Do not sew like an Egyptian

 I do not mean, do not aim to have the skills of the Tentmakers of Cairo


I mean, do not machine quilt whilst
(a) pressing down hard on a heavy quilt because you cannot be bothered to walk downstairs to the laundry room and get your Mashingers and
 (b) moving your neck in imitation of the tortoise necked dance that went with the Bangle's song Walk Like An Egyptian.



If you do this you will shear the C5 and C6 vertebrae in your cervical spine.

 This will trap the median nerve. This will cause neck and shoulder aching, stiffness down the outside of your arm ( not unlike when the muscles go stuff after a travel inoculation) and tingling in your ring and middle fingers and thumb. You may also get a bit of tingling in the pads of your palm as the ulnar nerve has compensatory damage.

You will then be forced to give some of your quilting money to a nice physiotherapist who will stick acupuncture needles in your arm to desensitise the nerve (you will not feel a thing but do not try it with your machine needles at home) and she will then manipulate your neck very gently and give you some exercises to do.

You will just be thinking what a nice lady she is when she will tell you not to go near your sewing machine for three weeks. Yes. Three.

Ask me how I know all this.
Sigh.
Actually, I knew it before but I did it anyway.
Idiot.

Looking on the bright side of life, at least we are going away for a while anyway and this is now an opportune time to get the machine serviced!

I am working on: A Happy mess

I cannot show you the quilt I am machine quilting at the moment because it is to be a suprise for a freind who reads this. Albeit she is not going to see it until April, but I want it off my To Do List.

 

I can show you that I have ben doing why my Husband calls Making a Mess.

I will let him off as he refers to the process not the end result.

I have been scraping and stamping with screen inks again to make a background for naother map quilt.

 

Mess  it might be, but it is a happy mess.

I cannot wait to start work on my wet studio though.. current wash up facilties are less than ideal.

 

Musical tribute to Thomas Woodcock

 

Sadly my Father in law Tommy Woodcock passed away peascefully on 22nd August at the age of 87. he was from Ballymena in N. Ireland and was a great musician. He taught many children and was a conductor and trombonist with teh Curragh Silver band for 62 years. I encouraged my husband to arrange for members of the band to play around the graveside which they agreed to do. they played Tommy's own arrangement of near to the Cross and faded out leaving only the Trombone playing.

Poignant to say the least.

 

The weekend after his death was Black Saturday, the traditional marching day of the Royal Black Instrituion a senior Lodge to the Orange Lodge. The lodge near to my parents- in law would normally do a short local march before heading off to the main event but this year they chose, entirely off their own bat not to play in the locality but to march only with a single drum tap as a mark of respect.

 

I appreciated that but Tommy's life was about music  not silence. So I asked the Pride of the Maine flute band to come and play directly outside the door as a tribute. The result is in the video below. I apologise for the breath sounds... the arranging involved some running up and down the hill to ensure my MIL and husband were at the door to see it!