The Sewing Dilettante

There's a fabulous weekend market here in Limerick, the Milk Market. It's much like St. George's Market in Belfast or the English Market in Cork - lots of local and artisan cheesemongers, bakers, chocolatiers, butchers, and other specialty food stalls sitting alongside textile traders selling beautiful buttons, handmade quilts, and bright knitted hats and mittens. Hubby, baby G, and I have made it a bit of a habit to wander down there late on a Saturday morning to pick up lunch and indulge in a bit of people watching in the upstairs seating area.  While we were there a couple of weeks ago, I bought a big bag of locally grown lavender, with the idea that I'd make a few lavender sachets to freshen up the various closets and chests of drawers in the house. (One of the things I hate about moving into a new rental house is the stale, unfamiliar smell. It's pretty much gone at this stage, but a few lavender sachets are always welcome.) Typically, I didn...

Last week felt about a million years long, and not in a good or fun way. With a couple of big work deadlines looming, I plied myself with way too much coffee, set out an ambitious but totally achievable list of goals, and watched in silent horror as I simultaneously went a bit mad with caffeine and failed to meet any of my targets! Progress felt infinitessimally slow. At least I had some fun sewing to take my mind off it. Or so I thought. I was about half way through making two Churn Dash blocks for Sarah's Siblings Together quilt when my trusty Pfaff went haywire. I did everything I could think of to get things working again, but I quickly came to the conclusion that the problem was beyond my (very limited) capabilities. So, off it went to the shop. Which, in itself, wouldn't have been such a bad thing. I had been meaning to get it serviced for a while, just for general maintenance purposes, but I had also already signed up for Judith's Slouch Bag workshop today. *Sigh...