Our morning started ok - we exercised, had breakfast, read while enjoying a big cup of tea, showered, dressed ....... then phut! The electricity went off. We knew that some workman had just arrived at the farmhouse just along from us, so we thought perhaps they had severed a cable. However Malcolm phoned the power company to ask why the power was off, and was told that it was planned work, and that we should have had notification. Well, we were just a little bit cross (ok, we were hopping mad) given that we had no power all day last Tuesday. But we couldn't go out for the day as we did last week, as we were having a load of logs delivered. OK, we had heat and we could cook, but we have a rather serious drawback when the power is off ...... our little sewage plant stops working, so we can't flush the loo!! The other great annoyance was that after so many grey days when the solar panels produced next to nothing, it was a lovely bright morning, so they would have been churning out lots of lovely power.
I retreated to the studio, and the warmth of the stove, to finish the hand stitching on the badger
we were just finishing lunch when Malcolm got a phone call from the driver of the delivery lorry to get directions to the house (I have a completely basic phone in the studio, which unlike the phones in the house, doesn't need electricity to work!)
as the lorry drove away, it had to stop at the traffic lights, which were there in case a driver couldn't see beyond the few yards that the workmen were occupying for oncoming traffic
hooray, the power came back on at 2.30 (Malcolm had been told it would be 4.30) and I was able to get on with making up the badger cushion. I found a lovely fabric in my stash for the back and the binding ...... and I forgot to take photos of how far I progressed, because I kept nipping out to take photos of Malcolm and his logs
anyway, enough whingeing, on with the updates! First, my fabulous new sewing table
it fits in under the edge of the extension table
and provides a large level area for machine quilting
which leads us on to the sewing update. On Saturday I layered the girlie quilt and chose this thread
the thread looks dark against the fabric, but the trick is to unspool a length and puddle it on the fabric, which gives a better idea of how the stitching will look
I decided to use an allover pattern, rather than try to quilt round the various elements of the design
on Sunday I made a start on the owl quilt, and finished it on Monday. Again I used an allover pattern
when we came out of Ikea last Tuesday, I stood with the trolley in the loading bay, while Malcolm fetched the car. I saw a member of staff putting assorted bits of wood into a container, and being nosy went over to have a look at the notice on the container. It said that the bits of wood were free, if you could use them. Of course some bits came home with us. One bit was sawn up to make the supports for the sewing table
and another bit was used to making something which I had asked for some time ago - a stand for my various quilting rulers
