Suddenly it’s autumn in Switzerland. Overnight the ice cream stand at the station in Zürich that I walk past on my way home from work has disappeared, to be replaced by the ‘heisse Marroni Maa’ (the roast chestnut man), roasting his chestnuts in a big metal pan and dishing them out in paper twists to homeward-bound commuters. We’ve slipped into the foggy greyness that is Zürich in autumn and winter. There is a constant white haze over the trees as I look out of my sewing room window. It may be a while before we see the sun again.

In the countryside there are pumpkin stands everywhere you look. The Swiss must eat a huge amount of pumpkin at this time of year!

I’m leaving for work in the dark in the mornings, and while I couldn’t say it’s cold yet, my raincoat is just not quite warm enough, but I somehow can’t yet bear to take out my winter coat – knowing just how many months of winter we have ahead of us. But slowly it’s coming….

My work clothes have seamlessly moved from the colours of summer to the blacks and neutrals that I tend towards in the winter and at lunchtime instead of running out to grab a salad from the supermarket, we are turning more and more often to the soup kitchen downstairs.

Being a northern girl I do better in these sorts of temperatures. We had a blisteringly hot summer this year and to be honest I don’t cope with it really well. I love the sunshine, but somehow I’m just a teeny bit more comfortable once the days start drawing in and cosiness comes once again to the fore.

This week marked the official stopping date for my editing and translation business – a hard step for me to take, but to be honest I feel only relief at one less thing to have to bother about. Hopefully my weekends will be my own again – or at least in as much as that is possible with a house full of teenagers!

Which of course means that with a bit of luck..there will be more sewing!!

Here’s to it!

Helen

..one leaf at a time…

…but actually faster than I had expected!

Helen

When I was at the FQR retreat a few weeks ago I came across the most beautiful quilt. It was being used as a tablecloth, which I thought was sacrilege, but we won’t go into that here. Each to their own. Enough to say that it was a real smasher of a quilt.

Needless to say I bought the book…

and here is the quilt …..

made by one of the founders of FQR, Brioni Greenberg.

Pretty drop-dead gorgeous, huh? I absolutely love this quilt.

And of course it set the old grey cells humming…..(this is where I get to the confession stage..)….you see, I have a bit of a long-standing problem. It looks like this….

Yeow. Not pretty….

And I really would like to use up some of these little itty squitty pieces of fabric before I move the the old people’s home and have to throw them all away…

So I ordered a lot of Kona charm squares. Really a LOT! And now that they have arrived I’m making a start.

I could be a while.

But it will be gorgeous when I get there.

Two down and about nine million to go.

I can recommend the book too – a little different (read: better) than your average quilt book – it has some absolutely gorgeous projects in it. Brioni is a talented lady!

Oh well, it will keep me out of mischief! (Did I say that it’s my day off and I’m supposed to be doing housework and shopping, hmmmm. It’s also my 20th wedding anniversary – so I don’t feel too bad cutting myself some slack!)

Here’s to  faffing around with fiddly bits of bondaweb!

Helen

Today is a half-day holiday in Zürich – for Knabenschiessen – aka ‘boys’ shooting day’. The schools actually have the whole day off and over the long weekend both boys and girls can take part in a shooting competition and visit a huge fun fair. In total about 3,000 kids take part – my son did it last year, but this time he seems to have had other plans.

Anyway, I felt pretty good about coming home from work at lunchtime and have spent the afternoon happily sewing along and getting some of my August bee projects taken care of….

This Garden Fence block for Sigrun in the European Siblings Together bee…..

..very quick and easy…I liked this one!

Two low volume Scrap Vomit blocks for Hadley for Stitch Tease 2…..

…I’ve had more than enough of cutting out 2 1/2″ inch squares now,thank you very much!

Now I think there might just be time to get on with a Fireworks block for me…..

…..although sitting out in the sunshine with my book sounds pretty appealing too…..this far into September it’s almost a crime not to!

Helen

This year has brought with it many changes. I almost can’t remember what my old life felt like. Now it’s busy, full of challenges and I’m having trouble sometimes to find the time to do the things I love to do…..like sewing and blogging and pottering in the garden.

I think, if I’m honest, that I’ve been conning myself that I can sort of stretch time and still be able to do everything.

Ok, deep breath….I can’t. It doesn’t work and I’ve made up my mind that some things have to change.

For the last 9 years I’ve been working part-time from home doing editing, translating and proof-reading for academics – my own little business that I’ve built up from scratch and which ticks along…

…except that now ‘ticking along’ means coming home from work tired and having to do an emergency editing job in the evening, or not being in the garden on a lovely Saturday afternoon because I have a translation to do.

When I went back to ‘work’ in January I kept the editing going mainly because I didn’t know if my job was going to work out and because after so many years, my business is a bit like a fourth child. I couldn’t let it go. It was mine, my responsibility, something I had done all on my own.

But now it’s time. Time to let go. Time to give up and move on. I feel like I’ve taken a big step.

I’ve found someone who I am happy will take good care of my clients, I’ve written to everyone telling them what I’m doing and I’m getting ready to send out my final invoices and write to the social security people.

It’s done. I’ve let go. I’ve claimed back my free time …..

I feel slightly lightheaded and rather exhilarated at the same time.

I hope this means you will be seeing a bit more of me round here. I hope so. It’s been too long….

Helen