Yummy Material

On the way home from Penicuik, my husband made a one hundred and twenty five mile diverion in horrendous weather to take me to my favourite craft shop. Letham Crafts in Angus. The rain was torrential. It was so bad, the water was flowing off the fields, like streams, across the road. We kept on being diverted onto other roads, so it took us a long time, and, when we got there, I only had an hour before the shop closed. Letham Crafts is an Aladdin's cave for craftworkers. It is amazing! Years ago, when I started teaching hand patchwork in Angus, I asked the owner to get in some patchwork material. It was a long way to go, but I knew I would be able to get co-ordinatng materials, and that I would be able to SEE them. I like buying things off the Net, but I was really disappointed with the jelly rolls, so I wanted material I could see and touch this time. I was not disappointed. But what am I going to make with them? Any suggestions?

I decided to make something really simple with the jelly roll, as I did not like it, and did not want to spend a lot of time on it. I used just over half of it, to make twenty 10.5 inch squares (the picture shows half of the squares). They look dull and uninteresting. I thought I might cut the squares into four triangles and sew them together with a solid, but as I do not have enough in my stash, the blocks will have to go into the UFO pile, until I go off island again. Grrr!! I could have got it at Letham! Never mind. There is a patchwork shop, supposedly somewhere near Inverness. Another diversion, perhaps!!

Till next time.

tich

Transport Museum

Yesterday I said we had been off the island for a week. We went down to my daughter's and saw my granddaughters. We also went three times to see my father-in-law, who has Alzheimers.

Anytime visitors go to Glasgow, they go to see the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the Transport Museum. The Art Gallery had been closed for a couple of years, for renovation, so we wanted to see what they had done. Unfortunately there was a launching of a ship on the Clyde that day, and the museum was being used for the official council reception for the dignitaries. You can see some of them queuing to get in to the goodies! We were quite disappointed, but across the road is the Transport Museum, which is really interesting. My father-in-law was quite high up in Albion Motors, and a lot of the old cars manufactured by them are now in this museum. You can see some of the exhibits below. Yet again we were a bit unlucky. Glasgow Council are going to build a purpose-built museum of transport, so a lot of the exhibits, which we remembered, were not on display, and will not be seen again until the new museum is built. But just look at that little red mini! My husband and I did our courting in a car like that! Sigh!!

Till next time.

tich

Battle of Culloden

I have been off the island for a week, so have had no sewing done (except for a little embroidery on my granddaughter's school shirts!) I thought I had better post something, or you would think I was neglecting you - :-D

This is a small wall-hanging of the events that led up to the Battle of Culloden. I am not going to give you a history lesson on it (go here if you want to know about it), but I have always empathised with it, because the battle was fought on my birthday - 16th April, and I thought the reprisals were an outrage! It was the last battle fought on Scottish soil. I do not feel comfortable on the battlefield, just outside Inverness, and it is sad that no birdsong is heard there.

The wallhanging shows-

Top Right - The Raising of the Standard at Glenfinnan

Bottom Right - The Raising of the Clans

Bottom Left - The Battle of Culloden

Centre - Charles Edward Stuart

Top Left - The bereft Highlander left onshore, watching Charlie sail away, never to come back again. (Will ye no come back again?) Parts of the block are 3D.

I entered a block depicting the bereft Highlander into a Quilters' Newsletter Magazine competition many moons ago, and was one of the winners. My block was in part of the winners' quilt.

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

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

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.

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!

What an amazing man!!

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

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.

Women's' Institute

The Women's Institute is an organisation throughout Britain, which meets monthly. Usually there is a talk or demonstration and then tea and sandwiches/cakes. There are two competitions a month, either baking or making something, and at the end of the evening the these are judged by the speaker.

This month we had to make something from recycled material and paint a stone. I made the jester bag from my mother-in-laws velvet curtains and an old nylon shirt of mine. The draw-string ribbon was from an old Christmas wreath. The beads and the bells were from there too. On the stone from our bay, I painted the view from my kitchen window, but I exaggerated the hills, as there is only one hill in Sanday. I got a first for my bag and a second for the stone.

The weather is changing now, with some good days, but cooler nights. I have lots of pictures of the girls out playing, during the summer, so I will be looking back, during the winter, thinking of warmer days.

Swallows

We have had a pair of swallows nesting in our field shelter for the ponies all summer. This picture shows the offspring waiting for Mum or Dad to come back to feed them. They were not at all shy. Aren't they cute?

Animal Quilts

I am still trying to catch up on myself after the summer, but I want to keep up with my blog. I made these earlier in the year for my granddaughters. I thought I would try to make the quilts a wee bit educational, so I tried to think of using materials, which would incorporate some kind of learning. Both quilts use preprinted squares of animals, with one having the names of the animals printed underneath. As well as using them for comfort and warmth, I thought the quilts quilts could be used in the following ways -

• to learn colours
• to learn the names of different animals
• to learn how to spell animals' names
• counting up the different groups of animals
• addition and subtraction of the different groups.

The girls love them.

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