Bis Sis’s Wip 5

Finished at last.

a mixed bag this week

OK. So I said that I was either going to take the painted tower apart and rebuild it, or make a new one. The coin toss came down in favour of a new one so I began painting fabric to use as the walls but didn’t care for the colour it dried to and after free machine embroidering an indication of a few bricks, I realised that they would need to be much smaller than I had made them. I also then knew I’d get bored sewing the same things repeatedly over such a large area so I’ve given up on them for the time being:

After that I cut off the two layers of interfacing that hadn’t been stitched and just free machine doodled for few hours. This was more enjoyable! When I ran out of usable stitching area, I took a photograph and used Photoshop Elements instead of colouring with paint or crayons, thus avoiding another actual painting failure. It was only just before I stopped for dinner that I realised I could add texture as well as colour (see green leaves at top right). Too bad I didn’t add some to the flowers which are quite flat looking! Click the image a couple of times if you want a closer look:

I’ve been meaning to show these presser feet for a while. I bought the two metal ones online at a ridiculously low cost from two different suppliers. (The non-metal foot is the standard darning/free motion foot for my low shank machine). I reckoned that if they didn’t fit my Janome or caused problems of any kind then I hadn’t wasted lots of money. Well, they do fit and they do work well and I’m extremely pleased with them as I can see much more of the stitching area (which was the hopeful reason for buying them). I haven’t worked out what the notch on the closed foot is for and there was nothing online to explain it. Anyone out there know?

 

 

Today

Today, the painter man came and filled holes in the walls and then painted our bedroom walls. Once he was gone, I hoovered up the debris he created and cleaned the windows, now dotted with paint.
Today, JP and I put our bedroom furniture back in place and agreed to a moratorium on hanging his choice of pictures for the bedroom wall.
Today, I received a ‘Happy Anniversary!’ notification from WordPress. I’ve had this blog for two years. How time flies!
Today, Big Sis is travelling south from beyond up north to visit for ten days.
Today, I am doing lots of furniture moving so I won’t feel guilty if I don’t go to today’s keep-fit session.
Today, I will make a start on Sachiko Morimoto’s Lavender.

why privacy matters

When I read a news item the other day about how WordPress bloggers could enable friends to find our blogs through Facebook or Twitter or Google Contacts, I have to admit that I was horrified at the thought that I could be ‘outed’ so easily. One of the major plus points of starting a blog for me was that I could retain my anonymity if I wished.

 
I have not posted photographs of me or my friends or family on this blog and that’s how it will remain unless they allow otherwise. Even my avatar image is not of me. By remaining anonymous, I can let off steam about the things that bug or interest me without fear of recrimination. I mistakenly told a few family members and a couple of friends about the blog in the early days and then realised that it would be best if I never referred to anyone I wrote about by name on the basis that we’re all entitled to remain anonymous. On the other hand, none of my work colleagues know that I blog and if I ever post about them (which I am bound to do at some point) and they were to find my blog through a Facebook or Google Contacts search, (I don’t do Twitter), they might put two and two together and recognise themselves and I’m not sure that I want that because very little of what I would ever write about work and my colleagues would be positive.

 
I don’t regard my desire for anonymity as cowardly or devious. You may not agree with that and that’s fine by me but I have to prove my identity so many times in the week by way of logons and passwords, personal identity numbers, wearing an office ID card, proving my address is actually mine and so on, that I like being able to write anonymously in a blog simply because I have the choice to do so.

 
Yes, I know I can make my blog private but it’s fun to check the stats regularly and possibly discover a new follower (whose numbers, in case you were interested, have now reached the dizzy height of ten, thank you one and all).  When I started this blog and was still playing around with all the settings that WordPress offered me, I connected to Facebook but had not fully understood the ramifications of doing so and hours later was horrified to find my latest post in all its naked glory for all to see on my Facebook wall. I swiftly disconnected the link and cannot imagine a day when I would ever want to re-connect. I will not be connecting to Google Contacts either. I don’t want to have to take my blog elsewhere but if there’s no alternative, that’s what I’ll do to preserve my true identity. Unfortunately, if I do, you won’t then be able to find me again because I obviously won’t say where I’m going because that would defeat the purpose of moving elsewhere. The words ‘catch’ and ‘twenty two’ suddenly spring to mind…