Thursday Night

 Another of my Accidental Faces Series - and yes, it's upside down. Interesting how the brain is attuned to the basic face idea

And this one is From The Wall, and Shadows, and Blue

Frustration

My hand still isn't healed.. I'm feeling cross and weak and viciously frustrated, but I have been working, after a fashion.. I can't afford not to, as the money will run out pretty soon.
Did a craft Fair.. Oh, yes, now I remember why I don't do these.. All day, well-meaning enquiries about the hand and  "Oh, not healed yet?" And few sales and those small.. Oh, yes, that's why..
And I belong to a group called Fast Friday Fabric Challenge which proposes a theme each month and allows a week to make a quilt on that theme.. This (above) took 20 minutes.  I then spent an hour trying to access the blog to upload it.. Bloody Google insists that I must get a code from my mobile phone to allow access, and I can't give a number.. I'm not thirteen, don't live to text, just want to show my work on a forum I belong too.. I don't know why I bother.. Actually, I think I won't any more.. Not amusing enough..

ETA.. Thanks Tobi, you've sorted and solved and I will leave you my stash in my will..

French things

 Birds on a Wire

and Chequered Log
at the French hotel on the way back from Holland..

At OEQC Veldhoven

 Apologies, I photographed a lot of these before the show was properly hung, so no tickets.. I'll try to add names tomorrow, and there will be more images

 This was by Maia Chaimovich, and is part of a big display of stunning quilts by her

 This one I can't ID, sorry.. Lovely colours

 Nor this, but here's a detail

 This is Berlin Bear, by Marjan van der Heijden from Eindhoven (next door!).  It's beautifully made..

 This one was on the floor, one of a series of delicious small-block quilts

This is Skyline, by Claudia Scheja from Werne in Germany, and is Best In Show.. It's gorgeous

More tomorrow

Demolished - Post Office Privatisation?

I've been exchanging hand-made postcards for many years, pretty much at random - I find one on the mat and send one back by return.. I have a boxfull, some of which have been gently modified by the post office in passing.. Never one quite like this, though (note, I have scuffed the return address deliberately in Photoshop..)
I'm sending one back, hope it arrives cleaner than this..

Quilters Guild Region 9 Area Day

Quilters’ Guild Norfolk Area Day

Well, it may have been raining outside, but at Fleggburgh Village Hall all was sunny inside.. Forty quilters of all ages and stages had a sociable and satisfying day at the Norfolk Quilters’ Guild Area Day

We started with tea, and Star Blocks, and there was much puzzling over and sorting-out of the kits cut by Heather Hasthorpe.. Each had three carefully-selected fabrics in ready-cut pieces, and an instruction sheet.. By lunchtime, there were a whole set of delightful Star Blocks, each a little different from the last

After soups and sandwiches, we reconvened for a little hand-stitching.. Helen  Howes’ colourful hand-dyed wool pieces, with multicoloured threads, beads, buttons and bits, made brooches as individual as the makers..
The afternoon was only interrupted by lashings of cake and more tea, a seriously good raffle, and the Competition winner (Sewing Sundries) which was a very close-run vote, as the entries were so excellent..


Our trader (Rob, from Sew and Sos in Bungay) was busy most of the day, and several biggish piles of fabric went home for next month’s projects

And the Guild has gained a new member, so that’s a result, too..


Heather and I are planning another Area Day in the spring, with a Contemporary Quilt theme..

Cat Time Again

Cat Loves My Lap..
This month's Obligatory Cat Post is brought to you by "Claude" cat crunchies.. I wonder...

Sorting Stuff

 Today's post brought these.  Bought on Fleabay in the last couple of days, and in need of cataloguing, counting, packing, and uploading to my Sewing Machines Website
This is a surprisingly big part of my life, and is my third 10,000 hours skill (google that up, please, that's a skill too) of a pretty busy lifetime so far.
A typical sort is like the one above - parts from one or two machines, many of which will be repeats (and therefore will have stock numbers to assign) and some of which will be unique, or the sort of item that needs a separate image as condition varies so much on some things..

Here's a basketful I sorted and photographed this Summer.  Odd feets (nothing unique in here, I hope..)

 Sorted into types, and some needing testing put aside.  I test everything I can on a 1928 Singer treadle.. (That's for Low Shank feet).  I also have a High Shank Singer (31k15) treadle industrial, and when I have  Slant Shank machines here I test everything madly on those too..
I lay them out in sorts, count and catalogue and put away in  tins..

 And every unique item needs a packet, a number, a price, and a photograph, notes made of part numbers and sizes, putting on the database,and uploading to the website

Not a job for the unfernickety..

I'm always happy to ID odd feet and attachments, please email me with an image

Oh, and here are the other things you almost always find in sewing machine drawers.. Yes, that's a razor blade.  Watch your fingers..
I commonly find three different (and incompatible) sorts of bobbins in the drawer too..

Usually the suspender buttons are singles..