Not much crafting at all but a lot of other stuff!

So, these past weeks have been better, I haven't done much crafting at all but we have been busy doing other things which you can read about in my other blog if you are interested. Just click on the sentence below and it will take you there.

Doing things out in the workshop and outside

I did sit and make a gingerbread Christmas ornament one day. I don't think he looks too handsome though.  I haven't quite found the solution for the faces yet.

My husband bought me some nice new gel pens for experimenting with the leather colouring.

Also, it is my birthday next week and he has bought me a new leather swivel chair for my sewing room.  It hasn't arrived yet but I am excited to be getting it.  One of the problems I was having is that my chair up there was too low.  This one goes higher and is really strong so the hydraulics shouldn't go out on it like it did my other one.  It wouldn't raise up so I had 4 pillows on it to make myself higher and then I was wobbly on it.

Yay, Happy Birthday to me!

Experimenting with more leather colouring

After making the belt the idea of colouring some of our leatherwork became appealing.

I have made a keyring for my daughter as she has an affinity with dragonflies and coloured it.  I will be mailing it off this week for her to try out and see how the colours stand up to everyday use.

Not done anything else this week in the way of making things, I am in another bit of a craft funk!

Hopefully I will get out of it soon.

The dresses were too big but that's OK cos she'll grow into them, the finished belt and a patchwork pillow made entirely by my 8 year old grand daughter.

The visit with the family was wonderful.  The house was very large and accommodated us all perfectly.  The dresses I made for our littlest grand daughter are too big but will fit her when she is two. (Not really surprising as I made size 2 lol).  Sometimes babies wear a bigger size but she is not a big baby.  She is gorgeous and a joy.  She is so happy and would say 'hi Nanna' and wave at me and I would wave back, so adorable.

Our daughter in law loved the belt.  We had to get a buckle when we were there at the Tandy store which was about 12 miles away. 2" buckles are not plentiful but we found a really nice Al Stohlman one for it there.  I took tools to finish it off and it was a good job I took my individual hole punches as the prong on the belt was quite large and there were not any holes big enough on my rotary hole punch.  The belt is as wide as the belt loops which is what she wanted and still a little stiff even though we conditioned it over and over so I suspect that it will take a bit of time to break in.

They requested that I take a sewing machine with us as our elder grand daughter who is nearly nine wanted to do a project.  She is really getting into sewing and made an absolutely beautiful dress for herself at sewing camp.  She really is a great little dressmaker/machinist and I am sure in time she will far surpass me with her projects.

She wanted to try some patchwork quilting.  I had some pre cut squares and cut some more the same size for her.  She decided what she wanted to make, chose the squares to use, laid it out how she wanted it and sewed it all together. I just had to show her how to use the machine and tell her what she needed to do.  She did perfect 1/4" seams and they all matched when she sewed them together. She is a perfectionist and likes to do good work.  She made this little pillow for her baby sister.

Afterwards, she and I watched Grease together so a double bonus.

She has plans to make her some stuffed toys in the future for her little sister and I am sure they will be amazing too.

If I had brains I would be dangerous!

I just did a big post for this blog about a leather belt we have made this week then thought I had lost it.  I was distraught as I am battling time today as we are off for a few days tomorrow and needed to get all packed ready.

Common sense prevailed and I checked my other blog and I had posted it on there. Not knowing how to move the post here is the link.

A full week of working went into this belt

I made me some silky drawers!

Not wanting to sound profane but the shorts I made are quite silky and the line from a song out of the movie Grease keeps running through my mind when I see them.

"Take your filthy paws of my silky drawers, would you try that crap with Annette?"

(Grease was and still is a favourite movie of mine and I have watched it many, many times and know all the words to the songs.  Haven't watched it recently though).

I rummaged through my stash of inherited fabrics and found what I made the shorts from. It would not have been any fabric I would have chosen myself but hey, it was just sitting there so there was nothing to lose.

When I first cut them out two of the pieces had holes in them.  Not sure how, don't think it could have been moths because it is a polyester fabric and I don't think moths like it plus the container was airtight, anyway I had enough to cut out replacement pieces. I added a couple of patch pockets so I could carry my phone and keys in them.  I just kind of cobbled them together, unlike the sun dresses and shorts I had just made which I tried to do as professionally as possible.

There is quite a lot more of different fabrics too so I can run up some loose skirts and more shorts for the summer but not for a couple of weeks.  We are getting ready to meet up with family next weekend to spend a week with them.

Meanwhile, still working on the granny square blanket which has now been named 'the love blanket' because if and when anything happens to either of us the other will have the blanket to snuggle under and keep warm.

The sun dresses and shorts ( the baby ones anyway) are all done!

I just finished making them today, I am happy how they have turned out.

I think they will be very versatile.  The sun dresses can be worn with or without the shorts and with or without a little t shirt underneath and the shorts can be worn with just a little t shirt too.

Now I just hope they fit!

And still a lot of work in progress!

I have been working on the sundresses....a lot!  I have realised it takes me so much longer to do anything these days than it did even 10 years ago.

I have always been a plodder but I could do a lot of plodding in a day once upon a time. I could go from one plod to the next. But these days I have to rest in between and some days I am just not up for much plodding at all.

So, one sundress is all but done and the other is close behind. Then I will have the bloomers to make but I might just leave them as shorts as I have no idea how chunky our grand daughter's legs are.  I will make them as shorts and consult with my daughter in law when we see them in a couple of weeks.

I didn't document making them this time which is just as well as I made a couple of boo boos along the way but all is good now.  I wouldn't use this pattern again, the flounce has not been that easy to do.  I thought it would be a quick simple make but that hasn't been the case.

The blanket is coming along, it takes forever to do a round on it now as it is so big but it is simple going and I can do it in the evenings.

I have so many other things I want to make.  I desperately need some loose baggy shorts for round the house.  I have two pairs of shop bought ones that I have worn for about 8 years but they are falling apart.  I will use them as a guide to make some more as they are nice and loose and baggy, perfect for the very hot weather we are having right now. I wouldn't wear them out in public but for round the homestead here they are great.

So pictures later this week, hopefully, on the grandbaby's sundresses and shorts.

The blanket is all joined up!

Here is the blanket as it is at the moment.  I will be adding to it in rounds as this bed is a queen sized one and ours is king size.  I am just happy to have it all joined up, I can add to it at my leisure now as we won't need it until winter.  It has taken nine months to get it this far just working at it in the evenings.

The colours are a bit richer than this looks, I took the picture in half light with a flash and it doesn't really do the colours justice.

A lot of WIP

Since my last post I have been  working on my crochet blanket, getting it all joined up. I had to undo about 4 of the squares which had mistakes but I have it all nearly all joined up now, just one more sitting and it will be done.

I dislike this process a lot, I much prefer making the granny squares to joining them up even if it still a crochet process to do it.  I will put a chain stitch border around it then decide from there how much bigger I will have to make it.  I found some yarn that matches pretty well two of the colours so I purchased some and will just do rounds on it until desired size is reached.  I do not want to do any more squares and a border will be nice.

Also I started on the baby dresses for our newest grand baby. I reviewed the pattern, pinned on the pattern pieces and have most of it cut out.

The pattern is for a sun dress with a flounce and a pocket.  I originally bought some plain yellow seersucker just to make one dress but decided it needed a bit of a contrast. I thought I would do the flounce, pocket and shoulder straps in the said contrast fabric.

So I found some fabric out of my stash but it wasn't enough so I had to buy some more and whilst browsing for it the brainwave hit me!

Buy enough for a second dress, cut two dresses out at the same time and swap over the flounce, pockets and shoulder straps.

Now I will have a patterned dress with plain contrasts and a plain dress with patterned contrast.

Pretty clever eh?......well I think it is.

Oh, there is another story to go with this.  The $10 thread!  We were in Columbia at the hospital for an appointment and I wanted to get some orange and yellow variegated thread. I had seen some previously at a sewing shop in Columbia but didn't want to drive all across town just to get one item so I went to a closer sewing shop.  Well, I knew the minute I walked through the door that this place was much above my pay grade but thought I would browse anyway.  I found a similar thread to what I had seen at the other shop but it was like $10 plus. What the heck!!!!! I didn't want to look like a cheap skate so I bought it but I will not be going back there again, that's for sure.

As you can see Maggie was not very interested in all the goings on

The fabrics and that $10 thread!

Pattern pieces ready to pin on fabric

That doesn't sound like a lot to have done in 10 days but we have had such a busy time of it lately that I actually feel like I got a lot accomplished considering.

A mixed bag these past couple of weeks

First of all I purchased a 32 piece set of sewing feet from Amazon.  It was my Mother's day present. I have looked at these for a long time but kept putting it off as being frivolous as I probably would only use some of them occasionally.

Well I looked again on Amazon and the had a set for less than $22.  There were more expensive ones but I took a gamble on these and they were available on Prime so 2 day shipping at no extra cost.

I can say that I am very impressed with the quality of them and have had fun trying some of them out on my newer Singer sewing machine.  This machine came with the easy change thingy for the feet.

My older Singer has an easy change thingy too but it is different so I have ordered one for it that will take these feet too.  This was the princely sum of just over $2 from Amazon but it is winging it's way from China.  Free shipping too but of course, a lot longer to get here.

(The description of the feet is on the bottom of the box so I just took a copy of it so I don't have to keep turning the box upside down to see what's what).

I love my older machine, it sews so nicely so I will be happy to be able to use these feet on it.

My newer machine has a few quirks when doing plain sewing and I can't seem to sew nearly so well with it.  It tends to move the fabric left.  But when doing the fancy stitches it is great.  So happy that I have both machines set up to use and can do all I need to with them.  #3 machine is sitting in it's case awaiting a turn and I will get it out and give it a run soon.

I have done a few more repair jobs on the machine, JET seems to be getting a lot of holes and splits in his working clothes lately.  I expect we should replace them instead of keep patching them up but where is the fun in that eh?

I also made another Christmas tree ornament and have been working on my crochet blanket.

I am joining all the squares up now.

You would think this would be simple, and it is, until I find a square that isn't quite correct and doesn't match up.  So I have had to unpick a couple and re do them out of the twelve I have joined up so far and that takes more time.

Eventually it will be all sewn together.  Then I will wash it and see how much it grows before I do any more to it.  If it needs to be bigger i think I will just add a continuous border around it until it gets to the size I want.

And then there were three!

Sat yesterday and made another Santa ornament.  I call him Talladega Santa as I made him while watching the Nascar race.  He is the one on the right.

He will be going to his new home tomorrow as a thank you for the Giveaway that I won. Talking of which, here it is:-

I know what I am going to make with them, some gift bags to send off for the grand kids presents that we send from Amazon.  It will beat paying to get them wrapped every time. Their parents can keep them and pop the presents in when they get there.  I have already made Christmas bags for them and this fabric will be perfect for the birthday bags.

Thank you Babs

I have got a couple of things made these past few weeks

It has been a busy couple of weeks here at the homestead so not a lot of crafting done but I have managed a couple of small things.

I have talked about the past few weeks in my one day to the next blog in more detail but this is my making things blog so I keep it for just that.

fromonedaytothenextone.blogspot.com

Finally, I am working on the penultimate granny square to make to complete my blanket, the next part will be to join them all up and I am open to suggestions on how to do that please? I now have quite a large bag full of the squares so it will be a good sized blanket.

I also finished the three leather key rings I had experimented with using my Sizzix machine to emboss the pattern on rather than stamp a pattern on them.  It was easier to do it that way but I also enjoy doing the stamping.  I stained them then gum tragged the backs and edges and attached the rings, so they are completely done now. I conditioned the leather so they should last a long time.

I sewed one of the Christmas tree ornaments, a snowman.

I enjoy making these, I can do it watching TV.

I have also done some repair work on my husband's work pants as he had worn out the knee on one pair and wanted an extra pocket sewn onto them for his cell phone so I got a little time on my sewing machine.

I did buy some fabric to make our newest grand daughter a dress for her 1st birthday.  It is next week but no rush to make it for then as we will be seeing them early July and can hand it over then. It is plain yellow seersucker and I found some contrast fabric in my stash to use for the pocket and straps just to break the plainness.

So that's been my making things endeavors this past few weeks.

Last night I noticed I had made a mistake on the penultimate granny square so I had to unravel it a bit, I redid it and I had made another mistake.  I undid it again and have left it for tonight when I hope to have more luck!  One more after that and then it will be join up time.

I started this blog on Thursday, it's now Saturday, that's how things are around here lately.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I won a giveaway!

Just a quick post as I am off to bed as we have a long day tomorrow going to the VA hospital in Columbia.

I have never entered a giveaway before so I am so excited to have won.

It was for several fat quarters of really pretty fabric.

Will update blog in a couple of days.  Have been busy here mowing etc. and giving moral support to my husband who is working on quite a big project.  Have done a little crafting though in between.

Goodnight folks.

Not much crafting done this past couple of weeks but I did find a treasure at a local Swap Meet

My husband, up until yesterday, has been feeling much better so we have tried to get as many things done as we can in the shop and outside while he is able so not much crafting done these past couple of weeks.

I did, however, find this book and set of patterns at a Swap Meet about 20 miles away last Saturday.

The book is in excellent condition and the patterns are all there and have never been used.  The book and pattern set were released in 1963 so over 50 years old but they have a wealth of history and sewing knowledge.  I have been reading in the evenings instead of crocheting.  I paid $5 for them which was probably too much but they are well worth it in my mind.

This afternoon I did get round to cutting out 12 felt Christmas tree ornaments on my Sizzix machine. It felt good to get that done, now they are ready to sew when ever I have the time.

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.

Two posts in one day, that has to be a record for me!

I made a Santa head felt Christmas tree decoration on Sunday while we watched Nascar.

I sewed it together like I thought it should be but it didn't look quite right.  When I looked at the die packet again I could see what I did wrong.  I sewed the face part on a bit off kilter. I am not going to undo it, that one can be for us.  I have another all ready cut out so I will try again and hopefully get it right.

In the Sizzix order I did today (see previous blog) I am getting a different snowman BigZ die which will be a little simpler to make.  It doesn't have the arms and the body and head are all one piece. I am still buzzing about getting all that Sizzix stuff at such a bargain price.  I checked the prices on Amazon and I would have paid well over $100 to get the exact same things even with the Prime free shipping and Amazon prices are usually a bit cheaper than buying direct from Sizzix.  It was hard not to buy more but the whole point was it was such a lot for so little money. I can't wait for it all to arrive.

And if you do not read Boris's blog here are a couple of current photos of Maggie and Boris

Sizzix Leap Year Sale

I don't know if this is the case in the UK but here in the US Sizzix has a one day sale on for February 29th.

I am so happy, happy, happy.

I just ordered $124 worth of stuff for $22.60

Off course I had to pay shipping of $11.14 but I am getting a load of items.

2 x Sizzix BigZ dies
1 x Sizzix Original die
1 x TextureZ starter kit
1 x Sizzlets die
2 x sets of Christmas embossing folders
2 x sets of other embossing folders

Yep all the above for $22.60 plus shipping

Here is the site if anyone is interested

Sizzix One day leap Year sale

I am planning on making cards this year so the embossing folders will be great and the texture plates will be good to use on my leatherwork (I hope).

I did try embossing leather and it worked OK but it was a bit thick to go through the rollers plus the folders prevented doing it continuously (for a belt for example).

I think the texture plates might work and if they do not I will have them for the cards.

Maggie got to experience the sewing room

I had a mundane sewing job to do.  I had bought some workshop rags for my husband but they were bigger than the ones we usually buy.  They are made of cheapie terry towelling.  So I cut them in half then needed to turn down the cut edges.

Boris is used to the sewing room, he loves to come upstairs and lollygag while I am knitting or sewing.  It was Maggie's first time though.

I wasn't sure how she'd be.  The dogs and I went upstairs and I shut the two doors in there so she couldn't wander off.  She walked around what little empty floor space there is and had a good nose and sniff at everything.  She did try scraping the carpet which is in really bad shape because Boris has already done his share of scraping on it. Their claws catch the loop pile and pull on them and we get like a shag pile!!!!!

Eventually though she copied Boris and laid down and had a nap while I did my bit of sewing.

So, in my opinion, it was a success.

Maybe now I will get some more knitting and sewing machine time.

Yeah for me!

Few and far between......

My crafty accomplishments are few and far between lately.  I did get another felt Christmas decoration made, that makes four now and I did get another granny square made.

Not much for a couple of weeks but better than nothing at all.

made this one using odd felt shapes from when I did the cut outs on the Sizzix for the ornaments. Colours look washed out in this picture but in reality they are quite bright and cheery.

This morning I did do a little leatherwork.  I stamped out a key ring for my husband's neurologist who does such a great job of treating and managing his illness.  Without his help my husband would likely be bed ridden by now. He has an appointment next Tuesday to see him so will give it to him then. My husband stained it then I gumtraged the back and edges and put the eyelet in for the ring to go through.