Disaster averted

Last week, whilst shopping for Aunt Lucy’s skirt fabric in Country Threads, Bath, I spotted a jelly roll of this gorgeous “Rouenneries” fabric and couldn’t resist bringing it home, especially since I’d seen one or two string quilts appearing here and there recently.

Using a ready-made selection fabric is a breeze and I’d soon whipped out twenty blocks (twenty one actually…don’t know how that happened!)

Joined them altogether in no time, too.

I felt rather pleased with the result.

For the first time I can remember, too, I bought backing and border fabric at the same time, and since I had wadding at home already, there was no reason why I couldn’t simply go right on and finish it.

I decided to use my “signature” quilting method (!) tying the layers together with a shell button and red perle thread from my stash.  I decided to quilt circles in perle thread too, using a fairly long stitch which would be a feature of the design.  I traced a few randomly sized circles and began to stitch in red.

Whether it was the sunshine, I don’t know, but my mind wandered and I recalled Georgina’s story of Binky’s Quilt. 

Hmm.  I’m using red thread.

Where did it come from?  Was it one I dyed myself?

I thought that I’d better check before doing much more stitching.  So far, I had sewn on 30 buttons and stitched three circles using it.  Not too late to stop.  I grabbed a little of it and ran it under the kitchen tap, placing the wet thread on some white kitchen towel.

Georgina, thank you for sharing your experience so that I could learn from it! 

I whipped out all that red stitching, replacing it with the taupe colour in only just over an hour.  I’ll get some “real”  red perle thread, colour fast and trustworthy next week but in the meantime, I’ll heave a sigh of relief and thank goodness that I thought to check before it was too late.

I really didn’t want a pink quilt.

The sun has got his hat on

Hip hip hip hooray!

The second morning this year that I’ve been able to enjoy my breakfast outside; the first morning I have finished my breakfast outside and didn’t have to go back in, shivering, half way through.

I might even say it was “hot” out there, at 8.30am.

Of course, I had to keep an eye open for coiled up things near the pond.  Still haven’t got that one sorted, sorry to say, but at least the waterlily leaves are beginning to cover enough of the surface to reduce the amount of blanket weed in there.  We used to fight a losing battle against it, until we heard a professor of biology admit that this single-cell organism had got the better of him, in spite of all his advanced knowledge.  So, it’s ok to give up the challenge and simply trawl through the water with a stick from time to time!

It was lovely to enjoy the sunshine at last, to see shadows and look up to a clear blue sky as the Air India flight from Mumbai to Newark flew overheard, having made a stop in Frankfurt. 

(oh my, what a time waster that website is….)

Most of all, it’s good to finally shed those long sleeved clothes, to feel a little warmth on the skin and enjoy being outside in the fresh air.

Sit quietly and no one will notice you

We have a small circular pond in the garden, which brings us pleasure way out of proportion to its size or complexity.  We have no ornamental fish in there, no fountain – though there is a pump which circulates the water down a gentle rill from elsewhere in the garden creating enough of a watery sound to be soothing but not enough to cause any sudden urges to dash indoors.

We’ve never actively populated the pond with any form of wildlife but somehow, a bunch of newts have found their way in there and other passers by sometimes stop and enjoy the sunshine.  One year we had a mass of dragonfly larvae and usually we have a clump of frogspawn and the odd frog or two, but this year they appear to have deserted us.

Usually, on a sunny day, one of us can be found drinking our coffee, taking in the glorious view and simply enjoying the comings and goings.

But last week, the pump stopped working.  Not only that, but it blew all the house electrics when we tried to get it going again.  Time to bring in an expert who drained most of the water out to see what’s what.

Revealing another inhabitant we didn’t know about, who had been quietly sitting underneath the pump.

Guess who was a little jumpy when she went out there this morning to drink her coffee?

Dressmaking

A couple of busy days, out of the house from early morning till late afternoon.  What better time to do a spot of dressmaking?

I’ve given up making things for myself ages ago, but someone else needed clothes to match the new decor in the upstairs hall and I thought it was time for a change of style.  After all, it’s a long time since she was in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima…

Yesterday, I was having fun over the border.  The sun was shining, I was in great company and there were some lovely things to see and appreciate.  On the way back to the car, we smiled at this precious botanical specimen in the Physic Garden

Yes, that would be a “Dant y Llew”.  Correctly labelled in three languages.

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My favourite kind of week

After all the insecurities and uncertainty of last week, we’ve settled into a more normal routine again.  For me, that means I’ve enjoyed a few days doing this and that, never stopping for long but always enjoying myself and hopefully achieving something worthwhile along the way.

 

I spent one day in the company of a charming young colleague, opening envelopes and finding a winner.  It wasn’t easy, for there were many excellent entries to the competition, but our system worked and after several hours we’d drawn up a short list from which we chose the winning entry.  Can’t say what it was yet, but every one of those envelopes contained the proud brainchild of someone, somewhere who entrusted us to make a fair and considered judgement.  That we did…and driving home later that day, my head was full of the wealth of opportunities we’d seen.

What a privilege to spend time reading and imagining…

At work this week we’ve enjoyed the company of twelve visitors from the EU, working together to share ideas and experiences using technology in adult learning.  Totally humbling to work with people from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany, all working happily and communicating complex concepts in English. I’m sure none of them would mind me describing them as ordinary people – by that I mean that they were not high faluting academics.  Yet they were able to communicate effectively in a foreign tongue and able to use terminology like employability, empowerment, open learning with apparent ease.  I believe I even saw the word “didactical” somewhere on the whiteboard…

Sadly, the view from the meeting room overlooking the Gloucester Quays on a rainy Wednesday afternoon wasn’t exactly inspiring.  I’ve had the same dilemma all week about what to wear, how to stay warm when we’ve had frosty starts and rainy afternoons.  Hopefully the impression of their English trip they take home will be the warmth of the welcome!

The sunshine came yesterday in the form of friendly company at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.  One of my online textile group, Penny, is heading back home to South Africa after five years of living in France and this was a last chance to spend time in her company for a while.  Six Artful Dodgers (and Penny’s husband John) had a splendid day out,  dividing our time between cafe and gallery, sharing opinions, news and concerns as friends do.

A few photographs were taken as well – though we didn’t get out our sketchbooks this time.  Maybe on our next visit, to the Pitt Rivers Museum nearby, we should focus on the drawing like the group of children there on a school visit, having a wonderful time as they made sketches in the Pre-Raphaelite Room.

It was only when I arrived home and uploaded my photos that I spotted this delightful composition which would make a great caption competition, don’t you think?

As usual, I found plenty of hands and rich textiles to add to my collection.  These are painted by Frans Hals and could also fall into the “attitude” category!

Finally, the little gem which might have found its way into several handbags – in our dreams.  The Qajar enamelled set was exquisite, beautifully lit and looking stunning against that velvety black background.

All too soon, fond farewells and all of that, because I wanted to be back in time for my WI meeting last night.  Our speaker had started work in 1951, Coronation Year, as a junior member of staff in Fortnum and Mason’s Haute Couture department, achieving promotion to the position of House Model.  She brought with her photographs and samples of fabric for us to handle, together with a couple of examples of the work which came from that workshop – exquisitely sewn pieces with the most minute stitching and perfect finish.  Of course, she also shared her memories and stories of that world – a whirl of glamour and deportment, film stars and debutantes, tea dresses and ballgowns.

You could have heard a pin drop.