Crafting and the 3rd week at Flipside

Its not all Toronto stress and work, last weekend Brit and Nicola were at my place. Nicola has been looking for Quilting courses but they are usually during the week. We are guessing that most quilters are retired. So we asked Brit if she would be willing to teach for a day and she accepted the challenge.

On hooking weekends the cottage is full of wool and yarn. This time it was full of cotton material and 3 sewing machines (if you count mine which is a very poor relative of the other 2). Here Brit is teaching me to use hers, just to hem some monks cloth. She was teaching me Swedish Weaving on it.

You wont see this often. Machine sewing is one of my least favorite occupations. I did what I needed to learn that day and Nicola finished up the material I will take away on holiday with me. It is a transportable craft, which is what I was looking for.

Brit taught Nic the "paper piecing" technique for quilting. Starting with this simple one.

She then went on to create this. She kept exclaiming at how PERFECT they looked.

And finally; this one. All very precise and PERFECT! Nicky was a very happy camper.

It worked out very well and something the 3 of us may try again. A very relaxed way to learn.

Rasta loves Nicola's sewing machine travel case.

Then it was back to Toronto and the ongoing cafe renovations. Monday I was "cafe sitting" as the rest of them were in the U.S. at a trade show.

I was there to let the plumber in and he got the sink and the ice maker installed.

I was also there to receive deliveries; a prep table, wine frig, beer frig and pile of stuff from the donut machine manufacturer.

and the most important delivery, this monster; the donut maker.

In between I started painting the kitchen floor (the second coat, the next day looked a lot better) and filled wall holes with drywall compound, while I waited for the Bell man to install the router. We now have internet!

The following days Taylor and Shane put together the donut machine,

figured out how it worked and went to do a trial run only to discover that the oven socket in the kitchen wouldn't fit the machine's plug. Sigh - another job for the electrician. Plumbing has also been "fun" with a new leak found every time the water gets turned back on.

Aside from the kitchen floor, I was also putting primer on the walls that had been painted with blackboard paint and stuffing steel wool in ever tiny hole I could find (old building, mice! say no more...)