Space and marmalade

 Leila has asked what our sewing spaces are. Mine is the dining room- and we eat in the kitchen. Except on special occasions, when I clear away!

The big table, at which my husband ate as a child, with the rest of the tribe, has an oilcloth on top, and then the cutting board. Unfortunately the table got very wet at some stage, and is less than flat, which can lead to some odd cuts, as the blade of the rotary cutter fails to cut cleanly through, but I have got used to that little foible. The sewing machine at one end, the sewing basket given to me aged about 5, and a shoe box of scraps, too big to throw away, and too small to do anything major with, at the back.

A project of DD1's is draped over the back of a chair, We have been starching, pressing and trimming neatly to size, ready to finish sewing blocks together, an ongoing project which has been running for about two years.

 The iron, and spray starch lurk in front of a bookcase, mainly occupied by sewing books, magazines and pattern folders. I have developed a lot of costume patterns over the years, and this is where they live. Except the ones lent out, never to reappear. No, I never give a pattern away, as such, but they do get lent.














The chest of drawers is full of notions, all bar the bottom drawer( wrapping paper). I have ribbon and elastic, buttons and press studs, and all sorts.

 These are mainly tidied into a selection of shoe boxes, until something is required, then chaos ensues until one of us has a pink fit and tidies it all up again,

 and various precious pouches also form part of my organised chaos.

And then I have some big plastic tubs with fabric loosely organised into appropriate sections.

Other fabric lurks in a larger chest of drawers upstairs, being dress making and costume making pieces. Sure as you throw something away, you will need it next week!

So, that is my sewing space!









It is the time of year for Seville oranges. My lovely parents bought these for me, while they were out, and I had a lovely couple of days getting marmalade made. It is delightfully bitter, and only fairly lightly set, as I had overfilled the pan, so couldn't really go in for a rolling boil. Ten pots resulted, most of which we will happily munch through for the next year. Yum!

DD1 and I hopped across Manchester yesterday, to visit Lucy. I had gone on and on to my daughters, how lovely she is, having met IRL (twice! ) and so I was delighted to get an opportunity to dive across, and let DD meet her too. As we drove away, DD1 whispered to me, 'isn't she lovely?'

Oh yes, she is!
And soon we will hope to meet another little member of that family!

Come on Lucy, time to go pop!