What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I spent all of last Sunday working out how to put my patchwork coat together which was not technically difficult at all, apart from me not getting my head around how to get the sleeves together. I had to unpick the cuffs because I created a closed tube somehow. Basically everything got “bagged out” apart from the sleeves which I finished with binding because I can do that. I topstitched all the way round to hold it all together. I believe there should have been some under-stitching, whatever that is but I thought that was too much effort. I think ...

I consider myself to be a problem solver or a fixer, without the dodgy associations of crime or MI6.

My children have often commented that they just want me to listen sympathetically, rather than come up with ingenious solutions to whatever problem they have. 

This week a non local customer, who was on a fishing trip, came into work first thing to present me with a lovely bunch of flowers. I had helped her to fix her jammed longarm machine remotely by telling her how to get everything unstuck. 

Someone brought in a battered vintage Bernina that she had inherited ...

Before I left on my Norfolk mini-break I completed a lovely customer quilt, an Irish Chain with silver metallic thread. The Q24 did a beautiful job – a thread net and slower speed helped.

I have been having a long weekend in Norfolk with my girls because I wanted to see Nella’s final year textile art exhibition (and meet her new boyfriend!) I will actually be back in July for a slightly longer visit to attend her Graduation. 

One of the days was unbearably hot so Nessie and I did not venture out at all. We had a cooler seaside ...

This week at work was all demos, teaching and customer quilting as well as cracking out the machine inventory, preparing the classroom and all of my usual dashing about. Every evening I did some extra hours for my Friday job because they were short staffed. I was glad when the weekend rolled around and I did not have to set an alarm.

Consequently, last week’s laundry still has not been folded, my “sewing room / office” is in a muddle and I have been eating the same thing every day to save time. 

The Slug Pub was not a success ...

First I tried straw, then I teased out wire scourers to apply as mulch, splitting open the end of my thumb but NOTHING seems to stop the pesky slugs that are trashing my strawberries. I have been out at dusk with a trowel, waging war against the slimy pests. My next strategy is to put out beer traps, otherwise I will not be able to eat a single homegrown strawberry without biting into something vile and squelchy. 

It was all-systems-go at work with customer quilts. I think 4 different ones were on the frames this week ranging from brightly coloured ...

Last week was hot – it got up to the mid 30’s C and was just as warm inside at work which is not ideal for making quilts. I even missed my old workshop which rarely went above 10 degrees C and was always colder inside than out. All I wanted to do after work was sit very still in my cool cottage with a cup of tea.

Apart from watering my plants every day, trying to keep the tomatoes alive, I planted some flowers and seeds in an old paddling pool. Slightly foolishly – I climbed down a ladder to ...

I used to be somewhat addicted to a Nintendo game called “Animal Crossing” where I would run around planting, watering and weeding on my virtual island. That was ME in real life this weekend, planting up a veritable farm in containers, taking over any unclaimed patch of ground. If it was my own garden I would probably put in lots of raised beds but Nessie crashes around on the grass playing footie and when I eventually move on I will have to shift an awful lot of plants in pots!

Last week when I had visitors it was unseasonably cool ...

I had a lovely week with all 3 of my children coming to stay in my tiny Tavistock cottage. We love being with each other, doing outings and just hanging out together. It is a pity we are all so far away but at least none of them lives in Australia!

We visited Cotele and Killerton House National Trust houses, had a day out in Falmouth and Totnes then an evening watching Beltane Morris dancers. 

We cooked, had many cups of tea, sat around a bonfire and laughed a lot. Nessie and I will really miss them when they all ...

It was a short, quick week at work and varied with an overlocker lesson, a videography tutorial, customer quilts and everything in between. 

In my garden a naughty dog made a wee hole in the greenhouse playing footie and I planted a row of hollyhocks on the other side of my rotting fence. My trowel broke in the stony ground so I had to resort to using a screwdriver and a spoon. I was advised that slugs might enjoy my new plants so I put pot scourers around them to put them off. Hopefully my neighbourhood hedgehog will eat all ...

I only managed one small customer quilt this week as I was busy doing other jobs, including stock taking many varieties of calico…

It was a bank holiday weekend! I have been helping Jo to jazz up her back yard and we started on painting the walls and fence which always takes far more paint than you can imagine. I watered down the pale lilac masonry paint to get a base on the roughcast walls. There should be a law against those, particularly ones done in black granite. I am hoping that Jo might be able to find a sprayer ...

After driving from Norfolk last Sunday, I attended the welcome reception for Nicholas Ball’s retreaters prior to their week at Quilt Direct. They worked on their improv fish all week, ending up making them twice the normal size in their enthusiasm. 

As well as making sure the retreaters were fed, watered and happy I had a customer quilt and lots of teaching. There was a day of 1:1 overlocker, another day of 1:1 Bernini Aurora and 770QE, a B990 zoom session, then my new Friday job. 

My evenings were also busy – Nicholas came round for tea, we ...

I was in Norfolk last week to attend my dad‘s funeral. He died rather unexpectedly, but it was not a shock since he was 89 frail and had dementia. 

The funeral was actually quite a happy affair with many friends and family travelling from all over the country to honour his life. There were some great photos on the slideshow and many anecdotes about how he would buy livestock from a man in the pub or decide to dig a really deep well in the garden and about his times as a deep sea diver. 

All three of my ...

After a long Bank Holiday weekend it is easy to get confused about what day of the week it is. Nella is still staying and I only worked for 2 days before going to Cardiff on a 2 day training course for a new job working remotely on Fridays. I will be answering emails for the Singer sewing machine helpline and trouble-shooting problems. Singer and Bernina are actually part of one UK distribution company so it is not that weird for me to have a side hustle involving a different brand. 

I brought home a “heavy duty” model to familiarise ...

I had quite a varied week at work with some teaching, some quilting and making a movie about a new Accuquilt die with Karen. 

Nella came to stay and we had a super 4 day weekend. Plenty of chocolate was consumed, we went to see Mel in Looe and visited Lydford Gorge with its stunning White Lady waterfall. 

The sun came out at last so I could cut my grass. I was glad of an assistant to put my pop-up budget greenhouse from Lidl together. I was sorely tempted to purchase a hanging egg chair from Tesco but common sense ...

I am hopeful that with an extra hour of light in the evening I will feel more inspired to do more. Every night this week I came home from work, went for a dog-walk, cooked, washed up, watched maybe an hour of telly then bed – on repeat! I continually come up with excuses as to why I am not doing more with my evenings – not enough light, not enough space, not enough motivation;) 

If the weather improves I will put up my pop-up greenhouse and plant some seeds. Before too long I will probably be complaining how long it takes ...

I have been enjoying lovely spring weather this weekend and got stuck into some serious garden tidying. I borrowed a more powerful pressure washer and got rid of the winter slime. It was a messy job but worth it. I had to stop when the old flaky paint looked like it might wash off the walls. I repainted the front of my shed which had gone green and most of the fence which is pretty rotten. After mowing the grass and buying Nessie a new basketball, I felt very satisfied. I even cut down a sycamore tree that was growing ...

My Grandad was a joiner by trade.  For years he hand-built railway wagons in Glasgow. When he retired he had a small selection of hand tools that fitted into an enamel bread bin and he made household things that were built to last. There is still a parcel box outside one of our old houses in Norfolk that was constructed in 1980.  He made a sturdy child’s chair, a doll’s house like a Scottish Butt and Ben Cottage, and a dolly bed. 

My sister has recently rediscovered the dolly bed and has commissioned me to make some bedding ...

I had such a busy week that I actually forgot that I had a long weekend. At first I wondered what I was going to do with it. Perhaps I should’ve planned to go away. I had two intense days of long arm quilting mastery teaching which went very well. I also gave a talk to the local Quilt group and everybody stayed awake so that’s always a good sign. It was great to see some of my quilts again which just live in a suitcase. I have been driving around with them all week because I can ...

 On the whole I am content with my new life but much of the past week was a bit “Meh”. There was one sunny day but I spent it at work. It feels like it would be nice to get out in the garden again and tidy up but it it is all still too wet. At least some daffodils in a pot are trumpeting their heads off. 

I went on a road trip to the seaside and had very good fish and chips but did not come home with any fun purchases. I know I don’t need anything ...

Don’t tell my guests but I removed some stuffing from one of the guest room pillows to finish stuffing all 291 puffs. Some may be under stuffed and some may be too plump. It is tempting to make them nice and fat but then they are impossible to join together. I suppose if I was going to be exact I would have to use some “drug dealer” scales but I went for what size of fluff ball could fit into my closed fist. The next thing will be to put them together in blocks of 9 to distribute the ...