WIP Wednesday is distracting me from Home Improvements. Good!

It’s WIP Wednesday – thanks again to Tami, and her admirable mastery of the Mr Linky widget, for hosting! Well, my major work in progress this Wednesday is the new fire we are currently having fitted in the living room, which has practically involved rebuilding the house. Nothing we ever do to our house is ever simple, because, as Partner says, it is a knackered house, and we should accept that, give up trying to make it look halfway decent, and drink wine. Anyway, we now have a big hole in the wall – in a slightly different place to the hole that was in the wall previously – and Partner and I can spend the rest of our lives arguing about whether we should have had the fire lower, after spending the morning shouting Higher! Lower!, like terrible parodies of Bruce Forsyth, at the poor fire-fitting man while he patiently moved the fire up and down for us to see what it looked like. In the meantime, it is my job to make cups of tea every twenty minutes and force them down the fire-fitters’ throats, as if they were baby birds (I’m not suggesting I’ve got the hard part of the bargain).

But onto more conventional WIPS. I’ve finished piecing the top of the Subversive Guerrilla Quilt, and here it is (standard disclaimer: don’t judge me on my woodchip. I’m having a fire fitted. I’m making an effort).

OK, look, be honest. Do you iron your duvet cover either? Reluctant ironers unite!

As with everything I ever do, I spent the entire time sewing this together thinking, Oh God, it looks crap, I’m a crap person, I can’t even make a decent quilt, nobody loves me, etc, and then the moment it was finished I decided I adored it with a burning passion, and basked in my smugness for a good afternoon. But I’ve got to say, I’m not looking forward to trying to quilt it. Do I have a long-arm quilting machine? Why, no. Do I know anyone with a long-arm quilting machine? {Looks pensive and chews knuckle}. I think my plan is to quilt it in quite a basic way (i.e. just on the squares), by (short-arm, non-walking-foot) machine, with a mixture of brute force and determination. Possibly while eating a bun. Does that sound like a plan?

I need to iron that seam again. God. O Photography! As no art is,/ Faithful and disappointing! as Larkin said, inbetween being a great big irritating commitment-dodger

This is the skirt of the Anna Maria Horner Evening Empire Dress. I won’t tell you how long I’ve had this cut out, because I don’t want you to think I’m disorganised, but I got to it eventually, and I will try not to leave it for another 3 months before I sew the bodice. I’m pleased with it so far, and I’ll do a review of the pattern when I’m done.

It's chunky, it's funky, it's I-can't-think-of-another-rhyme-unky

And this is my Cheadle. I’m not convinced I’m getting gauge (OK, look. I’m not getting gauge but I’m not sure whether it will be disastrous or not). The wool is Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed and I actually really like it, it’s great for this pattern. I bought it from The Black Sheep recently while it was on offer so for the price especially, I’m a happy bunny.

And moving away from tangible woolly things, I’ve got a couple of less tangible FOs to tell you about – forthcoming articles! I’ve got a piece coming up in Bespokezine, a new zine put together by Jess Van Den – available now for preorder. I’ve also got a how-to in the December issue of Sewing World, and an article in the next issue of Cuntastic (I was trying to explain this one to my Aunty Kath in the British Museum café when she had an attack of deafness which necessitated my yelling ‘it’s an anti-consumerist critique of sex toys, Aunty Kath!’ loudly across the cups of tea). I’m very excited to be a part of all of these, so if anyone happens upon them, do let me know what you think!

Happy Wednesday WIPing, everyone.