Sewing, Kangaroos and Tomatoes

I wrote this blog last week and went off to get pictures by the time I got back the computer was commandeered and I forgot all about it till now. I'll add extra comments in green.

Have been working on and off on the socks - have gotten the heel done on one, apart from one hole it looks ok. It's too hot to even think of knitting right now. No I've not gotten back to them still too hot

I started on a summer skirt yesterday, using SassySkirts. It's going together really well. It will have a yoke and 3 tiers. After sewing the first tier to the yoke I tried it on, it would do as a mini but for my legs. I asked my son what he thought, barely looking up from his xbox game he told me it looks nice. I asked if he thought it was too short, he said no without looking, then glancing up said "maybe a little short". I'll finish it later today, but it's too hot to do much. At least the skirt will be good for summer, I have a similar bought one that I wear a lot. I bought some fabric to be used as a slip under both the skirts, I was out in high winds last week and I had to walk with it tucked between my legs because it kept blowing up. I broke my overlocker (serger) a couple of weeks ago, replaceable part but haven't taken it in for repairs yet. I never got around to getting rid of my old one, it wasn't sewing properly. I got it out to see if I could at least use it for the skirt and found it was sewing perfectly. It hasn't been used for 3 years. I've even neglected to finish the skirt and haven't done a thing with the slips either

Summer is over a month away and judging by the recent weather it's going to be a scorcher. I got into the car earlier, it had been sitting in the sun so the first thing I did was to drive it to the shade in my neighbours yard. At the moment I have to drive on their yard to get out of my driveway - it's ok because they are family members. As I switched on the AC I felt a burning sensation on my earlobe and reached up to it, my silver earring was almost too hot to touch. I had put the earring on just before walking out the door and had been in the car for less than half a minute!! The weather is still warm, there is a nice breeze blowing today which has kept it nice. We've had a few storms lately, I don't mind storms but not when it's blowing a gale as well. Happily it was only a gale and not a tornado, one hit Lismore last week. I had never even thought Australia had tornadoes but apparently we get them but they only get reported when they hit populated areas.

My husband spent the weekend away with his mates, they go 3-4 times a year. One their activities is a game of golf, they have their own rules. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from the golf course, apparently it teems with kangaroos. Enjoy.

During the week I planted a couple of hanging pots with cherry tomatoes that Mum gave me. To prevent too much water loss from the pot I lined the very base with a little plastic and added water crystals. I also repotted a couple of strawberries the same way. It's working well as the water doesn't run straight out, the plastic doesn't cover the whole basket wouldn't want to drown them. The strawberries have put on new growth. I sprinkled mixed salad seeds around the tomatoes, they have sprouted and one of the tomatoes has started flowering.

Work in progress

I picked up the toe up socks. that I started knitting a few weeks back and decided to see how the colours of the 2 homedyed yarn went together. I had started the toe with the darker yarn and continued on with the lighter yarn, thought about doing strips. After the first stripe it looked shocking so I pulled it undone and started again just using the lighter yarn. For the knitting I am using two circular needles, casting on at the toe is a bit frustrating, it really needs concentration. It took many attempts to get it right but once it was right it's brilliant, there is no sewing to be done at all. The knitting has also been easier than I thought, but then again I haven't reached the heel yet nor do I expect to soon - everytime I try the sock on it seems my foot has grown some more. I did also start on the second sock before finishing the first, I am knitting from the same ball, one from each inside and outside - can you say TANGLES? I have worked out how to prevent them but it takes concentration. I am using the same ball because the second ball has the opposite colourway and if it does come to using that I want have the socks looking the same as if I designed them that way not have different colour socks.

I've been made an offer of work, it's sewing work done from home which would suit me fine, I just have to work on the discipline of sticking at it instead of getting distracted (very easy in my case). It's sewing chair covers, tableclothes plus other items for a wedding hire company. I am going out to see them later in the week, I have to see whether the pay, conditions suit me. I'm not going to work for peanuts, to ridiculous deadlines nor forced weekend work. I had enough of weekends in my last job, I only will work them under my terms in future. I never minded working weekends but when it was every weekend it got too much even though we were only supposed to work one or two a month, all I wanted was one off a month. I am thinking of trying out this new venture until after Christmas and then re-evaluate as to whether I want to end it, lessen or even add to the workload. I do need to put in an application for a course for next year, I'm thinking about childcare. If I get into the course I will make the decision whether to follow up with that too. I could do that and still be earning with the sewing at the same time. It's something to think about.

I made the rockcakes again, this time the mix seemed too wet so I added extra flour before adding the fruit, they still turned out nice though and I doubled the size of them. My husband had complained that he didn't get any of the first batch, told him that he knew where they were and he can't come out just after the last one was eaten especially when they'd been there for 2 days. One thing about the smaller ones they lasted longer, the biggers one were lucky to last the day, there was only one left this morning. I had it for breakfast.

I did a little organising today, started by sorting out clutter in my dining area, it's our main entry into the house and everything gets dumped there. I have 2 boxes full of saleable items for a fete next month. One of the things I like to do while doing any housework is to listen to my mp3 player, I usually listen to hayhouseradio. Today I thought about looking up downloadable books and listened to The Canterville Ghost from audiobooksforfree. I cleaned, knitted and even fell asleep listening to it, I could still hear it in my dreams .

After several days of late nights and early rises, it finally got to me, yesterday I was so tired during the day that I needed several naps. When I nap 10 or 15 minutes is normally enough for me but yesterday I had longer ones up, one was over an hour. Spent the day lethargic and thinking I was coming down with something. Of course I came to life during the night, watched a DVD with hubby and then got to on some sewing I needed to do. I was making sideline flags for soccer, summer comp starts tomorrow night and they were needed for then to replace the old ones I made 8 or so years ago. I got all 16 of them done and thought I'd spend a little computer time before bed - that's when I saw the time 2.2oAM. Where did the time go? My alarm went off at 7 and the kids came in to see me when they got up but I decided to stay in bed for another hour. Next time I looked at the clock it was after 11!! I suppose I really needed the sleep.

Moving my craftroom around has helped me make extra money on the flags, I didn't have to go out and buy fabric. I found some suitable white fabric I didn't know I had. As I was sewing I wondered what I had bought the fabric for, it was thick and had been used for something else, I had no idea. Until I started pressing the pieces, got a whiff of mothballs, YUCK. My Mother-in-law gave me a big bag of fabric from a deceased relative, who was mothball mad - every coathanger had at least 8 balls hanging off it. I opened the bag outside and was almost blown over by the smell. Aired the fabric for several days, washed it, aired some more before I was able to get rid of most of the smell. Sent most of the fabric to the op-shop and only kept the white. The smell of mothballs sends me back to a Christmas Day several years ago, I was sitting with my sister-in-laws at one of their houses when one of them said "Here comes Stan". We looked out the window to see no-one then he came into view between the next house and the one around the corner. We asked how she knew, she said she could smell the mothballs.

I baked Rock Cakes yesterday for the first time ever, they turned out fine but I think the recipe was a little iffy. Ingredients were fine but the instructions seemed to have bits missing and then said to put heaped teaspoonful of the mix on the baking tray. If you know anything of rock cakes they are supposed to be big, if I used teaspoons I would have had 40+ of tiny ones. I did make them bigger ending up with almost 30 - the recipe says they make 12. Next time I will make them a little larger. Which will be today because I want to use up the mixed fruit, I'll try freezing them for later.

Ironing board padding and cover, a 2am tutorial

Good luck understanding it.

slideshow of the construction of it.

I've been sewing today and still have to step over a pile of junk to get to my machine, I decided that my ironing board needed a new cover, the old one was ripped and the padding keeps moving so I decided to tackle it as well as the cover. I didn't take a pic of the old cover but decided to try to create a tute as I went along.

For more pictures check out the slideshow

I decided the board needed more padding after taking off a old woollen blanket and a piece of thin foam rubber. I looked around for something to use and found an old mattress protector in the closet, the sides were ripped I was going to toss it. Thought about how I hated the padding moving and decided to design a way so it wouldn't. What I came up with was a deep pocket that the narrow end of the board fit into and to make the rest up like it was a cover.
I used the board to cut out a basic shape leaving plenty of allowance all the way around to go over the outer edge and under the board, it also had a folded back section at the narrow end. I pinned the edges of the end part together with the board in the middle and after making sure it fit snugly and left plenty of excess at the other end I stitched both sides to form a pocket, following any curves on the board. It was then fitted on the board wrongside out, bottom up so I could trim the seams. The seam for the under section was trimmed from end to end, while the top trimming stopped short leaving an flap to be overlapped later. Then the piece was turned rightside out and put over the ironing board end, pulling tightly from other end to ensure a tight fit.

The board was turned upside down to check the fit of the rest of the fabric and trimmed if it needed it. Remove the cover and either sew an attached casing or use fitted sheet elastic. I used the elastic, it has a soft middle section so it can easily fold. I sandwiched the edge of the cover with the folded elastic and used zigzag stitch catching all three layers while I pulled the elastic to it's limit. Fitting the cover on the board again I pulled up the excess seam allowance, pinning it to the underside, it was then stitched together. I also thought the other end needed extra support and pinned elastic straps aross the corners, from close to the centre of the end to along the sides, I chose the exact point simply by watching how the cover sat and stitched them in place.

When I put the complete cover on the board I thought it felt a bit thin, so thought about adding back the old wool blanket but how? After trying and failing one way I hit on the idea of sewing the blanket to the board and found some crochet cotton and a doll needle.

I put the cover over it and it was perfect, could have stopped there and had a perfectly useable board but I wanted a fabric cover as well. I used the same method to make up the cover, using the old foam padding as a pattern, making sure to add plenty of allowance around, even included the pocketed section. I used the elastic on it too but would have rather had a drawstring on it just to give me more control over the tightness. I did have to fold out some excess to fit it right and just safety pinned it in place for the moment, I'll sew it or add a drawstring later.

My new to me machine

Mum told me that there were 2 old Singer sewing machines at the church that they were wanting to sell so she drove me to take a look at them. They were both old treadle singers, one looked pretty bad, a lot of the veneer was gone from the top, one of the carved sections on the drawers needed gluing on and the other was in a wooden cabinent. I liked the look of the second one, it looked in better condition so said I would like it. They wanted $45 for it. I wrote down both serial numbers while I was there and while waiting for Dad to bring the machine home looked up how old the machines were - the worse one was 1935 and the other was a real shock, I thought I had to have written the number down wrong so waited til the machine came home. - according to the number it was built at the end of the 1800's. I did actually write it wrong, instead of starting with a 1 it started with a 7 - even more shock because that meant it was made in 1886, I still need to find out where it was made. The machine was in very good condition, decals looked very fresh but the cabinent looked more like it was built 1930's - 1950's era. A sticker on the machine answered that for me, it said it was rebuilt by Reynold's Bros in Sydney, the sticker looks old.

The machine is going to be put in my sewing room, at the moment it's in the middle of the kitchen. The room was overcrowded with furniture, junk, craft things, clothing etc so last night I tackled it, moved one large unit out and put all the cupboards along one wall. I scribbled a little plan and worked out which order to move the cupboards in. I'd empty one, move it and then refill it before moving the next. I had gotten to the third one and was filling it with my fabric stash when my husband looked in the door, shaking his head. I have never been happy with any set-up in there and am constantly trying new ways, I do think I like the new way best of all. I left my sewing area almost as it was, moved the sewing desk up a little into one of the vacated spots.

Still have a lot of stuff piled along one wall and a pile just inside the door to finish but I decided to head to bed instead.

To change or not to change?

What's in a name? I'm wondering whether I should change the name of my blog, maybe to something more crafty. The name it is now is an online nick I use which I chose due to the meanings of my name. My first name is Cheryl which is supposed to mean Beloved and my second given name is Dianne, a derivative of Diana - Goddess.



Started knitting up some of my homespun wool today, it's going to be a scarf for my hubby, it's a strange time to knit one seeing as Summer is almost upon us but at the rate I knit it may or may not be ready in time for next winter. I do need to spin more wool for it anyway. I noticed that the second hank I made for this seems to look slightly different with more emphasis on the white over the blue, where the other looked the other way around.



I also spun the remainder of the tops I dyed at the same time as this spun yarn using food colouring. The tops have turned out much lighter and even between 2 spinning from the same batch there is a major colour difference. It comes from dripping the colours unevenly over the wool, I used blue and red Queen Food colourings and ended up with one hank that has lavender tonings with highlights of muted aqua and the other mostly in the Aqua hues with highlights of lavender. If I knit from both hanks the difference will never be noticed. These are destined to be socks. There's almost 160 metres combined, I can also combine it with the darker yarn when knitting. For now I am just content with wearing the hank like a necklace or at this moment like I'm in handcuffs - is that kinky? My wrists are getting too hot.


Today Mum and I went to our favourite quilting/ sewing machine store, I've known some of the staff there for years. Went to tech with one of them. It will be our last visit to the store before they move premises, where they are going is a bit further away and parking is bad, but they are really happy to be going. They actually started moving items over today so we took a driveby for a look and were given a tour of the new place. It has a really good feel to it. I also let the owner know I am in the market for a job, she's going to keep me in mind. When I went back to work 7 years ago, I only applied at 2 places, one of them was this place. The owner said then she would keep me in mind. I got a job at the other place and started on the Wednesday, called into the shop on the Thursday to be told that they had a job for me if I wanted it. I regretted not being able to take the job and other the past few years have wished many times that I did take it.

GORGEOUS WEATHER

Today was a gorgeous day, the kids and I decided to walk to a local reserve to have a picnic lunch. We each made our own sandwiches, I had tangy tomato chutney (must find a recipe) and the kids had salmon. We had orange cordial or water to drink and dessert was a Chocolate Mint Slice. NOTE - do not take swig of orange cordial after eating a Mint slice - EWWWW. My son and I played a game of handball which ended when I noticed the waterfall was working at the opposite end of the lake we were by. Because of the drought they've not run it for several years but recent rainfalls filled the lake, so we grabbed everything to head towards it. We couldn't see it while walking along the path but when we got around the plantings we saw it but it wasn't working! I'm thinking whether I imagined it being on when my son said the same thing. We walked to the top of the waterfall only to hear it making strange noises for a while before even those stopped. On the way out we dropped in at the native community garden on site and I bought a few plants, the prices are great most are $1.20 but one was a whole $2, it's a native lily that smells of chocolate.

FIRST TASTE OF SUMMER

Was fossicking around in our huge chest freezer AKA the coffin tonight trying to decide what meat to feed the family when I found some chopped mangoes from last summer. Decided to have a smoothie for dessert. Last week my son won a blender as a lucky door prize at their soccer presentation night, the only thing it's made so far has been Tim Tam smoothies. I added the frozen mango, rice milk and a little ice and whipped it up. I made enough for 2, the first one I drank right away but the other I put in the freezer. I just had that one too. Umm what was that? I should have shared it with my family - yeah right!! I donated my Mint slice for this. Hubby said that he noticed that mangoes are in the stores now but at $9 each, I'll have to wait til they come down in price.

I MADE THONGS (AKA FLIP FLOPS)

I found a tutorial for summer-slippers and it inspired me to make my own. They are so quick and easy to make thanks to Lady Harvatine's well written tutorial. I did make the odd adjustment though. I lengthened the straps to suit where the straps fit on my rubber thongs. Speaking of the strap I made a mistake cutting it out, didn't do it double width so cut cut another the same size and backed one with the other, which means the strap is firmer which I like.

After stitching the strap at the toe area I stitched a diagonal seam to bring the straps up my toes. It can be seen below in a couple of blurry pics, where you can also see the acrylic nails I am trying to grow out. One started lifting so I glued it down with craft glue, I like the look of them but they get in the way and it hurts when I bang one. I'm going to try to grow my real nails instead. Anyway back to the thongs, I haven't put any vinyl on the base yet, the stuff I have would be too slippery on carpet, I am going to get some textured table protector for it.