It would seem that a burglar has broken in, ignored all the modern technology and Christmas presents in the house and STOLEN my ancient hand-held Kenwood Chefette mixer. It has simply disappeared. This trusty old blender is irreplaceable – it has 2 sturdy beaters and a very fast motor that doesn’t get hot. It has gone a bit yellow with age and has a dodgy plug but I can’t live without it. I needed it to make frosting for Fergus’s Dalek cake. The substitute modern flimsy beater whooshed icing sugar all over me, the toaster and the wall so I threw it out! After watching lots of make-your-own Christmas telly, I decided that I would make some biscuits for Freya’s teachers and friends. I will have to write to the Domestic Goddess who wrote the recipe and tell her she got it all wrong. I had to double up the quantity of flour and they got burnt. The venison was delivered but I was informed that it was a bit “ripe”. Hmm, I don’t think you are supposed to get a whiff of Camembert every time you open the freezer. The Americans on the APQS Forum all gave sage advice on field-dressing deer but I don’t really think mine had the same care and attention. I will defrost it and re-sniff but Bambi Balti may be off the menu.

I spent a whole day in town doing Christmas shopping, helped Barbara at Milton Studio with her fabric sale and dutifully went out for lunch twice. I had been keeping a low profile with Quilters and only had 2 more customer quilts pending. This meant that I could start the New Year doing the Yurt stuff. However, a customer arrived with a basket full of quilts that she wanted me to baste/tack. I said I would rather not do that. There was one with large areas of appliqué which she wanted untouched and I have had strict orders not to “over-quilt”. There are 2 more that are crying out for intense custom which she doesn’t want. I will have to pluck up the courage to attempt some feathers and proper cross-hatching on a large scale.

My time-keeping is taking a turn for the worse. I arrived for the quilting project at School a whole hour early as I forgot that the time on my mobile phone is an hour ahead. I had to take Freya to Church as she was playing her flute with the School recorder group. She had already complained, “It’s so inconvenient – why does it have to be on a Sunday?” (I did point out that Church is usually held on a Sunday). I knew that she had to be there at 3.45pm so why did I decide that I needed to leave the house at 4.30pm to be there on time? I was even writing Christmas cards before we left as I thought I had half an hour to spare!

I finally started quilting the Bloody Big Bargello. For ages I thought about how I would quilt it - possibly a simple cross hatch or maybe I should use a template board… in the end I realised that all those seams had to be captured so shells were the best option. I had a frustrating first hour where the tension went peculiar. The test area of backing and wadding was fine but as soon as I reached the pieced area, the stitches were all over the place. The only different thing was the wool wadding. I think I need to adjust the height of the hopping foot but the screw is too tight and I can’t shift it. After some tinkering, I got going but I was not pleased with my quilting at all. For one thing, I have decided that I don’t like variegated thread. When the dark green part of thread crosses onto the cream squares, it looks odd. The trouble is that I am in a tearing hurry. I would have liked to have done tiny shells but then it would never be finished by Christmas 2009. It really is a shame if my own quilts get a lower priority than other people’s quilts. Really, BBB is meant to be a simple bed quilt so I should stop being so fussy and just get over it!