An Explosive Week

So a week ago Sunday, I remember it was still warm & sunny and I got my Bee blocks done - my first ones were for Karen in Bee a Brit Stingy. She asked for Hourglass blocks to finish at 9" and with a 30s feel.
Hope these fit the bill - as requested I managed to slip in tiny bits of Liberty.

I also got my blocks done for Judith's Bee Blessed, nice easy ones this month to ease us all back in.

Technology almost got the better of me this week. Remember I got a new laptop n April for my birthday? Well, of course as it has Windows 8, it is not compatible with my antique Lexmark printer. Last year we upgraded Lexi to an Advent but I didn't like it, it wouldn't print wirelessly and ink seemed to be only available from PC World at a premium. Also, when you got the low ink warning it just went totally in the huff and stopped printing whereas my old trusty Lexmark would keep going until you could barely read anything - ha!
So, as I had a large stockpile of ink for Lexi I chose to hook up the old laptop to the printer until said ink ran out completely. But, old laptop caught a virus and last Wednesday, with a class in the evening and handouts to print - it croaked. Out came Advent from the loft (still with me?) and OH installed it on my new laptop and then offered to shoot off for some ink.
I should really have put a bet on somewhere, because he came back, not with ink, but with another printer, Mr Predictable. The new baby is a Canon and I am tickled pink to be able to sit in one room and hit "print" and then collect later............(today however, I got the low ink warning already, because mean old Canon only put in low yield cartridges, shame on you)
Fast forward to Thursday morning class. There we all were, labouring over our Sew A Long project, when, flash, bang, wallop - the iron blew up - actually burned a nick in the edge of the soleplate. It also manged to fuse all the sockets in the Community Centre - oops! Luckily our Jannie (janitor) put it all right and no sewing machine was harmed in the excitement.
So yes, I had to go buy a new iron....sigh.
Add to all that, the continuing drama we are having with Scottish Power / Scottish Gas over a tortuous switch in energy and I am about done with electrics!!

I will leave you with a sewing related tip -
If like me, you use Aurifil thread, you will know how long one of the 1300m spools last. But, sometimes you do end up with one of these.......

Next time, don't throw it away. You might also have some spools of alternative origin that look like this..

I have quite a few as I also have an embroidery machine so have collected different brands over time. I find this particular style of spool has a tendency to wind its thread around the spool holder which usually results in the thread snapping. Enter Mr Aurifil empty spool.

Just twist off the bottom, and fit it to your bottomless spool. Perfect!!