The last week has been busy in our house. It all started with a brief conversation and turned into a full revamp of our bathroom. John, with the help of my father, moved our bathroom from upstairs to downstairs. We needed to do this as the original bathroom when we moved in was quite dated and since that date our family had grown to three children. The upstairs bathroom was repurposed as a bedroom but also we had space for an upstairs toilet with washbasin. The kitchen was enormous and had a step right across the room, so we used this line to divide the room and created a bathroom. We also had space for a hall area between the two with storage. The kitchen had a revamp a few year ago but the bathroom has needed an update for a while now. The brief conversation has turned into a full renovate and our son has spent last week taking up the floor tiles. removing wood and taking the bathroom back to the bones. The bathroom is still functional and won't take too long to complete but he needs some rest days and we need to decide on colour, accessories (taps etc). We are also sorting out the storage as we all have our favourite shampoos and body washes. I am enjoying the father and son working together. When John worked on the bathroom with my father he had never done any woodwork, tiling or even decorating and so my dad was teaching and helping as they worked. Our son has been helping and making things all his life and has excellent skills so he is taking the major role. It won't be a quick finish but I know it will be good.
Over the weekend I have been working on the crocheted blanket. I'm still hoping to have this finished by the end of the week.
Yesterday I made a start on my Chookshed challenge for May. This is to make the dolls for my doll house. These dolls are to scale 1 - 12. The biggest doll is 6 inches tall, i.e. 6 foot. The pattern instructions are very clear and easy to follow so I would recommend it to anyone mad enough to want to make their own dolls. As some of you commented I will have tiny clothes to make once the dolls are finished. I'll worry about that when I've made the dolls. Question to self, why did you start this project. The answer is simple, because I can and I like to try everything, however challenging, when it comes to crafts. I'd already stitched the body shapes, cut them out and used fabric glue on the edges to stop them fraying.
If you look at the picture of the three pieces of fabric /doll shapes you will see there is a slit in the back. Again fabric glue was used to stabilise the fabric around the opening. At this point I needed to turn the body to the right side. This was very tedious and took some time. I then put the armature into the empty doll body The body looks saggy on the 'skeleton' but once I start filling the body it will start to look normal and the right size. I was worried that it would be very difficult to get the armature into the body, but it worked very well and quickly. Let the stuffing begin!
By this time it was time to make dinner and so I packed away until later this week. I also need to find the stuffing before I can start the next stage. I am very happy I got this far. I enjoyed making the baby doll, it was very fiddly but doable. I'm hoping I won't have too many problems with mom dad and child.
After dinner John and I decided to work on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle we started doing last week. The pieces we had left were all very similar colours but it went together fairly quickly.
This week is a little busy as I'm teaching for the next three days and on Friday I have to take Twiglet to the vet for his annual vaccinations. He was well behaved with injections when he was a puppy so hopefully he will be no problem. John and I will then be heading out to the Kempton Park quilt show. We have never been before even though it is only a short drive from us. It should be a fun day out and older daughter lives quite close to the venue and has invited us over for dinner.
Today I am working from home but once work is all finished for the day I will be working on the sashiko on the Japanese quilt. For the moment I've put my knitting to one side. I feel I got a little traumatised by the rigmarole of picking up all 364 stitches, not my favourite knitting task. The knitting is also quite heavy now and my shoulder has been a little painful for the last 24 hours. The rest from knitting will do it good.
Take care
Lyndsey
