Journal cover

My journal cover is coming along nicely.  

I have my three grandsons staying so there isn't much time for sewing.

This evening I have ironed some thin batting to the back of the work.  I would not usually pad a cover like this but I want it to be extra luscious to feel as well as to look at.


 The weather has turned quite cold and very windy so our evening visit to the beach was brief and limited to walking. The wind was howling and the water was really rough:  the boys thought it was fantastic of course.    Now they are all settled in on the couches with quilts and pillows and we are watching a DVD of the Smurfs.

Tomorrow they want to do some sewing which suits me fine.  I think the weather will be pretty cool again.

Playing with the sewing machine

 Don't you just love picking fabrics and threads and trims to start a new project?  I do.
In fact I think I could spend a lot of time planning and not much actually stitching.

My husband is out this evening and so I have my sewing machine on the kitchen bench, the 20/20 cricket is on the radio and I can see out my kitchen window: the sun is just disappearing now.  Daylight savings is great.

The second pic shows the stitching I have done this evening.  The colour is not good but never mind.  I have stitched ribbons and trims onto the fabric with the doiley attached.  Over the top I have added burgundy nylon tulle and stitched it down with matching and contrasting threads. 

I managed to break one needle: I serviced the machine last week but forgot to change the needle.  It really needed a thicker, stronger needle anyway so now it is done.

The batting and lining are downstairs so it will have to wait until tomorrow.  


It really is good to be doing something creative. 

Eastern rosellas

These beautiful eastern rosellas visited my garden today.  I am always amazed by the detail and colours on these birds.

 

making welcome

Yesterday we visited some old friends for a lovely relaxed lunch outside.

Our friends are recently retired and I had encouraged Carol to take up some embroidery.  We had spent some time discussing ribbon embroidery:  I sent her home with some ribbon, hoop. needles etc and The ABC of Ribbon Embroidery and I was pleased to hear that she had enrolled in a local class'  You can imagine how disappointed I was to learn that she had found the whole experience really discouraging.  The "ladies" in the class had been together for many years and didn't make any attempt to welcome two newbies.  I have attached a pic of what Carol had been doing in the class: her comment was that it was no where near good enough!  She felt quite intimidated by comments that were made and says she will never be good enough to do any form of embroidery. 

What is it about some people that they cannot encourage others?  

I intend to stretch and frame this piece and give it back to Carol - it is good work and she should be proud. 

Taking care:

Our sewing machines and equipment serve us well if we just give them a little attention.

I was unimpressed when my overlocker would not work properly last evening but when I tried to recall the last time I gave it a good clean and changed the needles I just could not remember.

This machine is not used often but I do want it to work when I am ready so tonight it is having a lovely clean up.  I use a pressure can of air to clean away the dust and make sure there are no threads lingering.

 Changing the needles is not a lot of fun but neither is re-threading the machine so sharp needles are a necessity.

I find the re-threading very challenging so I have treated myself to a baileys and milk in the hope that a more relaxed attitude will help.

It has been another warm day (38degrees here) and I have my eldest grandson Ben here with me.  He is content to watch some DVDs with the air conditioning going.

At present he is watching Thor on blue ray with 3d glasses on.

We only have one pair of these glasses and this is the first time they have been used.  He assures me they are really good.  The sound is amazing - I am not sure I need to see it all though.

I can hear a little rain on the roof just now and the sunset is a fiery red.  

Tomorrow should be cooler and after babysitting the twins we will go out for a meal and to the beach I think.

thinking out loud

 The weather here is quite hot at present: about 39 degrees today.  It is not the best time to try fine needlework so I am spending time messing about with needle felting which achieves several things.  First it is a chance to use up some scraps, second is the unique piece of fabric that results and finally it is really relaxing.The first pic shows the fabric which has an old piece of nylon scarf attached with some free style quilting.

 The second is the back of the created fabric.  I used a piece of felt as the background material and you can see how the needles force the applied fibres and threads through the backing.  You can also see my quilting threads on the back. I will probably line this or perhaps paint it.  I am not sure what I will be making with it yet.

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The last pic is some of my favourite hand dyed fabric and a lace doiley I coloured at the same time.  The photo makes the lace look a lot lighter - in fact it is close in colour to the pink on the fabric.  

These are the beginnings of a journal cover.

 I have finished my little purse.  The fabric consists of scraps of fabric & thread felted together on the embellishing machine.

 Tulle was then bonded with mistyfuse and it was then lined with cotton fabric.

I added some stitches and joined it together with blanket stitch and some other stitching.

It has turned out quite well: very shabby chic.

Just the right size for my phone.