Archie The Wonder Dog

Well, it’s that time of year. Although, as someone who went through (and then worked in) the English education system, this is completely the wrong time of year to be getting or writing an end of year report* but I’ve always thought it made sense to tie the academic year to the calendar year so I’m embracing it.  *Fortunately, we don’t have to participate in sports day/end of year plays/school discos but there can be Toy Day and Big Toy Day if you fancy. Don’t bring anything with lots of small parts or which is very expensive or very new. You are entirely responsible for making sure you have all the correct toys and all the component parts with you at home time. I’ve been trying to decide how to write my report and have decided that I will stick with pictures, for the main. It’s at this point that I am making a note to 2023 me not to delete photos of finished objects until I’ve written my Fettle Those Finishes Report. In this instance, tidying as you go does not make life easier. S...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! November feels like it’s lasted sixty days rather than thirty and, upon looking in my Furtling photo album (I add photos in across the month in an attempt to remember everything and make writing this post a little easier), I find I have squeezed in a lot of knitting and sewing so perhaps it really has been twice as long as usual? I finished the scrappy socks I started last month : Isn’t it amazing how you can take small balls of left over yarn  and turn them into a pair of socks which look deliberate?!  Speaking of deliberate, the fleece backing for my Winterkist quilt  continues to be deliberately (and impressively) obstreperous but I got it pieced into the right size and shape for the top towards the end of last month and then tacked down all the seams (so they didn’t flip over during layering) and have, with the help of the same friend who’s been helping me fleece wrestle throughout this ...

Long, long (long) ago, I started a hand piecing project that I knew would be a long-term project. I had no idea just how long it would actually take. It started when I saw a blog post by Lynne of Lily’s Quilts of her new block and I fell in love with it. Her blog is undergoing some renovation, so this follow up post to the initial one is only post I can find . And on that post, I left this comment: Notice the date - such optimism! I started (not long after Lynne’s post) by making a test block (It was made into a  mini quilt in June 2015 ) I bought background fabric and furtled through my fabric boxes to find suitable prints and plains (and a lovely friend  bought me some bright tone on tone fabrics at FOQ (or maybe the first Fat Quarterly retreat?) to supplement what I had) and by April 2013, I had this: And by the start of June, I had my first block: It took me eighteen months to finish the next block (isn’t it amazing how long things take to make when you’re not working on t...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! This month I’ve made what feels like a giant leap towards finishing ET: I’ve finished the quilting! (Turns out that actually picking it up and doing some quilting makes quite the difference to how quickly you can hand quilt. See also: not allowing yourself to do any other sewing/knitting until said quilting is complete. Who knew?!) Not only that, but I’ve trimmed it, cut and joined the binding strips and there’s just a short pressing session and then a longer machine sewing session standing between me and watching a film while sewing the binding to the back. And as well as all that quilting, writing my Fettling List  and sorting out the link up in case anyone else wants to join in , I’ve knitted a sock. Which I was absolutely allowed to start because I was between stages in the ET finishing (and none of those stages were sitting on the settee watching telly stages), I just won’t be allowed to touch it on...