Spring-clean in the garden, and loving the walking foot

An interesting weekend, weather-wise; lovely warm sunshine, bitterly cold winds, rain, hail and sleet, and frost first thing this morning!  Not a bad selection for 48 hours.

We took advantage of the sun to have a clear-out in the garden (and then got caught out in a hefty downpour and had to shelter in the greenhouse).  The gravel we shifted last week looks well on the pathways:

The potting shed was emptied - goodness, who knew was hoarded away 'just in case'? - cleaned and tidied up.  It was a time for being quite ruthless (if it hadn't been used in the four years since we moved back here, it probably wasn't likely to be used in the future) and we filled up several bags of rubbish.  We discovered bits and pieces we'd forgotten about, or lost, or couldn't even remember having in the first place!

We've moved on to the greenhouse - so many plastic plant pots - and the other storage sheds ('I've been looking for that for ages.').  Leaves to be swept up, pots to be moved, weeds to be pulled.  The garden looks so much better for a few hours work.

Indoors, I've been catching up on some sewing.  Having stated quite categorically that I would finish one project before starting another, I have found myself, this weekend, juggling no less than four projects at once.  So much for trying to pace myself.  However, I have completed two of those projects, very nearly finished another and decided not to start the fourth one at all - sometimes it's just as important to know what not to tackle, rather than take something on that is going to cause far too many problems than it is worth.

So, my 'work' jeans (the ones I keep for donation sorting) now sport some very nifty patches (these jeans are well into double figures, age-wise) and I have made good progress with my re-purposing project; hopefully just the front facing and buttons to go.  

The final project was to take in the side seams of a stripey jersey vest, which, at a size 20, was just a tad too big for me ;-)   For something that should have been quite straightforward, it took much longer than I had anticipated.  It was all about the stripes.  Matching them, to be precise (and in both senses of the word!!).  And the stretchy jersey knit fabric.   All this called for the interlocker stitch option on the sewing machine, and some very careful pinning and then tacking to try to keep those pesky stripes lined up.

So the first attempt was unpicked.

Then, light-bulb moment, I remembered the walking foot that I use for machine quilting.  The problem seemed to be that the fabric was moving as I was machining, so I was hopeful that the walking foot might cure the problem.  And it did!  Yay, beautifully matching stripes down the seams.  

Oh, I was happy!!