The Lowes lady's screws worked like a charm

Just popping in to say that the screws that the Lowes lady found for me were perfect and my ribber is now re-attached to my knitting machine.

I didn't test it out yet as ribbers are known to be very temperamental and I didn't have the time to get embroiled in it.

I have the bulky machine to clean and oil next and my lace carriages then they will all be good to go for another year.

Will do my sewing machines also.

I have realised that I do most of my machine making of things in the summer when it is too hot to be outside and the house is nice and cool with the air conditioning so now is a good time to get them all ready to go.

A couple of small projects completed

Yesterday while the Nascar race was on I made another Santa head Christmas ornament.  I didn't have any filler downstairs so I finished it off this morning and put the ribbon on it.  This time I placed his face differently and made him the other way round to the first one.

The one on the right is the latest one

This afternoon I finished the wristband for my husband.  It just needed the snap putting on but it wasn't as easy as it sounds!  The safety snaps I planned to use were very difficult to use plus the posts for them were not really long enough for the thickness of the leather.  After a couple of doing and undoing them one of the sides fell out because of the short post.

So, I had some other snaps that had longer posts.  I thought maybe I could use these posts to secure the safety ones but they were not thick enough so it just has a regular Line 24 snap on it now.  I hope he remembers to take it off before he mows because he lost the last two that way when they get caught on the low branches when mowing round the trees.

So only small projects getting done right now but better than nothing at all.

A trip to our two favourite leather stores

We had to go to Springfield, about 90 miles away on Thursday to pick up supplies for the yard so took in our leather shops while we were there.

One is an independently owned store, Springfield Leather, but very well known throughout the country and the other is Tandy.  Very different stores though as the independent one carries a much bigger variety of supplies and tends to be a bit disorganised and Tandy is very organised but does not have the same ambiance.

I needed to know how to attach some safety snaps we had bought last year and the owner himself of the independent store came out to show us how to do it.  I picked up a double headed stylus, a hole punch, hand sewing leather thread, some needles and we got some leather and buckles for belts and some more leather dye.

In Tandy, we found the type of buckle JET really likes, it was the last one and they will not be getting any more. They also had some new stamps in so I picked up one of those and a discontinued one that was really discounted.

I was really happy with our purchases and we didn't spend anywhere as much as we usually do. Probably because the cost of the chemicals we had to purchase for the land put a big dent in our finances.

The wristband I am making for my husband is almost finished, I did make a mistakes punching the holes for the stitching but as I was using up a practice piece of leather and the mistake isn't too obvious, it will OK. The leather is a piece I ran through the Sizzix machine using a texture plate. It dyed up really nicely so I thought I would make use of it rather than just put it away with my practice pieces. I also lined it with pig skin leather to make is softer for him to wear. Will put in the snap later today when it warms up a bit.

The tool for making slits for the stitches slipped when I hit it with the mallet so I got a dogleg in the stitches!

Was definitely off form when making the stitch holes but it had been awhile and I was trying to do it quickly

I also got up to my sewing room in the week to do some maintenance on my knitting machines.  That was a bit of a disaster as I decided to re-attach my ribber.  Well, the little specialised nuts and bolts that keep it in place just wouldn't line up.  I tried and I tried but I couldn't get the bolt in on one side. I thought that a longer bolt might do it as the one I had just didn't seem to reaching enough to pick up the thread on the nut.

I took it with me to Lowes and the lady there was able to ascertain it's exact thread size and come up with some slightly longer ones. She took it away to size it, she must have some neat little gizmo that sizes them because it was spot on and it is an unusual size used in foreign machinery.  Yep, my knitting machines were made in Japan! Hoping to get up to them again in the next few days to try again.

We have been doing a lot of outside stuff lately and it has taken a toll on my husband so we are planning a relaxing weekend ready to start all over again on Monday.  Maybe I will get a Christmas tree ornament made or another couple of granny squares for our blanket.  Only five more to make and I will sew it all up.  It should be about 7' x 7' when it is washed as my crochet usually stretches a bit with washing.  If it needs more after that then I will make more.

So I did get some craft things done this week and hopefully some more this weekend.

The texturing worked great on the leather

I got to try out some of my new Sizzix stuff yesterday.

The texture starter kit is amazing.  It does such a great job of texturing cardstock and leather.

I tried it on some old, never to be sent out, Christmas cards first.  It transformed them from cheapie cards to  much better quality ones which could be used in a pinch.

I was keen to try it on leather.  I got a piece of scrap strapping and three keyfob blanks to try it on.

Using the platform it was too thick to go through with the leather and it was too thin without it.  So, I improvised and used three two spare embossing plates I had bought at Christmas and a cutting plate to make a platform.  Then I put my texture sandwich on that and it fed through perfectly.

I was really happy with the results.

The leather texturing is great

The snowman die I will use for cards and my felt Christmas ornaments.  It came with an embossing folder that fits exactly to the cut out.

I tried the frame BigZ die, the labels original die and the dragonfly Sizzlet die.  I can make labels from old Christmas cards that I have kept.  I keep them for years so have quite a lot and I can use them for making die cuts for the cards I plan to make.

I didn't try all the embossing folders as I know how they work and can tell how they will come out.

You can see a bit of one of the cardstock texturing top right on the above photo.  The starter kit comes with six texture plates and one solid plate and a rubber mat to make the sandwich with.  An absolute bargain at $4.

I had a fun couple of hours trying it all out. It is always good to have something to do while the Nascar race is on.

My Leap Year Day Sizzix bargain stash arrived

This is all the stash I got from the Sizzix sale.  All for the grand total of $22.60

I am on cloud number nine.