Not Another Hobbby!

             
          
No that isn't a bag I've made (it's the teacher's) but it's like one I've started to make. 

Oh yes, I've taken up quilting, well learning to quilt anyway. It's not exactly a new hobby as I've sewn for as long as I can remember, my Nanna & my Mam taught me when I was little so it's just another branch of that really. However it does need more stuff. Lots more stuff like cutting mats, rotary cutter, plastic rulers & shapes galore!

I found a really great quilting group at Beamish Museum and I joined before Christmas. I was very wary as sometimes you join these groups and the people are not always very welcoming. You feel a bit of an outsider but this group of women were lovely. I went along with a friend just before Christmas and we had a great time chatting, learning to cut fabric with a rotary cutter and making a nine patch square. We saw the great quilted bags most of the group had made to carry all their sewing things to the class. The photo above is of the one belonging to the teacher.

Oh yes we did a lot of eating too as it was their Christmas meeting so there was a lot of chatting & laughing. 

I was really looking forward to our next meeting which was yesterday and it was another successful day. We start at 10am break at about 12.30 for lunch & we all gather around a big table to chat then we work until 4pm. It's a great day with no interruptions to make meals, answer the phone or the door. Bliss!

Here's another lovely bright bag I liked. Pink's not my colour but the red & green really lifted it.

I'll let you know how mine turns out!

X

Joe The Quilter

Joe the Quilter's Cottage, Beamish

Quilting has long been a traditional craft in the North East of England with the famous Durham or North Country Quilting.

I have a Durham quilt which I inherited from my mother in law after she died. Sadly I know nothing about who made it or when as she never showed it to me. I'll do a post about it once I manage to take some decent photographs of it. It's so large I haven't found a way to take them.

Beamish Museum has a lot of quilts and recently a new cottage has been built or rather re created honouring Joe the Quilter, a famous quilter in the North who was murdered in 1826.

Joe the Quilter's cottage was in Warden near Hexham in Northumberland and the team from Beamish researched the site and recreated the cottage in Beamish. 

I had a half an hour to spare last week when we were doing our quilting at Beamish so dashed across to take a look at the cottage. Apologies for the quality of the photographs. I hadn't realised that we would be visiting the cottage so didn't take my camera. I must get to grips with the camera on my phone one of these days. 

Musicians playing outside the cottage. Note the little puppet the fiddler was keeping going while he played. Multi tasking!

The interior was bigger than I expected but just a single room for living in!

Behind that wattle & daub wall was where Joe kept his chickens! 

Wonder where Joe kept his quilting frame as it would have been pretty big.

There was a small sample of Durham quilting in the window area. Main problem was getting a photo with all the other people doing the same thing. Tourists!

Outside the cottage was a notice letting people know they could take part in an investigation into the murder!

We took a quick look into the church (another building taken down & built up in Beamish). There were some quilts and some boards showing activities relating to the cottage & quilting.

Small pieces of blue & white pottery were found when the archaeological dig was done and they were copied here by a local textile designer and artist.

She then designed a lovely cotton fabric using her water colour print.

Also in the church was a locally created new quilt. Couldn't get the whole thing into a single photo.

 I particularly like this square of the little town of Alnmouth.

This isn't a very comprehensive representation of what it's really like at the cottage as I only had about 30 minutes to see it. 

There's a lovely video telling the whole story of Joe the Quilter's cottage here.

My Singer 338!

Well here it is my very first sewing machine, the one I got for my 21st birthday in 1966! I know it cost my Mam a lot to buy it for me & she traded in her Jones treadle to buy it. I wish I had offered to pay for to keep it but I suppose that's the thoughtlessness of youth.

I learned to sew from about 5 years old with my Nana's Jones treadle, my Mam had learned to sew on it too & so did my sister. In the days before telly we spent hours sewing & knitting together. I remembered watching with horror the time my Mam got the sewing machine needle through her finger nail! Don't know how it didn't put me off.

I decided I didn't want a gold watch for my 21st as most people did I preferred a sewing machine. I loved it! Such a gorgeous colour and my how it stitched! It could zig zag & embroider and it has made hundreds of things from my mini dresses, wedding & bridesmaids' dresses in the sixties, curtains, cushions, dresses & trousers for me & my children in the seventies & in the eighties I did a City & Guilds Fashion & Design 3 year course. My the machine got some hammer during that course.  

Apart from when the electric foot control broke the machine never flackered until I got it out about a year ago & discovered there was a screw missing from the stitch lever. Just a tiny screw but it stopped the stitch setting working properly although you could still sew with it.

Well I started a quilting class a couple of months ago & wondered whether I should treat myself to a new lightweight machine to carry to the classes as mine is quite heavy with the case on it.

Next I spent hours looking at reviews on the Internet (as you do) & it looked as though most of the cheaper ones weren't worth the money. I didn't want to spend too much on one so I looked into getting the part for the machine. Well that was another hunt that took hours! Although the machine was made in Scotland it's hard to find replacement parts in the UK. I found one on a website in the US but it was going to cost a heck of a lot just for a tiny part so I gave up. I thought about buying an old 338 just to get the part but they all looked in poor condition on ebay & they weren't cheap either. So I was back to square one.

I started looking at vintage sewing machine websites, by this time I was hooked on them, finding out more about them & how they were built to last unlike the pastic stuff being sold now. Well I found one UK website, it belongs to Helen Howes, a lady who is really into restoring these fabulous machines. Well she has some beauties which she has lovingly restored for sale here & I drooled over the Jones treadle machine I learned to sew on as well a most of the others here http://www.helenhowes-sewingmachines.co.uk/buy.html#machinesales

So I started browsing the rest of the site & found she also has parts for sale. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the exact part I needed for the princely sum of £1! I rang her, she posted it to me & last night I fitted it & voila! It restored the machine to working order perfectly, now the stitch lever works like a dream. Hard to believe I could be so delighted, more delighted than if I had won the lottery. 

Can you believe a machine doesn't work properly, all for the sake of a tiny screw you can see here.

So now I can start quilting properly! The sewing saga continues & I think it will have to go into the box with me when I go. Hard to believe you can get so attached to something mechanical but I am, I love it probably because I know it cost my Mam a lot to buy it for me back then. Then I think of all the things I have made or repaired with it, such memories. I hope Mam knows it was been worth every penny!

Stop Procrastinating and Just Do It!

I'm probably the world's greatest procrastinator.

I'm not joking! Really it's dithering, procrastination is just a posh word for it.

Well, I've dithered about for ages thinking about writing a blog and wondering what to write about and then again whether to write one at all. It's been 18 months since I first thought about it when I left my job working for the Connexions Service in County Durham.

It seemed like a good idea to keep a record of my new lifestyle and the things I would do once I had more time on my hands. Ha! Ha! However I took some time to think about it. You see? Procrastination at work again. Anyway, I started to think about what I've done over the last 18 months. After all I'd had such great ideas, hadn't I?

• I'd enjoy more time with my grandchildren, especially Lauren who's 3.
  
  
• I'd get the house tidied up and decorated as it's been sorely neglected while I've been working. To be truthful it's a tip as I'm such a hoarder and untidy with it. My daughter groans at the thought of clearing it all out when I kick the bucket. I have no doubt that everything will go into a huge skip or two (maybe more).
  
  
• Then there's the garden, also a bit of a tip. Again I've dithered about it for years. Watched loads of TV programmes, read books and drawn up plans and.....nothing. Eat your heart out Alan Titchmarsh!
  
  
• My community website for Washington AboutMyArea NE38 needed some work doing on it. I'd spent ages getting the information on it but it needed more time spent on marketing it.
  
  
• My Spanish language skills also needed improving. I've been going to classes for years but never really concentrated on it. Not enough time, I said to myself. When I retired I'd go and live in Spain for a couple of months. Immerse myself in the language, it's the only way.
  
  
• Then there were lots of small projects I'd started and never finished. The cross stitch panels, a half finished jumper, a crochet cloth and so on.
  
  So 18 months on what have I achieved? Well, if I'm honest, not a lot!
  
  
• However, I'm still here and I'm happy. I suppose they're my greatest achievements!
  
  
• The house has had a couple of rooms "tarted up" but it's not looking a lot better thanks to my hobbies and untidy habits. I've watched quite few programmes on doing up houses but have to say I didn't really take to any of their ideas. The minimalist look isn't my thing. Too 'sixties for me and I've already been there. I'd give the TV House Doctor a thump. Give me "homely" any day.
  
  
• My Spanish hasn't improved at all. Probably got worse! Haven't been able to go to Spain for a couple of months due to "grandchild responsibilities". I don't know why I haven't got into the habit of just switching on a "Larn Yersel" Spanish CD to listen to (on the rare occasions I force myself to do some housework) or maybe picking up the books which have been lying about and adding to the mess. I can only assume I don't really want to. Strange!
  
  
• The garden? Well the garden fairies haven't visited sadly. It hasn't been touched apart from occasionally having the lawn cut, thanks to two of the worst summers I can remember for donkeys years. At present it's like a quagmire due to the clay soil.
  
  
• I've really been enjoying myself with my grandchildren, Nathan & Lauren. I've often wondered whether I've enjoyed them more than I enjoyed my children. It's probably my memory playing me false but there's not so much to worry about and much more time for fun. Things like trampolining, face painting and generally jumping and dancing about like a loony.
  
  
• I love reading but I normally reserve it for holidays because once I pick a book up, I find it hard to put it down until I finish it. However I've read a few books recently. Alan Alda's autobiography, "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed" was a great read. He seems just as nice in real life as he did on M.A.S.H. and he's not a womaniser. Must get his latest book "Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself". I enjoyed one of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse stories, I just had to remember to keep a dictionary close by. I thought I had a reasonable command of the English language but occasionally I came across a word I didn't know or couldn't remember like "otiose". That's the only word I can remember looking up! One book I re-read was an Ellis Peters Cadfael story. I love the TV series with Derek Jacobi; another daytime TV treasure I re-visited on rainy days this summer. Well there were plenty of them, rainy days I mean. Decided I'm going to continue reading but I'm going back to using the public library as our bookshelves are all full and I don't want any more books lying about. It's very green and saves cash too!
  
  
• As I mentioned earlier, due to the bad weather this summer, I've discovered I like "some" of the daytime TV programmes. Not really a good idea to get too hooked on this as it stops you getting things done. Although I have to say it's been great to revisit Inspector Morse, Cadfael and Poirot. Mind you, one series I'd love to see again is M.A.S.H. I don't think they have ever shown it in the UK since the original screening way back. It's a classic and would have a whole new audience of younger viewers who have never had the chance to see it. Would probably top the ratings too; but then I'd never get any work done.
  
  
• I've finished a couple of sewing projects I started earlier and still progressing with a few others.
  
  
• I've spent hours on the Internet. Far too much time but I've enjoyed it. Time to focus on more tangible productive things now.
  
  
  So what now?
  
  Well I'm going to take up my patchwork & quilting again. Found lots of information on the Internet about groups in USA, Australia and down south. Don't seem to be many groups here in the North East which is a pity but I'm still looking. On the off chance that anyone reads this blog and has some information about a group near to Washington, Tyne and Wear, please get in touch via my website page.
  
  I've been looking for a holiday in Spain for a week to try to motivate me to start my Spanish again. Also been looking for some Spanish classes at the local college with no success. This seems ironic given the constant criticism about the UK having such poor language skills and how young people are losing out in the international job market due to this. The colleges seem to be focusing on basic skills. That's no bad thing, but I don't understand why so many people have poor basic skills when so much has been spent on education over the years. I came from a poor mining town and can't remember anybody in my class not being able to read. Gripe over!
  
  Task achieved! I've finally written a Blogg and the weather's great for once, so I'm off to do some gardening.
  
  Now, stop the dithering, just press the button and publish!