After living all my married life in houses that we were in the process of renovating, I really appreciate not having loads of DIY to do in my apartment. It’s quite fun to help others though, and being able to walk away from the dust and the rubble at the end of the day.

Adrian, the lead guitarist with the band, lives in a house at the foot of a mountain, on the edge of the Pyrenees;  the terrain is so steep that the mountain comes halfway up the back of his house. His living space is on the first floor; the ground floor (if you look from the front of the house) is workshop and garage.

When it rains heavily the rain pours down the mountainside, straight through the back wall and into his garage and workshop, meaning that several times every year, the whole ground floor is flooded. Not ideal.

He asked a firm for a quote to fix this problem, but it was astronomical; they’d have to empty the place, dig a trench just inside the back and side walls (it seems that digging the trench outside is unfeasible) , and lay pipes, which would drain the water to the ditch outside.

Jean Marc, the drummer in the group, is a retired builder and Jean Michel, singer and guitarist, works in a builders’ merchants. They were horrified when they learned that Ade had asked someone else; why hadn’t he asked them? So Jean Marc spent a day at Adrian’s, assessing what needed doing, as well as the tools and materials he’d need. These were bought, using Jean Michel’s staff discount, and loaded into Jean Marc’s van.

I offered to provide lunch as I wouldn’t be much help with the building work and spent the previous day cooking; two chicken curries, one medium, the other barely spiced, for Jean Michel, who, like many of his compatriots, can’t cope with anything spicy. A chickpea and spinach curry, naan breads and a raita completed the main course, to be followed by the inevitable lemon meringue pie, without which I wouldn’t dare show my face at Ade’s. He got in rice and beers.

By the time I arrived they’d cut the trench in the workshop, the lower of the two rooms, and were starting to dig it out. The place was full of noise, dust and a very positive vibe. I even felt quite useful when they were looking for something; of course all the shelving and other storage was shoved together on one side of the room – I was the only one skinny enough to squeeze through the little gaps.

The farmer across the road brought his tractor, with a big digger shovel attached, so that they could dump the rubble in it; he’d find a hole to lose it in.

By lunchtime they’d dug out the trench and were hungry; they’d had an early start. We all tucked in and they all declared themselves full after two or three helpings, till I got out the lemon meringue pie, a big one, which they cut into four, demolishing most of it along with ice cream – I think they all have separate pudding compartments 🤣.

Then back to work, mixing the mortar to fill the trench and scraping a groove in it to match the half circle guttering that would collect the water. At the lower end they cut a rectangular hole, a bit bigger, to form a sump that will house a small pump.

They hadn’t finished by the time I left, but the sky was turning very black and a storm was forecast. I had an interesting journey home with lightning flashing all around and rain coming in the windows, as they refused to close. Eventually I managed to close them, by pushing the “open” button; a problem with the electrics, I suppose.

For now, they’ve only done the lower room, the workshop, Ade will see if this sorts the problem and we’ll go back to do the second part later on, if necessary.

I’d collected fabrics for a Gustave Klimt style quilt for one of the gîte bedrooms when we lived in Caupenne, but hadn’t got round to actually making it, so decided to use the fabrics for my spare room instead.

About a year ago, the time felt right; I got out all the fabrics and spread them out on the bed, to see how they all went together and to weed out anything that didn’t go. However, there seemed to be fewer of the dark colours than I remembered; I searched high and low, could even envisage specific pieces of fabric, but couldn’t find them anywhere. Eventually I gave up and went to my local fabric shop; I was in luck – they had, in the patchwork department, a selection of Klimt cottons – I spent rather more than I should have, but they were irresistible!

I added the new fabrics to the old, spread out on the white duvet in the spare room, when my eye was drawn to the cushions at the head of the bed; three cushions, each with two, dark, Klimt style fabrics pinned around it. I remembered then; the room had looked too stark, too white, when Alex and her family came at Christmas, so I’d wrapped the cushions in quilting cottons, pinned in place as I’d no time to do more than that.

I’d have more fabric than I needed, but I can make cushions and maybe a coat……. After all, you can never have too much fabric!

I drew up a design and even followed it for the middle section, but then changed my mind and made the rest up as I went; I’m not good at following patterns, even my own.

It’s the biggest quilt I’ve ever made and I knew that quilting it by machine would be challenging and I’m far too impatient to quilt by hand, so I made it in three separate pieces, which I quilted to within a couple of inches of the joining edges, then stitched them together, leaving me only narrow strips to quilt once it was all assembled.

Once the top was finished, I’d have to quilt it. Most of the quilting is “stitched in the ditch”, a technique where you stitch in the seam between two pieces of fabric; it has to be virtually invisible, so is very precise and time consuming. Other bits, though, like the larger pieces of swirly fabric, I decided to do in free motion embroidery, following the swirly pattern on one of the fabrics; I couldn’t believe how much thread this used as I went back to Mondial Tissus again and again for more gold thread. In all I used about 400 metres, just of the gold.

Finally, it’s finished. The patchwork club wants it for our summer exhibition, so I’ve added hanging sleeves to the back. I’m pleased with it; it looks lovely on the bed and brings the whole room together. Cushions? I’ll do them sometime, but I’ve so many other projects to get on with in the meantime.