Flower Clasps

I have been having fun making these clasps for my granddaughters. They love pretty things for their hair, so when I saw a tutorial on this site here, I got going. Arlette's blog has a lot of great tutorials, and I am definitely going to have a go at some of the pincushions. I love pincushions, but find that my pins go rusty in them, as we are so close to the sea. Back to the clasps. They are really easy to make. I was not concentrating, when I made the first blue gingham pins, and kept on folding. As you can see below, they are more like daisies than flowers, but they will still be appreciated.

These are more what the clasps should look like. Arlette sent me a nice email, giving permission for me to link to her blog.

I bought this quarter inch foot, or should I say my husband bought this for me, along with another hoop, for Loopy Locket, my 630E Bernina. I have been having a bit of trouble getting my points to meet, and I thought this might help. I now have perfect quarter inch seams, but some of my points are still not perfect. Anybody got any tips? I am a perfectionist, when it comes to patchwork, and try to keep things just so (or sew?)

I realise I have not been indicating when I have updated my 100+ Reading Book Challenge, so I will put a link in the blog, when I have completed more books. (here)

Thankful Thoughts

My sister has come through her operation. They could not get all the tumor, but she starts radiotherapy soon. Thank You! Thank you to all the nice wishes that have also been sent from blogland!

Doesn't the sun make all the difference to how you feel? We have had a period of really lousy weather. Long, dark, murky days, with lots of rain. Then we had a few unexpected days, when the snow fell and actually stayed. But suddenly we woke up one day and the sun was shining. There was no wind, and the bay was absolutely calm, just like a mirror. Glorious!

Till next time.

tich

Merry Christmas (when it comes)

I got both trees up last night, one in the lounge and a smaller one in the conservatory. I adjusted the colour of the above picture and the next two below, but they don't look right. I decided this year to leave the tinsel off the tree. I usually smother it with tinsel, but then you cannot see the decorations. I have some decorations going back to wartime, and I have made a lot of them myself, as well. My favourite one is an old Santa in the front of the tree, near the red bell. Seemingly during the war (I wasn't born yet!) there were no decorations to be had. My Mum got the Santa out of a Kellogg's cornflake box and painted him red. He always goes on the front of the tree, and my sister and I used to fight, to put him on it. The tree looks very pretty and makes the room look as if Christmas is coming.

I found these two beaded necklaces, which were almost completed, so I finished them quickly in case I needed an extra present for someone. If I don't use them I will have two new necklaces. The top baggie is knitted, the bottom one is a brick stitch amulet. I decided I did not want a fringe on the bottom one. The colours are much nicer in real life.

Thankful Thoughts

I am so thankful I am not living on Mainland Scotland just now. They have had so much snow. They have had the worst weather conditions for the last twenty years. All transport has been disrupted. Roads and airports have been closed, and yesterday the Automobile Association was dealing with 1200 breakdowns per hour! We had a light fall of snow a few days ago, as you can see below - just like icing sugar on the grass, and the next picture shows what is left! It has been very icy, which is really unusual, but beautiful.

This was yesterday's sunrise -

and the bay today-

I do hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that Santa is good to you all! You deserve it!

Till next time!

tich

Walking along the Beach

Yesterday was such a nice day we took our border terrier for a walk along a beach, which is about a mile away from us. This is a picture of it last year in the summer. Really crowded, isn't it? When the tide is out, we can reach this beach by walking across the bay in front of our house and then over the sand dunes. Yesterday we went the long way round by road. The beach was empty, as usual, and my husband and I spent a glorious time walking along the sand and laughing at Penny running in and out the water. It was not cold, and we did a bit of beach combing. It s amazing what is brought in with the tide. Yesterday I found a hard hat in perfect condition. We walked back over the bay, and had fun jumping over some of the wider streams of water, which were beginning to fill the bay. I try to remember days like this one, little special memory jewels to brighten up other, less special days.

I did not get much done on the sewing front yesterday. I was still recording the stitches on the machine, when my husband asked if I wanted to nip down to the shops for anything. An hour and a half later we got back. We saw a rope on one of the beaches and thought it be good for the boat. It was tangled with barbed wire and other rope. We tried to untangle it, but it is now in the garden, waiting to be released. Back to the machine this afternoon.

Enjoy your day.

tich

My First Post.

I live in front of this bay in Orkney, so every day I wake to this view. It is hard to be depressed, when you see this every morning or night. I try to do something creative every day - embroidery, patchwork, quilting, beading. Today I created this blog to help me stay focussed, (I do have a lot of UFOs lurking in the cupboards!) and to meet old and new friends on the Net. I will not be blogging every day, but hope to keep in touch with my new or older friends. Till then, enjoy the view!

tich