No Tangle Embroidery and September 18th 2014!!

You will remember this is the BOM 'Harrington & Hannah' which was given out free last year on the Raspberry Rabbits website. Click here and scroll down if you have missed any of the patterns or instructions. There is even a pattern for a cute rabbity postcard there as well. I have been trying to catch up with the blocks and have had my embroidery threads out. I want to thank one of the ladies who sent me such lovely gifts after my sister died. Unfortunately my computer died recently and I lost the database with all the details and addresses of the people who were so kind to send me such lovely goodies. One lady sent me this -

Two beautiful bundles of embroidery threads.

Look at the colours!!

Scrumptious!!

I can't make up my mind which one I like best!! Warm and wonderful, or ... 

...cool and cute!!

When I was at college studying embroidery, I was taught this trick to stop all the threads tangling up into an unmanageable mess.

 Fold the threads in half, to form a manageable length for embroidering (this bundle is just a perfect length for this). 

Cut!!

 Wrap a small piece of embroidery thread firmly round the cut end and knot. The hank of threads now has to be pleated . If you do not have anybody to hold onto one end (my husband was mucking out the horses) ...

 ... hang the hank on a hook where you hang your mugs (you can see some of mine 'hanging about'!)

Centering the hank on the hook, pleat those luscious threads together.

 Hold the end firmly... 

 ... and wrap another small piece of thread firmly round the end. Knot.

 To extract a thread, hold the end, pull out a thread slowly.
   

 No tangles...

... just beautiful threads!! (I did not bad photographing one-handed!)
When I was at college, using a lot of different threads, I used to cut lengths of the various threads, tie and pleat them as above. This meant I did not have to carry loads of embroidery skeins around with me, and I certainly had no tangles.

And

Devolution for Scotland!

545 days to go!!

September 18th 2014!!

Vote YES!!!!!!!!

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Till next time.

tich

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

I am so excited!! I am just about jumping up and down in my seat!! The Great Tapestry of Scotland is coming over to Sanday, and I have been asked to help coordinate it coming over here and get the word spread.

The Great Tapestry is the brainchild of Alexander McCall Smith CBE FRSE and designed by artist Andrew Crummy.  I will let you read all the details about it here, but needless to say I am jumping at the chance to take part in what will be part of our Scottish heritage for years to come! I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait!

Till next time.

tich

Giveaway - Again!!

Well, I must have done something right the last time, as Fons & Porter asked me to review another e-book on quiltmaking. This time, the e-book is about modern quilts, and although smaller than the last e-book, this one has three, absolutely beautiful, modern quilts to make. Modern quilts - what does that mean? I had visions of grotesque colours and unsewn seams, but I could not have been more wrong!! The e-book says that modern quilts are -

'notable for their minimalist aesthetic, use of bright, bold

colors with large doses of white and other neutral solids,
asymmetrical designs, and free-form piecing. These quilts
are meant to be fun to make, and comfy to use.'Thank goodness I did not have to choose which pictures to select to show you, (all the quilts can be seen on the cover) because I would not have been able to choose between them! I raved about the last e-book, but this one is equally as good.

Readers of this blog will know that I love traditional patterns, but I think I have been converted! I cannot make up my mind which one I like best - or which one I am going to make first - you will notice I said make!! Baubles and Beads is a bright, cheerful quilt, with lots of lovely pastels and white - a beautiful combination. Rainbow Rhythm is made from half square triangle with a black border and is outstanding and Lemon Squeezy uses a quilt-as-you-go method to make an easy, vibrant, eye-catching quilt. 

The great news is that Fons & Porter are letting you all have access to this book again. Aren't they wonderful? I can't thank them enough for letting me have the opportunity to review such a great e-book and also for you to get this book free, Go on!! Click HERE and get going!!

(This post should have gone out at the beginning of the week, but I had to go over for an emergency appointment at the dentist to get an abscess drained - sorry!)
Till next time.
tich

RUBBISH!!!!!

Normally our beach is beautiful. I walk round by the road, or across the bay, depending on whether the tide is in or out, and I never know what surprise is awaiting me. If the tide is out, I can see the sand stretching into the distance, begging me to walk along it. 

Frequently I find a really beautiful stone. This one had particularly nice markings. There was a circle on the face and underneath, but in different positions. I might find an unusual shell, or a beautiful piece of seaweed, and sometimes, if there has been rough weather, some tangles (a type of seaweed) may have been uprooted at sea and swept to shore. 

Our dog likes investigating the seaweed. It must be the smell!!

Recently, I have never seen the beech covered with so much weed. It was like someone had been trying to build walls and passageways. 

Look how high the tangles are beside the dunes.

Look how small Penny is beside the tangles! 

Notice the stones at the bottom of the dunes. They are flung up there during the storms. On other beaches I have seen them totally covering the dunes, but not on this beach.

Now I have told you before, that, in Orkney, the weather changes very swiftly, sometimes three and four times a day, and it is the same with the beaches. I thought it would take ages for the tide to take away the seaweed, as we were having really nice weather, but a few days later ... 

... it was almost clear... but then the next day...

... it was back again.

Sometimes the seaweed is swept up the beech and then the wind sweeps on top of it, to make it look as if it is growing there right in the middle of the beech. I know i have been rambling...

BUT...

THIS IS WHAT THIS POST IS ABOUT...

As well as seaweed, the sea brings in the flotsam and jetsam that people discard without thought.

 A brush...

 and shovel,

 a crate lid,

 one right handed glove,

 one right handed glove,

 loads of litter,

 one left handed glove - a pair, who would have thought,

a creel,

 the dashboard of a car (!!!!) and...

would you believe it, one shoe!! How could you lose one shoe??? In the picture below you can see my husband going to look at a crate. He uses them to keep the plant pots close together, so that they don't blow away!

 We really do need to think what we are doing. Our beaches are not too bad, but I would like you all to look a this trailer of a film coming out later on -

CLICK HERE

EVERYBODY SHOULD WATCH THIS!!
Till next time.
tich

 

When I was approached by Fons and Porter to review one of their ebooks, I was jumping up and down. It was really nice to be asked to review anything, but Log Cabin...! They must have known it was one of my favourite patterns

What an ebook!! It is one of the best I have ever seen. It is chock full of pictures, tips and charts, and contributors include Ricky Tims, Shon McMain and Marti Mitchell.

The three main types of Log Cabin are covered - Traditional, Courthouse Steps and Chevron, and there are examples to make of each of these patterns by the above named quilters. There is something here for everyone - big quilts, small quilts, traditional quilts and modern ones too. I love the pictures of the antique quilts in the collection of Sara Miller. There are some absolute beauties!

 

 

 In my opinion, the cutting charts included in the ebook are worth downloading alone, but when you consider you have a mini tutorial on bobbin work with trapunto AND a step-by step picture tutorial on binding with piping, it does not get much better. This ebook has loads of tips and eye candy, and the nice people at Fons and Porter are giving you the opportunity to download it for FREE!!!!!!!! How good is that?

 

So click HERE to get your very own copy. You will not be disappointed! I will leave you with one more picture. Drool!

Till next time.

tich 

 

 

Hexie Play and Goodbye Tex

I thought I had talked before about making a small hexagon quilt out of some of the scraps left over from my Dear Jane blocks. I had seen one started here done, I think, in Joe Morton materials, but I wanted to use the materials which had been sent to me from all over the world, when I started my Dear Jane. I would be able to think of all those kind ladies, when I looked at my quilt. I will do a tutorial at some point, showing how I sew my hexagons, but I have a few pictures showing a little progress. I use Inklingo or Incompetech for the graph paper. The photo below shows a piece of hexagonal graph paper and on it I have drawn some arrows. This helps me keep my grain line true, when I am sewing the hexagons together.

You will not believe there are approximately 134 hexagons in the picture above, and I have only done two rows!! I am working on other projects in between, so this project is ongoing slowly!

If you read this blog regularly. you will know we live on an island off the north coast of Scotland, and we have a smallholding with a number of animals, including sheep. We started off with caddie lambs, i.e. lambs who have been rejected by their mothers and who are therefore orphaned. My husband bottle fed these lambs, until they were able to fend for themselves. One of these lambs was Tex. He was supposed to be castrated, but somehow it did not work, so he became a prolific Daddy and also a BIG ram. Sadly this year we decided we had to change rams, so we got our neighbour to help us get Tex into the trailer to go to market.

Our neighbour, trying to entice the ram with feed.

 Using a gate to get to Tex.

 Nearly there!

 Husband grabs him.

Get in!!

Gotcha!!

Doesn't he look sad?

Kiss!!

 Goodbye!!

Baa!

The end of another era. Tex is now in a good home over in Orkney Mainland.

Till next time.

tich

What a Mug (Rug)!

 I am a member of a small group of seven ladies (including me) on the Net. We live all over the world, but usually someone emails something each day. We swap patterns, jokes, stories and encourage each other when our sewing is in the doldrums. These ladies are wonderful. This Christmas it was decided we would make a mug rug for each other, and we could use a pattern of our own choice. Now we had plenty time, as this was decided way, way back in 2012, but as usual, life got in the way, and I was rushing to get the mug rugs done towards the end of the year. As you know, my sewing machine is the love of my life, so I decided to make an embroidered mug rug using my machine and quilt on it as well. I bought fancy initial designs for each person and got started. I was going great guns until I received my first mug rug from abroad. My mug rugs were way too small, so I had to start again!

Here are the five mug rugs I received -

Aren't they gorgeous? Each one is so individual and also meticulously done. I love each and every one of them. I decided I was going to use them, when my friends on the island came in for a cuppie. What a reaction they have got! Everybody picks them up to have a closer look at them and they have had so many compliments!

I have learned so much from this project! 

• Find out the proper dimensions of the project - you can see below one of the mug rugs I made initially, that was too small. I will be able to use it, as the initial is appropriate, but you will notice that I have not bound it yet. After sewing on six bindings in a very short time span, I decided it could be a UFO for a while. By the way, I used the tutorial from this blog to help me bind the rugs.

• And when I do a project, I usually have a major learning experience. This was mine below!! My iron broke down, but fortunately I had another one. I ironed this rug and thought the stitching looked a bit funny. The second iron must have been a hotter one, as it cooked the thread (Isacord)! The design turned into a shiny, hard bob, which you can't really see from the picture. It was back to the sewing machine, yet again.

Despite all the moans and groans, I did enjoy making the rugs, but I enjoyed receiving the ones back even more so! Thanks, dear friends for all your hard work!
Till next time.
tich