Girding my loins

 . . . for the Fair.  The last sworn-over stitch has just been sewn in the Damnation Quilt.  It is as it is.  I doggedly repaired all the holes, but there are some bare cardboard patches.  Tough.  I can see all the repairs but hopefully they blend in enough to be overlooked by any potential buyer.  NEVER again will I take on a Parlour quilt like this - or if I do, NO repairs will be done.  After I'd changed the bed linen, I had a quick look through a big bag in the bedroom which had a 1980s Laura Ashley hand sewn hexagon quilt in it (been trying to sell this for years).  As it is a deep royal blue and white, it doesn't fit many decors these days. I will drop the price yet again.  I also found another 1970s unfinished hexagon quilt - rather brown but with some colourful "gardens" in it.  That is going too.  I'll price reasonably and hope to sell. So that's half a dozen quilts to make my stand look colourful.  I have a double wall stand so just hope I have room to display quilts AND paintings . ..

A corner of the stall from a Builth Fair last year.

I'm just having a rest (call it lunchtime) and then I will start loading.  At least it is dry and sunny out.  Tam and Rosie arrive again tomorrow and are here for the weekend, to hold the fort. I've got some Gammon Steaks out for tea on Saturday, and tomorrow I have a tasty mince and rice mix using up the tasty pasta topping I made this week.  I had some for tea last night. 

LATER: All sorted and loaded.  I am shattered - have done so little lifting of anything of any weight over the winter (since the last Fair in fact), and it has taken its toll today.  Ah well, will just have to get on with it, and hope there's a lot LESS to pack to come home with!

I have found another series to enjoy on Youtube, where a chap has bought a couple of stone cabins in the Italian Alps and is renovating them.  This follows on nicely from one Tam showed me, which is a Dutch woman who has bought an old cabin (and other smaller sheds) in the Swedish forest (looks remote but probably isn't) and she is a whizz at woodwork.  We can't bear to watch the Welsh/Irish ones where people come in to "restore" a cottage or house "sympathetically" and then rip every bit of character out of it. One Welsh one took every internal wall out too!

The other day we watched an entire series of Pioneer Quest, set in the 1850s, and the folks they had in to do it had a hard time of things at first.  The two BIG Percheron horses they had for pulling the wagon and ploughing, thought ploughing was meant to be done at a trot and the poor people behind the plough (one with the reins, the other steering the BIG plough) were nearly ploughed and buried in short order!  The film company had been done over too, and instead of a dozen hens or whatever, they had been given a high proportion of Cockerels!  They didn't teach them to make bread until month 7 (WINTER) when they also taught a basic patchwork technique.  I know, but it keeps my brain ticking over when it's chucking it down with rain outside and I am kept inside these 4 walls.

You will smile when I tell you that Rosie can now CLAP!  Obviously playing Patacake with me gave her this new skill. :)

There will probably be an on-line silence until the weekend is over.  Off to collapse in a heap now.