I like making things: January 2016

Monday, January 25, 2016

A bag full of bling, a Christmas tree ornament and the lace carriage arrived

One of the new Sizzix dies I got last week was a Christmas tree. I cut a couple out ready to make last week.

When I was shopping in Walmart I found a bag of bling for $3 in the craft section. It filled a pound size plastic tub. It was just what I needed for Christmas tree ornaments to sew on my Christmas trees.

Yesterday I sat and sewed some bling on both sides of the tree then sewed it up and put a little filling in it to plump it out.

All shapes, colours and sizes.

One side of tree

Other side

The bling is great, so many different shapes and very sparkly. I love sparkly! The pictures do not really do it justice.

I really like the Christmas tree die, it is simple to sew up.

On a different not, the lace carriage arrived last week. It does look very similar to the LC2 so I am hoping it will work on my SK700 knitting machine. Hoping to get up tomorrow to try it. Will post on that after I do.

My knitting/sewing room is a mess right now. My daughter got me on a mission to find photos of her when she was little. My old photos are all stashed in a closet in my room underneath a lot of other stuff. Hence the mess. Considering I have lived in England, Canada and now the US these photos have done a lot of travelling. Unfortunately some have not fared too well and going through them all is very time consuming.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Quite a lot to write about today. Some knitting news, some Sizzix news and a Maggie photo.

First of all I am getting a different lace carriage for my knitting machine. A lady from the Facebook knitting group was closing her business and had a couple she was willing to give away if collected or the mailing costs paid for.

Well, I answered and said I would really like to have one, not really expecting to hear anything, but she did reply. She calculated the packing, shipping and insurance costs and I paid her through Paypal. She seems to be genuine as she has a website which has been up for a while and it also confirms she is closing down her yarn and knitting machine business. A lot of trouble for a hoax and to extort a few dollars for shipping so I believe she will send it. It should be here next week sometime. I really have no idea as to it's condition, I didn't really like to ask too much as she was giving it away. I don't know if it has the weights or lace cards or if it even works. So unlike me really to get into anything like this, I am usually very vigilant. If it doesn't arrive or is a hunk of junk I will know not to jump in next time someone is giving something away. It is an LC 360/260. She says it will work on my SK700. I thought only an LC2 would work on it but she told me that they were the same, just branded differently. I guess I'll find out next week.

I finished a snowman Christmas tree ornament made from the felt I cut out on the Sizzix Big Shot machine.

Today, I was craving a good old English Sunday dinner so we had roast pork, roasties, stuffing, greens and gravy. We both enjoyed it very much. It has been a long time since I made roasties as mashed potatoes are the norm around here.

I also bought a couple of things for my Sizzix machine. A Sizzix BigZ Christmas tree die which has bonus textured impressions (whatever that means!) I thought initially it was an embossing folder but not sure now I look at it again. Also I ordered a couple of Sizzix embossing folders which have a bonus sizzlets gingerbread die with them. All on sale and I used the remainder of a gift card we received for a Christmas gift.

Now I will have four different dies to make Christmas tree ornaments. A gingerbread man, a Santa head, the snowman and a Christmas tree. That will be enough. I will also have several Christmas embossing folders for card making so plenty to keep me busy all year on that hobby.

Maggie is doing great, she will be 23 weeks old tomorrow.

The bits all over the rug are the remnants of the little treasures she brings in with her every time she goes outside (which is a lot)! She will pick up a twig after she has done her business and hi tail it for the house at full speed. Sometimes Edward can bribe her to trade for a treat but more often than not she just runs into the living room and chews it to bits. She has tons of chew toys and bones but she just loves to chew up the twigs.

Well Boris is hovering around me so I guess he wants to get on the computer and update his blog so I had better let him.

Will update on the lace carriage when it arrives.

Monday, January 4, 2016

My first gingerbread man

Well, I have made one gingerbread man. I plan to make several felt Christmas tree decorations this year to give to family. A little keepsake. We have some that my husband's Mum made that we put on the bigger tree. We only had a very small tree this year because of the puppy, Maggie. Next year she should be OK with the big one and hopefully not want to play with it.

Who couldn't forgive sweet Maggie anything?

I will keep this gingerbread man for ourselves, it was a trial run. All hand sewed. If I go into mass production I may utilise my sewing machine. I think that I could do some fancy stitching across the arms and legs as opposed to sewing on bric a brac which frayed at the edges a lot. It also does a stitch that resembles blanket stitch I can use to sew it together.

Also, I need to work on faces. I need to check out Dawn's blog who did some cute faces on some angels she made.

I was going to buy some ribbon next time we were in town but I wanted to finish it so went with some red lace from my sewing stash for the loop and the scarf.

Still working on granny squares for our blanket. Nearly have 25 made which will make a 5' x 5' blanket. I want it to be quite a bit bigger than that though. I make enough each round to increase it by a foot. I may have to change some colours on the next round as I know I do not have enough of each of the colours to make it all the same.

Have the itch to get going on my knitting machines again. At the very least I need to clean and service them.

The first of three trips this month to Columbia tomorrow for the hospital appointments for my husband. Neurologist tomorrow, heart doctor, podiatrist and primary care doctor later in the month.

Off to refill the bird feeder which I had been neglecting until now, (along with a lot of other things since Maggie arrived). The birds were certainly happy to see it go back up.

Woody Woodpecker is one of our most frequent visitors to the feeder. The smaller birds are not intimidated by him though.

Glad you stopped by

I started this blog in 2011: Ever since my Mum taught me to knit at the age of about six or seven I have made things. Back then it was doll clothes. I was also inspired by Mrs Levitt an elderly lady who had a sewing room in a conservatory type room on the back of her house. I would sit and watch her in awe as she sewed.

When I was a child living in England the school system was such that you started at 5 years, did two years in Infant School, then four years in Primary School then five to seven years in Secondary School, depending on whether you chose to stay on after fifth form to get qualifications to go to University. I can't remember much of the Infant school other than making the standard square doily thingy from fabric that had holes in it so you could embroider patterns into it. A bit like the modern day cross stitch fabric but with bigger holes and spaces to make it easy for small hands to use. I also remember with great joy getting a toy sewing machine one Christmas which sewed only chain stitch but I did make doll clothes on it and that was before I started Primary school. I do have very vivid recollections of Primary school and having sewing and knitting lessons. In Primary school I knitted gloves and made a dress from scratch hand sewing it all.

Secondary school continued on with sewing by which time I had progressed to using full sized sewing machines and was making more intricate skirts and dresses. My parents bought me a proper sewing machine when I was thirteen. I used that same machine right up until I emigrated to Canada at age forty six years.

I have always had a fascination for sewing machines and knitting machines. I bought my first knitting machine at around age twenty one from an ad in a newspaper for twelve pounds. I had absolutely no idea what one was just that I wanted one. I trundled on the bus to the address in the advert and handed over my twelve pounds having absolutely no idea what I had really bought. Fortunately it came with a manual. It was an aged Knitmaster, very basic and I loved it. I wore it out. Next was a Brother push button one which I didn't keep because it was at a time in my life when things were difficult. Later on in my life, around forty, when things were better I bought a brand new Brother punchard machine with a ribber attachment. I loved it and made many things. Life took a different turn, I moved countries twice and along the way, regrettably I sold it.

Now, through the universe's blessing I now have another machine. It is a vintage one because they stopped making them early 90's but works perfectly and I love it. So I decided to make this blog to document my knitting progress and include sewing projects.

In 2013: we embarked on a new hobby, leather-work. My husband got started with it and it drew me in. It is something we can do together. We have a workshop so have plenty of room to work. We added another workbench for me to work on in 2013. We already had one but we were tripping over each other both trying to work at it. We only make things we want to make. It is strictly a hobby. We made some things for our good neighbours who help us out a lot. I am also working on Christmas presents. So this blog now incorporates the leather-work. Knitting and sewing will always be my first love though.

Fast forward to 2023 and now age almost 75 years. I have seven sewing machines, four knitting machines, several ribber attachments and a garter carriage for one of the machines. I am blessed beyond words, but I know that I have more than enough machines to keep me going in my lifetime so I don’t think I will be adding to my collection any time soon……….unless a nice embroidery machine manifests itself very cheaply.

I am a Brit living in the USA, sometimes I spell like a Brit and sometimes like an American. Sometimes I use slang and even make grammatical errors. I blog for the pleasure of it and to record my endeavours in the event that my memory fades, as I am sure it will with more age. I will be able to look back and remind myself of the things I have made along the way. So please forgive my mistakes when reading about my life making things here in the hinterlands and I hope you get as much enjoyment from my blog as I do from reading the blogs I follow.