I have been getting to know my Silver Crest sewing machine the last couple of days. We set out just after ten on Sunday morning for Lidl, and perused the middle aisles for sewing machines but none were to be found. But as walked out of the shop, there on the last till was a sewing machine being bought! Talked to the very nice Australian till person and apparently you had to ask as the machines were stored at the back. So success.
Slightly different from what I was expecting - foreign goods pah ;). I followed the concise instructions in the booklet and eventually after a few blind corners got it moving and so I am on the road to patchwork.
Over the weekend my daughter sorted out the cupboards in the kitchen, a new set of steel shelves had arrived, that stood against one wall, it is now custodian of a whole heap of stuff, even one shelf being dedicated to kilner jars of dried stuff (not labelled) but I am sure she knows what is in them!
All the cupboards in the kitchen are now sorted, some looking rather empty, the big school cupboard especially. Next is Lillie's room, I won't go further then say it is always untidy but she has decided to be minimalist just clothes and college books. We shall see.
Enough of domestic news, what else happens in the world. It is all dire, did we ever imagine when the WWW was invented for altruistic motives that it would bring such despair and sadness right up to our doorstep I wonder.
Will the talk this morning of being able to go to pharmacists for small ailments and get checked by qualified staff be part of the downward motion towards private healthcare. My daughter has just been to a clinic of professional help to see what can be done about her migraines. It is physically just two minutes from us, opposite the great white elephant that was built to house doctors and nurses' for the health of Tod. Sadly there is not enough doctors to fulfil this role and now telephone appointments (and diagnosis over the phone?) is the norm. But then the NHS is slowly falling behind as it has to contend with more and more ill people.
I see this film down below is on Prime Amazon, which I do not subscribe to, I know Andrew has it, so perhaps I will try to see it on his tv one day. It looks a gentle film with problems that were much simpler.
Have fun with your new sewing machine. Threading the needle was the problem I had last time I owned one!
ReplyDeleteHave you read the book the film is based on? I'm sure I tried it years ago and failed. Think it's set in Suffolk but I'll have to check that out.
It looks a gentle film Sue and it has Bill Nighy in, he is always good. I can still thread the needle though they have some cumbersome threading thing which is yet to be attached.
DeleteGlad you got your sewing machine and hope you have fun with it! Looks like a good movie. I hope it comes to Netflix one day.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like typically a soft early English early 20th century time sort of film Ellen, and Sue above was right it was set in Suffolk.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing 'soft' about Penelope Fitzgerald 's writing. The book is very much worth reading. It's very acute about middle class manners. The film is directed by a French director and misses the point of the whole exercise. Ths film is set in the West country and the book in Suffolk, modelled on Aldeburgh where Fitzgerald lived for a time. All her books are very different but , I'm my opinion, very good.
ReplyDeleteWell as I haven't read the book or seen the film I stand corrected. Thank you for filling out some of the information for me.
ReplyDeleteUp until 2010, the NHS was in pretty good health. Since then, things have gone steadily downhill. Everybody knows it. I wonder what happened in 2010 to cause the decline? Mmmm... let me see now.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Happy travels with your new sewing machine!
Is it a question of throwing more money at it I wonder. The movement of people into this country, and they can be nurses and doctors, has probably been restricted by immigration laws as well. Well that 'promise' of £350 million a week for the NHS on the coach never came to fruition. False promises should be remembered at the next election!
DeleteReading your post this morning set me on a google search for Silver Crest sewing machines, a brand with which I'm not familiar. I see some models can be ordered via Amazon [go figure!]
ReplyDeleteDuring my years of working at the Wyoming Quilt shop a very knowledgeable sewing machine repair technician spent a week there about once every 2 or 3 months. When I was ready to buy a new machine I asked his advice and learned that nearly all the well known sewing machine companies have consolidated, with most of the machines now made overseas. I also learned that a company such as Brother makes a line of less expensive machines to be sold exclusively at Wal Mart. I have two good machines, a 20 year old Elna 6004 and a Janome MC 6600 which I'm astonished to realize is now more than a dozen years old. These two machines should see me out! We are blessed here in this Kentucky backwater to have a Bernina dealership associated with the local quilt shop and several in house technicians who can service any make or model of machine.
I look forward to hearing how your new machine performs for you, hoping you'll share photos of your projects.
[Dear me, I've been wordy, as usual!]
Funnily enough after I had made my purchase, there was an old fashioned Singer sewing machine being sold by a charity shop. It came with the lovely Singer table and was £150 - not bad for an antique. I find that patchworking Sharon is quite expensive, especially the material. Kate of The Homely Home has masses of materials which she must have collected over the years. I am rather scared of the expensive, 'can do everything' sewing machines, but knew beforehand that Lidl's machine would be fairly basic.
DeleteMy youngest daughter bought herself a little sewing machine. Last month, she found a dressmaker's dummy in a charity shop. She's trying her hand at clothes. I'm not a sewer. She amazes me that she just decides she is going to do something and simply does it.
ReplyDeleteI think you need lots of patience for making clothes Debby and shop bought ones are so cheap now it has rather taken the need to make them. But I wish her luck it is lovely to see people going back to handcrafts, many of my daughter's dresses were handmade when she was young.
ReplyDeleteDo see that The Bookshop, it's wonderful. Of course, I watch anything with Bill Nighy.
ReplyDeleteI will try, Bill Nighy is always good.
Delete