Thursday = floors day

I am not the most domesticated person. Having moved I have a lot more house to take care of so I had to make extra efforts to be organised. One of my biggest issues is just remembering to do things regulary. So I had to find tricks that would jog my memory. So for me Thursday = Thor’s day = Floors day makes sense. It also works from a scheduling point of view. Usually I teach Thursday but I now don’t need to leave the house until 12 for that. So I can do all the floors, have a shower, have lunch then go to work. I am not good at settling to things like longarming before teaching so this is a great use of time and means I am both freshly showered for class and freshly showered after doing the floors. It works for me. It is a little trickier now Tet is working from home and having confernce calls. By starting earlier and starting at the top of the house we made it work. I also had a revelation while mopping the bedroom floor. My upbringing didn’t teach me house keeping but it did teach me to be prepared. I ran out of the cleaner I use in the bedroom, I find I need differnce scents in different rooms. So I went down to the cupboard and got the spare one. I will now try to order another but this one will last several weeks if I don’t get lucky. That is what I learned growing up. We never had a spare of things. There was always stress and arguments when an item got low, yet my family still didn’t buy more until something actually ran out and was causing a problem. I have tried very very hard to not get in that position ever since I have had control of my own items.

I suspect some of you are now grumbling about me being smug. Feel free I have broad shoulders, but that’s really not the point. The point is, if you have a spare of most things all is well. I admit some things you get through faster and may need more than one spare, just bear in mind that’s need not want. For anything else we can relax a bit. If we have a spare we don’t need to buy or order more yet. When we open that spare we can start working on getting a replacement  and we will have some time to do that while we use that one. I have heard supermarket bosses say if you don’t need it today don’t buy it. I think that may actually cause more stress and panic and possibly over reaction once people see the thing they now desperately need. If we can work towards having a spare and then looking calmly for another spare when we open ours I think we can keep the demand spread and reduce our anxiety. I don’t think we need to buy 100’s of toilet rolls to feel safe nor dozens of cans of baked beans, just replenish what we have used this week, or 2 or 3 depending how often we can get shopping.

Yesterday we finished filling the first raised bed. I have to say the mud we have filled it in is not promising. It is a clay and chalk mix, dry and sticky. I have a limited amount of compost at the moment so I have mixed in a couple of bags to make the top 4 to 6 inches reasonable. I hope that as I work it it will steadily improve. It is what I have so for now it has to be good enough. Maybe I won’t have great crops this year but I will have something and that’s great. I did discover that even without bending mixing in compost is really hard work. You would think that lifting a small trowel of soil would be easy but repetition counts. A LOT. Still it is done now and once I get it well watered I can think about planting. Well I say that, this morning we had a heavy frost and local ponds were frozen. Not thick ice but cold enough that I worry for small plants. I haven’t got much fleece to cover them either, so I may need to wait a day or 2 for some of my plants.

Quilt wise I made good progress with the one on the frame, there is a chance I can finish mine today. Then I haave a customer quilt to go on. After that I want to play with some unusual textures and see what I can do with them. The urgent quilts that were on their way to me are now stuck in a depot somewhere and won’t be moving for a couple of weeks so I have some time to play and complete things sitting in my queue. Piecing has been very slow this week. Getting up a bit later and doing more physical work during the day has ann impact but I think part of the slow down is the loss of pressure. I was pushing for a deadline on May 1st, I am sure that will now slip and that makes it harder for me to get motivated. It is foolish as for now the entry form still has the same deadline and as far as I know the show hasn’t moved yet. I must get my backside in gear.

Group meetings can be great

Yesterday was a day of group activities. Yes groups, but no we were’t all in the same room. My exercise group aren’t even in the same country, but we are still working together and motivating each other. I admit I have a head start here. I have been keeping my friends in my pocket for years, and I love it. I have had afternoon tea with an American and an Australian at a motorway services to help me stay awake on a long drive. I have had drinks events at 3am to fit in with American friends. It’s fun and for me it’s pretty normal. To most people it appears I spend a lot of time at home alone even before this social distancing, I would say I am rarely alone. When I quilt my friends are sitting on the frame chatting to me. How does this work, well we have chat groups. We used to use facebook but that became too unreliable for me so now we use google hangouts. In the morning I often chat to my friends before my partner simply becasue they are awake and he isn’t. We eat together, which reminds us to eat at fairly regular times. We watch each others cooking, yup really, if one person says I have put XYZ in the oven, we all know that thing needs attention. It also works as a timer when we are cooking, each message has a time stamp on it so for those of us prone to forgetting to check the time when we put something on to cook this is invaluable. On balance I am pretty sure we spend more time together than any friends who don’t live together. I understand for those of you who crave physical contact this won’t meet that desire, but I do strongly recommend giving it a try. Having a group where you can chat anytime really can keep you connected.

The second group of the day was the Tuesday night gaming group. I stopped attending a few years ago but the group still happens every week and is a real social highlight for Tet. So they were also determined to carry on so they chose an online server that does board games. They were still playing when I went to bed so I have no idea what they played but I can say they could play later than usual and I didn’t have to stay up late to play taxi. It was also nice from my point of view as I had my quiet night in alone. Yes OK he was still in the house but he wasn’t in from a point of view of interacting. I suppose that is probably another valuable concept for people not used to being at home. You can be in the building but not available. During the day we each go to work. We have lunch together as we have a much shorter commute now, but during the work day we work in different spaces. Only after work do we really get together. So in many ways life hasn’t changed. Tet’s office overlooks the drive so he can message me when there is a delivery, this is really useful. When the railway sleepers arrived he did pop out to help unload them, but mostly its work as usual he just has a shorter commute.

Today I will be attending my exercise group again. I hope to find time to try and find my weights before then. If not I will use the tinned lychees again. Other than that, more longarm quilting, more knitting (that’s really slow I can only do a few minutes a day or I hurt my hands tooo much)and more piecing. Boring? Well this is my life year in year out and no I don’t find it boring. I try to have a variety of projects on the go which keeps me interested. There is also a chance some fruit and vegetables will arive today. I have some on order from a local greengrocer, but they are crazy busy so they will be delivered when it’s my turn. I am treating it as a bonus when it does make it. I am just excited that at some point I will be able to make some coleslaw and potato salad. Yup a bit out of character but as that is what is really rare atm it has become exciting.

On the quilting front.

Just a couple of notes on the Monday mystery solo robin. Your starting block can be any size you like. I just recommend it be 9″ or bigger. Don’t feel you have to make it 9″ exactly, you can, you just don’t have to.

If you want to send in photos leave a comment and I will email you the address to send photos to.

You don’t have to keep up. The steps after the block can be done in any order or skipped entirely, it will be fine.

Lastly, these are the flying geese I have been talking about.

I have to roll it up like a scroll to keep it manageable. Unfortunately that means I can’t actually see the progress. I am sure I am getting there it just doesn’t feel like it. Maybe this week will complete it.

It’s official then

I had already been self isolating as I am prone to serious chest infections from seasonal flu but now it seems the majority of the UK is joining me. Welcome. It’s not actually as bad as you may fear. It’s different but we can manage that. I was so achy yesterday that I couldn’t do any longarm quilting and even sitting to do my piecing wasn’t good. I did have my first telephone physio appointment. It went pretty well. Yes it was a little odd and my physio was having to adjust her way of working but we got there. It was a lot safer for both of us so we will cope.

I had a food delivery arrive and as expected it wasn’t terribly close to what I ordered. Having heard about the huge increase in food waste locally I thought I would share my technique for minimising that. Until the stores can get properly set for deliveries and recover after the hoards stripped them we really really shouldnt be wasting anything. OK to be honest we should never be wasting anything but more so now. After unloading cleaning and storing the perishables (I leave the non perishables in quarrentine and only clean them as I need them if they haven’t waited long enough, for example I don’t need the bottle of squash today it can wait till I finishe the one I am using) I prepare a chart for how long I need hope want the food to last. I then go through the main meal components and check the dates. I schedule to use them at least 1 day before they say on my first pass. Yup I do do this on a piece of scrap paper first, I may have to shuffle things. Bread if I am eating it untoasted I try to schedule for the 2 days after I get it. I don’t like how the flavour changes as it ages. Yup I am that picky. It’s fine toasted until it goes green so it’s not a big issue.

If I get date clashes, it’s pretty inevitable when someone else picks your shopping, I know i can move items a day later because I left that margin on the first try. I do try not to move fresh chicken. In my experience it doesn’t keep as long as the date says. It is better since we moved but still chancy. Once I have the main meal elements in I look at what will have leftovers and how I can slot those in. Today and tomorrow we have left over boiled ham as our lunches. I suspect mine will be with the left over sauce and left over mash, while the other half will have a sandwich one day. Nothing will be wasted and if all else fails the scraps get added to the animals meals.

Yes it is a bit of a faff working out the meals, but I feel it is worth it. We aren’t sure what we will get when we can next get a delivery slot so better to use every part of what we have. I know if the worst comes to the worst we can always have apple cake and ruhbarb crumble the switch to ruhbarb cake and apple crumble. I froze a lot of our produce last year so apple and ruhbarb I have and we like. It may not be a balanced diet but it will be tasty

Monday mystery solo robin quilt

As I haven’t had lots of messages saying people have made their blocks I am sticking with starting the instructions next Monday. I sort of think I should also come up with a better name for it but I am not feeling inspired yet.

For those of you just joining us let me catch you up with the plan.

Some time ago I realised I had a lot of friends and students who for one reason or another couldn’t take part in a round robin quilt exchange. I wanted to develop a way they could play along without the time pressure or cost or post, or any of the other problems they were having. So I came up with a design tool that gives random size and technique/design instructions. The result is something like a medalion quilt. You start with a block. I reccomend it be a minimum of 9″ and have straight sides. It doesn’t have to be square, rectangular will be just as easy and yes any straight sided block would work as a starting point.

Once you have your starting point you can jump in at any point and realistically miss any week as your time dictates. The weekly instructions will be something like, add 3″ to 2 sides using triangles. Any technicallity counts. With this one it could be pieced or folded or applique or printed on the fabric or stitched on or…… Well you get the idea this is really open ended. You get a constraint, the size and a design idea. I will post one pair a week always on a Monday.

I am offering this free of charge to try and keep my students and others entertained. We all need things to fill our time and well quilters quilt. Hopefully thinking about your designs and researching techniques will suck up plenty of spare time. I would love for people to share ideas and questions in the comments. I do have moderation turned on, and if you could see the, erm, content, people try to post there you would be pleased I remove it. I am logging on at least daily so your comment may take till the next morning to pop up. If people would like to share pictures leave a comment and I will give you an email address to send them to so I can put up blog posts showing what you are all playiing with. Do feel free to share this page with other quilters.

If you have questions please do ask and I will try to answer them. I will not be posting specific technique classes but if you have something you want to try for the week I will try to help where I can.

Strange new world

Each day the world seems to get a little more odd. Some of the odd is really great. So many people are trying to help others and make life a bit better. The amount of support world wide for people struggling is fantastic and really gives me hope we could make a fully functional society. On the flip side the level of selfishness and criminality has also amazed me. No I am not surprised but I do try to hope people might show a better side of themselves. I am also sad to hear that food waste has drastically increased in my local area. It seems the panic buying has led to better fed bins, which is really tragic as I am sure a lot of people are going a bit short of food and didn’t need to. I read that in Italy the crazy shopping stopped as soon as the stores managed to get their shelves refilled as that reassured people. Fingers crossed the same will happen here and before too much food is wasted. I am working hard to get our food waste to zero to hear others seem to be going the other way is beyond frustrating.

Yesterday I managed to finish painting the first coat on the second raised bed and the second coat on the first. We also got the lining in and it’s been partly filled. I am sore from all the painting but pleased to have so much done. The second coat on the second bed will happen next weekend to give my hands and shoulders time to recover. My other half is thinking of trying to finish filling in his lunch breaks so I may have a functional bed before the end of the week. While we were doing this I also managed my first sun burn of the year. I think in large part because the wind is still pretty cold. I didn’t notice the sun was so strong and bright for so long.

As predicted spending so much time working on the raised bed meant I missed my target to finish my flying geese, I guess that will now be this week’s goal, especially as I can’t longarm today. I have had my firsdt telephone physio session. Yup you heard that right. My physiotherapist phoned me, and talked through the exercises she has given me, tweaked them and given me advice on home exercise. Next week a have a telephone rheumatologist appointment. I think this is great. I can cover most of what I need to and there is no risk to me or them.

Have you noticed how many TV ads are now irrelevant/pointless?

Now I aught to try and work out what we are eating this week and see if the package that just arrived is the quilt tops I was waiting for. If so they will sit in quarantine for 3 days before I do anything with the box. Paranoid, maybe, but after the chest infections that was 2 times I had flu I am not taking any chances thank you. Once that’s done I can get on with some sewing, and finish making our take on a trifle.

Update, not a quilt a box of dog treats. I probably shouldn’t try quilting those although I think it would be possible with some of them

Who knew painting was so hard

Well I haven’t quite admitted defeat, but I don’t think my flying geese will be done by the end of today. Yesterday we worked on building raised beds. and I am very pleased with our efforts.

This was where we started yesterday morning. A field, a bit of hard standing and some grass, oh and a pile of railway sleepers. Of course those weren’t in the field but it turns out buying a good wheelbarrow was a really sound investment (and not huge one either) as it was able to take sleepers without a problem.

By lunchtime we had the first bed built and painted inside. Belive me we were ready for lunch and I was beginning to realise that painting was hard on my hands and shoulders. I was so pleased with the results though it was worth the pain. The bed is about 2m x 1m x 0.8m. Yes that is a tall raised bed, but bending really is an issue for me as is kneeling. This way I can garden standing and actually reach most of the bed from a chair if needed. I am planning on these lasting many years and I doubt my joints will get wildly better as I age.

This is the last picture I took, it was about the time I started to tidy up. You notice my car has come around to join us, this is his spot for the moment. The first bed has had its first outside coat of paint and the second bed is half built. Ultimately this row of beds will have three raised beds in it, but that will probably be next year. I got these two as proof oc concept, and frnakly they are expensive. If they last as long as I hope they will prove worthwhile but still it is an investment. I am hoping the two will be enough to give me a good start with the greenhouse and another small raised bed. Today I get to do a lot more painting. Each bed take 5l of paint. Which is quite a bit to apply whatever the situation, but in this case I can only find a 1.5 inch paint brush. Yup it’s slow, very very slow. This is just the nature of things. With the current situation we will have to improvise and make do with what we have. if a small paint brush is the worst of it I will be doing very well. I somehow suspect I won’t get that lucky but we will see.

As we spent the day outside so did the faithful hound. We did have to tether him so he couldn’t ‘help’ us. It seems he has a lot of cat traits including their ability to ‘help’. Instead we gave him a chew and let him at it. He did also have toys and water, but the chew has turned out to be the love of his life. He didn’t finish it and has been trying to go back to it all evening and this morning. Don’t worry it is safe in the shed ready for him today when we get back to work.

For those in the know, yes the sudden inclusion of photos does mean I have working WIFI again. Over the mobile internet photos have mostly refused to upload. Now I have real WIFI hopefully I can keep having photos. I suppose I can’t put this off any longer, I should make breakfast and get back to work on the beds.

Leave a comment if your starting block is ready and you need the next instruction tomorrow please. If I don’t hear anything I will asssume you are all working on the blocks still and stick with putting the first instruction out a week tomorrow.

Some Covid optimism

Yesterday I had a moment of optimism, now those who know me well know my attempts at optimism are prone to wandering into delusion, but bear with me. As the goverment writes up new lists of key workers could some of the careers people often look down on become at least more appreciated if not more respected. The one that really hit me was shelf stackers, I know all the career advisors I came accross listed that as almost well you have failed at everything you can always stack shelves. Yet right now shelf stackers are in high demand and A lot of companies are desperately trying to recruit more. People who have lost jobs are also now keen to become these key workers. I have a friend who cleans supermarkets. It is horrible hours, terrible pay, zero thanks, but how would people feel without those cleaners now? I suspect stores will be needing more of them too as cleaning has to be more through than ever. As people spend more time at home their post and deliveies will become a lot more meaningful, ever complained about the people doing those jobs? I know I have, but now they are our life lines, maybe it will be seen as a more valuable profession and they can be given the time and training to do the job well. Ahh there that’s where I stepped into delusion I think as that needs not only us to see the value but companies to accept they may need to spend a little more to make it work properly. I hope though you see my point on the bigger picture. There are jobs we may consider lesser but the fact we pay people to do them means they need to be done. For our lives to work as we want them to we need these people, all of them. I hope one of the good things this period will teach us is that we should value everyone who keeps our way of life going.

In other news, my projects for today. I am hoping we will move a car, my Capri, onto its hard standing. After it moves I can use it’s improvised road way to build two large raised beds. I am desperate to get my cauliflowers more space and plant some more carrots and beetroot. I had always planned to get some vegetables growing but it feels more important now. I know in my village spare produce is shared and I want to be involved fairly with that. I also suspect that fresh fruit and veg imports will be tricky this year so anything I can do to reduce the strain on the system seems prudent. Besides home grown really does taste much better. I rarely eat cooked peas but I love to eat them as I wander around the garden.

After the building I will need to sit so I will keep working on my flying geese. I don’t think I am half way yet and I am still aiming to finish them tomorrow. My show quilt on the frame is about 2/3 quilted so that will be done next week and I can get a customer quilt on. I am still taking in quilts for longarming but I need them to be shipped to me, be that by post or courier.

The beast says it is time I got to work on breakfast, and the cats agree with him. I had better wrap this up before anyone eats me. Wish me luck these raised beds will be huge.

A couple of quickies

Okay, it looks like we are go for our solo round robins. For this week work on making a starting block. Anything you fancy will be fine. Comment once you have a block ready, if I have a few ready this week I will post the first instruction Monday the 23rd. If not we will wait till the 30th.

I just checked the Grosvenor Shows web site and they have started shuffling their shows, this is the link for their site if you were planning on entering or attending

https://www.grosvenorshows.co.uk/

Wanna play?

I have had an idea, primarily to entertain my regular students while we are away from class, but I thought it may appeal to more people. Several years ago I developed something I described as a solo round robin. It seemed like the whole world was doing round robin quilts but I knew a lot of people it woldn’t work for. I wanted to find a way they could play along. The system gives you a size instruction and a technique or design instuction and you interpret it as you like. All technicalities count. For example you might get, add 3 inches to each side of the quilt using triangles. Some of my students gave it a test run and had a lot of fun but I haven’t gone further with it yet. Now seemed a great time to bring it out. A project everyone can play with at home alone and yet be part of a group.

The tentative plan is that each Monday I post the new instructions here. Anyone can start playing at any time, as it really doesn’t matter when you dip in. Everyone will need to make a starting block, I would reccomend this should be 9 inches or bigger. No it doesn’t need to be square, though a shape with straight sides will make it easier. A rectangle is just as good as a square, maybe a hexagon? This really is a game where the only limit is your imagination. Maybe you have an orphan block you could start from, this would be a time to put it to work. If you need to take two weeks on one set of instructions that won’t be an issue just dip back in on a Monday for a new set.

I am thinking that people can email me pictures of their quilts if they would like to share and I will include them in a blog post weekly. For my students they can show off the finished quilts when classes restart. For those who have made the sampler quilt in my book, that technique would work for making this a quilt as you go project. Of course you can just make the top then quilt at the end.

I thought the comments sections would give a space for people to ask questions and share thoughts. These instructions will be really open ended so there is a lot of scope to come up with some very differnt ideas. It also gives a chance to try new techniques in small quantities. Much better than getting stuck doing a whole quilt in a technique you find you don’t like.

At the end of the process you will have a quilt somewhat related to medalion quilts. It is unlikely to by symmeterical and may be very modern or very traditional depending on your choices. It will work well for scraps.

Now the million dollar question, does anyone want to play?