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A room full of memories... and a sewing machine.


Last time we were chatting, I was telling you about my lovely new sewing machine. Or at least it would have been lovely if it had worked, but sadly, it didn’t. Luckily, the nice people at Amazon and the Royal Mail took it away again and while I was disappointed about the time I’d wasted I was also glad because I’d learned so much from it.


Firstly, I don’t want to be intimidated by a sewing machine! I don’t want to have to set 10 controls every time I start and have it beep at me accusingly. I want to turn it on, load the right thread and sew. I don’t have time for anything else in this season of my life and the things it’d have done were things I liked doing by hand.


Secondly, my amazing husband read the manual of the old machine from cover to cover, then disembowelled it and found that a little hook had come unhooked from a little wire. He vacuumed it out, researched and altered the needle height, tightened a few other bits and pieces and now it runs sweetly and cheaply. He also pointed out amazingly gently that if I wanted more stitches there were another 13 that I hadn’t tried yet. He was of course right, as he so often is. In my defence, life was even more chaotic than usual when I bought it because my daughter needed a sewing machine for her university course.


She used it for a month or so, and then decided it wasn’t for her, so I inherited it, set it up for sewing long boring stitches and bought a good book about sewing machines to supplement the manual and, I’m ashamed to say, it is sitting in the upstairs bookcase unread.


This will change. I have bought it a set of different feet, I shall sit in the sunshine and read the book and then, this winter, I will really learn how to use it. I have also bought a little vacuum cleaner for cleaning keyboards and sewing machines and tumble drier fileters, curtain rods and those cracks in windowsills and between radiators that are so hard to get to. My family and friends are happy that I’m repurposing my birthday present to other things I want, so I’ve also got more basic supplies and I’m back to being happy and excited again.


Excavating the sewing room is going well, but is very full of memories because of all the things that are in there that I couldn’t face looking at at the time. Local history books and memories of the past that our first lovely next door neighbour left to me because she knew I’d understand them where her family wouldn’t. I already use her sewing basket and her Kenwood Chefette mixer, again serviced by my genius husband, but oh, so many memories, including some that are putting me on the trail of a very intriguing puzzle and maybe explaining why such a lovely lady never married.


A box of things that my father in law had had in his nursing home, including the pictures my daughter drew for him and the family photos he kept beside his bed. My mum’s sewing stuff. My father’s old records, so some of my birthday money will go towards a USB turntable so I can burn them to discs and enjoy the memories.


All those things linking the past to the present and going on into the future. I shall find the right homes for all of them. I don’t yet quite know how, but I promise I shall! In the meantime, I have finished two quilts in my lovely, lovely sewing machine, so today’s pictures are of them.





Have a great week and we’ll catch up on Wednesday when there are some really good special offers. Oh, and I’ve finished the first draft of another Amy that’s provisionally called ‘One wife too many…’ and I hope that intrigues you! Take care and give your loved ones loads of hugs and spoiling while you can.

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