Saturday 31 July 2021

Christmas in July

 First of all, the RSC blocks I’ve made recently. Some Wonky stars and three Ticky Tacky houses.


Not much sewing in the last couple of weeks because I’ve finally had my Christmas present!

Back in November last year my husband asked what I would like for my Christmas present and I said a new sewing table as I have been using my son’s old desk for the last 24 years. Not ideal because the desk had drawers on the right and with the kneehole on the left it meant that my sewing machine was on the left of the desk and nowhere for my sewing to rest. Particularly difficult when I was machine quilting or sewing on binding when I had to balance the work on my knee to take the weight! I also decided to have two shelves put up on the wall above the sewing table and a set of shelves too. Our carpenter was too busy in the run up to Christmas and then another long Covid Lockdown and our carpenter became difficult to contact. Eventually the job was done on 21st July! Better late than never, I’m delighted with the result.




I spent a long time last weekend sorting out all the things I had taken out of the room ready for the carpenter to assemble everything. I sorted out all my RSC projects, putting them into labelled plastic  boxes which went onto my new shelving units.
Then I sorted out all my tins containing all sorts of bits and pieces and labelled all of those too. They went up onto the wall shelves. All my other equipment, plus rulers etc are in the drawers, all to hand when I’m sewing. 


In between I’ve been knitting. One of my quilting friends has a young friend who is training to become a midwife. She is at a hospital in London which has a lot of mothers living in deprived conditions, so the Maternity staff try to make up baby packages for the Mums to take home including baby clothes. They welcome hand knitted jackets, hats and little blankets so I’ve started knitting. I made this little cardigan and am now knitting a second one. I have lots of yarn so I’ll continue knitting until I run out.


Yesterday was a big day as I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC,Birmingham. Obviously there wasn’t a Show last year due to Covid so it was exciting to go yesterday. Lots of differences: 10, 000 less tickets on offer over the 4 days of the Show, an extra hall(which are like aircraft hangars), wider aisles, everyone had to wear a mask and observe social distancing and so on. Most of the larger traders didn’t attend which was a shame and there were not many people there either. I don’t think there were as many Competition quilts and all the Galleries were home grown people and collections, not the world wide variety we are used to. Glad I went but it was all rather surreal. Nice to have fewer people though as I was able to see the quilts easily, photograph the ones that particularly caught my eye and move around quickly so I covered the whole Show very easily. Other years I’ve gone two or three of the four days but one day was more than enough time to see everything. I didn’t make many purchases but I did buy two metres of this rainbow fabric which will be a useful backing for an RSC project.


I’ll write another post just on the Show as I have lots of photos to sort through.

Joining up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog for RSC 2021.

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your Christmas present! Everything looks so nice and neat. How nice of you to make such a pretty pink baby sweater. Love the rainbow fabric!

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  2. That’s a great backing for your RSC quilts. I’m sure you will do lots more knitting now. Happy Xmas in July. So happy you have a great sewing place to enjoy. Well done sorting out all your shelves too.

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  3. Great sewing area! Looking forward to seeing your F of Q photos.

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  4. Congrats on a great new desk and shelves. Isn’t it wonderful to have the basics you need in the rights sizes and configurations? I bet you’ll find that your desire to sew grows with the new organization and convenience. The fabric you got is adorable and I look forward to seeing some of the pictures you snapped.

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  5. You've been waiting a long time for a new sewing desk and everything looks great with your new shelves too. How nice to do some baby knitting to help new moms, most if us have some extra yarn hanging around. I knit baby beanies to donate, they are nice and simple to knit and uses up lots of left over wool.

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  6. Beautiful bright backing fabric and perfect for a Rainbow Challenge quilt. It's so rewarding when you have a good set up for your sewing area/room and I find it therapeutic so begin sorting and tidying.

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  7. Glad to hear you were able to go to the quilt show. "Normal" is a good thing to get back to. Way to show restraint on your purchases! Hahahaha!

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