Thursday 15 October 2009

Jelly Roll and Santa


This is one of the jelly rolls that I bought a while ago. I kept on mulling over what design to use and was actually quite anxious about opening it up and actually cutting it!
I was quite disappointed when I did open it up. The colours are just not me. The pinks are not my pink, and I do not like the blue materials. But this is good. It will get me out my comfort zone and make me work with materials, which are not quite me.
I intend to make something very quickly. It will certainly not be a masterpiece, and it will definitely not be as nice as I thought it would be.
But it will make me use materials I would never have thought to put together, and perhaps it will turn out better than I think. I hope so!! (Sigh!) I intend to start it in a week's time.

On a happier note, I found one of my favourite books of all time, unpacking a box last week (yes, I still have lots of boxes to unpack, after moving here two years ago!) -'Twas The Night Before Christmas'. I was given this book by my Mother for Christmas 1954, and to prove how much I loved it, scroll down to the next picture.
This is the centre page of the book, and the 3D tissue ball has no tears in it after 55 years.!
Till next time.
tich

Sunday 11 October 2009

Ta Ta Teddies!!

Yipee!! At last!! The teddies and the bags are finished!!! I packed up the last of the bags and these are the boxes, labeled and ready to go to the Mercy Ships headquarters in England. From there they will be sent on to the Mercy Ships in Africa. Lena is in Malawi, at the moment, on a school exchange. She should have taken the teddies with her.

We have had awful weather for the last few days, with high wind, rain and quite cold too. The weather changes really quickly here, so, just to cheer me up, I took this picture of the bay just beginning to fill, in between showers.
Enjoy!
tich

Sunday 4 October 2009

Birthday Bag



Yesterday I posted about a bag I had made for a friend for her birthday, and then realised I had forgotten to show the picture. I took the pattern from a calico bag, which my sister sent to me. I use it for carrying all my spinning equipment from house to house, and, as my friend is also a spinner, I thought I would make her a similar bag. It was also a good excuse to try out the embroidery module on my machine. She seemed pleased with it.

Saturday 3 October 2009

New Machine

I have spoken before about my new machine, here, the Bernina 630E. I try to do something on Loopy Locket every day, but I must be honest and say that the most I have sewn on her has been to do with teddy bear bags. They are almost finished now, and all that has to be done, is to collect the last of the bags from Lena and get them parcelled up. I can then clean up my studio and call it my own. I made an embroidered bag (and the bag) for my friend's birthday, but I am still a bit anxious about the embroidery unit. (I went to put a link for the bag and realise I have not posted about it - duh!!) I thought I would try out a bit of lace. I know this is really elementary stuff for people who use embroidery machines, but I was so excited, that I had produced this butterfly. I used two layers of wash-away stabiliser, and it worked like a dream. Big pats for Loopy Locket, and big grins for me!

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Monday 28 September 2009

Sewing Machines!

I love old sewing machines. My grandmother lived with us many years ago, and she had an old treadle Singer in our hall. At an early age, she had me 'sewing' sheets of paper, with no thread in the needle. I then progressed to thread and material, dolls' clothes and then a simple skirt. By the time I was a teenager, I was making my own, very simple clothes. The feed dogs on the machine were not very good, so I used to help the material through. It took me years to stop doing this on other machines.
When we got married, my husband bought me my first electric sewing machine, a Singer straight stitch. I gave this to my grandson when we moved up here, as it had been retired years ago. I have had various electric machines since then, but I still loved the old clunkers. I started collecting them and had various treadles, hand cranks and toy machines. But then we moved from a rambling house in the country, to a smaller house in town, to save me driving sixty miles a day to work. I culled the machines, but kept my favourites, including a chain stitch machine.
When we moved up here I culled again, but now I have started adding, or should I say the islanders are adding to my collection. I was given an old Singer, which sews horizontally, instead of vertically and a couple of weeks ago I saw the machine above at a jumble sale. It was filthy, unloved, but still being used. It was calling to me, so I took it home. I spent two hours cleaning it, and it still needs more done to it, but it is lovely. It has a bullet bobbin and a hand crank. I have dated it, and it is one hundred and two years old and made in the Singer Kilbowie factory in Clydebank, Scotland. As the trader said, 'If the electricity goes out, you will still be able to sew.' Sounds good to me!
tich

Thursday 24 September 2009

Retirement

I thought retirement (or early retirement) was supposed to be a leisurely affair - perhaps having a long lie, considering what I am going to do with the day over another cup of tea, reading a book whenever I want! Life has been MANIC here of late, and I am beginning to wilt at the edges.

It started with our fireplace This is what it looked like peviously, when we had just laid the laminate floor -
I hated it! It was cracked, chipped and I never could get the hearth to look clean. We eventully decided that it really was awful, so now my fire looks like this - It was taken out a couple of weeks ago, all the furniture, pictures etc. are spread round the rest of the house. I can't find anything! We bought a multi-fuel stove about a month ago, so it is waiting to be fitted, once all the cement has dried. On top of that, my husband went away for two days, during the worst weather we have had for ages. It was really difficult to feed the ducks and hens in torrential rain during a gale. We have had two AGMs on the one day,for associations of which we are members, and a 'do' for the doctor who is leaving the island. All in all a stressful and/or busy time. Never mind! We got more hens and ducks yesterday and also some turkeys, I am going swimming tonight and I am going to sit down later and 'chill out' with a glass of wine. Sorry for the moan. Tomorrow will be better.