Still waiting for the ratification of the adoption for Summer – how long does it take to sign a piece of paper, people?
Slowly losing my mind. Off to stitch – a couple of projects nearing completion – pics soon.
Bittersweet
In the midst of all this new life we are also dealing with terrible illness.
My father has been diagnosed with lung and liver cancer.
We are without prognosis but not without hope.
The wedding’s off…and Summer’s coming
We’ve postponed the wedding.
This is such happy news and we are thrilled.
There’s a good reason for both the postponement and our joy.
She’s called Summer. She’s 15 months old. She’s our daughter.
And she’s coming home in about 3 weeks time.
For once I am beyond words. She is beautiful and we are blessed.
A new man in my life
Noooooo silly, all’s well with Mr S and me. But there is a new love in my life…my brand, spanking new baby great-nephew (Lord, how old does that make me feel?). His name is Jacob Michael and he’s just so gorgeous….
Jacob and his proud father, Leon
Welcome, little boy, we’re glad you’re here.
Cupboard Love
It never ceases to amaze me just how much difference a few coats of paint can make to an otherwise uninspiring and, frankly, dull piece of orange pine furniture. After a week of painting the wardrobe is finished:
and, although you may not be able to tell from this picture, we’ve finished decorating the room, too. Hence why it’s taken a week.
I have to admit to being slightly perturbed by just how much I’m being drawn to Duck Egg blues in this house. I’m convinced it’s to do with the northern light, but two rooms is enough I think. Although I’ve seen the most perfect fabric for the hallway………(you’ve guessed it…duck egg blue..but let’s not tell Mr S because it will mean repainting the hall…ssssssssssh!)
The reasoning behind choosing this colour for this room is that, hopefully, it will end up being a children’s room. However, we don’t know what variety of child, and in the meantime it has to be a usable room, so a reasonably neutral shade is called for.
Now, I know I could have gone for cream, or some other such safe choice, but Tiffany boxes win me over every time – so Duck Egg it is. And I’m pleased with it. Not only because it looks great, whether the weather is grey or sunny, but also because it’s another room off the list! And I’ve chosen some fabric for a blind and curtains that are the next things to go onto the workroom table.
In other news, the kitchen blind is sewn and ready to be hung. Just needs Mr S to put up a cleat for me (there is no way on God’s green earth that I’m putting a drill into the kitchen tiles) and then it’s good to go. It should be up in the next couple of days so I’ll post a picture then.
And, as a last, but by no means least, word – thanks to everyone who’s sent me messages about Pa S. He’s back in hospital again, since last Monday, which is probably the best place for him at the moment. He’s scheduled for a CT scan and an MRI tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll get to the bottom of what’s causing all the pain (the money is currently on arthritis in his spine) and then can sort out a pain management regime and get him eating and home.
A capital day
Having looked at the “stash” (I can hear you laughing, you know! I do appreciate that it’s not a real stash but Mr S isn’t to be convinced, so work with me here) I realised that whilst I have fabric, very little of it is suitable for the new season.
Now I’m not one to jump the gun, but the sun has been making valiant attempts to push the clouds out of the way (generally by putting one hand on the cloud’s forehead and holding it at arms length). It’s not completely freezing cold and we’ve had a couple of days without rain. That counts as balmy around these parts.
So, reviewing the fabric crisis it was agreed that a trip to London might just be the order of the day. Whilst there are obviously some fabric shops north of Watford Gap, there is nothing to compare to the glory that is Berwick Street:
and, more specifically:
*Cue harps and choirs of angelic voices*
Now, once upon a time in a former life I used to work in Soho. And I mean work as in “gainfully employed” not “Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman”. My office was less than a five minute walk from The Cloth House. And because of my working hours and the commute and studies, I didn’t sew the whole time I worked there. Now I do have time to sew, I live at the other end of the country. There’s some irony in there somewhere.
Whilst Soho is a haven for all that is eccentric and eclectic in the English (in every good way and lots of weird ways), even I raised the odd eyebrow as I skipped through the door with a maniacal grin on my face. When I started stroking the stock they nearly had me ejected.
However, I clung to the doorframe long enough to make a few small purchases:
Dark denim to make a skirt
Double-knit for cardigan as pattern and a matching shell top
Black cotton gingham for a retro styled wrap blouse
I think I was very restrained. Phew! (We shan’t count the Burda, Marie Claire Idees and Debbie Bliss magazines, shall we?)
Feeling virtuous I skipped over to Loop, Ottolenghi and Gill Wing in Islington. Here I managed to escape having only purchased a 3-pack of cable needles. (Mainly because even I can’t justify £20 for a skein of yarn! No matter how luscious.)
All this shopping induced a great urge for refreshment. I’d arranged to meet Alice (the human one, not the feline one) who was in the mood for fizz. At 2.15 in the afternoon! Who am I to argue?
I’ll draw a line under the rest of the afternoon! Needless to say it was very giggly! And to the lady with the fabulous boots who I feel may have thought we were about to mug her, nope, we just thought your boots were amazing!
Coffee and cake fortified us for the tube journey home/hotel (we transport cattle in better conditions than we do humans on the Underground). All in all a rather splendid day.
WooHoo!
I can’t believe that the sitting room curtains are finally finished. I’m rather pleased, not only because they look quite spiffing…
but also because the weather here is back on form and it’s howling a gale and bucketing down with rain. Plus ca change.
Now, I can see the errors, and I know that they need dressing, but still, they do finish the room and are well worth the effort and bloodied fingers. I’m going to set the pleats tomorrow and am playing hunt the tie-back, but to all intents and purposes they are finished.
Also finished is Mr Stitches Maille vest from knitonthenet.
This is a super easy pattern, but did give me pause at the shoulders, which are shaped with short rows and then the seam is created with a three needle cast off. Well, there’s another skill learned. I do love it when these things creep up on you and you have to get to grips with something quick.
Curtains
My plan for clearing down the workroom is moving on – helped by me making donations of yarn and fabric. This has many benefits:
- I get stuff out of the workroom
- My friends get fabric or yarn that they are happy to use
- I’m paying forward my good fortune
Everyone wins. So thanks to Alice and Christian for helping a girl out.
I’ve also made a start on the sitting room curtains. Which are kinda like ironing shirts – an awful job that’s going to be a complete pain but really has to be done.
The problem with the fabric is twofold – firstly it’s very floppy and so is a complete bitch to sew as you have to chase it round the worktop and even pinning or clamping in place doesn’t have much effect. It’s very determined to make it’s escape.
Secondly, it’s patterned and there is some drift in the pattern:
Here you can see it pinned to the table. The only way I know to make this work is to hand stitch each width to the next one, making the best fist of matching the pattern that I can. I did these last week and all widths are now joined. I have two curtain fronts waiting to be made up.
It wasn’t fun but the finished result is worth it. You can hardly see the drift and once the curtains are pleated it’ll be even less noticeable. Honestly.
So this weeks work is to get the interlining widths joined and lock-stitched to the face fabrics. I may be on the missing list for a few days as these are the curtain equivalent of tailoring – lots and lots of hand sewing but hopefully worth the work.
We’ll see.
La Dame aux Camélias and a dress
Miss Alice Cat is notoriously camera shy, so it’s not often she’ll sit and let you take a photo of her. And when she does she’s not necessarily gracious about it. Hence the very grumpy face here. This may have been exacerbated by having just been turfed out of bed and hoicked out of the house for the day. I’m not sure. But I am sure she’s not overly thrilled. Despite outward appearances she’s been much more affectionate of late, verging on sweet.
She must be mellowing as she creeps into old age.
On another note, if you cast you mind back through the mists of time to last September, you’ll recall that I did a short course of workshops at our local college. One of the projects I worked on was Simplicity 2798:
Well, I know that I said I needed to slow down with my sewing and produce better made and fitted garments, but really, this is ridiculous. So I finally cracked on and did the last bits and its finished:
I know the photo is a bit bizarre but we were in a rush, the light was awful, Mr S came over all artistic and this was the only one in which I look remotely human. So you’re stuck with it.
Back to the dress. Whilst I’m not sure that I’ll make this again, it is ridiculously comfortable. It’s a heavy double knit jersey from Fabrix. I used the D cup sizing and this made the fitting sooooooo much easier. Why, oh, why can’t every pattern have this option? I just needed to take in a little across the yoke and a little towards the armhole to prevent gapping. But for the first time ever I have a sleeveless dress that doesn’t flap at the armhole, and for that alone I love this dress.
I think this is a good learning project for me rather than a go to pattern for the future. But on these cold days it’s a perfect dress to be cozy in.
One more word to the wise – don’t attempt the pleated sleeve with any fabric that’s remotely bulky. It won’t work and you’ll drive yourself mad trying to make it work.
An ending and a beginning
Today I’ve been busy distracting myself by burning caramel to make the Sweet and Salty Cake from Baked bakery in New York. You’re not supposed to burn the caramel but, what can I say, I’ve not made it before. I did crack it in the end. I’ll post more about this when I’ve found the replacement battery for my camera and can download the pictures.
Thankfully the preparation of such an extravagant cake is perfect to stop yourself thinking about what the social workers are up to on your behalf. Especially when Pa Stitches-in-law is on his way over and expecting great things.
But all was completed by about 2.30pm, which meant that we had a little time to kill whilst the ganache set and we waited for news.
Thankfully by the time the news came in the cake was ready to eat. And it turned out to be a celebratory cake, because the Panel said Yes.
Mr Stitches and I have been approved by the Panel to adopt two children under the age of 5.
Whilst we sometimes thought we’d never get to this day, in reality this is where the real journey begins. We are elated. And then some. I’m off to open the champagne.