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