Commuter Chaos

Just finished a Wasgij (Jigsaw back to front). A Wasgij puzzle is one where the image on the box is NOT the image of the jigsaw. The jigsaw is a connected image but not the same. This means that you have only a small number of clues as to how the puzzle goes together.

I have been doing "Commuting Chaos" over the last few days and, whilst challenging, was great fun.

Cracking on now my Open University has finished

Just completed my Open University degree (in case you were wondering, I got a 2.2). Took the time out to finish this jigsaw that has been sitting there for a few months unloved and untouched.

It is a Gibson puzzle - I Love Autumn.

Just click on the image for a full sized version.

Not much has happened

Not for three years, any way. I have been busy on my model railroad and making plastic scale models. In addition, my health hasn't been brilliant so I have spent a lot of time sitting around and napping. Oh, and there was a little matter of finishing off my Open University degree. Back out of that now and "living" again!

I have stopped doing patchwork, for the time being, although I still intend to make a bed cover to replace the one I purchased in Malaysia back in the 1990s (which replaced a previous one bought in the same craft shop in Kuala Lumpur back in the 1980s). However, it will have to wait.

I did make a couple of covers for the large pillows that we have on our bed. These have always been a problem as it wasn't possible to buy any covers. As always, there is one mistake in the make up of these two. They are rectangular rather than square and I set the patterns incorrectly so that one has to be "portrait" and the other "landscape" for the patterns to match. Oh well, you live and learn.

Since then, for my other hobbies, I have been concentrating on sewing tapestries. I find that this is a very therapeutic task in the evening. I am often too tired to do too much but sitting doing a repetitive task like sewing is possible. The first tapestry, from Ehrman, that I started, since the last of this blog, was very complex and I wasn't enjoying it. This was their Kasbah cushion.

Image (c) Ehrman Tapestry - not my sewing!

The beauty that is EBay came my rescue and some kind soul took it off my hands. I invested the funds into another one from the same company. This is their Oxiana cushion. Just to give you a guide as to what is involved, this latest cushion is 16" x 11" with  12 stitches to the inch. This comes out at a whopping 25,344 stitches. No wonder that it took me so much time. It was also complicated by the fact that I ended up one column across from the pattern printed on the canvas which took a lot of thinking. In fact, I got it wrong a couple of times and had to unstitch some areas and re-do them. Ehrman were kind enough to send a few extra strands of thread as I ran out along the way. We already have more cushions than we can use. These three, for instance, sit on the bedroom window cill.

Thus, we had to find something else to do with this newly completed one. In the end, we sent it up to Emma K Framing, in Saxmundham, as they have a tapestry framing service. In the process, they square the tapestry up. This is something that I haven't managed successfully so I am glad to find someone who can do it for me on all my future efforts. Three weeks later, we got the finished article back and we are so pleased with it. It makes a superb wall decoration.

As you can see, it was very complicated with lots of colour changes. However, I am quite proud of it. My next project is an anniversary present and, as such, I can't really talk about it as we want it to be surprise. All I can say is that I have about five months to complete a tapestry that has 24,336 stitches which comes out at about 116 stitches EVERY day! Well, I should manage 500 a night so I won't have to work every evening, thank goodness.

Hopefully, it won't be so long next time to update this blog.