Nesting

Clothkits, Chichester

The nicest part of going away is always the coming home bit, don't you think? I've really enjoyed spending the last few days at home, catching up with friends, family and myself. Re-grouping. I've tackled the garden and the housework, done what seemed like a truly never ending amount of washing, phoned doctors, dentists and hairdressers and made endless appointment, just got myself organised. It felt good. I've also been baking a lot more since the weather turned cooler, making tea loaf, chocolate banana bread and a flourless orange and almond cake. I'm nesting. 

We had friends to stay over the weekend and spent yesterday in Chichester. The children loved The Novium Museum, especially the Lego exhibition, and I bought these postcards of some of my favourite local places.

After successfully leaving the children with their Dads in a bookshop, my friend Abigail and I hotfooted it to Clothkits for a browse. Well, I don't know quite what came over me, but I found myself buying a pattern for a dress, and a couple of metres of beautiful teal blue linen.

It's a beginner's pattern and I've been assured by a colleague who's made a couple that it really is a simple make, so I'm optimistic that I can do this. Can you imagine if I made an actual dress, that I could wear? I'd have to tell everyone.

More delightful craftiness arrived in the form of the Summer Craftpod. I've mentioned these here before, I know, but I am a massive fan. This set includes a sweet rose cross stitch (designed by Lucy of Attic24!), and embroidered needle book along with the bits that make these boxes so thoughtful and pleasurable to open; a postcard, rose pin badge and tea.

The fabric for the cross stitch is aida with holes that are clear to see, so I was hoping that Bella might give it a try. She's a very creative girl but most determined to steer clear of anything that I enjoy doing, which on the one hand makes me sad, but on the other I totally get, because I was just like that, always wanting to do my own thing. The more I push and suggest, the less interested she is, so I have to go gently.

Before our holiday, I went through my stash of fabrics and started thinking about finally making that EPP patchwork quilt. I read and read about it until my head started to spin, to the point where I was researching needle types, then went to my local yarn shop which also sells quilting fabric and supplies. The woman who runs it is wonderfully no-nonsense and down to earth. She showed me which needle and thread would be best, and said to just get on with it and come in and show me when you've made it. 

I've decided to do 3 inch hexagons and I'm not sure yet exactly how many I'll need for a king size quilt but I think it's going to be five or six hundred. That actually makes me feel a little faint, typing that, but I've thought about this so much and I really want the hexagons to be small and mostly pale in colour. I have decided to hand baste each hexagon onto the paper template because I enjoy it and I'm not in a rush to finish this. It's going to be a slow burner of a project, probably something that will take a few years, off and on, and I'm quite happy about that really. I'm always in such a rush to do everything that I think I sometimes lose that mindful feeling of being in the present that gentle hand stitching, or crochet or knitting, can give you.