What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Our caravan club weekend continued at Solway Park, Masterton.  The weather turned cold and wet, then back to warm Spring weather again.  With half of Robin’s birthday carrot cake still remaining from last week, I had frozen it to keep it fresh, defrosted it and there was enough to share with our caravan friends on Saturday morning tea.

Morning tea in the sunshine

Who doesn't love a Farmers Market?  This was being held just a short walk away behind the grand stand, so we wandered over to see what was available.  Mmm, fancy cheese, I couldn't go ...

We are away for a three day weekend with our beautiful Birman Gemma.  Although she tolerates the car travels, she doesn't really relax completely. She puts up with going up and over the hills, along windy roads, laying down on the consul between our seats.  When I occasionally stroke her back she shrugs my hand off, as if to say, “I’m here, but I’m not really happy about it”.  Poor Gemma.

It was a two hour trip on Thursday to get to our campsite, and as we didn't leave till late morning, I took our lunch ...

Our weekend was spent in Woodville (about 90km each way).  We were invited  to attend a caravan rally (with a different group) and it was nice to catch up with several couples we had met up with over the years at different rallies.  One of the highlights for me was the craft display.  Although I didn't know it was happening ahead of time I had several hand stitched items in the caravan, so I could take part too.  There obviously is a lot of talent in this group, with everything from knitting, quilts, toys, hardanger on show.  I certainly ...

Last weekend was spent away in the caravan at a rally, and the weather was wet, wet, wet, with just a few fine spells in the mix.  But the ground was sodden, my shoes were covered in mud, guess I should buy myself a pair of gumboots, otherwise known as Wellington boots for those who don't know what I’m talking about.    No wind though, so that was a blessing.  We didn't go too far, just up the coast to Foxton Beach.  Gemma came along too, of course.  No dogs are allowed in this camp, I'm not ...

For most of this week it has been scorching hot weather again and I don’t really like it! However, I bought an ice cream maker and had a go at making vegan ice cream. So far I have tried strawberry, cherry and blueberry. I am still working on the perfect recipe without dairy but I think the most successful one used vegan condensed milk. 

Nella was away in Orkney with her friend so I pretended I was on holiday and just pottered around. I filmed a couple of short overlocker demos and with my Editor in Chief away, I ...

This week I had visitors which is very unusual. My favourite cousins from The New Forest were on an epic caravan tour of Scotland and spent a couple of days with us before starting their journey back south. We had a lovely time eating together, playing board games and visiting Crathes Castle. We visited them last year when Nella was still unwell so this time was so much more fun. We decided that we would love to meet up with our caravans some time, maybe in the Lake District. 

Speaking of caravans, I have been adorning mine with hundreds of ...

Yet again I started a job that I had not planned – it was just meant to be a minor try-out but I got carried away. I decided to paint some of the trims on the caravan a dusky pink then glaze with a sparkly varnish. The glitter did not seem to spread evenly and it just looked dirty. The trouble is that even clear varnish dries yellowish. I decided to sand that off and go back to pink! I have a huge collection of flower-power stickers to attach but I think I may need some help to apply them.

I ...

We had one of the hottest days on record on Tuesday – 30C in Scotland is very unusual and I tried to hide out in my workshop, which is always significantly cooler. I made 2 little bags for my dji Pocket cameras and pieced a whole cloth practice quilt that I will experiment with using Q-Matic.

I got sidetracked seeing if I could use a heat-gun to remove tatty stripes from the side of my caravan. This became a whole-day project, followed by trying to remove 25 year old sticky residue. Peanut butter was suggested as a household remedy but I ...

Nella, Nessie and I spent the weekend at a music festival called Doune the Rabbit Hole near Stirling. The last time we went to a festival was just after Nella was first diagnosed with anorexia in 2019 and we really should not have gone because it was a pretty miserable experience. 

We had a great time in 2022 and it felt like we had turned back the clock on life. Camping in the caravan was a superior experience, particularly as I also put up a gazebo with fairy lights. I enjoyed trundling my trolley around with jumpers, chairs, drinks and ...

Life is certainly busy when you are retired.  In between dealing with my sore throat, it’s almost better, thank goodness, we had a few things to do.  First we had our second Covid booster shot.  With an appointment booking system, it was very quick, call in to the provider, register, answer a few questions, go and get the jab, then sit and wait for the required 15 minutes to make sure there were no complications.  And we never felt the needle at all, the practitioner was so gentle.

Covid booster reception

On the way home we went to collect ...

I have been busy figuring out how things work. I felt that the time was right to go back to posting my silly short daily news videos and I have been attempting to film demos on the Bernina L890 that are aimed at quilters rather than garment makers. Because I have not used all of this techie stuff for a while, I am a bit rusty and had forgotten that I could use a wireless mic with my phone. My Gopro was annoying me because it seemed to drain the battery in just a few minutes. Hopefully I will see ...

I seem to have had a very busy week! I completed the small Warli quilts, added some prairie points then blocked them all ready to be bound. At first I could not figure out how 4 quilts that all started off at 30” x 40” ended up at different sizes until I remembered that the quilting would make a difference, Doh! Hopefully the differences of up to 1” won’t be too obvious when they are hanging.

I had a hexie customer quilt with a too small back so I bought a large, flat sheet and dyed it bright yellow ...

While we were away on our two concurrent caravan rallies, there certainly was plenty going on.  We arrived at Esk Valley Camp to find the ground wet and very boggy after a lot of rain.  New members Peter and Ruth got bogged down well and truly so a group of of good keen blokes pushed and pushed trying to get the motorhome out of the holes it was digging itself in.  That didn't work, so Robin was called in to tow the van out onto (hopefully) drier ground.

Robin to the rescue

Luckily the warm and cosy club room ...

After a delay of 2 years due to the pandemic, it was finally Freya’s graduation from St Andrews University, postponed since the summer of 2020. She and her friends caught up for a week of festivities in glorious summer weather. They had all just left quietly in March 2020 without a chance to say goodbye to each other or to the town where they had spent 4 years. 

With intrepidation, Nella and I set off on the caravan’s maiden voyage, hoping that the town centres would not be too busy. We made it in one piece and managed ...

I finished knitting two pair of variegated burgundy socks a month or so ago, one pair for me and a birthday pair for my old school friend Merilyn.  These have now been gifted, and I was determined not to wear my pair until this had happened.  Merilyn is an excellent knitter, and an accomplished spinner as well – something I have never tried, although it does look quite a soothing task to do.   I’m so pleased she liked her gift, and I don't think she has knitted socks herself.

One pair for her and one pair for me

We ...

I have caught up with all of my customer quilts for now so I had time to finish a few things off in the caravan. The dead battery finally got recharged and I was able to get the water pump going at last. I now know how to get the gas going so I practised making toast in the grill. I thought it would be fun to be able to lie in bed and get Alexa to turn gadgets on so I invested in a couple of smart plugs. I can now command Alexa to switch the kettle, heater and ...

I have to remind myself that I have been away from home for the past 3 weekends and psychologically that is busy, even if there is no major project going on. I worked slowly on a couple of customer quilts, had a half-hearted attempt at making pleated facemarks (Nella’s request), and had a lovely, overdue catch-up with Mo who has wire-haired dachshund puppies. 

There was a full day without electricity for some sort of maintenance and I really wondered what I was going to do all day without power and wifi. I determined that I would learn how to ...

Sunday is the day Robin makes a cooked breakfast, whether we are at home or away in the caravan, as we are currently.  So he cooked up a storm, little breakfast sausages, eggs and tomatoes, yummy.  And because it was Easter Sunday, in place of our regular Dilmah teabags in a cup, we decided to go all fancy and get the tea pot out, together with our cannister of Russian Caravan Tea.

Breakfast tea

After breakfast we went to another family lunch, this time to daughter Nicky and her husband Robert’s  rural home.  A big pot of cheese and ...

I have been catching up with my recent trip to Norfolk, making myself do jobs that I have been putting off! Despite my best intentions, I had not filed any paperwork since Christmas so that took AGES! Nella has been enjoying her new part-time job in the Crathes Castle cafe over a busy Easter weekend. I took Nessie for a walk in the grounds and called in for a coffee. She was not at all impressed by the scary Easter bunny – a security guard in a dubious costume.

Since nobody here had miraculously shinned up a ladder and cleaned the ...

My only mission last week was to complete a customer quilt and get the caravan serviced. I accomplished both:) The quilt is for a friend’s grandson in New Zealand and I am sure he will love all of the different feature fabrics. 

I was nervous about the caravan inspection but it went surprisingly well. There were signs of damp but it is not really a problem for me unless I get rained on in bed. The Caravan Man did not say a word about the interior decoration and he said it was entirely roadworthy but ...