Author Archives: The Navigator

Quilts of Covid X

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We’ve been at home in Scotland since we returned rather abruptly from Portugal in mid-March. We haven’t been travelling since then; we’ve been keeping our heads down, staying very local, and getting to grips with a lot of new projects. This is the story of one of them.

I made this quilt for the chaise in our sitting room. The chaise, a gift from Isobel, is beautiful, but it has a hard back rail in need of some padding.  The fabrics in the stash were unpromising – a little dull, formal perhaps. And definitely not normal quilt stuff, being wool-type fabrics for the most.  I tried a sample block – then another, and another. Slowly, it became something quite different.  And the quilt’s story has been expanding in my head as the quilt itself has grown.

I’m not a quilter.  I’m a sewing meddler.  I do a bit of dressmaking, usually altering an existing garment, or unpicking and re-making as something else.  My first quilt came about in May 2020 through a combination of lockdown and a large stash of fabric scraps.  

This is the second (fabric) quilt I have created.  Quilts of Covid II to IX are mostly barn quilts, and that is another story.  Many stories are sewn into Quilt X.  I shall find a way of physically attaching the stories to the quilt – somehow!  

The main creation and assembly was done using Flora, my Singer 99K sewing machine. Made in Clydebank, Scotland, in 1952, she’s older than me.  She’s been with me since 1971, and together we have tackled hundreds of projects, from silk christening gowns to canvas tents.

That table I work at is a huge dining table, Victorian, inherited from Isobel when she moved to a smaller house where there wasn’t room for it. It fits perfectly in what I call ‘The Atelier”, and has become the focus for all kinds of projects. For the first time ever, I can cut stuff out on the table instead of on the floor.

All the fabrics came from ‘the stash’.

The small pattern ‘Black Watch’ tartan was given to me by Barbara, left over from one of her projects.  About 1995.

The grey and green fabrics were given by Janice when she moved back to New Zealand a couple of years ago; I suspect they’d been in her stash for some time, too.

I bought a bag of Harris Tweed offcuts in Oban when we stayed there last year to pet-sit for two beautiful Husky/Wolf dogs.  The offcuts proved perfect for the effect I was aiming for. I was given a couple of the iconic labels for my finished projects, and one is attached to the front of the quilt.

The bright ‘windows’ come from some material I bought to make sofa covers, maybe 15 years ago; it wasn’t tough enough for that, so has been lurking in the cupboard ever since.

The backing – well!  I bought this in Montrose when I was newly married, in 1980, to make curtains.  They were never made; then we moved to a house that already had curtains, and there wasn’t enough material to cover the 3m drop anyway.  Some of it got made into duvet covers, and I used some last year to make covers for the chaise.  This was the last piece, and there was only just enough – I had to patch two pieces together to complete the job.  Only the tiniest offcut remains.

The binding was made from my last pair of uniform cargo pants from my job at Historic Scotland before I retired in 2018.  The strips were carefully cut to avoid the worn patches on the knees (weeding) and the seat (cycling to work).  I couldn’t resist attaching the little logo alongside the label.

The batting or wadding came from Sandra, who is an experienced quilter; when she heard I was having a go at making my first quilt, she sent me a bale.  It’s been enough for both quilts, and had the advantage of reducing her own stash before she moved back home to Australia in July 2020.

I was given the gold embroidery silk used in the label by Isobel who had inherited a big stash of silks from family members.

The design is known as “Log Cabin”.  Those bright windows at the centre of each block are said to represent the heart, or the home.

After the main assembly was done with Flora, the Singer, I hand-quilted the whole piece, securing the top to the batting and backing.  Quilting thread was my only purchase for this project – from Laura, at Fabrication in Haddington. The binding was also finished by hand, while sitting in the sun in St. Mary’s Pleasance in Haddington.  The label is my own unskilled embroidery on a patch of those cargo pants.

The project was accompanied by audiobooks; principally Ailsa Piper’s ‘Sinning Across Spain’, read by Ailsa herself, and her book of correspondence with her friend Tony Doherty: ‘The Attachment’, read by both of them.  Both wonderful books, and they are permanently stitched in to the fabric of this quilt along with so many other memories.

Haddington, September 2020.

Carretera Austral

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That legendary road. Everyone responded ‘How lovely!’ Or ‘Beautiful’ when we responded to their questions as to where we were headed. So – we were looking forward to this bit.

As we approached the mainland again on the ferry, we started to see mountains and snow – we were definitely entering a different zone. In glorious sunshine, we rolled the short distance from the ferry dock into Chaitén. A tiny place, with wide streets and low houses, sea on one side, mountains on the others. Our campground was in the garden of one of these wee houses. Reinforcing the difference was the number of overlanders and touring cyclists in town – 6 cyclists in our campground, more scattered around town in hostals and other backyard camping spots.

Backyard camping

Picking up some petrol for the stove from the Copec gas station the following morning, the attendant didn’t blink, filling up our MSR bottle to the requisite level. He’s done it many times.

Personal cycle path

And off we went. A wide, smooth, paved road, with wide shoulders. And next to no traffic – 4 vehicles per hour until about 11am, then maybe one per km after that. That’s the sum of vehicles from both directions. We got to feeeling that this was a very special cycle path, which allowed occasional motorised vehicles. And many cyclists. A nice feeeling not to be the only oddballs on the road. And what is really different is that these cyclists are not just Europeans – a large majority are locals from Chile and Argentina. The whole tourist infrastructure acknowledges the cyclist’s presence, from shops that sell small amounts – 2 eggs, 30ml tubes of toothpaste – to the large number of little tenting campsites.

Carlos from Colombia – he and his brother Christian are streeet performers – travelling with a unicycle, amongst other equipment.

And yes, it feels just like you’re pedalling through a National Geographic article. The wide and spectacular views change by the moment. There are shades of Norway in the steep mountains, of New Zealand in the heavily wooded slopes, of the Alaska Highway without the bears and mosquitoes. But mostly, it is like nothing else, with huge natural forests of cedar and southern beech.

How’s that for a fence?

The wide and smooth was interrupted in a few places where the asphalt hadn’t reached – areas prone to landslides, and steep and winding sections. The ripio is generally fine, and well maintained; no trouble at all, except for the loose material on the curves… so the series of hairpin bends on a very steep section caused us to have to push. Even keeeping one’s footing on the steep bends was a challenge. There was much swearing.

Organising a bandanna against the dust
Mostly fine, except where it isn’t.

It didn’t help that we tackled this section at the end of the day, after 70km and a significant amount of climbing. You know how it goes: do it now, it’s just a hill, get over it. Peak heat, peak traffic, peak dust, peak flies, tired. And a gap in campground provision at the end, so a wild camp with a bucket wash to wipe off the worst of the dust. Then, glorious asphalt again.

To Chiloé

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There was a difficult choice at Puerto Montt – to take Ruta 7 from the start on the mainland, or to take a ferry across to the island of Chiloé, go to the other end and take another ferry to Chaitén, back on the mainland, 200km after the start of R7. The Chiloé route won on the promise of some different indigenous culture and the avoidance of a significant stretch of ripio – unpaved road.

The island is attractive, with rather less cultivation than we’d beeen seeing. Plenty of southern beech forest, and land looking like ‘less favoured areas’ of Scotland. The tourist board has obviously been selling the line hard; sadly, we found little in the way of the promised indigenous culture. Perhaps it reappears around 15th January with the main flush of tourists. The campgrounds were open, but we were still generally alone.

Spectacular sculpture on the approach to the Chiloé ferrry
This was a first – a full car space just for our two bicycles
Unexpected stickers on a Chilean vehicle!
A brilliant day depends more on your attitude than on the sun 🙂
Ferry at Quellón
Ferry slips we have known… This one was particularly interesting because there was no queueing system, nor was there any space for vehicles to wait, other than in random roadside parking spots nearby. The ferry is not a roll-on, roll-off – trucks had to be reversed on, and smaller vehicles had to be turned on the deck. Much innocent amusement was afforded.

Lakes and Volcanoes

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As we proceeded further south, we passed through some peak tourist country; it became clear that we were a little ahead of time. Thousands of cabins, many campgrounds – theoretically open, but as yet, empty. I did manage to quiz a tourist information officer in one particularly well-served community about this – was there an oversupply? She maintained not – once the season kicked off (15th January) most locals would move out, offering their own homes for rent to holidaymakers, mostly from Santiago. February is peak season, apparently.

We were eye to eye with this fellow at one lodging
Crab with everything
How’s that for a colour? Scabious by the roadside.
Streeet Art
Municipal Building in Collipulli
Railway viaduct at Collipulli. We need a campaign for a new colour scheme for the Forth Bridge 🙂
    Volcan Villarrica photobombing again
    Not just beautiful – lethal, too.
    Interesting architectural influences
    Alstroemerias – indigenous wildflowers. And that’s my dog stick, in case you were wondering!
    Not a bad place to end up.
    Such a happy pair in Puerto Montt!
    Cathedral, Puerto Montt

    Heading South

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    During a previous visit to Chile, we tracked north from Valparaíso, all the way to Cartagena in Colombia. It seemed logical to start our southward journey here.

    We’d headed directly to Valparaíso from the airport in Santiago – not only did that mean we were right at our preferrred starting point, it meant that we avoided the horrible tangle of autopistas around the capital. The bikes were still packed for the flight, so it was a doddle to heave them on to the direct bus right outside Arrivals.

    We had a (literal) baptism of fire as we left town, with smoke from protest fires and a distinct whiff of tear gas in the air. The students at the University were protesting something – I didn’t find out what it was.

    The coast always looks like a tempting ride, with the road hugging the edge of the land; the reality is often quite different, as that road scales the heights to get around cliffs and outcrops. It was a tough ride – but beautiful.

    The march of the condos
    A fixer-upper? It was right opposite a rather smart B & B. Could have potential!
    Incredibly vibrant cardoons punctuating the droughted landscape
    An interesting welcome to a fishing caleta
    Black volcanic sand on the beaches
    This seaweed is edible, though we haven’t had the chance to try it yet. And a reminder of the ever-present hazards of a geologically unstable area.
    Adjustments to the new road following a huge landslide.
    A sea-lion colony offshore. The vultures are making short work of an unfortunate youngster.
    La Iglesia de Piedra – cathedral-like caverns carved by the sea

    Chile – from the beginning.

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    We’ve been a bit remiss in keeping you updated during this trip. I could give you any number of excuses, but I think it’s best jus to get on with the job.

    We spent a few days in Valparaiso, time spent wandering the steep streets and taking in the amazing street art. We put the bikes back together, and decided that it was too much hassle to take them down two floors to road test them – and back again. So road testing was done on day 1 on the road. I can report that not too much meddling was required.

    This was a wind vane, swinging freely with each change
    Of course!
    Favoured sleeeping spot
    Loved this one!
    The beautiful Hostal Po
    High-rises are not exempt