Otherwise entitled – another reason for having more than one project on the go, always including at least one handsewing project.
Tuesday 26th February – a day I noted on the calendar. I had written it on the calendar back in January, when we had a letter from Western Power Distribution, notifying us that the electricity would be off between the hours of 9am and 3pm. The reason for the power going off – transferring overhead electricity cables to the new pole that had been placed at the end of last year.
I had prepared myself for this eventuality (or so I had thought). I had spent days before quilting some quilts, so that I could then sew in the ends. I thought that I could then do some crochet, some embroidery on a couple of PHDs, finish labels for quilts, some EPP, as well as prepare future projects by cutting fabrics and also basting projects.
The workmen were organised, and were on site by 8.15am. I really did think that I was prepared – I had filled the kettle, and thought that I had put it on to boil. Just as I went to check the time, the electricity went off – at 9am. The adventure was about to begin!
Now, for some people reading this, no electricity may not seem like a really big issue. I didn’t really consider it to be much of a problem – more of an opportunity to get on with some jobs / tasks that I would have left for a while. However, no electricity….no sound, no music, no TV. I like to sew / craft ‘watching’ / listening to the TV, a film, a DVD, the radio, music, audio book; suddenly I was without these – although had I really thought about it, I could have used the portable DVD player – as long as I had charged it first.
It was interesting seeing the workmen at work – and this proved to be a source of distraction. Once I’d sewn in the ends of the quilting, I went to make myself a cup of coffee – only to discover that I hadn’t boiled the kettle earlier. I guess I’d have to stick to water after all. So – as another distraction, I thought that I could browse the internet for a while…think again! The router is powered by electricity, so no internet unless I used my phone and my data allowance.
What to do, what to do? I’m trying to finish some projects, and recently at our quilting group we’ve been working on a table runner – from a Gail Pan book. I took the time to choose the fabrics for the borders – having completed the embroidery sections before Christmas. I took the fabrics to my craft room, where my cutting table is. I got the fabrics ready to cut them – and I followed the instructions. It was at that point that I realised it would have been an awful lot easier to cut the fabric if I had pressed it first…however, you need electricity to do that! And it was at that point, I realised that there was little point in trying to baste other projects, as I like to press the quilt top and the backing before basting them. It doesn’t matter if I have pressed the quilt top and backing before and not got round to basting the quilt, somehow – when putting the 3 layers back in the craft room – the backing and quilt top always end up needing pressing again.
I was all set to start cutting pieces for a quilt that I had bought as a kit – and I had to consider whether or not to continue cutting. I took the pieces for the table runner into my sewing room, and noted that the time was showing on my music system (bought in 1994, still doing well – the radio, CD player and remote control – the tape players are a bit temperamental; anyone else out there keep their devices for a long time, and get rather annoyed that some devices have a very limited shelf life?). I could also see that there was a red light showing on my TV – the electricity was back on, and it was only 1pm!! The sewing machine could be used – and world was my lobster (because oysters are really not my thing, and I would much rather have lobster any day!).
I know – not really an exciting adventure – but enough to get me thinking about my quilting day some time in advance. The day itself was quite sunny – and would have been an ideal opportunity to get out in the garden, or go out walking or geocaching…but no, quilting called, and something crafty had to be done! I now need to put together the top of the table runner – I still need to press and trim the embroidery, before putting the top together.
Just one question from all of this – why is it, that I never seem to achieve as much as I plan to achieve in a day?
I get the same feeling of under-achievement when my husband and children are all out! I build it up in my head as a great day to get some sewing done and find I need the hustle and bustle to work.