Oops I did it again

 Well, Gentle Readers, I've done it.  I've resigned from the day-job at the Big Bank, and I probably won't be going back, well not to that one, anyway.  Things have been ...interesting... and I took a break in February to support The Elusive Mr Golightly while he went through some really unpleasant medical stuff... but we're coming out the other side now, and I'd decided that I didn't need to go back to the office.  Having a purpose that pays is good, but it's just as good to just have a purpose.  

Anyhoo, plans change, right?  I got a call in mid-August that sounded intriguing, and basically I was offered my dream job, with hours & salary entirely my call.  Was I interested?  To be honest, apart from all the medical shit, I was very happy being retired.  I had the usual days of lockdown blah, but I've deliberately given myself lots to do so I didn't ever get bored, and I had lots and lots of things on my to-do list for when we got out of lockdown... but an opportunity like this doesn't come along every day.

I worked for this company a few years ago, enjoyed it very much & was quite sad when my contract finished & they decided to rework the structure to eliminate my role.  Funny that here we are four years later & they've been told they need the role back to be really effective.  Hah.  Coulda told 'em.

Anyhoo, I didn't even have to go for an interview; when the guy in charge heard I was available, he just said "offer her the role"...  and so hopefully I'll be starting next week.  

In other news, I've rescued a quilt, with help from the fabulous Jayne Rennie at Quilting Finesse (@quiltingfinesse on Instagram).  My mother made me this quilt as a doona cover in 1988 (as you did then???), and I think it was one of the first she made, because to be honest, it was pretty rough - within a year the seams had started to split, the stitch size was tiny (1.4mm?), there were various coloured cotton threads, and the colours weren't my thing at all, but it was made by my mother, for me, for Christmas, so I didn't feel I could just dump it!  As time went by, and I acquired more, beautiful, better made quilts made for me, in colours of my choice, this one ended up further and further towards the back of the cupboard.  We don't have a doona/duvet, instead using quilts layered to give us the perfect amount of warmth.  So it became redundant, and was relegated to an ugly ball in the back of the linen cupboard.

Cue Lockdown!  I had a big tidy-up of the linen cupboard, and took a pile of worn out sheets & towels to the textile recycling bin, and rediscovered the quilt.  First job was to remove the sheet that was the back of the doona cover. and then have a look at the blocks.  Most of them were stitched onto old hospital pillow cases (did I mention My Lovely Ma was a nurse?  Never let a chance go by oh lord):

Then I had to work out how to remove the bulk of the backing without compromising the integrity of the blocks... in some cases the seams were so tiny (1/16") that the whole block had to be taken apart & restitched.  I also ditched the entire strippy border, but I did manage to salvage some bits of that for another project.  Then I squared all the blocks up & made them a standard size, then I restitched it together using a tiny sprigged print in a rich cream... totally my mother.

Then I took it up to Jayne Rennie at Quilting Finesse & she quilted it using the Baptist Fan pattern, and it looks amazing (if wonky (my fault, not hers!)!)!

Now I have to bind it (it's going to join the Snake Trail Surprise which is in the cupboard waiting to be bound) & I have an idea to use some French General creams & beiges to do it.  I think My Lovely Ma would be very pleased.

 

Twenty!

Sets of lavender bags!  Twenty!  There's three to a set.  You can do the maths.  (Don't get me started on sport vs sports and math vs maths... I don't understand why people on that side of the pond have sports & math, and we have sport & maths.  I won't get it.  I also don't get why Channel Nine, which I watch so rarely that the sight of it being tuned in on the TV at home is like the sighting of a rare, endangered white rhino in full flight on the African velt, has gone from "Sport" to "Sports".  Where do they think they are, Florida?)

Anyway, I think I'm going back to "you can do the sums".  No controversy there... and so... my Etsy customer wants to know if I can make her 20 sets of lavender bags, what price I can do them for & how much postage to Taiwan will be.  Well!  


There's good news and bad news in this, because, firstly, she wants Wonderland, by MoMo, but only the butterfly fabric, and the twiggy fabric, which are both out of print as far as I know... lucky for me my lovely friend Miss Scurvy is going to the Craft Show at Darling Harbour tomorrow & is going to look some out for me... and I'm obviously going to have to pop back into Cottage Quiltworks to see if they've got any - see, this is why I buy fabric & hoard it, because you never know when you're going to need it.

The good news is that if she buys all 20 sets, I can still make a profit by doing them for $7.00 a set, plus I get nice exposure to the Taiwanese market.  All good, I think.

And on the new day-job front, so far it's been quiet, friendly, enjoyable.  I'm sure it's going to turn into 'busy, friendly, enjoyable' very soon, but for now, leaving at 5.30pm is a treat, especially when there's a 8.45am start in there.  I feel like I've had a holiday!


But now, off to bed!

Crap!

Shoulda guessed it wouldn't last, shouldn't I?  I've been doing the commute, you know, out to the arse-end of nowhere every day, leaving home at 6.30am, waiting for the bus, getting to the office between 8.00am & 9.00am, and leaving bang on the dot of 4.20pm, because I have to get the bus - ha!  It's been fantastic.  There's a nice man who drives us, seats, warmth, music (yesterday we had one of my favourites, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue) and good conversation with the man next to me who has an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Fester, (but I don't have the heart to ask if he's part of the Addams family...)

Anyway, as part of my punishment for having a holiday (that's a joke, I think!), I've been given oversight on a project which has been running for about a year, has had several project managers, is running massively late, and overbudget, has at least 66 major changes needed to get it into line with what was originally requested, and only two under-resourced and overworked BA's.

So, today, I drove to work, arriving at 7.15am, and left tonight at 7.11pm.  Knew it wouldn't last....

More than one kind of birthday...

Today is not only my 100th post, but also the first anniversary of my arrival at the day-job.What a year. Some of the rudest, meanest, bitchiest people I've ever worked with, which is quite impressive, considering I've been working for 30 years in December. Also, some of nicest, kindest, most thoughtful people, which kind of makes up for it.

Wow. 30 years of work. Lets see... Bank (different bank), Bookshop, Library, off to the UK, Temp, Library, back to Aus, Bank (different Bank), back to the UK, Oil Company (typing pool), back to Aus, Temp, Library (see a pattern here?), Temp, Typing Pool, University student (didn't last long at that, let me add!), Training Company (trainer), Insurance Company, 2nd job at same Insurance Company, another Insurance Company, working part time & studying, studying full time, IT Contractor, back at that Insurance Company again, IT

Consulting Company, IT Contractor, Bank (different Bank). I think that's it. Isn't that enough?

I've had some great jobs... some have been lots of fun - the typing pool in London was great, we used to have lots of fun whilst working our way through Exploration & Drilling reports. Plus we had state of the art technology, word processing machines with Hard Disks in them! Wow! (this was 1988, you know...) Ah, those were the days.

And what I really want to know is, why did it take me until I was over 40 before figuring out what I really really wanted to do with my life? Way too old to retrain again... and in way too deep with house, renovations and a mortgage to go back to uni... so I'm making do. I wanted to make costumes for films & theatre, but I've left it too late... now I spend my time making beautiful things out of beautiful fabric, wishing I wasn't pushing buttons & writing business requirements. Ah, happy freaking anniversary.