A Stitch In Time

The Revolution Gains Support...

I'm going to make this brief because my computer has joined the technological uprising that's taken over my home. I obviously haven't been treating my electrical goods with the care and attention they deserve. Either that or my Dad's right and 'they' just don't build things to last anymore!

So here goes: the craft fair was quiet but I met some great new people, including Antonella, an Italian lady who runs this web-site, selling all sorts of unique lovelies. Here's a picture of my stall, which looks, in retrospect, a little like a jumble sale...

I'm hanging on to the sewing machine I've borrowed until my angelic friend sends the heavies round. I'm trying to get all my orders completed before next week. This one:

is coming along nicely, the colours are much brighter and more saturated than in the photo. I extend my apologies to beautiful Baby Tilly for the delay in the completion of this quilt. I promise you'll have it before the winter snow arrives...

But will I have a working machine to call my own by then? And will my computer be fixed or will the washing machine and tumble dryer have joined the revolution?..... 

Some Good News!

We have just returned from a long (wonderful) weekend at my parent's house in Staffordshire, and I bring some excellent news home with me: My Mum has given me her sewing machine! Here is the little beauty:

It may not look particularly exciting, but this machine has gone straight to the top of my most treasured possessions list! Not only is it a really good quality machine; it comes with lots of fab gadgets and a groovy instruction manual.

It also means my Mum hasn't got a sewing machine any more, and although she hasn't used it for a long time, I know it's a big thing to give away and be without.

One of the aspects I really value about sewing and crafting is the nature of how knowledge and skills are passed on from mother to daughter down the generations, and to have my Mum's machine (the one she taught me to sew on), adds to that unique inheritance. I feel incredibly blessed that my Mum spent the limited amount of spare time and energy she had left over after caring for four children, on teaching me some of what she knows about textiles. And I'm even more grateful that while she taught me she instilled in me a real love and passion for making things that I'm still enjoying and reaping the benefits of now.

The machine was also my birth mother's (she died when I was around four months old) before my step-mum's which just adds to the exquisite specialness of it. As I never got the chance to know my Mum, things that belonged to her, especially things which are associated with textiles, and things which were personal or significant to her, become very precious to me.

This machine is the most perfect (and generous) solution to my sewing machine crisis, and was so unexpected, So THANK YOU MUM, I will cherish  it forever!

Disaster!

I've just got the estimate from the reair shop: £350. He recommends I buy a new machine. I'm absolutley gutted.

Where I Spend My Time

Here is a picture of my work space. It's actually a corner of my dining room; if I'd panned out a little you'd be able to see a rocking moose, zebra trike and a  truck filled with building blocks underneath. (But that's my little secret). I set my desk up about 6 months ago and it's really made a huge difference to the way I work, not just because everything is always to hand. Most of all it's a corner of our home that's totally mine and really represents me.

Have you spotted the essential item that's mising?..... Yes, it's my sewing machine. I've resisted spending any money on servicing or anything else as frivolous for several years now; I can put up with the odd missed stitch and fickle mood swings.  Of course, now I have 4 orders to complete (that I've put off for too long anyway), and a big craft fair on the 13th November my machine's broke down and refused to carry on without some T.L.C.. So it went off to be repaired on Friday and won't be back for at least a week. At first it was like playing truant and I enjoyed bunking off, watching day-time T.V., hour long soaks in the bath, actually reading the weekend paper at the weekend. But the absence has truly made my heart fonder and I want her back!