Getting ready for the shepherd's hut

A couple of months ago we decided to buy a shepherd's hut to sit in the corner of our field.  It is to be a refuge, a private place, a place to sit and read, a place to write.  We visited and talked to the makers and we are now only a week away from it being delivered. I am quietly very excited indeed.   It is being made for us by hutsnstuff,  a father and son business in Powys on the Welsh borders.  It should look something like this:

This is one of their photos and there are lots of others on their website and flickr page.   Our hut should be the same colour as this one with similar windows on either side.  Inside there will be a sofa which converts to a double bed as well as a wood burning stove so the hut can be used when it is cold.  We will be making or finding a little table and it will have a wicker chair and a little writing chair too.

So this week is the week of making curtains, covering mattresses, making cushions and preparing for the arrival of the hut and a grand session of moving things in and playing house.

This is the material for covering the mattresses.  I bought it about eighteen months ago as the backing material for my first ever quilt.  Sadly it was not quite the colour mix I had thought from the small internet sample, just a bit too cream and the wrong shade of green so I put it away rather crossly and work on the quilt stopped.  To be honest, wrong backing material is only one of the many reasons that the quilt is languishing unfinished in my sewing box.  For a time I had  nowhere to sew.  That was quite a convincing excuse.  Now I have colonised a room upstairs as a sewing room so I will have to admit that the real reason the quilt has stalled is that I have bitten off more than I can chew (a frequent problem with me, optimism you might call it) and am a bit terrified of the next stage.  I will get there one day when I have a rush of blood to the head.

Anyway, the guilt about having bought the wrong backing material has now been assuaged by using it for the shepherd's hut mattresses.

I wouldn't like you to think that this was the work of a moment.  There has been some unpicking, much muttering and some swearing as I have inserted the longest zips I have ever worked with but now we have two covered mattresses.

There are curtains to be made next which I haven't started yet.  I like making curtains and hope not to have to sweat over them quite so much.  The material for these came from Abakhan  They have an outlet on the coast about twenty minutes away from here with a whole range of fabrics, from the utterly naff to the supremely beautiful.  If you can make it to a store they are always worth a visit.

Curtains might be the next job.  I think I shall make lined curtains.  We may as well have the best with all this recycling and reusing and attempts at thrift.  I would be happy enough to sleep in the hut without curtains at all but from time to time there will be people in the holiday cottage and we don't want to frighten them in the mornings!

I need some cushions too.  I brought some covers with us when we came years ago.  They look as if they will be a perfect match.  They have been sitting in a drawer as the colours were wrong for the sitting room but now they will have a role to play in  my own private space.  That is very satisfying.

It will be good to use them but there aren't enough so I will be making cushions as well.  Looks like a busy week.