August Furtle

Well! August has been a very very busy month! goodness, we started with  a raft of husbandsholdingquilts action from the Scoobs! I quilted 8 tops for Siblings together, I wont post them all here, I blogged about them so if you want to see them all go here!

Below is my own quilt for siblings a collaboration with my bee mates, I do think its glorious!

Below is my Riley Blake BOM for this year I loved using up a lot of batiks, im still thinking about whether I do as many SALs next year, perhaps not, I love the layout on this but "whispers" I do find a lot of the blocks in SALs a bit samey?

And talking of SALs! I made a start on the main blocks for the Sunny patches SAL by Coriander quilts, I dont have a picture yet of the setting blocks, they were really interesting a jelly roll HST must get some pics for next furtle!

Also making progress with My quilting life BOM I was a bit unsure about the fabric choices but it's growing on me

This was also finished! I do love this a LOT, when I posted it on twitter a lecturer I used to work with claimed it! so it has a good home to go to, its a Get stitch done pattern, I have more patterns and will make more.

This wee beauty has really come into its own this month, I now have it set up permanently in the sewing room and it is only for FPP and bulky things which my main machine gets an attack of the vapours 😂

It stormed through the making of two machine covers, now I am doing more and more sewing the dust and floof in the sewing room is really building up and I dont think its good for the machines. So Voila! two sewing machine covers, the main machine refused to go through the bulk but the wee featherweight stormed through it

also a great chance to use up these glorious fabrics!

Talking of SALs I used some really bad weather and the abscence of Scoobs for a weekend to get cracking with the quiet play under the sea SAL, I have had a checkered history with this one, the original fabric I bought for the background was useless, I prewashed it and it didnt stop running, eventually I gave up (long story) and substituted this hungarian blue fabric for the background, it works really well but I have been anxious I dont have enough as I am using up smaller bits of it rather than meterage. But I think I will just have enough! Hurrah! These are the scallops needed for it, I just have five more to do then I am joining it together!

 Above is the state of play with all the main blocks done!

Ahh what is this below? Its the start of a stichbook! when visiting a good chum in Orkney she introduced me to a chum of hers who made a whole load of stitch books, we both got intrigued and want to make our own, below is the start of mine to document the holiday

Awwww I couldnt let a furtle for August finish without mentioning the FOQ, goodness what a great event it was this year! Highlight had to be seeing Jen (Muminthemadhouse) and getting a picture with her and the water bottle she gifted to me via Helen, many many years ago, if that water bottle could speak 😂the FOQ was great this year it always is, but the best bit? Not having to go back to work on the monday 😂💓

And since its August lets say hurrah for celebrating my first full year of retirement. Its been a blast.

1 year anniversary!

Oh my , i think this is a nice picture but you can see the tiredness in my eyes, this was a year ago, my last week in work 😲it now feels like a lifetime ago.

This was my last picture in my office, again look at that tired wee face, still rocking the red lippy but very very ready to hang up the lanyard!

My office door, feels so alien now

Ah! this is better! some leaving presents 😂 they know me too well!

Smudge sticks for the WFH office

awww my screen riser! a bit make do and mend but it lasted me for 3 years!

We love bricks in this house, so handy!

My mams old kitchen table, used it for 3 years during the pandemic

pictures of Bud and my floofy chum rocco on my desk to keep me company

All that has been long gone now, this room is a wee neuk, a sitting area, comfy and cosy now, fully smudged 😊

For the first few months until I would say January 2023 I felt like I had been hit by a bus, you keep going and keep going and keep going not fully realising that you have been running on empty for far too long.

My chum very kindly refers to me as "The poster girl for retirement" I have seen so many lovely people not make it to retirement, the irony is that on the exact 1 year anniversary I will be attending the funeral of a work colleague who died just as she was retiring, so sad but it highlights to me that I made exactly the right decision to go when I did.

So what has happened in the 1st year???

First thing was to have some super fab sewing days with chums 😊

A visit to chums!

Well! LOADS has happened, I think until December 2022 and January 2023 I was still recovering physcially, the mental recovering would take a bit longer. But lets not forget I was also coming out of shielding as well to add to the complexity of it all, so I need to remember to be gentle with myself. I learned that my dread of christmas was not all work, in fact work masked a lot of the feelings around christmas, so this year I hope to take that on board and do it better.

There were lots of walks, I was still looking to find things I could do but not too much indoors etc. The first two things I signed up to were - Green Volunteering at the Kelpies

Oh my how fab this turned out to be! Still love it. I also signed up to the Bookmark reading charity which does online reading with school children who could benefit from it. Still love and adore that one!

Lots of pootles and lots of walks, making the most of all my time with Scoobs

Hot damn but we take a good picture!

How much do I love this man??? you cant quantify it!

I also went onto the committee of an Edinburgh Charity the Treasure Trove, that I think will feature large in the coming years.

I went to Nantes!!!!!!

Blimey I had almost forgotten about that, So much can happen in a year this is why i blog and use intagram stories so much to record the memories. Going to Nantes was HUGE, first overseas travel for 3 years ... blimey but I did it!

I forgot about this! I was told I had to have a corporate gift from the University ... So I picked a teddy bear with an embroidered logo on his jumper, I spent weeks slowly unpicking the embroidered logo so I could give the teddy away ... very symbolic, unpicking that work life ...

I watched a lot of cinema, that seems to have stopped now but will maybe come back, who knows! Its all up for grabs now!

I dont see these chums as much, there was a lot of work done in the paddock they were in, but I have lovely memories of them and do see them occasionally.

Now lets see where this goes, I have just started volunteering with a project which helps teach digital literacies, loving it so far.

But the best thing???? seeing folks, meeting up with chums, going on holiday with Scoobs, just the best thing ever.