Bernina Aurora 440QE

I was delighted when my husband bought me a Bernina sewing machine. My Pfaff was twenty years old. It was still sewing great, but I always yearned for a Bernina. I had heard so much about them, how great they were, how well they sewed.

I could not get my new machine to sew! I would turn it on, it would sew a few stitches and then stop dead. I would pump the foot control, it would do a few more stitches and then stop again. I got onto the dealer, and the assistant said the machine was too cold. This was a severe blow, as my husband had converted a byre into a very modern studio for me. I did check the manual, and it did say the machine did not like cold (neither do I!), so I tried running the heater for one hour before I sewed, for two hours, all night, all day and night, but eventually the machine gave up an error message 'STOP', which the dealer had never seen, and refused to sew another stitch. I got a new machine from Bernina.

The new machine sews. Do I like it? The jury is still out on that. I have had a lot of problems with tension, and I definitely do not like the BSR. I will show you tomorrow what I am doing to get more comfortable with the machine.

Till then, enjoy what is left of the weekend.

tich

Pincushion

We have only four small shops on the island, more like old-fashioned corner shops, where you can buy a variety of things. The nearest supermarket is one and a half hours away on the ferry to mainland Orkney. During January to March we have a refit timetable for the ferries, so the hours on the mainland are severely curtailed, and often we are unable to book on the ferry for a particular day. This is part of island living, and we have become accustomed to going to the mainland and rushing around like scalded cats, trying to work our way through an extended shopping list. We usually go every six to eight weeks to stock up the cupboards.

Kirkwall has four charity shops, and I usually try to include at least two of these shops on my list. The last time we were over, I found a really pretty,small sugar bowl, which I could not resist. I do not like a lot of ornaments, (too much dusting, no time sewing!), but I knew I had to buy this one. I made a little pincushion to fit the top of it, using an idea from -

http://whipup.net/2006/03/01/stickin-it-to-the-pincushion/http

Whipup is a great site! I get so many ideas from it. I usually go on it every day, just to see what is happening.

I used the circular attachment for my machine to make the embroidery, but you can easily use a drawing pin and a bit of masking tape just as effectively. Seemingly you can use the letters on your machine to embroider circular words. Is this the next project?? Anyway, the nice thing about my sugar-bowl pincushion is that I can 'hide' my thimble, small piece of wax and a bobbin of thread under the pincushion, and they are all there ready for me to hand sew, when the notion takes me.

Hope you are having as nice a day as I am - from the gloriously sunny Island Hame.

tich

Potato Cakes

Potato Cake recipe as promised!

• 7-8 oz mashed potatoes
• 4 oz self raising flour
• 2 oz butter

Boil potatoes until soft and no more. (If you make them too soft you will have soggy potato cakes!) Rub butter into flour, until it resembles bread crumbs. Add potatoes to flour mix and mash well with a fork. Form the mix into flat cakes with your hand. Fry in olive oil or butter till brown on both sides.

We had these for lunch with fried eggs, fresh laid from our two hens! Absolutely delicious. Another favourite is mashed potatoes spread out in a pan to form a large potato cake. This is fried on both sides, with the minimum of oil, till it is crusty on both sides. My stepfather's mother came from the Highlands, and she called this a shevock (don't know spelling!) We fight over the crusty bits!

Enjoy!

tich

Crayon and Pencil Roll

My camera is playing up, so you will have to wait for another day, before you can see what I was playing with today.

A few weeks ago I made a crayon roll and a pencil roll (see above) for my granddaughters, using the tutorial from this site http://rachel-griffith.blogspot.com The girls loved them. They took them on holiday, and their Mum organised activity bags for them, for using on the plane. The rolls kept all the crayons and pencils together, and it was easy to see if one was missing. Thanks Rachel!

I tried a new recipe today - Irish potato cakes. They were scrumptious. I will post the recipe later this week.

Enjoy what is left of the weekend.

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