It’s been almost exactly 6 years since my last post. 6 years. A lot has happened in that time. It has been both long, and it went by so fast.
Why blog again? Do people still blog? I used to have a blog reader set up, all those years ago and i would check my favorite blogs all the time. Now it’s all social media and honestly i check blogs very rarely.
But this really is for me. I have had a hard few years, and I wasn’t making much. Especially sewing, especially quilting. I did some lingerie sewing, very little quilting (didn’t finish any quilts), almost no documenting. There was quite a bit of working around the house, picking up woodworking, and upholstery as new hobbies. But I am easing back into it and I wanted to record it somewhere. For me.
So, let’s start with a recap of January.
During the second weekend in January I attended an upholstery workshop in beautiful Carbondale. My first real attempt at upholstery (excluding recovering bar stools in the basement; I might post about that sometime). It was three days to upholster a chair. I had bought (well, one was free) two chairs off of Facebook Market and brought both along withe me. We settled on a bigger, and more complicated one. To be challenged. Let me tell you, three days is not enough to learn everything about upholstering a chair. I did not manage to finish it, but I learned a ton. And I really enjoyed relaxing time (but busy! we barely took lunch breaks) with three other ladies (including the instructor).
I really like this chair, and it really not that large. But you can see from the second photo that the bottom has not been finished. And, what you cannot see is that the back is not finished either. The fabric has been cut, attached to the top of the frame and now it’s waiting to be finished. However, as i said, three days is not enough to strip this chair down to the frame and build back up. So now I’m thinking I should start from scratch. before I close it all up. I don’t know.
A few days after I came back from the upholstery workshop I finally made an appointment with IKEA for kitchen design. I finally finished my design! something that’s been in the works for… maybe two years? Finally they actually have everything in stock, and delivery is 7-14 days. On everything.
And then… two days after the meeting, we were going over some details and realized we might be moving the range to another place. And possibly the sink… but first we need to have an HVAC person come by and tell us what is the situation with the venting for the range hood (we don’t currently have one; we only have that microwave with a fan which might not even be venting). If that is the case, then I have to redraw the design. Oh well, that’s how remodeling always goes.
And… there was some sewing happening too. I actually started the Mandolin quilt sometime before the pandemic and then picked it up again maybe in September? a few days ago i put the final stitches in the last, 20th block. Haven’t photographed them all yet. And, because i want to finish this project sooner later than later I might cheat and not do the connecting pieces… I might just applique this blocks on squares and then sew the squares together… we’ll see.
One more sewing project… this is actually a vintage quilt top made in 1940. At least that”s what the lady who sold it to me said. It was her mom, and she pieced it on a singer manual machine. As many unfinished vintage tops this one was very wonky and not flat. So not flat that the only way to salvage it was to rip it apart and put it back together. This is the finished top.
And finally, I started walking again. I did only about 26 miles, partly due to the fact that it has been unusually cold, and partly due to my injury and still having to do physical therapy. But i’m back and the other day I actually hit my all time best – fastest walk ever!
Oh, and I read/listened to 6 books!
That’s it for January. Let’s see what February brings…
flekka.com 