Tuesday 30 June 2020

June's OMG

It's the end of the month already. In the current situation the passage of time is very strange. On the one hand June has been a long month and I seem to have spent hours and hours working at the computer either preparing documents or teaching online. On the other hand June seems to have galloped by, dragging me along with it. The galloping part of June has affected the free time available for sewing and fun activities. Maybe working from home makes me more aware that I have fun things waiting to be done but first I have to work. The separation between work and play has gone and now the signs of work are nestling next to my sewing items whereas it was very rare that sewing bits made it into my work bag to go into the office with me. Enough of over thinking for the morning as I have a tutorial to give in an hour. It's time to look at the June sewing goals.



For June I set myself the goal of completing the Charlotte embroidery and making a start on Thelma. I completed this goal easily.



When I posted this photo earlier in the month I realised I'd missed stitching around her toe. I've done that but it's easier to pull this photo up from blogger than to take a new one and upload.  I also made a start on Thelma. This was always my least favourite of the ladies but as I stitch her I feel she is starting to develop her own character and I'm enjoying stitching her.


Through June I've done other stitching including making some masks,


I still have some more masks to make. I finished a cushion cover for my brother.


and made scissor keepers for my dress making scissors and one as a gift.


I finished a child donation quilt.




Several blocks have been created for the Austen Family Album quilt and I've added a lot of squares to my collection for my crocheted blanket.

I'm please with what I achieved this month. All that and I'm almost up to date with my work commitments. Not that being up to date is possible as new commitments are added every day.

Next job on the sewing front is to decide July's goal. I have several annual leave days next month so should have more time for sewing.

I'm linking this post with Elm Street Quilts for June's One Monthly Goal link up.

Take care

Lyndsey

Sunday 28 June 2020

A birthday, a haircut and sewing.

Friday was my son's birthday. He's the oldest of our children and the first grandson on John's side of the family.  He'd requested a carrot cake with frosting for his cake which I enjoyed making but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo. Usually birthdays are a family affair with everyone present but the last birthday we could celebrate like that was John's We celebrated Lucy's birthday with a dinner but Katy doesn't live at home so having everyone home for a dinner is currently impossible due to the covid restrictions. Our plan is to have a celebratory dinner once we can be all together again. That could now happen in a few weeks time but we are being careful as Katy teaches at a secondary school so is in contact with quite a number of people. 

 This is a photo of Richard asleep on John when very young.


Having recently got a new computer I'm having trouble syncing my photos so this is the most recent one of him that I can get currently This was an activity day at a campsite he used to do voluntary work at. You can vaguely see he has a cat nose and whiskers on his face.



Friday was also Scamp's day for a haircut. Usually he has a trip to the groomers every three months to have his hair trimmed. Yorkshire terriers don't have fur they have hair and happily it doesn't come out all over the furniture, unlike the black haze Picasso leaves behind at certain times of the year. With temperatures in the 30's he is suffering at the moment, so he was very pleased to be cool again.

Having finished Charlotte I made a start on Thelma. This is the last of the bag ladies. She doesn't seem to have as much character as some of the others but may be because I haven't done that much stitching on her as yet. 


We went for a long walk at box hill yesterday but i'll tell you about that tomorrow. I need to complete some bits for work and if I'm to have any slow Sunday stitching time I need to do that now.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up. I'm interested to see what everyone's been working. Hopefully a little later this evening I'll get some time to do some more stitching on Thelma.

Take care

Lyndsey



Wednesday 24 June 2020

At last it's summer

On Saturday it was the astronomical summer solstice. This is the exact moment the northern
hemisphere is tilted closest to the sun and it is the longest day of the year. It's also the first day of summer in astronomical terms as opposed to June 1st which is the start of the meteorological summer. At Stonehenge there is usually a traditional celebration but this year the monument is closed so English Heritage filmed the sunrise  for YouTube and over three million people watched the sunrise on line. It was a rainy, cloudy sunrise but since then the weather has been improving and on Tuesday, we have had glorious sunshine. John and I sat out in the back garden to eat lunch but I didn't stay outside for too long as I hadn't put any sun screen on and I could feel that I was starting to get sunburn.

I started stitching together the front of Alex's cushion cover. This went together very quickly. Everything went together perfectly and I enjoyed my sewing time. I've got a lot of teaching and marking this week so squeezing in sewing time was very relaxing. I sent Alex a photo and he was really happy with the cover. He's redecorating his boat and said the cushion will be perfect. Now I need to get a cushion pad and then I can post it to him.


I used some of the remaining charm squares to piece the back.


Today I was teaching and had a couple of meeting so minimal sewing time but I managed to make a few masks. John wanted two and he chose the red and grey fabrics. Lucy wanted the flamingo fabric. Lucy's mask looks tiny next to John's 


I need to make Lucy another mask and a couple for Richard. They aren't exactly the most inspiring sewing but the job has to be done. At least the fabric choices are fun. Richard wants some Star Trek fabric for his masks. 

When I was going through my sewing cupboard checking out my UFO's I found a tote bag I'd started and never finished. I like the bag and want to get it out of the cupboard and into use so I need to decide which fabric I'm going to use for the lining. As you can see I just have the lining , straps and closure to add.



Tomorrow I will make the lining ready for completing the bag on Friday, which is my day off. It feels really good to be catching up with my UFO's, but I still need to get on and finish my oldest UFO, the millennium sampler. I received this cross stitch kit as a Christmas present in 1999 and it's been 20 years in the making so far. I hopeful that this will be the year I finish it.


For the next two days I need to concentrate on work and put sewing on hold. I have a few difficult jobs to complete this week that need my full attention . Friday is Richard's birthday and I need to do some baking. I'm not sure what sort of cake he might like this year as he hasn't dropped any hints. When he was a young child it was easy because he would always want chocolate cake but now it depends on his mood. I hope it;s carrot cake.


Restrictions in the UK has been loosened today and social distancing has been reduced to 1 metre.  I'll try and keep further away from other folks as I really don't want to get ill. People are taking this as a sign that we are back to normal but it is definitely anything but the old normal.  My advice to everyone is to take care and stay safe as these are still difficult times.


Lyndsey

Monday 22 June 2020

Slow Sunday Stitching.

Yesterday was Sunday and also Father's Day in the UK. Kathryn and Olly came over to bring  the shopping they had done for us and to bring a present for John. We sat in our small back garden, carefully distanced  to be 2 metres apart. Katy and Olly on one side and the 4 of us on the other. Still we were together as a family which was lovely. I do miss my own father who died in 2006. He enjoyed living life to the full and was always up for fun activities. I'm not sure how he would have coped with this covid world but I know he would have made the best of it. Here's a picture of me and dad enjoying a beer outside a bar in Paris when we visited in 2003 for his 80th birthday and Richard's 21st. This is a typical dad pose as he has a sketch book on his lap and the pencil hasn't been put down while he lifts his glass. Wherever we went he would be sketching, getting ideas for painting. I'm not sure what the rest of the family were doing at this point but dad and I enjoyed our drink and chat 


This week I was determined to finish up the stitching on Charlotte and yesterday morning I put the final stitches in. She is such a sassy lady and she decided she wanted pink hair due to her lock-down attempts at home hair care. As I've stitched these ladies I've made up little stories about them in my head, based on the items they have with them. They are all very different. Now I can move on to the final lady -Thelma.


Last night I worked on the hexie bag. I've almost stitched the sides to the webbing. It's looking really good. I'll be working on the bag this week and aiming to finish it by the weekend.

I've got some sewing booked into my day but first we need to take a trip to the recycling centre and tip. All this clearing the loft has created a lot of things we need to be rid of.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching

Lyndsey

Sunday 21 June 2020

Scraps and things

My Friday sewing day didn't happen. It started out OK and I'd set up my machine and pulled out the fabrics I needed to cut the next three blocks for the Austen Family Quilt. We then walked to the shops for some essential supplies so that the rest of the day was mine. Back at home Richard had been into the loft to find something he needed and at the same time bought down some boxes that needed sorting. As a result the rest of the day turned into a sort out the loft day and packing unwanted items to go to the recycling centre or to the tip. At one point I gave up with helping and decided to do some ironing, after all, it needs to be done and I'm the person who does most of it. As a result my sewing day was moved to today, Saturday. I'm cooking dinner tonight and I need to get out for a walk, but apart from that I'm not joining in with anything other than sewing. 

I have several things I need to do today. The most urgent is to make all 4 of us a couple of masks each. As shops are opening up more it is becoming very difficult to keep to social distancing as the streets are much busier. Also we are starting to be able to book dental and eye checks. John is donating blood this morning and all of these appointments need masks. To make my mask I used the Jesse pattern from the The Fabric Patch  Just scroll down the page to get to the templates. The Jesse mask comes in a range of sizes, you just need to take two face measurements. There is a page among the templates that tells you how to do this. The mask fits really well. This was my first mask, and I've now washed it ready for the next time I need to use it.


I have the sizes I need to make and I have chosen the fabric so now all I need to do is get the sewing done. These masks go together really easily. the first one took me about 20 minutes including cutting time. If possible use the narrow round elastic to go round the ears or very narrow strip elastic as this is more comfortable.

My brother has asked me to make him a second cushion. I made this one for him a while ago.
I never took a photo with the cushion pad added. I asked if he'd like a second one using the same pattern


..or would he like one like this but using blue fabric. His answer was one using this pattern. This one is made using a charm pack and I have one in blue that will be perfect. At the same time I'm going to make a second one for my room.



The day was going well and I decided to stitch the next block together. This was a mistake as I keep sewing the half square triangles round the wrong way on the strips. When I got the four strips all going the way it said in the pattern and attached them to the middle square I realised that three were the wrong way round. I'd managed to misread the pattern instructions. More unpicking and I was starting to get annoyed with myself. Eventually I had the block together and now all I have to do is give it a good press and make sure all the little ends from the unpicking are removed. Even though it was a pain I really like this block.


The vibes in our house must have been slightly off because I realised at this point that John wasn't very happy. We chatted for a while and then went for a longish walk, well three times round the cemetery which comes in at just under 5 miles. Back home and both of us feeling happier I decided to add some more rows to the batik rainbow quilt. All the pieces went together well and by the time I added three more rows I decided to quit whilst I was ahead


I didn't give up on sewing. I spent some time sorting my sewing cupboard. I found a tote bag I'd started and never finished because I hadn't found any fabric I wanted to use for the lining. I went through some of my stash and I have several possibilities. I'll make the final decision tomorrow. I also cut the fabric for the two cushion covers. Next time I get the machine out I can get straight on with the sewing.

Lucy decided to start the next block of her quilt. This block represents her trip to Morocco to climb the highest mountain. She has divided this block into 4 and was working on her interpretation of the spice mountains in the markets. I'll show you the block when she has finished it. We had fun searching my scrap boxes for the colours needed in this block.

In the evening I worked on Charlotte. She is nearly finished and I'll show you pictures when she is. My sewing day didn't work out as planned but at least I got some sewing done. 

Take care

Lyndsey

Thursday 18 June 2020

Work in Progress

Hooray it's Wednesday already so only today and tomorrow before my next sewing day. Yesterday I was thinking back over my working life and I realised just how much time I've spent wishing the working week would hurry past so I could enjoy whatever I had planned at the weekend. When I did nights as a nurse we always referred to the middle night of our rota as the 'hump' night. Once you were past the hump you could start planning for the time off that was coming. I generally don't have work commitments on a Friday and since I only work 4 days Friday has become my day off and sewing day. I enjoy the planning of my day, building in time to catch up on reading my favourite blogs, stroking fabric and actual sewing.

Having finished work for the day I grabbed some time before cooking dinner. We tend to share out the cooking between the 4 of us and it was my turn this evening. I'd already cut out the pieces for the 2nd block I was making for the Austen Family Album quilt. This went together very quickly and I'm pleased with how it looks.



Having done that I set about prepping the next block. The most difficult part is deciding on the fabrics to use in each block but I went with the fabrics from the previous block. Finding I had a more time than I thought I made up the block as well. I haven't pressed the final seams yet because I caught a bit of a previous seam into the stitching and I need to unpick that middle seam at the top to sort out the problem.



I'd already stitched the next two rows of the batik quilt so these were added. The colours and the patterns on the fabric are making me so happy.


Lucy had to go into the office today as the lift was being serviced. Earlier in the year she had bought some left over fabric. The fabric is 100% cotton and washes really well. It was used to make celebration scarves when Girlguiding was 100 years old. They also sold yardage for leaders to use as they wanted. I'd asked Lucy to get some to use as backing on children's quilts. It's a shame it has all gone now.


After dinner I picked up my embroidery and worked on that whilst chatting to John and watching The Great British Sewing Bee. This evening was the semi final and I really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow evening I want to prep the next 3 blocks for the Austen Family Album. There won't be much sewing as I have some cleaning and ironing to do so that I have all day for sewing on Friday.

Take care.

Lyndsey

Sunday 14 June 2020

A stitch here and there.

I like Sundays as traditionally they are days when as a family we  rest, slow down, and prepare ourselves in body, mind and spirit for the week ahead.  In recent times that has been particularly important as each new week seems to have it's own worries and challenges. Here in the UK many people seem to think Covid 19 is done and dusted and want to rush headlong into getting back to the old ways of life. It is becoming more challenging when going shopping to socially distance and the same when out taking exercise. Today being Sunday is my chance to enjoy being at home and to have a slower pace prior to the rush of working tomorrow. Sunday always sees me dithering as I decide what to work on and the logistics of spending time chatting with John, Richard and Lucy while ensuring that at the end of the day I feel I've accomplished something, however small.

Richard is at work today so I sat and chatted with John and Lucy for a while, mulling over the news from around the world. This is an opportunity to pick up something I can do with my eyes closed almost, no need to keeping looking at what my hands are doing. That being the case I picked up my crochet. I'm using up my left over yarn by crocheting granny squares to make into a throw. I need 400 squares in all and so far have about 150. Whilst we chatted I made 4 squares to add to the collection. This is a recycled photo as 1 square looks very like another. I need equal numbers of bright colours and whites/creams. Recently I been using up my white yarn.


When trying to use up scraps they never seem to get any less, it doesn't seem to matter if it's yarn or fabric. Having made a scrappy scarf for my brother and made loads of crocheted squares I still seem to have the same amount of left over yarn.


This morning I set my machine up briefly to stitch a block. Back in the mists of time, I'm not sure when, I started making the blocks for the Austen Family Album which appeared each week on a blog. I got so far and then other projects took over and it disappeared into the depths of my storage box. I pulled it out yesterday and decided it needed to be finished. I'd saved all the block instructions and I decided to try and make at least 3 blocks a week until it's done.  Today I made one and cut the pieces for the second block. I'll sew that one tomorrow.



I thought this would be easy until I realised that the corner pieces had to be added as a set in seam. It was a bit fiddly but I'm happy with the result.

Having completed the block I put the machine away and John and I headed out for a walk.  We're trying to walk 4 miles a day and this week I have managed that 6 days out of the 7.  Once home I needed to make a decision on what to work on for the rest of the day. I still have to complete the hexie bag. I've started attaching the webbing that forms the sides of the bag. 


I also need to complete Charlotte. I did some work on her earlier in the week.


I
'm very happy with how this lady is coming along. I have some very small buttons for her jacket.  I think I'm going to work on Charlotte this evening as completing her is my one monthly goal for June. 


I'm linking this post with Kathy of Kathy's quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching  



Lyndsey


Saturday 13 June 2020

Masks, sewing and other things

This week my sewing activities have been mainly hand stitching but yesterday was my day off so I began my morning with cutting the fabric for the scissor keeper I'e made for my daughter. I used the same fabric as I used for mine and I managed to get both out of a fat eighth of fabric. The wadding is from my left overs bin. I almost cut the fabric the wrong way rather than as opposites. The stitching is very quick and I soon had a second scissors keeper. I had a second pair of dress making scissors so put them in and added a pair of scissors i'd won in a tombola earlier this year. 


I reversed the fabrics for the second scissor keeper. Having finished that it was time for me to walk up to the chiropodist. The UK went into lock down two weeks before my last appointment. The appointment was cancelled and it wasn't until this week that they rang to offer me another one.Since I had chemotherapy I have neuropathy which means sometimes my feet are very sensitive and painful and at others I have very little feeling in them. Generally they feel a bit numb and so it's important to get them checked out regularly. In order to attend the appointment I had to make myself a mask last night as they won't see you unless you have one. It didn't take long to make and it wasn't uncomfortable to wear. In general we are not wearing masks unless it is difficult to stay 2 metres apart. I do need to make a few masks for everyone in the family so we have them available when needed. These ones are made to fit your face and all our sizes are slightly different so 1 pattern does not fit all of us.




Once home again I was able to get back to sewing. I'd finished the cutting out for the batik quilt and I was able to make a start on the stitching. The quilt is put together in rows and I soon had 4 rows completed.



I stopped at this point as John and I wanted to go for our walk. It had rained earlier and more was forecast for later in the afternoon so our plan was to, hopefully, fit the walk into the dry spell between showers. We walked around the local cemetery and found some interesting graves. We saw a group of war graves and found that they were all for the Auxiliary Fire Service. Their deaths happened in November 1940. Six men died on the 16th November when an oil bomb hit the old fire station in West Hill, Wandsworth and the station immediately caught fire. Firefighters in the basement were able to escape and some firefighters were rescued from the recreation room but unfortunately six died,

The other firefighters all died on the 6th November 1940. I can't find anything specific that happened but the likelihood is that they were dealing with a serious fire as a result of the blitz. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for  57 days and nights. From October it was mostly at night and even after the 57 days the bombing continued but not every night. Overall in England and Wales roughly 700 firemen and 20 fire-women were killed in action and 6,000 seriously injured. In one raid alone 91 firemen died and several hundred were injured protecting London. When I was at school we didn't study World War 2 but we got first hand stories from our parents and grand parents. I am now finding it very interesting learning about the local history of the area where we live.

We didn't miss the rain on our walk. It started to drizzle and then the heavens opened before we got back home. We were very wet but at least we'd had some exercise. Fridays has become family film night so once we had eaten  and the film was running I pulled out my hand stitching. I finished stitching down the binding of the scrappy quilt . I really like this little quilt and the solid dark blue binding works well against the scrappy blocks. I like this picture as you can also see the quilting, which, although just straight lines is in a pattern.




With a couple of finishes this week I linking this post with Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric addict for  Can I get a whoop whoop 


Take care

Lyndsey


Monday 8 June 2020

Sewing on a Monday

I work on a Monday so fitting any sewing into the day is usually quite difficult. Since the start of working from home I am enjoying being able to sew on any day. I'd finished the scrappy quilt and this morning I quickly set up my machine and had fun quilting it. I kept it simple with diagonal straight lines. I then attached the binding. By 8:30 the machine was away and I was ready for work. Fast forward to my lunch break and I started to stitch the binding down. Being a small quilt that won't take long.



After work I cut out the fabric for a scissor keeper and set to work to make it. It took two pieces of fabric the size of an A4 sheet of paper, a piece of wadding of the same size and half an hour on the machine. I'm very happy with the result and will make another scissor keeper for my daughter. It holds my large dressmaking scissors. For quilting I use the rotary cutter but I have always used scissors when dressmaking and old habits are hard to change. I do use my small 18 mm rotary cutter or my embroidery scissors for cutting out any tricky shapes when dressmaking. Until now the scissors have just been stored loose in one of my sewing drawers but now I will be able to find them easily and they will be kept safe.

I did a meander quilting stitch on the reverse fabric and when I sewed the side seams I forgot that the machine was set for free motion quilting so it's a little wonky on the one side before I realised my mistake.


I love the two fabrics I used as they are so appropriate for this scissor keeper.


I have some really pretty fabric that I want to use to make a keeper for my embroidery scissors.

I finished cutting all the fabric for the rainbow batik quilt and I hope to start the stitching tomorrow. As for tonight I'm going to work on the hexie bag. This project is all hand stitched.

We are trying to walk 3 miles everyday and to help us achieve this we have been looking at the local area. It's a bit boring walking the streets and so we visited the local cemetery. There are two reasonably close to us and both have lots of room for walking. The nearest one also has a wild area to encourage wild life. Today we walked twice round the cemetery, enjoyed the outdoors and the bird life whilst managing to cover over 4 miles. There are a lot of very old graves and some amazing memorials. This is a great place to exercise and no problem with social distancing.



Tomorrow is another busy work day but John has a meeting on zoom in the evening so I will have time for sewing then.

Take care

Lyndsey

Sunday 7 June 2020

OMG and slow stitching


It's that time of the month again where I need to decide my monthly goal. This is a great link up to motivate me to get a wriggle on with those UFO's. I've missed the last two end of month link ups. In April I forgot it was the end of the month (strange how lock down affects people) and this month because I had to unpick a part of my project and so missed completing it by the deadline. Never mind both months still moved my projects forward.

This month it took a bit of thinking about to decide my project but in the end I went for finishing another bag lady. I have already done some work on Charlotte but I haven't started Thelma. These are my last two gals to finish. My one monthly goal is to finish Charlotte and I also want to make a good start on Thelma. This is how far I've got with Charlotte.



I will also be working on the hexie bag to get it finished. 

Today is Sunday and in a few minutes John and I will be taking a walk. We have been hunting routes round our local area that allow us to take a three to four mile walk without having to get close to other people. Not as easy as it sounds since we live in a city but it is working quite well. Last weekend we visited Wimbledon common and the waterlilies weren't quite open, so today we will visit again and hopefully they will be in full bloom. It should also be less crowded on the common as the temperature here in London has plummeted and there is rain predicted.

After our walk I plan on spending the day sewing. I have a few recorded programmes I want to catch up with and I plan on sitting with my slow stitching and Scamp or Picasso on my lap. Sounds like a perfect afternoon. Oh I forgot the tea and cake later in the afternoon.

A  couple of people have commented that they can't add multiple pictures to the new blogger. When I posted my walk last week I added the photos in one batch and then added the words. When I get to my photos from the browse button I click on the first photo I want to add to highlight it and then hold the control key down as I highlight the rest. If there is one in the middle of the bunch you don't want it is easier to add it and then delete it when it appears on the edit page. Loading pictures from blogger you just need to click on the pictures you want. A tick will appear in the top left corner of the picture. Once you've checked all the ones you want just click on insert. This was how it worked in the legacy blogger.

I'm linking this post with Patty from Elm street quilts for her June OMG and with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching

Take care and stay safe

Lyndsey

Saturday 6 June 2020

Using new blogger isn't too difficult

Blogging should be fun but the change to the new blogger has been a little stressful for me and for others. I have been using the new blogger for a while now but when it first appeared on my feed I didn't like it. I would use it and then revert to the old format. I particularly did this when I couldn't find how to do things such as posting pictures or increasing the size. Since I've been lucky and have had time to play with the new version I thought I'd do a quick tour of it for you.  I'm using a computer as this is how I generally post. The new blogger is supposed to make it easier for you to blog from your phone but I haven't tried it yet.

When you log into blogger instead of the New Post button there is a large plus sign at the bottom right of the screen. Click it and you're taken to the editing page for your new post



The editing page is fairly similar to the earlier version. There is no longer a box for the title, instead it goes on the line above the editing tools.




I'm not going to do lots of photos as that will get boring so I'll run through the editing tools starting at the left hand side of the screen. These tools are the same as most word processing software packages such as Word. The first three buttons are for bold, italics and underline.   The next button is for paragraph formatting and gives you a drop down menu of;

Major Heading

heading

Sub-heading

Minor heading

I haven't used these as I generally don't put heading in my posts but if you use Word or any other word processing tool they have heading of different sizes to help you make you writing clearer for the reader. 

The 5th button with the big and little T is your font size and we had this in the old blogger. Alongside this is the button for the font style also in the old version.The underlined A is for font colour, don't get too excited as it can make the text difficult to read. The tipping pot is for the background colour. When using this button remember you may need to change the colour of your font.

The back facing and forward facing arrows are 'undo' and 'redo'  The next two (buttons 11 and 12 are to increase, or decrease, the indent at start of paragraphs.

The next two buttons allow you to;
  • bullet point information
  1. or you can use numbered bullet points
  2. It will make writing lists of UFO's you're working on easier.
Remember to click back on the button to stop using bullet points

Most of us use the next three buttons a lot, insert or edit link, insert an image and insert video. If you click on the insert or edit link button it gives you a choice of creating or editing a URL or creating/edit anchor. I use the create or edit URL and once you click on it you get a familiar screen where you can paste the URL and type the words you want to appear as the link in your text.. 


Next up is the button to add images. I must admit I find this process slower than the old blogger and it has taken a bit of time to get used to. Clicking on the button the drop down menu asks if you want to,
  • upload from computer
  • upload from photos
  • upload from blogger
  • by URL
I usually upload from my computer and clicking on this link takes you to a browse button from which you can go to wherever you store your photos on the computer. Once you've selected the photo it will appear on this feed. Click on the photo and a pop up menu appears which gives you the option to chose left, centre or right to position your photo. Click on the pencil to edit the size of your picture. The edit will also allow you to add a caption to your photo.

The last buttons are mostly self explanatory, The smiley face lets you insert special characters. There are a range to chose from or you can search for more or draw what you want. The button next to it allows you to insert a jump break. A jump break will allow people to see the first part of your post up to the jump break and they can then decide if they wish to read the rest. The window picture allows you to insert a table or edit it. The three lines with an up down arrow will alter the line spacing and the last four are the justification i.e. left aligned like this post, right aligned, centred or justified.. You then have the three dots which give you some more options.

Above the red line and to the right you have 4 buttons.. The two little arrows pointing opposite ways changes the view of your post to html. The disc next to it saves your post. Once saved, to return to blogger click on the arrow above your title. Above the save button you also have a question mark which is the help button and feedback. I've found this quite useful. The eye shape lets you preview your post as your readers will see it. and the shape like a paper aeroplane will publish your post.

Down the right hand side are the post settings. Here you can add labels if you use them. The 'published on' , if clicked will enable you to change from automatic publishing to setting a time and date so you can schedule your post. The permalink links your post title to your blog name as a permanent link. The location is what it says on the tin and the options is about whether reader comments are allowed or not.

Many if not all of the changes made to blogger are to help accessibility. This isn't just about people with disabilities it includes all of us and how we access items on the internet, using a computer, phone or tablet. The changes should make it easier to post from our phones although if I use my phone it will probably be quite a short post.

I hope you found this useful. Just play around with it and get to know how it works. You can't break you blog or accidentally delete it from the page. Some time spent playing now will speed up your post writing in the future. 

Lyndsey

Tuesday 2 June 2020

oops I started another quilt

A full day of teaching left me feeling tired and drained. The students are lovely and very eager to learn but teaching on line is much harder than face to face. At the end of the working day I needed to chill out and relax so I pulled out my sewing. 

At the weekend I finished my scrappy quilt but I still have hundreds of 2 and half inch squares so I started a second scrappy quilt using 9 patch blocks. I set up my machine and pulled out the squares ready to start sewing but... it just didn't grab my interest so I packed it up

I keep trying to show more restraint and so limit the number of UFO's I'm working on at a time but I'm sorry,when the fabrics are such pretty colours how is a serial project started meant to behave. Remember that box of pretty batiks I received this month?


I  grabbed my cutting board, rotary cutter  and quilt pattern. I also set up my mini ironing board as the fabrics needed to be pressed before cutting.  The cutting instructions are very clear and this is a quilt where all the pieces need to be cut before you can start the sewing.


Unfortunately I don't have a sewing room and so I work on the dining table. I didn't get all the fabric cut before I had to set the table for dinner. It was a pain packing up before it was all done but the Thai green curry John had cooked was delicious so I'm not going to complain.

After dinner I decided to read. I'm currently reading Lethal White by Robert Galbraith or J.K. Rowling as she is better known. This is her fourth book in the Strike series and I loved the previous 3. 


This one is causing me trouble but not because of the story line or the writing style. The story is really good but the book is huge and is also hard back. I've been reading it at bedtime but the book is far too heavy in weight to enjoy as bedtime reading.  Usually I use my kindle for my bedtime reading as there's no weight in it and it's back lit so if John wants to go to sleep I can read without having a light on. I've spent the rest of the evening reading which I enjoyed.   

Tomorrow I will sandwich the scrappy quilt and start the quilting. The quilt is 30 x 30 so shouldn't take long to quilt. Last night I unpicked my error on the hexie bag and tomorrow I can also recommence work on this. This was my one monthly goal for May but unfortunately I didn't get it finished. I'm glad I spotted the error as it would have detracted from the overall look of the bag.

Tomorrow is another work day and I'm interviewing, which is fun. Tomorrow evening we also want to visit Wimbledon Common to see if the water lilies have opened. For now it's time for bed. My eyes are tired from reading and my arms from holding the book.

Take care

Lyndsey