Teddies, Teddies and more Teddies

We are still working away on the teddies. There are over 200 now and still stragglers coming in. The last picture shows LA in the middle with Mary (74) and Susan (100) on the right, with a few of the teddies they knitted. Mary knitted nearly sixty and Susan completed sixty-five. Susan has lived all her life on the island, and she is proudly showing the card she received from the Queen, on her hundredth birthday. Mary has also lived all her life here and used to work for Sanday Knitters, a business exporting hand-knits all over the world. (Blogger has published the pictures in the wrong order, hence the funny order of talking about the pictures!)

The middle picture shows a pile of teddies, waiting to get packed, and the first picture is of LA and I wondering if we will ever get finished. We are now making the draw-string bags for the teddies, and have only fifty or so to do, before sending them off to the Mercy Ships. The islanders have been really great, knitting all the teddies and supplying wool. I have made a huge dent in my material stash, making the bags, and we were supplied with the stuffing. Unfortunately it has flattened somewhat, so I have had to go back and re-stuff some of the teddies. Never mind! The end is in sight!!

I'm Back!!

Grovel, grovel!! Sorry I have been away for so long, but we went on holiday to Penicuik and Leeds and back to Penicuik, and then we had our granddaughters for nearly seven weeks. We had such fun! The weeks just flew by, and not much housework was done, but we certainly covered a lot of ground!

The pictures above were in an older shopping centre in the middle of Leeds. The ceilings were absolutely amazing. (Sorry about placement. I don't seem to get the hang of this.) Leeds was very hot and uncomfortable, but we had a great time seeing my son's new house, being with the grandsons again and eating wonderful food our daughter-in-law made.

As you know I was not happy with my Bernina 440. When I went to see my daughter on the way down to Leeds, I popped into the dealer. I had already been talking to him on the phone, and he tempted me with a new Bernina 630 with the embroidery unit thrown in for free. It was such a good deal! I would like to introduce you to not Lucy Locket, but Loopy Locket - no - not because I am loopy (my hearing is really good!), but because my new little beauty loops and locks to her heart's content. She is lovely, we understand each other and she sews like a dream.

Eye Candy

Just some eye candy to keep you going, till we get back. Wish I knew how to upload pictures, so that they stayed in a straight line!

tich

Clutch Bag

I got a fleece from a friend. It was a bit rough, so I decided to felt it. I made the felt into a clutch bag and felted a 'C' on it, for one of my friend's girls. I lined it and then added some beads and sequins. It is still rough, but it was just an experiment. This post is post dated, as we are still away.

tich

Docken Leaves

I got a new camera for my Christmas. We bought it quite a bit after Christmas, so I am still getting used to it. I like taking pictures of plant life, close up. These are what we call docken leaves. As they get older they turn red. They are inspiring.

This post has been post dated, as we are away to see our family.

tich

David

This is King David from the Old Testament, and I see it every time I sit down in the lounge. I hasten to add I did not embroider it. I did a City and Guilds in Embroidery parts I and II a few years ago, and one of the ladies a year ahead of me embroidered this. I kept on looking at its progress every week. It was spectacular! I can't remember the name of the lady who embroidered it (perhaps Pat?) but she was so talented. I fell in love with it, and said if she got fed up with it, no matter when, I wanted it. As soon as the finals were over she sold it - to my husband! He bought it for me! I still love it! I have had it nearly thirty years, and I still adore it. Every day, David's expression changes. Sometimes he is sad, reflecting on his past life, other days he is smiling. He gets a new poppy every year, after the 11th November, Remembrance Day.

Hope you enjoy the picture.

tich

Froghopper

I'm really proud of this photograph. We went on a guided walk last week, and the Ranger showed us a plant with froth (cuckoo spit) on it. Inside the froth is a tiny nymph. This is what the nymph looks like on the Ranger's thumb.

Just had to show off!

tich

Sheep Shearing

I was invited this afternoon to come and see my friend shearing sheep, belonging to one of the spinners on the island. I had a great time. The sheep were gathered into two pens, one inside the barn and one outside.

Ian literally zipped through the fleeces. He made it look so easy. The younger sheep struggled a little, because they did not know what to expect, but the older sheep, who had had their fleeces taken off previously, just lay back and let it happen. It did not hurt the sheep, and they seemed relieved that the heavy fleeces were off, and that they were now able to dance about in the sunshine. The fleeces were beautiful, and some of them were extremely large. The resulting wool, spun from from these sheep, will be of extremely high quality. A very interesting afternoon. Thanks Ian!

tich

Polytunnel

   
               

I have been really busy planting, so I have not managed to do any sewing recently. We are really late this year getting the plants in the ground, but we have only managed to get the cover on the polytunnel two weeks ago, because of the weather. This is what the polytunnel looked like last year. It is a BIG polytunnel - 72ft x 18ft. We got loads of stuff out of it last year. In October, we went off the island down to see my daughter. Whilst we were away there were 75 miles an hour gales, and they totally destroyed the cover, along with lots of other things on the island. This year, we had to wait until the weather settled, before putting on a new cover. Never mind! Think of those luscious tomatoes!

tich

Eye Candy

Just some eye candy to keep you going, while we were away. Wish i knew how to upload pictures, so that they stayed on a straight line.

tich

Little Bags

I remembered that years ago I made a number of small lined bags with a flap. The lining was put in as one piece, with no topstitching on the edges. I could not remember how to do it. It is really easy to put in a lining on a bag without a flap, but I was having difficulty working out how to sew in the flap, without top-stitching the top edge. Anyway I got it. Notice the buttons are not sewn in place yet. There is a buttonhole under the the grey button. There is something about completing a project that I have problems with. Now all I have to work out is how to put a lining in, using the same method, on a bag with gussets!

tich

Jelly Rolls

I know it sounds absolutely pathetic. I have been making patchwork on and off for nearly thirty five years now, and up to two days ago, I had never actually seen a Moda jelly roll in real life. I had drooled over them on the Internet, and finally I decided I was going to get one. There were some really nice ones here, and I was fortunate enough to get one on sale, and, of course, I had to get something to go with it! The service was fantastic, and the postage was really reasonable, so I would definitely recommend a visit. Now the only question is - what am i going to make with them?

tich

Fibre Tree

I recently came across the International Fiber Collaborative website. I had already seen pictures of a garage(gas station), which had been covered in 3 foot fibre panels, but when I came across this I was amazed! The website shows how the tree was constructed, and then fibre-related leaves from all over the world were attached.

There are ten pages showing photos of all the different leaves. 

It is truly out of (and part of) this world. Really interesting!

tich

Sewing at Last!

I love surfing the web, looking for ideas for things I can try, as I like learning. I have a lot of favourite blogs, which I visit every day. I was really tickled with the above picture and tutorial at http://rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/ Rachel has some really nice ideas, and she very kindly allowed me to show you the picture above, from her tutorial, here   

 I have already cut out squares of paper in varying sizes, to use up some of my strings, but the ones I am working on are 1.5 inches. I am using up a bunch of scraps I won in a giveaway a while ago from Artgirl (see http://www.colorfulartgirl.blogspot.com/ The scraps are wonderful! Beautiful colours, and I am having fun!! The second and third pictures show some of the blocks I have got done. Only the black cotton is consistantly the same size, the rest are random cut.

Thanks Rachel and Leah for the inspiration!

tich

The Bay

I realise there have not been many 'crafty' items of late, but I am still learning how to use my machine. I thought, therefor, I would give you a little eye-candy - not of the craft type, but of nature at its best. This is the bay in front of my home. It fills and empties twice a day, and each day is different. Often I just sit in the conservatory and gaze at it, or if I am feeling energetic, I walk across it, when it is empty.

Please enjoy the pictures below!

tich

Rhubarb!!

I have been very busy the last few days. No sewing, but I was offered some rhubarb, and of course I jumped at the chance. Coarse rhubarb can be chopped up and put in the freezer. If the rhubarb is left in for a while, it breaks down, so that lots of juice comes out, when it is defrosted. This makes great rhubarb wine. Finer rhubarb makes tarts or great jam. My husband is not a great lover of rhubarb and ginger jam, so I make rhubarb and orange jam. Recipe is below. 

The weather here is glorious. Beautiful blue skies, occasional white clouds and lots of warm, sunny hours. Long may it continue.

Enjoy the recipe!

tich

Rhubarb and Orange Jam

4lb rhubarb

3 sweet oranges

5lb sugar

1 pint water

1 lemon

Cut rhubarb into small pieces. Add grated rind and juice of oranges/lemon with sugar and water. Bring to boil until jellied.

Penny Rug Completed.

At last! I have finished my penny rug. As discussed before, I bought this kit from a newsgroup, which sells unwanted sewing items. It was supposed to be hand  sewn with cotton perle, but I decided to use my Bernina 440QE. I had never used the buttonhole stitch before on a sewing machine. My machine behaved well until I went to sew the outside edges of the small pennies. It was not too happy, but I managed. Not perfect, but I got there. For anybody who is interested, I used the following info to sew the rug. (remember I always take a note of this info, in case I want to go back and do something similar). The needle was, in most cases, moved to the extreme right.

St No. Tension St Length St Width Foot No. Extra

Inner Pennies

161 4 3.10 4.00 20 Mirror Image

Outer Pennies (2 together)

161 4 3.00 3.8 20 Mirror Image

Appliques

161 4 3.10 2.9 20 Mirror Image

Border for large Circle

161 4 3.00 3.8 20 Mirror Image

Pony and Cart

My husband has been training one of the ponies to pull a cart. He started off with Periwinkle dragging a light tyre behind him. Then he moved onto a larger, heavier tyre. This picture shows the first time the pony was attached to the cart. Notice the polytunnel in the background. The cover was destroyed in the gales last October. The seeds are all planted for this year, but we are waiting for calmer weather, to get the new cover attached.

This picture shows Periwinkle walking along the road, with our other pony, Willow, wanting to join in the fun. You can see our house in the background. It was quite a misty day, when the photos were taken.

Till next time.

tich

Penny Wool Kit

I bought a penny wool kit off one of the sewing sale sites recently. The kit had all the wool, templates etc. in it, all I had to do was felt the wool, cut out the shapes and sew it together. The kit was supposed to be hand sewn, using cotton perle and buttonhole stitch. I thought it would take me forever and a day to complete, so I decided I would use my Bernina, King Tut Thread and No. 161 stitch. I tried a lot of samples, and wrote down a lot of notes (see previous blog about how I keep a record of what I make), before I was happy(ish). I never think I am very good on the machine, but I try. Above is the centre of the rug. I placed the shapes down and then stitched around using the black thread, top and bottom. I got a better result when I stitched slowly and had the needle right over to the right, with the stitch mirror imaged. The rug was then backed with another piece of cream felt and blanket stitched all the way round. The outer stitching was quite difficult, as the machine had no felt to stitch into on the outside edge.

I then had to cut out 24 small, coloured pennies and 48 larger, cream pennies (24 for backing). These proved more difficult to sew, as they were much smaller. I have now completed all the machine sewing, but the pennies do not fit round the circumference of the rug. There is a gap, probably because of the machine sewing. I have a plan, which I hope to try out in the next few days. Keep your fingers crossed!

tich 

Sewing Machines!

I just had to share this, it is so funny. Now my husband says he understands why I am so tired at night.

tich

Teddies for Tragedies

I'm back! I had a whale of a time with my family, but I was too pooped to pop when they left. My twin grandsons were really crafty, and one wanted to learn to spin and the other was on the sewing machine, so I had a great time showing them things to do. I also made teddy bear and rabbit dresses for my granddaughters, (their beasties get a new wardrobe every time they come up) so I was still making things, during their visit.

For the last few weeks I have been involved with one of the girls on the island on a Wednesday afternoon. The head teacher asked if I would help her with her Duke of Edinburgh Award. If you follow the link, you will find out what this entails. Lena wanted to help Teddies for Tragedies (again follow the link). Teddies are knitted and put in a drawstring bag. They are sent to third world countries, where the women are encouraged to get their children immunised. If they do so, they get a teddy. A similar scheme had been organised on the island a few years ago, and one of the older ladies (she is one hundred years old) had never stopped knitting. She had 65 knitted teddies ready. I was asked if I could coordinate the sewing of the faces, stuffing, sewing together the teddies and the making of the bags. I put a letter in the island newsletter, asking for more teddies, and you can see some of the results in the picture. The islanders have been great! The teddies at the back are finished, and the ones at the front have still to be stuffed and sewn. It is great fun, and Lena is such a nice girl! I used to do talks about the Mercy Ships, so the teddies are going to be sent to them for distribution, when they are completed. So not only will Lena be doing a community award, she will be helping children in Africa.

I have really missed blogging, and all the comments from my Internet friends. I promise not to be absent for so long again.

tich

I am aware that my posts have not been all that interesting of late. I had imagined loads of references to sewing and patchwork, showing completed projects and lots of eye-candy, but instead I have been fighting a virus for a number of weeks, with no energy or concentration to complete anything. But I am feeling a bit better, so I am going to show an old project, which I completed last year.

On the island we have a Craft Club once a fortnight. Sometimes we have someone showing us how to do particular crafty things like knitting, crochet, patchwork, and on other occasions

we work on our own projects. Last year one of the ladies taught
us tatting. I had real problems with the shuttle, as my finger joints

got really sore. I went on the Internet and discovered you could tat using a needle instead of a shuttle - definitely my kind of work. I found two sites -

http://frontiernet.net/~TammyRodgers/index.shtml

and

http://hhtatting.com/learn.html

sent for some needles and I was away. I love needle cases, so I made one to house my tatting needles, as they are extra long. The needle case has two pockets on the inside covers, back and front, where there is only one pussy cat, and I attached a ribbon on a snap fastener after I had taken these pictures, so that I could carry a small pair of scissors safely with me. The scissors could easily be detached from the case, when in use. I enjoyed tatting and will do more in the future.

I probably will not be blogging much for the next week or two. I have nine members of the family coming to visit, so that should keep me busy. Hope the weather improves!

Till next time!

tich

Spinning

I have not posted for a few days, as I have been fighting a particularly nasty virus. I have had it for four weeks, and it does not want to leave.

I did start a new sewing project this week (naughty, naughty!), but can't seem to concentrate, to do it well enough, so it will have to wait till I feel better.

Last year I was offered a place on a spinning workshop. The ladies organising it were going to hold workshop holidays on the island and wanted to try out their lessons on spinning newcomers. The bonus was that we got the instruction free! I will admit, I am not really keen on knitting. I will knit the occasional thing, but I much prefer a sewing needle in my hand. I went, therefor, thinking it would be a pleasant thing to learn, but that I probably would not use the skill again. How wrong can you be!! I was hooked. Spinning is so relaxing! We learned to spin on a CD spindle, and I managed to spin a reasonable length of fibre. We plied, saw a fleece and also carded some fleece. I had a great time. From there, I went to another course on Shetland lace and dyeing, and then I bought a wheel from New Zealand. It is beautiful, and I call her Tilly Tudeldum, Tilly for short.

People on the island are very kind, and when they heard I was spinning, I was given some fleeces to card and spin. I am not a good spinner, as I tend to over spin. I need to practice, but as there are so many other things I like to do as well, Tilly has been neglected of late. Soon!!

Till the next time.

tich

Giveaway

Just a very quick post to tell you about an amazing Giveaway by Ginny in Washington, for her 41st birthday. She is giving away more than $150 dollars worth of quilting related goods. Should I give you the link? It will mean I will have less of a chance to win the goodies? Oh, all right, the giveaways are on http://ginnysquilts.blogspot.com As I am new to this, I think I have linked properly, but on the other hand ...

Greetings from the wet Orkney Isles!

tich

Tea Loaf

My husband and I are typical Scots. We like sweet things to eat. My husband is particularly fond of home made cakes, so I bake a lot. One of his favourites is tea loaf. It is very easy to do, tastes good and, more so, can't go wrong. My kind of baking! You can add, change a lot of the ingredients, and it doesn't affect the loaf. I will add notes after the recipe, so keep reading! My baking cup that I use for this recipe is not quite as big as an American cup (I checked!), but I don't think it will make a difference!

Ingredients

3 cups dried fruit (* see below)

2 cups brown sugar(*)

2 cups strong tea (steep 3 tea bags in boiling water and give it a good stir till strong!)

Leave the above ingredients to steep overnight.

Next day add -

4 cups self-raising flour

2 beaten eggs.

Mix all ingredients together and divide between 2 x 2lb greased and lined (bottom only) loaf tins. I cook my loaves on the top shelf of the oven @ 150 degF for 45 mins +. I have a very hot oven and it depends how sloppy the mixture is, so you might need to cook it longer or less. The loaves come out with a crusty top, but if they are put in a tin, they become soft overnight. (We like the crusty top)

*Dried Fruit - you can have a mixture of currants, raisins, sultanas. My favourite is a mix of raisins and jumbo raisins. You can also add up to half a cup extra of sweetened cranberries, glace pineapple or glace mixed peel. If you do this, take out about 2 tablespoons of sugar, as this would make it terribly sweet.

*Sugar - Sugar can be dark brown, medium, light, white, or any combination of what you have in the house. The dark is our favourite.

If you are in a panic, you can put the first three ingredients in the microwave and cook for a few minutes, cool the mix and then proceed with the rest of the recipe. This does not produce such a tasty cake. You will notice in the picture, that there is only half a loaf left! I only had one slice! Who ate the rest??

Any questions, feel free to leave a comment with email address, or email me direct.

Hope you enjoy!

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

Bernina 2

Bernina 2

Sorry I did not post yesterday as promised. Two, very charming gentlemen from India came to the island on business. The person they came to see was off island, so we were asked to entertain them and show them round the island. It was a beautiful, calm day, so they saw the island at its best. A really enjoyable day, but I was tired by night time.

Back to the Bernina. I have had lots of tension problems with this Bernina, with the top thread showing through to the back, or vice versa with the bobbin thread. I was quite concerned, as I wanted to quilt with the straight and fancy stitches and did not want intrusive stitches showing on either side. I bought a straight stitch plate, a variety of threads, an extra bobbin case to fiddle with the tension and started the trials.

I have sewn for years, and I always keep a note of my samples, along with how I have made the articles, threads and even some personal notes on family life! I decided, that even although I had already made two lap quilts, bags, aprons, pencil rolls etc on the machine, that I would start at the beginning again. I cut out two pieces of material, seamed them together, turned them inside out and started recording the stitches on the machine. (see photo). When I am playing, I always record my samples in the same way - Stitch No., (Top)Tension, Stitch Length, St. Width, Foot No. and record threads used, problems etc. I did not deviate in any way from the default for the stitches, but some of the stitches do need the Stitch Length to be played with. That is for another day. When I have finished these stitches, I will be able to pick out with ease particular stitches for projects and any variations needed.

I also play with certain threads and stitches, make little samples and take notes for future reference. (see photo). When I finish an article, I take a photo and again make some notes. The other photo is a needle case I made for my tatting needles. These photos were put in another notebook, but will now be amalgamated into a loose-leaf notebook. I will now have a future reference for everything I have tried on the machine at hand, and hopefully this will help my sewing. Sorry about the terrible layout of the photos. Blogspot would not allow me to put the pictures within the post. It has also changed the order of the photos. I had them numbered, but had to edit the contents after I posted! Something else to learn!

Hope this shows you how I work.

tich from sunny Orkney