Mystery Tour fun

No I definitely mean tour.

When our children were young, we would take them on Mystery Tours. Sometimes it would be to the zoo or museum, a movie, a book shop for new books or sometimes just to the local ice-cream shop. Now they are all grown up I take my husband or friends on Mystery Tours.

So what makes a good Mystery Tour (MT).

1.Be sure the destinations, on the tour, are of interest to those involved eg the first MT I organised for my friends, who were kids in the 1960’s,  was called Step Back In Time. We went to an old fashion Tea House for coffee, looked at beautiful old buildings, travelled on old trams and had lunch in an elegant old pub.

If you are a member of a book club maybe organise a MT around book shops, libraries, or book binding businesses. Maybe if you have all read a book set in your city make the MT destinations places mentioned in the book.

If your group loves all things food and cooking visit a market, a kitchenware shop, a restaurant with a visible kitchen, maybe even a cooking demonstration.

Let your imagination run free.

2. Gear the number of stops, on the MT, to your groups interest level, fitness level and destination locations. Eg if you are a book club group and you are visiting bookshops on you MT don’t visit more that 2 or 3 as we all know you can spend a long time in a bookshop browsing shelf after shelf.  But if your group is interested in architecture and will only be looking at the exterior and maybe the foyer of the buildings you could probably have 5 or more destinations.

Is the distance between destinations close enough that you can walk from one to the other or will you need to drive?

How fit are the members of the group, can they get on and off public transport, can they walk the distances you have planned between destinations?

3. Make it fun. Give the participants clues as to where the next destination is eg a crossword puzzle they need to solve or a “find-a word”, or a picture puzzle or a cryptic poem.

4. Be flexible. On that first MT I took my friends on one of the group mentioned a lovely building she felt we should take a look at so we took a slight detour and it was definitely worth it.

5. Include coffee/drink/food stops so the group can rest their legs, chat about what they have seen/done and regroup for what is yet to come.

6. Do your research re all the destinations on the MT. This will give you lots of information to impart to the group and make the tour that little bit more interesting. Your enthusiasm for the MT topic will rub off on the group.

Remember it is all about fun, fun, fun.

If you organise a MT for your family or friends I would love to hear about it.

Enjoy

Margaret

Same, same but different.

Really? No.

What do COVID and patchwork have in common????

Here we are in our 3rd year of COVID life, COVID restrictions and COVID same,same.

COVID has taught us how to be flexible, compassionate, and tolerant. But what do COVID and patchwork have in common you ask? Well let me explain.

1.      Reduced food intake.

COVID - one of the symptoms of COVID is nausea, it reduces your food intake.

Patchwork – you can get so involved with a project that before you know it is 4pm and you haven’t had lunch.

2.      Staying at home.

COVID – has kept us all at home for short and long periods over the last 2 years. Some of those stay-at-home periods have been because our government has restricted our movements, others have been self-inflicted to safeguard our health and others have been because unfortunately, we have had a close contact or worst we have had COVID.

Patchwork – when you are really into a sewing project you just want to stay home and sew, sew, sew.

3.      Use what you have at hand.

COVID – at times we have not been able to get to the shops, so we have had to make do with whatever is in the pantry and fridge.

Patchwork – a good size fabric stash came in very handy when the patchwork shops were closed ie using what you have at hand.

4.      Increased energy and enthusiasm.

COVID – in our first and second lockdowns I took the opportunity, and was enthused, to clean out draws and cupboards, wash curtains, do a good “Spring” clean. I really achieved.

Patchwork – at the same time I took the opportunity to finish a few UFO’s, start a couple of, and finish, some new quilts and use up some of my stash.

5.      It is here to stay so we learn to live with it.

COVID – unfortunately I think COVID is here to stay for a bit longer.

Patchwork – once you have the patchwork bug is very hard to shake, if you want to, which I do not. My family has had to learn to live with fabric in various rooms in the house, quilt tops laid out on beds, late dinners because I can’t stop sewing and holidays designed around patchwork shop’s locations. They may complain about it all but they never complain about the finished quilt that suddenly appears on their bed to keep them warm on Winter nights.

As a patchworker I hope you can relate. Happy sewing, stay safe and stay healthy.

Margaret

To press or not to press, that is the question.

To press or not to press, that is the question.

Up until recently I had always thought it was best to press your sewing as you went along. But I think I have been on the wrong track.

I think if you are machine piecing it is a good idea to press as it makes it easier to match up points and seams.

I do a lot of hand piecing and I have only just realised it is best to leave the pressing until the block is finished (a small iron is very handy for this job). If you do this it allows you to spin your seams which reduces the bulk at points. If you are not sure what I mean by this I have included a photo. It also means you can press a seam open if that will give you a better look on the front of the block.

Which brings me to the old rule” always press to the dark side”. A great rule but not always practical. For example if spinning your seams, as mentioned above, you may well be pressing half of the seams to the dark side and half to the light. So there is a decision to be made , stick to a rule or have less bulk and a flatter, crisper block. Sometimes you get a better result, on a straight seam, if you press the seam open.

It really all comes down to minimising bulk and what gives you the best result on the front of the block.

Have a play, see where you sit re press as you go or wait till the block is finished. Whichever you decide remember when it comes to patchwork you are pressing not ironing, ironing can stretch your fabric and thereby change the size of your block, even by only a little but it could be enough to make life difficult when piecing finished blocks together.

We are only a few days to Christmas 2021 and still life and the World is topsy turvy with Covid and it’s latest variant. I hope you have a safe festive time and may 2022 be a year of sewing and creativity.

Margaret