Spring has indeed sprung
March 18, 2020Yesterday I started to see tiny lambs about. Such a wonderful sign of spring. Yes despite being a meat eater I do enjoy the small farm animals. I also enjoy knowing the year is moving by seeing it rather than just having a calendar. With all the budget junk on TV I think some sort of channel showing the world change woudl be amazing. People have these really huge TVs now, why not have it on as a window onto an outside space. Seeing the seasons would surely help connect people to the planet.
My geese are coming along, slowly. I can’t be sure how many I do each morning but I am hoping its 7 or 8. I am hoping this ring has 64 in the whole ring, but I suspect it is the 128 ring. If so this chunk must have around 90 geese. That will mean a mamoth sewing session on Sunday if I am right. I am still going to try to complete it this week though, challenges are good right. Even the crazy ones.
Yesterday was a bit of a train wreck. Lots of deliveries really do break up the day and make me less productive. They do mean I now have more to do here to keep me busy, ha ha ha, like I wasn’t already. One of the deliveries was 24 railway sleepers. These will become raised beds. Ideally soon. I have seedlings desperate for new housing. I also got my cucumber seeds, and hope to get them started today. Oh and the potatoes want out too. I don’t think I will manage all of that today. The raised beds probably need to wait till the weekend when I have help, but the cucumbers I can do on my own.
Hopefully today will be a good day for longarm quilting and books. I do still have a couple of deliveries due, but I can hope for less disruption. I am making good progress on my show quilt I am just grumpy because I didnt manage to work on it yesterday. With that I had better go and let the beast have his drink and get to work.
Is there life beyond planning
March 17, 2020I feel I am spending a crazy amount of my time planning at the moment. Today was doing the weeks menus. Yes I really do, and it has become much more important now someone else picks my shopping. I have no way to know what dates which items will have. Yesterday evening my shopping arrived so this morning I went through the dates and worked out what we have to eat when. I got pretty lucky things will space out fairly nicely through the week. I knew some items always have short dates and had planned those your last nights dinner. The other reason I didnt plan in advance was I knew we wouldn’t get everything I ordered so I was going to have to shuffle things about. I was right, but it wasnt too bad. I think the dog will get short changed as I slightly reduce portion sizes to stretch things out a bit more. Could it be that the virus will make us healthier again as we eat less? Probably not based on the panic shopping and the fact that most people will probably sit at home and watch TV. I can dream though. I suppose I should also make sure I try out my exercises today as I have missed my aquafit class.
Having written here about my next section of foundation pieceing I was inspired to get a bit more done before bed yesterday. I think it was only another 3 or 4 geeese but it is all progress right. I did another hour before breakfast (yes I now eat breakfast as I get up so early I am hungry about 9am) and made it to the point where I needed to roll up the section I have made. That is a mixed milestone. Yes, it shows progress but from here on it will be very hard to see how well I am doing as it will be rolled as soon as it’s made. I think that is why the spikes had felt so unending. As it is the only sensible way to handle the piece because of its size I will just have to suck it up and deal. I am still hoping that I can finish the section by the end of Sunday.
While planning my meals I realised I had missed planting a vegetable I love and eat a lot of, cucumbers. One of my jobs for today will be getting some cucumber seeds ordered. I also want to look for asparagus, not as seeds though. They take years to become productive so I would like to get them prestarted. Breakfast is done, I had better love you and leave you, I have work to do.
Thank you for keeping me to my plan
March 16, 2020Yesterday turned out to be very grey and windy, had I not told you I was going to prune I am not sure I would have. However having actually got my backside in gear I am very pleased with the result. The hydranger went from a big broown blob to a clear sign of spring. It’s green and not quite so big. It feels like spring has suddenly sprung in that part of the garden. It got me thinking about those stuck at home without a garden and possibly living on plain pasta. It seems like a great time to start growing our own herbs if you don’t already. A windowsill full of greenery that can also improve your dinner. Sounds like a win win. I have a raised trug of herbs. There arent many I used so I am able to have a good amount of each of them. The only one I don’t grow that I would like to is thyme. That one seems to be really picky about growing. Maybe that will be my project.
On the quilting front I spent all day working on that ring of spikes. It wasn’t quite never ending and just before dinner it was finished. That meant this moring I was able to start on the next ring which is flying geese. I suspect these will also border on never ending. I think it is a couple of yards of geese less than an inch tall. Nope I haven’t counted how many that is but I do know in my hour this moring I made 8, so we can safely say more than a weeks work here too, unless I get some done in the evenings after work. Perhaps next Sunday I can spend the day on finishing it off like I did yesterday.
I did also stick to the bath plan, and yes it was good. I actually settled on listening to a audio book in the bath. My bullet journal is showing I am suddenly getting through a lot more books. I am glad to report I have a huge library of audio books so this is a good thing. I wonder if the online library services are going to see an increase in business. I would love to think more people would find escape in books. I feel they have been neglected somewhat recently. Part of the reason I love audio books is they let me read while working or sewing. With a show quilt on the frame I always get through far more books because Ibecome engrossed in boththe quilting and the book. It has to be one of my favourite times. LOL I had better get that next show quilt pieced hadn’t I, then I can keep quilting and listening. It will have to wait until I have completed a couple of customer quilts though so I can’t get too excited.
Plotting planning and pruning
March 15, 2020Very pleased I actually got some restful sleep last night. It doesn’t happen often so I am making the most of it and making plans. Brains work better rested who knew 
In the realm of boring little jobs that need doing I will be having a clear out and check of my class supplies bag and running the kitchen stuff through the dishwasher then I will be all set for next terms classes. Need to check the dates on the biscuits too, I may have to eat them if they won’t keep. Of course this is just to maintain solidarity with my students and prevent food waste. Just relieved I buy biscuits I like too.
If it stays dry today I think I will make another push on tidying up in the garden. I don’t mind the work but I don’t love it enough to get half drowned while doing it. As we now have a large garden there are no shortage of things wanting my attention. I am hoping this will also count towards todays exercise. On the subject of exercise I have found some low impact exercises on the NHS site that I will be trying now I can’t go to aquafit. I am really going to miss that and it’s huge benefit to my joints so I am hoping the exercises will stop me losing everything I have gained. I knew me having a gym membership was dodgy
My big plan for the day though is to work on my quilt for Sandown. Yup I am fully aware that may not happen but I may as well get the quilt done anyway. I love my design and it isn’t so specific it wouldn’t fit in another year. It was planned for this years theme but so be it. I wonder if the shows will let this years theme carry ove to next year if the shows do have to be cancelled. Probably not as they will have already have been handing out next years forms at the first shows of the year, but you never know. The issue with the desing I am working on is it has HUGE foundations. I have been working on the first for a week and it feels like I am getting nowhere. I hope that if I finish one then it will feel like real progress and make things flow easier. I have started with the biggest piece if not the most intricate so I really should have expected it to take a while.
Another ongoing plan is to have one special fancy bath a week. You know the lounge about with favourite products and really relax. I like to take my tablet and watch a show of some sort as well. It is something I usually schedule when we go on holiday to a hotel as at our old house we rarely had the hot water to do it and the tiny bathroom was anything but relaxing. As I can now do it at home I think I should. I really am going all out on the budget the luxuries. I think these higlights will make a big differnce in the long run, and lets face it, this is not a short term upheaval so good planning will be key.
In other, probably not exciting to anyone but me news the very nice piece of lamb I thought would do 2 meals will do three maybe 4 result. I am a big fan of lamb and caper sauce and it does spread out the left overs really well. Not that leftovers are much of a hazard with a dog. I rarely use onion and have been leaving out garlic so nearly everything I cook is dog safe, anything we don’t want to eat is split between the cats and dog. I really can’t believe how little food related waste we now have. I am even starting to wonder if I should try making crisps from potato skins…..
Coronavirus and Crafts
March 14, 2020Sorry to those who have come here to hide from the virus, but it si the big thing changing our lives at the moment so it will feature here. I do hope I can help us stay positive and maybe even excited by our reduction in social contact.
I suppose I should start by coming clean, I don’t thrive on being around people. It’t not that I don’t like it exactly, sometimes I really love seeing people, but it is very very tiring and even when fun wears. Having my social contact more remotely is likely to be much better for me. I know this isn’t how everyone experiences the world but I hope I can share a bit of my perspective and technique and maybe make these changes in how we interact a bit easier for those they don’t suit so well.
My students are largely in the high risk category for this virus so I have cancelled my classes hoping to reduce their risks. This means we all have a few more hours to fill a week. Iam hoping we will all use this time to sew. It is what we were doing with the time anyway and it makes us all happier so I would advise we keep doing that, and at the same times. We can’t see the reast of the class but we know they are out there and doing the same things. To help us stay together I am looking at ways to set up chat groups so we can ‘talk’ and show off what we are doing. Sorry but you will need to supply your own refreshements, don’t forget the biscuits.
That leads to my next tip, plan the luxuries first. That is a misquote of Heinlein and I think a very valuable piece of advice. We can’t directly change the pandemic, we can only change how we respond to it and live with it. As we are now having some kind of staycation lets make it as good as we can. So do buy that nice packet of biscuits, that new project you really want to try dig out the insane jigsaw you have been planning to do (or is that just me?). One of my students has already been self isolating and says they have managed a huge amount of silly house jobs. All those things you are going to do one day, one day just arrived. Funny as this may sound I plan to spread out those jobs, so there is always something needing my attention.
I am also working on two show quilts. One has been entered into Malvern, it is for the theme category, but now I suspect it won’t get seen. I may be wrong but I can’t see the show going ahead. However, the quilt can go in the general bed category next year. It won’t go off, it won’t have been seen so I will just be well prepared for next year. That one is currently being quilted, and when finished I have some customer quilts to get on with. Since getting a puppy I have been getting up alarmingly early. I am a night owl, 5am was not a time I expected to see from that direction but it does mean I have had time to do some piecing before work. I have now got the puppy to getting up at 6.30 which is a little more civilised and I am seriously considering sticking with that time for a while just for the sewing time. The alternative is to bring more sewing downstairs so I can sew in the evening with the puppy. I am concerend that he is still too boisterous for that.
The other crafty plan I have for this period is a knitting one. I had a lot of patterns I was looking at on ravelry and chose a nice easy but time consuming one. It is a large triangular hood/shawl/cape thing. It is knitted in the round almost all in a simple knit. I won’t need to think too much but it will keep me busy if i want to watch TV.
Yay I am back
January 25, 2020No idea what had been wrong, maybe the puppy had been keeping to computers up all night as well as me. This has been a very educational month. I have learned that sometimes getting time for a shower is the most amazing luxury. Heck getting to the loo can be pretty fantastic. Youngsters are demanding, crazy, brave and have no clue when they are tired. Having strict rules helps, even though it isn’t always fun or infalible. It is surprisingly easy for a cute puppy to meet over 100 people before they are 12 weeks old, some of those 100 will have no clue how to greet a dog.
Fenrir has grown amazingly, he has gone from 7.5kg to just over 10kg in 3 weeks. This leaves him with no clue where his limbs are or how strong he has become. This last week has been crazy, he is finally fully vaccinated and we want him to experience as many things as possible before he is 12 weeks old. We managed 4 towns and a whole range of floor surfaces and weird stuff. Most of which he has taken in his stride with just a few cases of over excitement. Joggers are the most concerning things we have seen, with very heavy traffic coming second.
So as promised some more up to date photos of the little chap, then back to quilting.
Latest mug shot, trying to be appealing after failing to listen, yes yes just like any child
This was during a class, it’s very tiring meeting new people.
His first outing was in his chariot, as he wasn’t allowed to walk anywhere public till his second vaccination. He chose this toy, it has some absurdly manly title about powerful chewers. It was soft enough for baby teeth so I let him have it, well it turns put to be his favourite thing to chew and he now has the other toys in the same range. I guess I should have trusted his judgement.
This dragon is a very neat toy and also much loved. It’s a knotted rope in a furry skin. So popular we have bought a spare.
Professional car traveller. Initially he was desperate to get out of the car, now I have to encourage him out. He still isn’t keen to get in but at least once in he is happy.
Is this working yet?
I have discovered that trying to fix problems with a blog post is impossible with a new young family member. Nope having four feet and fur doesn’t make it easier, it just means the phase is shorter. I had been trying to post a few pictures of the new chap.
These were taken a couple of weeks ago. He has been growing, if this works I will post another set right away. If not it may take a bit longer for the next post too.
Preparing
December 31, 2019I guess a lot of people are preapring today, preparing for parties, preparing for a new year and preparing for a new them. I have also been preparing but mostly more mudane things. Preparing quilt designs, preparing next weeks menu and the stock for Thursdays soup and preparing for a new arrival.
Hopefully tomorrow we will pick up a new four footed family member. Hopefully we have everything prepared for them. Hopefully the heating in their room will keep working and hopefully they will be very happy here. Hopefully the cats will forgive us sooner rather than later.
I guess I can claim to be prepared and hopeful for the new year.
Happy new year folks.
Christmas came early
December 19, 2019I got home fairly late yesterday and nearly missed the package that had arrived. How you miss an eight foot long two foot wide package in a porch I am not quite sure, but I nearly managed it. I am very relieved I did spot it as I am forever boggled by the other halfs ability to miss things. We had been warned our Christmas present would be arriving, and it would need our input so we opened it there and then.
It turned out to be 2 silver birch trees complete with a planting pack, stakes and shields. How amazing is that? This determined what we would be doing today. A morning of digging and planting.
After walking around the orchard we decided to add the silver birches to the ring of trees around the oak. Of course this is right at the far end of the field, but we do have a decent wheelbarrow now so getting everything there wasn’t too bad.
Our soil is clay and chalk wet and oh so sticky. I have been amazed how tough and chewy grass roots are. For these trees I needed to lift a patch of turf, cutting it is tricky, but lifting it is horrible. It does not want to be cut at all. With two ofnus on the job we did manage it without either of us doing ourselves too much damage. I absolutely love the auger. For these trees I used it to make four holes, and doing that broke up the rest of the soil in the hole, which makes digging it out so much easier.
Another mystery I have found since moving here is compost. It comes is big heavy densely packed bags. They clearly have a lot of volume, then as you use it you break it up which should increase the volume, yet when you add it to soil it doesn’t seem to add volume. How can that possibly happen? Anyway, having dug our holes, added compost and special food which can with the trees, the trees got planted. Packing the soil back in was surprisingly difficult, our soil sticks like glue to footwear, so you stand on it to push it in asnd it comes with your foot when you lift it. Still we did the best we can, and the trees seem solid and happy. They have been well watered, but given how far they are from the house I am really hoping for regular rain, sorry folks.
Fabric library
December 10, 2019I needed a new name for the place I store my fabric stash. store room sounds so grim, fabric isnt grim, it’s inspiring. Stock room gives the impression things are for sale, and this isn’t this is for me to use. As there will be lots of shelves of inspiration calling it a library seemed appropriate.
This is the first section of shelving to go into the new fabric library. Don’t be fooled, notice the edge of boxes on the left hand side of the image. Some of the shelving is black because they are left over from my previous fabric library. I may at some point stain it all black to match but for now I just want the room unpacked and somewhat functional.
Behind the boxes you can just see the start of the shelving. I will be using Ikea Ivar again for my fabric storage. It’s not fancy but it is effective and reasonably priced. Having got that first section of shelving in all the boxes needed to shuffle to make space for the next batch. This is the same problem as the sewing room all over again. The room is full of boxes that can’t be emptied until the furniture is in. The furniture can’t go in becasue the boxes are in the way, and being fabric they are HEAVY.
This picture gives a much better idea of the magnitude of the box problem in here. There is a chance some of the boxes aren’t fabric but the majority will be. The idea is that the fabric library won’t quite fill this room. I would like to try and fit in a spar bed if I can. Not that I want people staying, I like my space, but sometimes it is useful.
Have you noticed the nearly deliberate error? Yup I forgot to measure the location of the ceiling light when I planned the shelving. So now it is right in the top shelf. It isn’t actually a problem as the room will need at least 2 lights to really work for us. It is just a little annoying short term. I think longer term this room will have the same type of lights as the sewing room over the fabric library. We might put something else in the spare bedroom section.
To make the shelves a better room divider I have covered them with fabric. Cheaper and less permanant than a wall but it should look like a wall from the bed, at least that is the plan. As we aren’t going to be redecorating the room in the near future I tried to find a fabric that blended with the existing wall paper. With this I have the bare bones of the new fabric library.