I like making things: July 2020

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Facebook avators

Someone asked how I got my icon. I mistakenly called it an icon but it is an avatar. I couldn't remember how I did it. I do know at the time I had to ask how to do it and I think I had to do it on my phone.

I googled it today and found this link.

https://heavy.com/entertainment/2020/05/how-to-make-facebook-avatar/

I hope it helps and I would love to see any that anyone makes.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Icon - v - the real thing

Here is a selfie I took today.

The icon is above in the title.

Saturday, July 18, 2020

My FB icon

This is my FB icon, I like it. I only wish though that my teeth were as nice. The rest is pretty accurate except my legs are not that nice either lol. But the dress style is perfect.

Friday, July 17, 2020

8 and a bit weeks post surgery

The time since surgery has flown by. I am surprised how quickly it has. It was a horrible experience but the bad memories are fading quickly and I am now glad I had the total knee replacement surgery.

There is still numbness on the knee cap and a little around it and it still swells up some days but it is certainly better now than it was before the surgery and it will continue to improve.

I can sleep on either side now and it doesn't consume me every minute of the day any more. I still take one Aleve every morning and night and I do rub in Blue Emu cream every day. I believe the cream has been very beneficial to the process.

As for making things:- Well, the baby hoodie cardigan is progressing well, the back and two fronts are done and I am working on the sleeves.

My daughter has asked for another set of leather coasters for her Christmas present so that has inspired me to think about leather work again. Right now it is too hot to work in the workshop but I checked my leather supplies. I gave her options of what I could make.

She chose the 3rd one with the 2 rounds. I do not have enough of the smaller rounds but I managed to find a die to cut them out on sale at Tandy leather. Of course, after I ordered this and paid for it I found that another retailer we used to buy from supplies the pre-cut shapes. Oh well, I now have another leather tool lol.

I love working with tooling leather and making the patterns. She wants dragon flies and I had bought a new dragonfly stamp awhile ago so it is perfect. I already have one but the new one is more detailed. Of course, to justify the postage for the Tandy order I bought a miniature one too.

This is the last set of coasters I made her, I have improved my skills since then. At least I hope I have, it has been awhile since I did any leather work.

As I have plenty of time I will make 6 this time as now my grand daughters have boyfriends there are 6 of them when they all get together.

It is good to be back in the creative mindset.

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.

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