Slow progress

Unfortunately, I've been a little under the weather this week so I haven't been able to get stuck into the sewing like I had planned.

I'm so glad to have finished vine panel #3 on the Susan McCord quilt. It is a bit long to get a whole shot in but here's a portion. The two hundred and something mumble mumble leaves on the third panel was a bit of a marathon so I was glad to have got this far. Now to draw up #4 of 13.

There was a minor wee glitch when I washed the panel before trimming. In my haste, I picked up a certain marker to use. After three weeks, the blue washout pen had turned black and looked just like permanent pen. See the black line below?

This was the culprit and it got binned straight away. Silly me knew it did that and neglected to get rid of it long ago. I use a trusty and much tested one usually, not sure what I was thinking here.

I have a recipe for getting out pencil marks which has worked for me, (you might know it) which I thought I'd try.

One part water

3 parts rubbing alcohol

a few drops of green dishwashing detergent.

Is the green one necessary? I don't know but it works so why mess with that. I used tablespoons as my measure and a soft old toothbrush to rub it in with. I just might have got a bit enthusiastic during that part.I often add more detergent to the area too and do it on a soft towel.

So you'd like to know if it worked, right? Yes, it got most of it out so I was happy enough with that considering it wasn't pencil, it worked ok. I also then got a run from a red fabric  I hadn't noticed before (leaf on the right) so washed again using Dylon colour run preventer. It worked it's magic.

Onto the good stuff. I have had great sucess with my sourdough starter after putting  about four grapes into the mix, covering it with a cloth and rubber band and placing by a window on a very warm day. It captured more wild yeast spores. I did use organic white flour and spring water too. I've made a couple of hybrid loaves this week using a little dried yeast until it gets a bit more mature. No photos because they didn't look pretty enough but they did taste the part.

I had a huge surprise yesterday. Mr Quiltsalott bought home a something for me, my very first laptop and............

A television for the sewing room!!  How spoiled am I? I think there was a super deal and tough negotiation going on. I can watch movies now while I sew or do the ironing! You probably don't know that I get very bored with sewing seam after seam which is why I don't seem to get things finished.

There's a little story there. The first time I ever went away without him was to a weekend retreat. When I got home, he had built me a small rose garden.

Another time when away in NZ, I came home and he had taken out the sliding door and knocked a hole in the wall to put in french doors. I was glad I didn't know about that one.

As you know, I've just been away for three weeks. Do you suppose there's a pattern here?

Edit: I almost forgot to tell you about those pillows I crocheted the edgings on.  You Go Girl is going to do a tutorial on making them. There is also a button on my side bar which you can click on to go there and sign up or have a look.