Spinning a steep curve

I have finally started to brave the wheel... Okay after watching dozens of youtube videos I had a basic idea of what I am meant to do. There is of course a big difference between meant to do an manage to do..Ash where are you!!!!

None of these videos got round to mentioning what you do when the wheel really wants to go anti-clockwise :( I am probably just being feeble in the treadling department or there is a tension issue maybe?

There were a few all too brief moments when I felt like it was going smoothly but they are so far few and far between..oh well Rome wasn't built in a day. There is a fine line between not being too hard on myself and not just mucking it all up entirely...Don't worry dears there wont be home spun home knitted socks in your Christmassy futures I promise..Least ways not this year :D Gradually those short periods of it feeling right are getting longer.

micro

just a little thing.

mini irish chain

Is a mini Irish chain a leprechaun ? I really enjoyed this little quilt. partly I think because I had always wanted to do an Irish chain quilt, and secondly because its so darn frugal. It used some of my favourite fabrics. I'd given the zig zag quilt away so these tiny scraps were all I had left of the fabric.

Even the back is pretty. The white was also scrap fabric with the backing being left over re-purposed old cotton sheet, the majority of which backed the Harlequin quilt. I liked the free flowing rather organic feel of the feathers in the border, to me they are ferns, in fact I threw in the odd seed pod element to highlight that. Also handy for filling gaps :-)

I planned ahead on this one and added hanging corners. A dowel will support the quilt and voila all it needs is a bit of string and I have a wall hanging.

Meanwhile in the sheep department, the boys now have their own harems, 8 girls each plus a half bred girl now they just need to do their job. I must say they were pretty keen, although the girls were less impressed. To the victor the spoils eh? Eeeps bought a spinning wheel on Ebay...Now all I have to do is go collect it from Gloucestershire..

colours

Pottering about as I do, reading the odd blog as I do. I came across this http://www.play-crafts.com/blog/palette-builder/ I had a bit of a play with a few of my favourite images..

This flower seemed to spring up out of nowhere  in the deep beds.

Still love these guys.

How green is the veggy garden!

Electric cowboy

No less than 3 Electricians have done work at my house, the second one criticised the first one. The second one installed a shower, sorted out a strange tripping of the switches and was last seen having done a temporary fix when the power did keep tripping off, promising to return. Large bills were paid for work done but peace of mind is worth a lot yes? You would think so...................

After a while the tripping off got more and more frequent, the returning electrician looking less and less like turning up...........

Enter Electrician number 3!

First thing he recommends is to replace the consumer unit installed by Electrician number 1...Next thing he says is...did you know you have no trip switch ! Yup turns out the temporary solution to the trip switch, tripping out, you know that major safety feature installed by ALL electricians when wiring up houses.... was to remove it altogether..There by bypassing well SAFETY. 

Electrician number 3 then went on to discover the nastiest looking fix ever, a mess of melted wire and burnt black cable. Right under the boards in the doorway to my bedroom. Call me a drama queen if you like, but waking up burnt to death wasn't how I was planning on spending my future!

The burnt cable lead to the pull cord for the new electric shower, basically the entire bathroom, pipes water etc etc could at any moment been live..Oh and for added expensive peace of mind there was a nice big coil of earth wire just tucked up under the floor boards..Not Earthed, just, yanno lying there.

And just how much cable did this mangled bodge up of wire connection save? about 6 inches, I am not even sure I can work out just how little that amount of cable costs in pounds shillings and pence, but I damn well know how much it could easily have cost in human life.

and the winner is.............

A grey wet day and I was almost ready to avoid going..hah..no chance.

So this is the after..can you remember what we looked like before?

The boys take a well earned rest.

the boys were really very well behaved given how bustling and busy it all was..They did well..1st and 2nd..best male in breed and reserve breed champion.

I was so darn nervous but they took it all in their stride and rather fancied the girls next door, who as it happens were looking for a nice boy friend...The boys may have their real reward soon..

There was the usual lovely things in the fair, and I bought a small drop spindle and some carded fleece, not much but enough to have a play.

The judge was very helpful, as were many members of the Ryeland flock society and I have to admit now that it is all over..Phewwwwwwwwwwww glad thats over..LOL..All that primping was hard work but they looked good and I'm glad to say I didn't let them down.

I even got to bring the rosettes home.

one of the lovely hangings by the Bradford spinners society.

primp!

primp primp primp wash primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp primp worried face primp primp primp primp primp primp wash primp primp primp primp primp primp.........

meh lets see how the day goes, there should be prizes for just showing up!!!!

bathing beauties

As if all the flooding and rain didnt make things wet enough........the boys home came for a hose down wash shower. Anyone who ever bathed a dog will know that a soaking wet coat that gets shaken will ensure the bather and the bathed end up equally as wet as each other.! The boys have heavy fleeces when dry, when wet they are a ton.

No pics of a drenched me thank god!

The boys did come up quite clean but still need a hell of a lot of washing carding and clipping if they are to be presentable by Sunday. I only washed 2 out of 3 and was absolutely knackered by the end of it all. Plus the weather forecast for Sunday is not good :(

They were so good at going into and out of the trailer.

But I think they were as glad to get into the warm as I was.

River bed or road?

No sewing today.

actually most of the road down to the sheep got away with only losing the top inch or so of aggregate, it has been much worse in the past.

most of the local sheep looked like they had been washed clean by the rains, the boys of course were contrary.

Apparently the price of pedigree ryelands has risen with shearling rams recently fetching an avg £550... not sure what the boys would think of that but its nice to know.

doodling

My machine was in pain! and it was all making me rather fraught so having taken a day off from the machine I returned today and we had a bit of a talk. The outcome being that sometimes we sewists just ask rather too much of our little machines. Once I had conceded to the machine that it had a valid point it let me sew!

Rather wet.

Its a bit damp here

helping paws

They swore they were helping! and as it wasn't a very nice day, curling up with some hand quilting is just the ticket for  two industrious cats....no?

"I see how this works...I will help you pull the thread"

This is going to take some thinking about.

well that wore me out, time for a cat nap I think.

In the end I think it was all just too exhausting! All those adverts I see on ebay for stuff from pet free homes.. How do they ever get any work done with out helpers?????

100 not out

So my 100th blogpost, I had all these random thoughts, a celebration of all the quilts I have sewn perhaps? a new look to the blog maybe? A little self congratulation on having reached a milestone possibly?

 And what do I end up with???
A RANT.

 That's what, a big fat, you are only as good as your last quilt style rant!

Woe is me in full sail!.

First off I thought yeah a little sewing to get me going..rightttttt so what happens?

Spot the difference!

If there is one thing I hate it is having to change needles..the second thing is WHY I have to change needles so one needle bent, maybe time for a little defluff and general tinker?

The tension was shot the thread kept breaking in short a sewing nightmare...

After yet another broken needle and a mess of threads on the back side I just gave up. In my desire to make this one tough as old boots its kicking me with its boots on :( I think it is most likely a case of the fabric is too heavy weight, the thread too nasty, remember I ran out of white? and may be a little bit of sewists fatigue :(

SO there you have it Blog post number 100 and true to form I am whining and feeling sorry for myself. You know what they say, want to give God a laugh? tell him your plans.

Oh well maybe 101 start of the next century of posts .

irish chain mini

Okay so 2 posts in one day is probably cheating but what the heck! the irish chain scrap quilt top is a baby! it measures 27" and I think it is so cute! I may even manage to hang this one on a wall if the quilting part goes okay

Would you believe I ran out of thread? I was sure I bought a new reel of white!!!!!

Meanwhile for some unknown reason the lap top is limping along on battery ..:( Im not sure if it is the cable or the mains socket so fingers crossed its fixable !

Hand quilting progress

Days may be spent at the sewing machine in my sewing bed room, but nights are the time for hand quilting! I must weigh the Starbucks quilt, because I swear it weighs a ton! it does however keep me nice and warm while I am sewing since I still haven't quite mastered quilting on a frame and this one would be too large even if I had. I am however having another go at using a thimble, with debatable success.

Its getting there!