“Don’t panic. Don’t panic!”

Although I ‘knew’ that the 2D piece was due in next week, I kept telling myself:

1. ‘you’ve got plenty of time’ - and
2. ‘actually, it’s not really due in till the following week’.

Until Thursday. When suddenly there didn’t seem to be plenty of time and I really knew it was due in next week – yes, I checked.

So what did I do? Procrastinated. Even though I hadn’t finished the embroidery, and had only the foggiest idea how I was going to mount and hang it. In fact, I think I procrastinated because I had only the foggiest idea how I was going to mount and hang it.

But I made myself work on the embroidery – I don’t think there’s a single patch I haven’t redone at least once – and today [after making some bread and some soup and writing a reference!] I took off the calico I’d sewn round the edges so I could use an embroidery hoop – and looked at it.

Mmm. I always go through a stage of hating what I’ve just made. Sometimes it persists – like the belt I made for C&G which I hated so much I can’t remember what I did with it – though one day it will be retrieved and ripped apart to rescue the buckle which belonged to my mother. But I digress.

I had been encouraged by the tutors to leave the calico in place, but wasn’t sure until I took it off <g>. Then I knew they were right. But I wanted to use some better calico, so it wasn’t a disaster.

All the time I have been working on this piece I have gone on to anyone who would listen about leaving the back visible, because families, like embroideries, have a ‘public’ [i.e ‘right’] and a ‘private’ [i.e.’wrong’] side.

But when I put the embroidery down on the calico to work out how wide the borders should be, I liked the look of the frayed edges against the calico and I didn’t want to hide them on the back.

Abandoning the idea of having a 2 sided piece made all the decisions I'd been procrastinating about much easier. It is now mounted on what Wensleydale described as an unquilted quilt, using the calico and some of the felt that wouldn’t dye [I knew I’d find a use for it]. It’s just tacked together at the moment but I shall spend a quiet evening backstitching round the edges.

And hanging it is easier if the back doesn’t have to be visible. As I reached for the spray starch for the calico, my eye fell on the perfect thing for the hanger. Yes. it is what you think it is. I keep them in a bucket on the windowsill behind the starch. [A small, decorative child's bucket.]

Tomorrow I shall make a hanging cord and then I think it will be finished. Apart from writing up my self assessment of course. I lost marks on the Drawing Studies module because I didn’t write enough [must be the first time ever] so I regard that as permission to go over the top.

And then I've go to do some genealogical research for Mrs Cheddar [I haven’t forgotten!]

Another thing I haven’t forgotten is Babybel’s mum’s triumph in the BUP 10K. She knocked 10 minutes off her personal best! As someone who couldn’t walk 10K, never mind run it in well under an hour, I am full of admiration.

I know where Babybel gets her determination from.

Here she is getting ready to cheer her mum in – and practicing running, so she can join in next time <g>.