A Celebration!

Today is (or nearly was) The Old One's Birthday.

He really is A Lot Older Than Me and, despite his idiosyncrasies, I love him to bits.

The Young One got up early and arrived in our bedroom with his normal breakfast of brioche, confiture and coffee.

His birthday present from us was The King's Speech as we thought he'd like something we can all enjoy (ulterior motive there!).

We had a relatively quiet day until a long standing friend arrived seeking refuge.  Out came the  rosé and white wines and the carefully planned birthday supper turned into mayhem!

However, in between the celebrations I found a quiet moment and started to hand quilt something which I've been wanting to do for ages.

I'm using a cotton batt which I've never quilted with before. Finding it interesting.

More soon (got to finish off that bottle of rosé).

Doodling

This is what happens to scraps of  paper in our house.

The Old One starts a list of things to do or remember.

The Young One doodle's on it when she's texting (okay, while she's waiting for a reply).

I doodle on it when I'm on the phone.

We end up with a complete mish mash of ideas and I love it.

(and then The Old One complains that he can't read his list. I can. Can you?)

Wordless Wednesday

Oh oh oh it's magic!

Or what ever the lyric is.

I think this has got to be my best word yet.

Got to sort that music out though. Too square.

I think this is an unpicking job as that's the only music fabric left after Tonya's Bah Humbug.

I'm also going to jettison the "h" from "Ah"and replace it with the same fabric as the "A".

Tonya - expect lots of spare letters.  On the other hand I may keep that h. I've grown quite fond of it.

More soon.

Getting It Straight

I've been having trouble trying to get my 1/4" seams straight with the Singer 1425. Who you? Yes me!

Very annoying it is too to find the seams vary in width from 1/4" to 1/2" to 1/8", even with a 1/4" foot. The foot was jumping all over the place and I could actually see it moving.

The other day I thought I'd have a go trying to adjust the tension to see if that had anything to do with it.

Got out trusted manual as I couldn't remember whether the lower the number, the higher the tension, or vice versa.

When I looked at the illustration I suddenly realised what the problem was.

Before

After

Talk about a DOH moment!

There is a lovely man on Ebay who sells all sorts of bits and pieces for sewing machines. Accessories and feet which are impossible to get hold of anywhere else, and for less than half the price they are over here. I mean €8, including postage, instead of the €30+ I found one for here in France.

My lovely Singer is now behaving itself and, yes, I did have to adjust the tension, but only slightly.

Continuing with the subject line, I have been trying to get things straight in the sewing room.

After the kitten invasion, there's stuff all over the place. The Old One and The Young One have been using it as a dump room which hasn't gone down to well. However, I got my own back on The Old One.

This box has been hanging around for years so I've found a brilliant use for it

and a nice little storage shelf at the top for bits and pieces. Can't believe I started quilting using those MDF templates. I don't think he's noticed yet, but it had been in the barn for a few years so what's not used is either sold on, or I find a use for it.

Amongst the massive tidying up I found this project which I had forgotten about.

Tidying up has stopped and I'm playing. I'm trying to make the letters pointy like a magican's hat and the "m" for "magic" is definitely pointed and slightly off kilter. I'll show it when I've done some more.

It's raining chats et chiens so back to the sewing room I go.

More soon.

Squiggling on a Sunday

Round 4 of the Liberated Round Robin has been published.

Yikes!  Curves!

You know me well enough by now to know that I don't "do" appliqué or anything that involves too much hassle. I have an aversion to anything too complicated.

As far as I'm concerned nice and easy fits the bill perfectly.

So I had to think hard and fast about this, to me, challenge.

Then I remembered that sometime ago Marsha at Threadbender wrote an excellent post about making squiggles.

A squiggle is a curve is it not, albeit not exactly a proper curve, but in my book that suffices.

So without further ado I give you my first squiggles.

Well, it's a start.

You can read Marsha's tutorial here. It's so easy a child could do it! Says she confidently. Anyone any idea how I'm going to do 46" long squiggles!




I'm waiting for a part for my Singer 1425. As soon as it hits the letter box I'll start squiggling. I've never felt so ashamed of myself about this particular part, but that's a story for another time


More soon.