Where was I?

Oh yes, back to reality.  The very funny Antonia, from "Yetanotherbloomingblogspot", or 'Whoopee', has joined Facebook.  She swears, so if you suffer from delicate ears, be warned.  I have actually snorted coffee through my nose reading posts on her blog, and am extremely jealous that I am not as funny, erudite, rude or clever as she is.  But I know how to hammer in tacks, and she doesn't, so there.


Speaking of tacks, the very lovely Kate from Rapt! Upholstery, is in the the third year of the course I'm doing, and has her own blog, which is well worth a look - she's done some amazing things with furniture that was on its last legs.  We only see each other once a week, on a Monday, when the third years venture in with these huge bits of furniture they're all working on - enormous chaise lounges, wing chairs, whole Parker sofas - incredible, really.  Hopefully when my turn comes around next year I'll be able to find something equally fab to work on.


My Monday at Upholstery School was spent wrestling with red vinyl, and I managed to stab myself under the fingernail with a staple.  I swore like a navvy, it bled like a stuck pig, and of course the only comment that's made, by anybody, is "Don't get blood on the work".  Good thing I'm not the sensitive wilting flower some of us are, isn't it?


Anyway, here's some pictures of what I was trying to achieve, which was:


All the pleats in one direction;
All the pleats point towards the centre point;
All the pleats are the same size;
The start point for each pleat must be on the front, not on the top, of the arm.


Not sure if I succeeded:

Much soreness of fingers, after this lot.  Vinyl is a real pain to work with... nice for stool tops, but thank the Upholstery Gods that nobody wants their lounges covered in it!


Last night I made a doorstop for a nice man who bought it through my Etsy shop - I used the beautiful Echino linen, and it went just fine, but the problems I had filling it have resulted in sand all over the sewing room floor, and the bathroom floor.  Why the bathroom floor, I hear you ask?  I had a brainwave about drying out the sand using the hairdryer.  Aha, I hear you say.  Yes, Gentle Readers, Miss Incredibly-stupid Isabella got the hairdryer a bit too close to the sand and it flew everywhere.  Sadly, the finished result didn't even make a bit of difference to the bulk of the sand & it's still damp.  Next time I send the boys off to the hardware store for a bag of sand, remind me to specify I want the dry stuff.

And that, Gentle Readers, could be it for me today.  I have done the first slices into the Birthday quilt top, so I need to sew some sashing strips together so I can stitch the quilt top back up... I may emulate yesterday's effort by having a mid-afternoon nap, but my final set of Lumiere de Noel layer cake blocks arrived from Texas this morning, so I may be spending nap time thinking about how to make a double sided quilt...  Inspirational ideas welcome, of course!


Ciao!