Something old

I had to look for something I had misplaced and I happened to find this unique design:




It certainly is my oldest UFO, started at a very young age well over forty years ago. (This is my way of hiding by age. My mother used to say she is over 28, when we asked how old she was. We knew she was a lot over 28 when our eldest sister was 18!) I vaguely remember sewing the pieces together in our little playhouse. We had sample books from a fabric sales office where my greatauntie had been working. There was always one bigger piece and then small colour samples of the same fabric. I have also used linen in different colours, they may come from a sample book as well or then from my mother's stash. As you can see, I didn't have a specific pattern and most probably no guidance either. This was going to be a quilt for my doll, but something prevented me from finishing it. Knowing me rather well I would guess someone critisized the quality of my work.

The same almost happened with this experiment with Disappearing 9patch when I showed it to my husband yesterday:


He had to ask whether the stripes were crooked on purpose. Well, they are printed and therefore they don't run straight. The whole set of prints has been waiting in my stash for many years to be used. I had to buy them because they were very cheap and it seemed a good idea at back then. Still I never really liked them and they didn't match any of my other stuff so I had to use them together. That's how I now decided to make a little tablecloth 85 x 85 cm for a summer outdoors coffee time. I have the top machine pieced now, and I'll put a flannel batting and a thin cotton backing to it tomorrow, and finish it with bias tape. Maybe I have learnt something over the years. At least the seams are a lot straighter. And maybe I can live with the fact that not everybody likes what I have sewn.

Today the weather turned from cold to nasty. We have already had such lovely days and spring was at least two weeks early. Today it has been hailing and raining and the grass was covered in wet snow, and so was I when I walked home from the village, because I didn't understand to take my umbrella with me. I'm still feeling chilly. Rain, rain, go away!