I know you think I’ve just been skiving off, hanging around, watching tv and doing not very much of anything at all. But you’d be wrong….

Actually I’ve had things to show you for a week or two, but I’ve just survived that nightmare scenario – the death of the laptop, which I can assure you IS worse than losing your handbag.

I had already had an inkling that death might be nigh and had bought myself a new laptop at the beginning of January, but then all those ominous and incomprehensible things like file transfers and setting up things so that my laptop and phone would synch (note newly acquired tech speak!) all seemed just a little too much to contemplate. When I eventually girded my loins and was brave enough to take a stab at things, of course, you’ve guessed it, it  didn’t work at all. I finally contacted apple support because I realised I was way out of my depth….and had to book a phone call a week in advance. The phone call came and as I started to discuss the problem with the very helpful (but fast German talking) apple support lady not only did the old laptop succumb to the black screen of death, but the house phone died too….

Reader I was left on my own.

I then decided that all this stuff couldn’t be ALL that difficult, could it? So employing a combination of female logic and trial and error I have sorted it all out. I dragged documents back from the time capsule, I found things on my phone and copied the set-up, I read websites and looked at youtube.

And reader it works (although I still haven’t retrieved my old emails).

I had to sit down at this point and I’m still actually in shock that I managed everything.

All of which proves that you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks – but only if she is an old lady dog. I do not believe that my husband could have done this (but I’m saying that very quietly so he can’t hear me – three years on, he still doesn’t have email on his computer at home….).

So here I am, back in action again.

And this is what I’ve been up to…

A rag rug made of the ugliest fabrics I could find, for eldest daughter to take away with her when she moves out in three weeks time. Beauty out of ugliness. This truly is a weekend of miracles, if I say so myself! (OK, I realise that the photo resizing may still need a little tweaking – but I’m getting there!)

On that happy note I shall leave you and return to my weaving.

More soon,

Helen

It snowed quite a bit overnight and we woke to a winter wonderland here on the hill. Unfortunately we had overslept so I just had time to snatch this photo before I whizzed off to the airport to put my husband on a flight to Asia….. I’m still managing to appreciate the little things in life and this beautiful morning was certainly worth taking pleasure in. The photo doesn’t really do justice to the hint of pink in the sky, but believe me, it was breathtaking!

Last week we found out that daughter no. 1, who is studying in Zürich, has finally found an apartment and will be moving out in the next month. She currently has a truly horrible commute (up to 3 hours a day) and a very heavy lecture load – and let’s face it, living at home with mom and dad isn’t really what being a student is all about. I’ll miss her a lot, but she’s ready to fly and I’m not going to get in her way.

What’s a mother to do?

Make a rag rug for her to use in her new bathroom – that’s what….

So this afternoon I’m happily chopping my way through a big pile of ancient ugly fabrics – and so far so good – it’s the best way I know to use up lots of old stash and as if by magic the ugly fabrics (and believe me, this lot are really bad!) are transformed into something lovely…and useful to boot!

Just to cement my high achiever status I finished piecing a lap quilt using charm squares and a jelly roll of Moda’s Winter’s Lane. This is fabric from last year or the year before and there’s something about it that really makes me think of my Japan trip last January….

If anyone out there is sitting on a nice piece of Winter’s Lane yardage that they would like to sell me to back this with, please do let me know!

So that’s all for now. I have a decadent week ahead of me, with the motto ‘the cat’s away so the mouse will play’ – I think I’m out having fun every night this week….what’s the world coming too? By next weekend I will be a walking zombie!

Best wishes to all,

Helen

Happy new year everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and have made as we say here ‘en guete Rutsch’ (literally: a good slide).

It’s a beautiful day here – clear blue skies and wonderful snow, so as was to be expected, we have hit the slopes. I am just starting to feel the first inklings of slowing down…..I’m not racing down the piste anymore (too many broken bones in the past) and now it’s more a case of getting myself safely down the (not too scary) slopes and admiring the scenery. Notably we are near to being the oldest in the gondola on the way up….just when did that happen?

During my gentle skiing and waiting in line for lifts today I have been pondering the year ahead. Invariably I come up with the same new year’s resolutions as every year: lose weight, get fitter, live a simpler life….the first two are even more necessary than usual as the beta blockers I now take to counteract my migraines (very successfully) seem to have slowed my metabolism as well as making running a big headache and the pounds have piled on….(did I mention I felt like an overstuffed sausage in my bright tomato ski suit – which I only bought in September….?)

I’m planning to create more, sleep more, blog more and focus more, which all adds up to living more and doing more of the things that make me happy. Life is there to be lived….I could do with a few more hours in the day and I’m going to find some of them by stopping working overtime at work (which isn’t paid anyway) and also using my lunch hour to go to a gym and do some exercise…

My biggest aim for the year though is to get my almost 88 year old mother moved into sheltered accommodation in England. She’s finally showed willingness to go and that is going to be a huge task and a not inconsiderable logistical headache…but I’ll take one day at a time and see where we get.

So watch this space in the year ahead….maybe I’ll do better with the resolutions this year than I have in the past!

Have a good one!

Helen

I won the battle with the Bernina.

Although I did have to change the top thread before I went completely mental. The machine clearly didn’t like the thread I was trying to use for quilting – a very old Madeira rayon thread which I’ve used before and got away with and which I’m still determined to use up somehow (as I have about another 100 spools of it from a thread-selling venture in another life many moons ago…..) . Anyway, switching the top thread to a cotton one for the last third meant that I could finish the quilting without finishing off my sanity.

So here she is in all her glory..my second Stitch Tease quilt.

There were sizing issues with the blocks, which I remedies as best I could, but which mean there are some slightly chopped off points, but a blind man wouldn’t notice from a hundred yards so I’m not getting worked up about them either. I’m really pleased with how this turned out – it’s such a bright and happy quilt – and many thanks to the Stitch Tease girls for their lovely blocks!

I love finishing quilts – this one more than most because just in time it means that my fabric use for this year is a whole 6 yards more than my fabric purchases – I’m polishing my halo!!!

Helen

I can’t believe how long it is since I last blogged…the time has run away with me again. I’ve had lots of good intentions, but somehow they have come to nothing or at best not very much at all…..

Of course ten days in bed will throw the best organized of us out of the window. When I went back for a check up a week after I had staggered back to work, the part-time doctor (who lives down the road) and who I would classify as a very sound young woman informed me that what I had actually experienced was asthmatic bronchitis, no doubt precipitated by the beta blockers that I take to (very effectively) control my migraines. Had my GP given me an inhaler I would have been a whole lot better off. This is somewhat concerning because a) it’s likely to happen again and b) I actually asked my GP if there could be a link and he pooh-poohed the suggestion. One more reason to look for a new doctor (he’s a very nice man but is definitely past his use by date and should retire…..)

Anyway, since then I have been rushing around like a scalded cat trying to catch up at work and at home. This wasn’t made easier by a business trip to the UK, which was combined with a trip to visit my mother. The latter made me realize that it is really time to sort out some form of assisted living (she’s almost 88 and lives alone, no relatives in the country and more worryingly, no friends popping in and out. Actually no friends at all). The current situation just will not do. Next problem: how to convince her…although I think some progress has been made. This is helped by the fact that the facility I am looking at has flats which are both nicer than the house she is living in now, and are also in a better area.

So I guess more trips to England are on the cards…not to mention a huge house clearance logistical exercise. My mother hasn’t thrown anything away in the last 40 years….we were actually fighting over catalogues from the 80’s and 90’s which she didn’t want to throw away because she keeps them for reference….

Enough…onwards and upwards….that is a project for 2015. I’m not getting in a tizzy about it quite yet.

Which brings me on to my next point (and all the bad language).

You remember that a couple of years ago I lashed out in a moment of madness and extravagance (and to put it mildly, extreme stupidity) and bought myself a Bernina 820 – the machine to fulfill every quilters dreams…

Except that it is the most dreadful load of scrap iron in the history of the universe. This machine should be able to do anything. In fact if it has a good day it is really very nice and with its favorite threads it is a dream to do machine quilting with.

Today however I am spitting blood (and using rude words). I’m quilting my second Stitch Tease quilt. Well, actually I will rephrase that and say that I’m unpicking, re-threading, reading the (useless) manual, searching the (useless) help sites…and getting nowhere fast.

How is it possible to half quilt a quilt with no problems and then the machine decides it doesn’t like the thread, the needle, the tension? It is SO infuriating – I can’t possible change the quilting thread when I’m two thirds done and the dratted thing WILL NOT CO-OPERATE. I have cleaned it, cajoled it, stroked it, rethreaded…you name it…and the dratted thing won’t work. I can sew for 3 inches and then the thread breaks…..

And the wretched machine is attached to it’s special table, weighs the same as half an elephant and I can’t get it looked at before Christmas…..AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!

And I so wanted to get this quilt done this year so that for once my fabric use would have been more than what I’ve bought this year.

It seems it was not to be.

Send positive vibes.

I may throw this machine out of the window.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T BUY YOURSELF ONE FOR CHRISTMAS!

Helen