I should have been in London today but Great Western had other ideas. I was planning to be on the 0806 to Paddington when my Hero called to say my train had been cancelled. Actually, it wasn’t only mine, it was all trains to Paddington and really, there was not much point in trying to battle through. I sent my apologies and instead of interviewing young managers I spent the day at home. A bonus - though I was sorry to miss the chance to do my bit and my plans to have a quick zoom around an exhibition I fancied at the Royal Academy once I’d finished were done for too.

So, a day at home. What to do?!

Since the summer, I’ve been intending to make some of these. Except I had a couple of better ideas, one of which included making use of my Bernina’s clever tricks. I bought some fabric in JoAnns when we were in Nebraska and ever since we arrived home, it’s been sitting on my work table, looking at me, daring me to get on with it.

Time to fire up my sewing machine software then, to work out the design I’ve been thinking about for ages. I’d opened the software last week only to find an update was needed and those who know what Bernina software is like will understand when I say this was not a five minute job. By the time it was ready to go, I was ready for bed. This morning, however, it opened up and behaved itself for the rest of the day. I was on a roll. By lunchtime, I’d worked out the design, had saved it to a USB stick and by the time we came downstairs after lunch, I was ready to try it out.

I hooped the fabric: two layers of ecru terry towelling and one of waffle cotton and began to sew. First, the outline of the circle was stitched twice, followed by one round of blanket stitch edging to the circle. Lastly, a row of stitching, offset from the circle shape by 2mm. Bernina precision!

At this point, the machine stops and prompts me to remove the needle and replace it with the cutwork tool .

It goes on to cut two parts of the circle and stops, waiting for me to turn the dial to 2…after which it cuts another two sections. I click around to 3 and 4 and ta dah! It’s done.

The edge is cut so neatly and precisely. Very satisfying indeed.

Whilst I was firing on all cylinders then, I remembered I was going to make some felt stars for my Christmas Journal. I tested a second design on a bit of old skirt…

Looks like I might be busy tomorrow as well, doesn’t it?