the picture isn't well lit so it isn't looking as stark as it did in natural light).  I tried a few other things but I am back to the first substitute fabric I bought, to use for the outer border - that's the flowery one under the scallops.  For the inner border, I tried quite a few things and eventually found a pink dotted fabric which I think works the best out of what I've got.  Now I just need to get things cut and sewn together - ideally before I go so that I don't forget all the details while I'm away. I am still a bit unhappy with how wishy-washy it all looks, I wish I could have found the right sashing fabric to 'pop' all the embroidery details, but I haven't been able to find anything here.

I've been doing stitching every night while I watch the March sumo tournament and I finished the Easter bunny cross stitch and installed it in the little printed card that came with the magazine kit.  I'll take this down for my m-i-l next time we visit.

I finished my second go at Bruges Flower #2 and it's come out a lot better this time - the second attempt is on the left in the picture.  I used a linen thread which fills up the petals a lot better and I did  a better job on the edges.  The plaits are still a bit bumpy and wobbly, and I completely lost the plot on the Bruges join on the reverse (a way of tying off all the ends) on the second one. But overall it's an improvement.

Being March it is time for the free Cartonnage event that Colourway Arts puts on every year.  This time there are two projects - I'm making the stacked double box but there is also a hinged box.  This is one of my boxes, they both need to dry overnight and then I can cover the outsides.  I used my ScanNCut again to score the cutting lines into the thick chipboard for the internal boxes and then finished the cuts by hand. 

One of the big draws for going to Japan in the spring was the potential to see the cherry blossom - on our previous spring trip we were too early and only saw some on our very last day.  Sadly this year the weather in Japan is warming up earlier than usual and the blossom is coming now.  It is very likely that it will be all gone in Tokyo by the time I get there, and even all gone in the north by the time I get to the school. Which is very disappointing.  I have consoled myself by hanging up two of the cherry blossom textiles I bought on previous trips, along with the little quilt I made from fabric I bought in Tokyo. I think the only guaranteed way to see the cherry blossom would be to make a trip in mid-March and basically camp out in Tokyo for as long as it takes until the blossom season starts.

Spring is back on here, and our daffodils are blooming away along with the crocuses.  I impulse bought a little pot of bulbs at the checkout and they started blooming today - love daffodils, they are so cheery.

It's Mothering Sunday tomorrow here in the UK.  I think it's fairly unlikely that DS will remember of his own accord, particularly since he and his girlfriend are off to Paris tomorrow (where the French are still striking and apparently piling garbage up on street corners and rioting now - so not sure what their trip is going to be like). The little pot of bulbs I bought is intended as a Mother's Day gift, so it's from me to me - as Miley Cyrus says, I can buy myself flowers   :)

Not the week I was expecting

 So I was fully packed for Paris on Tuesday afternoon, when DH came down to tell me that he'd seen on the BBC news site that there were national strikes in France which could affect Eurostar.  So when I looked into that, I found out that Eurostar had indeed cancelled many trains, but not mine which is why I hadn't heard anything.  Trawling the internet for details about the strike revealed that public transport in Paris on my arrival day was going to be severely disrupted, and the specific train I needed to go to my hotel might even have stopped running by the time I was needed it.  The strikes were going to be rolling strikes, potentially being renewed daily, which would have meant that I possibly couldn't get to Versailles either - and possibly not even home.  I eventually decided discretion was the better part of valour, and cancelled what I could.  I could only move the Eurostar tickets so I've parked them in October for a potential future trip, and I'm out about £150 on admission tickets etc.

So that was a bit of a bummer.  Meanwhile, here in the UK where all signs had been that spring was here and with many daffodils about to bloom in our garden, we woke up to this on Wednesday.

Now we don't get a lot of snow here in Northamptonshire, and almost never in March.  It started out as hours of swirling flakes that weren't landing, so it just seemed strange but beautiful. I didn't fancy getting snow in the face so omitted my usual daily walk and unpacked my Paris suitcase.  Later on it started to settle, and by Thursday morning it looked like the above.  It melted a bit Thursday afternoon so I went for a rather unpleasant walk in slushy snow and spitting rain.  Friday morning the snow was back again, then the sun came out and by Friday afternoon it was  all melted and like it had never happened.  Bizarre weather.  The daffodils seem to be ok despite the blanket of snow.

With the extra time at home, I pushed on with the unpicking of the quilting on DS's quilt until I declared it finished - I'm not going to pursue every little tuft of thread sticking up from where the previous quilting turned a sharp corner.  I put on the walking foot and stitched some simple straight line quilting vertically  to hold the quilt together.  Some of the seams were starting to come apart where I had originally pressed the seams open on the star blocks, so I repaired and strengthened those with a narrow zigzag.  The quilt has definitely passed into the 'elderly' phase of life, so I've chosen a newish star quilt that I made some years ago to give him as well if he wants it.  We'll take both quilts when we go to visit next.

Then  I pieced a backing for the Sunbonnet panel quilt and cut some binding and put it all into the future quilting queue.  Now I have gone back to the Australian BOM which needs 36 individual scallops cut out and appliqued to the border strips.  The kit recommends fusing but I would prefer to applique them if there is enough fabric.  To that end, I am folding long strips of freezer paper and tracing the scallops for cutting out. Then I will prepare glued-edge scallops for machine applique.

When we were in Cyprus I started a little Easter bunny cross stitch kit from a magazine, which I was also planning to work on in Paris.  So I've been pushing on with that kit and neglecting my  CrossStitcher SAL house this week, thinking that I can send the completed bunny to the m-i-l for Easter.

'Getting ready for Japan' has turned into a separate hobby for me.  I don't know what I will do with myself when I am back from the trip and no longer have it looming over my life. We finally heard from the school - the first official communication since paying tuition back in October - with a rather underwhelming minimal amount of information.  Nothing in it that affects my preparations anyway.  Yesterday I watched some Youtube videos on how to use Japanese chopsticks and started practicing by picking up baking beans from a bowl.  It makes my hand cramp but  if I keep practicing then maybe I will actually be able to feed myself when I'm there :)  I'm reviewing my Japanese grammar and kanji every day, watching Youtube videos on etiquette, and acquiring things for the trip like mini-size toiletries.  I think I'm alright for clothes now although I would like to get a few more t-shirts.  The actual temperatures to expect are still unknown - I've had various Japanese people caution me about how cold it will be in the north where the school is, and the school's letter also says cool and rainy. And yet the published data suggests upper teens/early twenties.  Tokyo meanwhile is already that warm and will be warmer still by the time I get there.  So am I packing for cool weather? hot weather?  This is how I end up taking 6 pairs of shoes on trips, it's ridiculous.

Some winter sun

 We've just had a week in Cyprus to get some winter sun, staying at a hotel in Limassol this time.  Last year we stayed in Paphos which I liked better because it was smaller and more picturesque.  Limassol is quite a big sprawling city in comparison, and at least 50% of it appears to be under construction or gone out of business - COVID perhaps slowing down developments and killing off small businesses that depended on tourism? But it meant a lot of graffiti'd eyesores in amongst the newer buildings.  We both enjoy historical sites so we visited the Amathous ruins, the neolithic village at Choirokoitia, and the main Kourion site outside of town.  By chance we were there during the pre-Lent Carnival time, so we also went in to town to see the preparations for the massive parade that almost 150 groups were taking part in. The parade was going to take over 5 hours so we didn't stay, but we enjoyed walking around the colourful chaos of the staging area where all the floats and costumed groups were queuing up. It was good to have some winter sun, and also to have a holiday with DH before I disappear for a couple of months. Temperatures were up to 24C in the daytime but cooler evenings. Cyprus is two hours ahead of UK time so I am having to phase back in to normal getting up and eating times and am still waking up at 5:30am.

Our hotel (which was pretty empty as it's out of season)

Amathous ruins

We did a lot of this

Neolithic village of Choirokotia

We saw a couple of tame parrots in shops, this one in a 

restaurant was particularly colourful.

Lots of costumed groups getting ready for the parade, and many of the audience

were also dressed up  in costumes.  Themes were pretty random and not very local: we saw a group of Oompa-Loompas from Willy Wonka, a Garfield-themed float, Pokemon, Minions, steampunk etc.

Also at least half a dozen girls and women dressed as Wednesday Adams.

I took my travel lace scarf knitting project for the plane and the evenings, and also a small cross stitch card that came with a magazine. It was also an opportunity to test out some of my recent travel acquisitions:

- snack pocket sewn into my travel knapsack: worked great, roomy and kept my snacks out of the general mess inside the main compartment.

- Kindle - total fail on the plane going out as I discovered the books I had carefully purchased for my library had not automatically downloaded. So even though I could see them in my library, I couldn't read them. Also the Kindle wouldn't connect to the Luton airport wifi which required you to agree to T&Cs first. I hastily downloaded a book onto my phone and had to read that on the plane.  After the initial hiccup though, the kindle is working well and I particularly like that I can read it in the car at night without bothering the night vision of DH the driver.

- trinket tray - although this was useful to corral a few small things on my hotel nightstand, it turns out it isn't big enough for my eyeglasses and phone.  So I made a larger one when I got back, using a couple of squares from the Japanese-theme Layer Cake I bought recently.

It's only a month now until I go to Japan, so I have been tackling a lot of my To-Do list and am feeling more prepared than I was. I'm picking up some more Yen tomorrow and will apply for my COVID proof of vaccination letter next week. I'm also having to think ahead to things that need to be done while I'm away or shortly after I get back, like booking the caravan in for its annual service.  There is still no communication from the school in Japan, no joining instructions or anything. I have chased politely, they expect to send something soon. But really it is far too late for a foreign visitor since by now we have to have booked most things. I think I'm ok anyway because I've been before and I have some travel experience, unless they turn around and say 'make sure you bring X' and I have to scramble to acquire an X.

Before leaving for Cyprus, I pieced together the Sunbonnet panel quilt using some vintage Laura Ashley for the border which matched that early-90s harvest gold tinge. The top went together surprisingly smoothly - usually my dodgy arithematic skills result in some unplanned 'design features'.  I just need to piece a backing for it, and then it can inaugurate the queue for 'quilts to be quilted next time the frame goes up in a few years'.  I received a nice thank you note from Project Linus for all the fabric I donated, and it definitely feels like there is more breathing space in my fabric storage area now - despite DH coming in and saying 'I thought you got rid of some fabric? It looks the same in here'.

I finished the Bruges Lace Flower 2 and was really unhappy with it. Compared to the picture in the book, mine looks really untidy, my edge loops are uneven and gaping open, there are twists in the wrong place, my central plaits are wobbly, and my thread is too thin for the design so the petals look a bit 'starved'. I've substituted a thicker linen thread and I'm going to try Flower 2 again and see if I can do a better job now that I'm a bit more familiar with the technique.

I'm still unpicking DS's quilt,  I have a deadline now because I want to get it back to him before I leave for Japan.  And I've made a good start on the second house in the CrossStitcher British Houses SAL.

I'm off to Paris this coming week for a few nights, to attend the L'Aiguille en Fete' needlecraft show. I plan to visit Versailles while I'm there, but during our Cyprus holiday I received an email from Versailles to say that there is potential strike disruption including the day of my visit - depending on the results of a staff meeting they may close the whole site.  They offered to move my ticket to a different day, so I moved it to the end of my trip instead of the start. This meant I had to rearrange my Eurostar ticket, and as it turned out, cancel my hotel which was full on the new date, and then book another hotel. So effectively I had to rebook the whole Paris trip when I got back from Cyprus. Hopefully it will be alright now.  It's wonderful to be retired and to have the flexibility to vary my dates without having to worry about getting permission from work. I did consider using an extra day to do some sightseeing, but watching a few Youtube videos on Paris really put me off.  Compared to when I visited Paris various times in the 80s and 90s, the queues for everything are huge now. For example, I wandered into Sainte Chapelle in 1982 and it was empty apart from one or two other people, and I think free of charge.  Now you have to buy a timed ticket and it looked chock full of people which completely takes away the magic that I remember.  Similar pictures and reports of huge queues for the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, Eiffel Tower etc. etc.  I decided I couldn't face the mobs so I'm sticking to my original plan of just the show and the Palace (which I accept will also be busy but I'm mainly going for the Queen's Hamlet which is mostly outside).

DS house-sat and cat-sat for us while we in Cyprus, so we went over to visit him today to return the possessions he left with us ( too much for him to take on the train).  Somehow spring seems more advanced in Milton Keynes even though it's only an hour away - we went for a walk in a local park that had drifts of daffodils, snowdrops and we saw some crocuses. Really pretty.