Next Sewing Challenge Coming Up

I’ve been showing you sewing projects that I chose because I felt they challenged me and, every now and again, it’s time to slow right down and really aim for perfection in a project even if you don’t fully achieve it.

I’ve showed you my anorak made from waxed cotton and my tailored blazer but I haven’t, so far, shown you my pin tuck blouse which I found challenging because I’d never done pin tucks before but, mostly, because I made some daft mistakes early on.  Anyway, I will post about that in a future post.

I thought I’d show you a photo of a Merchant & Mills pattern called The Quinn trousers which I am going to tackle next.  I haven’t made anything from this company so far as, normally, I find their designs a little bit ‘worthy’ for my taste but I really like the look of these wide legged sailor type trousers.

The challenging part of these, for me at least, will partly be those slant hip pockets and the button side closures but, mostly it will be getting a good fit which, with trousers is of the utmost importance otherwise, to coin an English phrase, they will look pants.  I always look at the reviews for dressmaking patterns for tricks and tips but can’t find anybody online who has made these, which is weird, so I’ll have to be a trailblazer.

I’ve bought some forest green cotton twill for these and I’m going to start cutting out tomorrow although I might be distracted because look what I found at the library today.

(🤣🤣 Reading through this post after I’d published, they’d inserted an advertisement featuring a poor woman who had undergone some sort of facial surgery gone wrong so please scroll past this if it appears and down to what I really did find in the library).

For those non-sewists amongst you Esme is one half of the popular presenting team of the Great British Sewing Bee.  I think she has probably had a very interesting life and am really looking forward to reading it and looking at the photos.

Have you got anything in particular you’re looking forward to this weekend?

Oops It’s Scraphappy Day

It’s the 15th already and I haven’t done anything for Scraphappy.  This is partly because I have been trying to finish an ongoing project that has taken me far too long, partly because, as soon as I have finished it I’ve got a long queue of other things waiting for me and mostly because I’ve been too disorganised, uninventive and slow to recognise time rushing by.

As it used to say on my school reports, ‘the potential is there if only she would apply herself’ and, even more frequently, ‘inclined to chatter’.  I daresay you are amazed about that last quote and can hardly imagine it being the case.

So, sorry about that (‘could do better’ was another one) but there are some blogging friends who have probably risen to the challenge and here is where you may find their interesting takes on using up their scraps.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith Nanette, Ann,

Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, Lynn(me)  Hannah and Tierney

Contact Kate or Gun (first names on the list) if you want to join in.

Slowly Resurfacing

Today is SUDEP Action Day – an annual awareness day to shine a light on SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy) and other causes of epilepsy-related deaths.

So, hard as I’ve found it to write, it seemed like a good day to explain the reason for my prolonged absence from blogging to those of my readers who don’t know the circumstances and also show my support for the work of SUDEP in the hope it will help somebody else by acknowledging the risks of epilepsy and thus taking informed decisions in managing the condition.

Our youngest daughter – known to some of you as Miss Tialys the Younger – was due to come over last Christmas Eve with her sister to spend Christmas and New Year with us.

Her habit was to phone us every evening around 7 and, when she didn’t phone on the evening of December 23rd I thought it strange as she was excited about Christmas and I expected her to be asking what time we’d arrive to collect her the next day so, when I couldn’t get her to answer the phone, I became so worried I decided to drive over to her flat which is an hour and a half away.

When I arrived and could get no answer by knocking on the door, I let myself in with our spare key and found her collapsed on the floor where she must have been since the morning.  I called the paramedics but it was too late.  The police came, I gave a statement, they drove me home. She was 26.

The post mortem was inconclusive but, as there were no suspicious circumstances, an interim death certificate was issued so we could go ahead with her cremation.  However, they needed to do further investigations on her brain and, after six months, we had an official cause of death which is ‘sudden unexplained death in epilepsy’ also known as SUDEP.

She was on medication after she had a seizure in 2020, while her father and I were still in France (on lockdown) and her sister had taken her to hospital in the UK where they kept her in for almost a week and prescribed the anti seizure meds on her release.  So, in a way, the post mortem result was a relief because it was sort of what we anticipated and not something more sinister but also because we take comfort from thinking she wouldn’t have known much about it.  However, it’s also a bit surprising because although she was on anti-seizure medication, she wasn’t what I think of as being ‘properly’ epileptic – whatever that is.

She was on the autistic spectrum and I worry that, on certain occasions where she told us she’d felt ‘weird’ or had episodes where she couldn’t speak, these might well have been petit mal seizures rather than the autistic ‘meltdowns’ we put them down to.

None of this speculation changes the fact that she has gone from our lives at the age of 26 and that we are still coming to terms with it and nothing will ever be the same again.

I registered her death with SUDEP Action and filled in their questionnaire to help with their research into this fairly uncommon cause of death and, hopefully, it will help people in the future.

I would like to start blogging again but forgive me if, although I do try to read your blogs, I don’t always feel like commenting and sometimes might just press the ‘like’ button.

The urge to sew/crochet/knit etc. has only fairly recently come back again – strangely those things were of no help at all to me during the darkest days.  My only salvation was reading – I read so many books that I’ve lost count – but it was the only way I could escape and, still now, when I wake up in the night or early morning and my thoughts won’t let me rest, I reach for a book.

She hated having her photo taken as she got older but I can’t resist putting one of her on here from when she was little and didn’t care.

Bryony Kate 24th February 1995 – 23rd December 2021

 

Please don’t feel as if you have to comment – I know it’s difficult to know what to say.  A ‘like’ will do and will let me know you’ve read it.

 

 

 

Dear Reader

I just wanted to let my regular readers know that I will not be blogging for the foreseeable future.

We have suffered a family tragedy this Christmas and I cannot turn my mind to anything else at present.

I hope to come back to blogging eventually but it is very low on my list of priorities at the moment – I’m sure you will understand my absence.

 

The Greatest Story

I’ve been a bit sparing with my posts this year what with one thing and another but, as I sign off for the festivities, I thought I’d try to bring a smile to your face before I go.

Knowing how difficult it is to get a dog into a Christmas costume – believe me I try every year (and cats are even worse) – I had to share this special nativity play with you made by members of a chapel in Swansea, Wales.

Just click on the image below, wait for the video to load, put on full screen and don’t worry, it’s not all in Welsh although the Welsh accent is lovely.

 

I hope you enjoyed that little bit of fun.

I wish you a very merry Christmas wherever you are and whoever you’re with.

The Mistbow

Early yesterday morning, after a full (or almost full) moon, a frost had dusted the fields with icing sugar and caused a white mist.  We went for a walk just as the sun was struggling to break through it.

We had the camera ready to photograph some new lambs the farmer has put into the field but they were too far in to get a good picture so we snapped this instead and called it a mistbow although somebody else probably already has or maybe it has some other name.  If you know, please enlighten me.

In any case, the mist cleared, we had a beautiful, sunny day and the new garden suddenly seems full of possibilities with the snowdrops finished but daffodils and crocus open, tons of hellebores both white and purple, and a patch of heather pulsating with bees.  I’m hoping they are honey bees although it seems a bit early.  If they are though and I can track down the owner of the hives, it would be great to be able to buy some of the honey.

I can’t believe it’s already the last day of February.  Who would have thought that lockdown would make the time pass faster?  Or is that just me?

 

 

Tight Lipped Tuesday #24

Some adapt to lockdown situations better than others.

As an advertising campaign said somewhere, some time

‘be more cat’

Christmas in February F2F5

Organised again by Kate over at Tall Tales From Chiconia, the latest Footsquare Freestyle (F2F) patchwork block exchange kicked off in February with ten participants from different countries and Tracy was the first drawn out of the hat to receive three blocks in her chosen colours from each of the other nine participants.

Tracy picked red, green and brown as her colours using photos of cranberries and a Christmas pudding to help us and, having checked with her that she is hoping to make a Christmas themed quilt, I foraged for those rare pieces of festive fabric that I have in deep stash.

I made this Churn Dash because I wanted to feature the lovely stag and deer image in the centre.

I love this foundation paper pieced banded star design and made quite a few for the participants in last year’s swap.  Tracy didn’t join us last year so I decided to make her one as there should always be stars at Christmas.

Despite having a lot on this year, I decided to go ahead and join in the swap again as I think I should be able to manage three blocks a month and I like to keep my ‘patchwork hand’ in.  I did say to Kate that I’d have to keep it simple this year but I couldn’t resist this pattern for little fir trees but, as it only makes a 6 inch square, I ended up having to make four of them to make a finished block of 12 inches which is, of course, why it’s called footsquare freestyle.   So, in effect, I made six blocks for Tracy rather than three. 🙄

Also, I made lots of stupid mistakes while putting this one together, including the final join.

Oops!!

Still, I’ve moved on to Sue’s blocks now as she is the recipient in March and she has asked for shades of true blue and brown.  I’ve made two and will start on the third today so I can get them off to the States sharpish.

I am next to receive blocks after Sue, I am ‘Miss April’ this year and I’ve gone for a dramatic colour palette reminiscent of peacock feathers.

Rather more dramatic than my neutral(ish) palette of last year which resulted in my lovely superking size quilt.

I’ve made one block for myself but will probably use April to get ahead with the blocks for the other participants in case I don’t have time later on in the year – I can always make my own ones up at the end.

My use of an ombré effect green fabric has made the shape of the Churn Dash a little more difficult to focus on but, if you squint your eyes a bit and/or look at it from a distance, you can still make it out and it shows the sort of colour scheme I have in mind.

Sofa So Not Done Yet

Of course It was only a matter of a day or so before I turned that panel into a cushion.

I’m gradually replacing all the scatter cushions that came with our big leather sofa as they’ve all got very tatty. I suppose they’ve done well to survive for 14 years really having been the plaything of two children (then teens), numerous puppies, dogs, kittens and cats, T.V. dinners and spilt wine.

The actual base of the sofa is still in good condition.  Mr. Tialys is supposed to be re-doing the seat cushions in leather.  I have only been waiting about 4 years for this to happen so far.

I salvaged the back of one of the original cushions and used it for the reverse of Lord Nelson.

Original tatty seat and scatter cushions still in place

With his red coat he fits in nicely doesn’t he?

Don’t worry, there will only be one cat.  The rest will be done like so –

Posed on a different leather sofa.

Still red so he’ll still fit in.

So, two of those done – only another twelve to go and then I can throw all the old ones out, having re-used all the feather inners first of course.

Apparently, I’m told the leather for the seat cushions has now been ordered but, considering I bought the Turkish woven fabric (as shown in the two cushions above) at least 4 years ago and have only made two so far, I suppose I’m in no position to criticise.

Tight Lipped Tuesday #18

Saying not very much again on a Tuesday.

I don’t usually do book reviews, and I’m not going to do one now, reading is such a personal thing and books other people have loved, I’ve not liked at all (The Da Vinci Code anyone?).

However, I’ve just finished this well written debut novel and really enjoyed it.

So, if you fancy a bit of a thriller set in gritty Victorian London against a backdrop of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the emergence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, I’d recommend it.

Just saying.