I've done it. I've battled on. I persevered. Whichever way you word it, I've actually finished the celtic knot block we did over two weeks ago at my patchwork class. What a bloomin' relief! The whole process is so long winded and fiddly; not my idea of fun at all. One of the ladies said that she'd drunk three glasses of Jack Daniels to keep her going but I've remained sober whenever I've done bits of it - how, is beyond me though.
You can tell I didn't like it as the stitching isn't great and some of the lines are wonky but (in fear of repeating myself) I finished it! Hallelujah! It still needs a rinse to get the visible placement marks off the red fabric but other than putting it into whatever project it ends up in, that's it with that block. Never again! I'll machine embroider a design like that if I want in the future but I won't applique bias binding again.
Well that takes me nicely onto my next whinge. My embroidery machine has broken and gone to the lovely people at Hobkirk's in Blackburn. That's my nearest Husqvarna Viking service centre, which was recommended to me, after a bit of a battle. After doing the 'handmade' embroidery last weekend, it has displayed an error message and won't work at all; either to sew or embroider. That doesn't make me a happy girl but going into the shop for the first time did. It only took us 45 minutes to get there, there's free parking (although Chris did end up paying £1 in the other parking area by mistake) and the shop is full of allsorts of machines, fabric, crafty equipment, haberdashery and friendly staff. I'm hoping to go there again soon to collect my repaired machine and I won't take 'him indoors' or the dogs then, so I can spend more time browsing. We stopped off on the way home at Rivington reservoir, where we'd never been before either and had a lovely time walking the dogs in the gorgeous surroundings. I also had Tiffin cake for the first time at the cafe there, which was very nice! 
Another 'sad' thing is that the lady from 'A Place to Set' (me!) had to say no to the second floor office/studio space that Nancy had offered me last week. It's still a fab location, as the space on the first floor was, but the two flights of narrow stairs would not have been suitable for people coming to the studio with such things as sewing machines. I know that I desperately want this studio idea but there's no point in being silly about it and just taking anything.
So moving on, I'm struggling motivation wise, it has to be said but must push on and do more projects for the craft fair I'm doing on March 22nd.
Breathing in.
Take care out there and hold onto your dreams
