Spring comes to Putney

Hello Dear Readers,

I've been reading a lot of books at the library and bookstores about sewing, and lots of them include patterns for needle books. At Liberty department store last weekend I also saw some really cute needle books. I knew of them before, but never really thought much about them because I used my pin cushion to keep needles. But the other day I read somewhere about how you shouldn't keep needles in pin cousins because they get lost in there, and I thought, yeah I may have lost one or two in there, I know because every once in a while I find them again (painfully). I also finally made it to Peter Jones (another department store close to me) and bought a multipack of needles, darners, embroidery, sewing etc because with this increased sewing I was finding I didn't have enough needles. Then I thought a needle book would be a fun little project for this weekend, to make a needle book. I took some of my favorite fabric that was given to me as a going away present when I used to work at a fabric store.k

Ta daaaaa! Very nice. Then I put the needles from the pack from Peter Jones in there, and my needles from my pin cushion. Fair enough, filled up the book. THEN, I started squishing around in my pin cushion to see if I could find any stray needles......


I found OVER 15 NEEDLES IN THAT THING! And I'm sure there are more in there. Most of the needles on this page of the needle book were in the pin cushion. No wonder I never had any sewing needles! I found my lost cross stitch needle (last used in 2004), a few short quilting needles (2008), sewing machine needles, and a ton of GIANT very pointy needles (last used in 2006, yes I do remember these things, don't you?). It was like a treasure hunt! if I had taken an X-ray of the pin cushion without pins I think it would have looked very much the same, crazy!

In non-fiber related news, it's been very quiet here. Too quiet. We live to the South West of London, which means we are generally in the flight path of Heathrow and planes come over every 40 seconds. In fact, the path is such that when I'm in the kitchen I can see them go right over the skylight in the ceiling. But today:


Not a cloud in the sky, not a single airplane trail.

Volcanic ash and dust is also conspicuously absent as well. But it's clear clear clear clear. If you see anything in those pictures, it's probably on your computer screen. And quiet. I think we'll go down to the river to enjoy the quiet while it last. Usually the planes are so low you can very clearly see what company they are with, and they are loud.