New Toy = Busy

Well here he is!

My huge new Juki HZL-NX7 (which I have never yet remembered) Kirei (which I have remembered). Yes that’s 12 inches to the right!! I went in to look at upgrading my Bernina and I tried quite a few but there were a lot of negatives coming out with them. The two biggest were that they are now made in Thailand rather than Switzerland except the biggest of them and the much larger bobbin. Now you may think a larger bobbin is a blessing but when you mostly do free motion at high speed the larger the bobbin equals further rotation which doesn’t equal better stitch quality.

Anyway as Franklin’s have an amazing selection of machines to try I also looked at the Juki, which to be fair I have admired for some time. I started with the lovely mechanical TL220 straight stitcher, it’s the only thing Lalla Ward uses apparently, which went like a dream and I was very tempted but the Kirei really took my breath away. I now don’t have an embroidery unit any more, but in ten years I hardly used the one I had, and I still have the Bernina B380 for workshops etc. I’ve even dug out Elsa’s old Toyota which now only does straight stitch but can do the mucky and heavy stuff.

So this week I had a bit of a play and then made some stockings for the village fair.

I also finished crocheting the market bags so made some pouches for them.

I have some dog quilts on the list for the rescue next. Yes I’m enjoying it very much!

Last Saturday I met up with Janis Martin for her to show me wire wrapping. It was something I bought at auction to help a friend out with funds when his workshop and entire stock burnt to the ground. I was rather pleased with the result and now know a few tricks to the technique.

In my efforts of clearing out I have started listing some books on my Facebook proper page https://www.facebook.com/AmandaHouseArt/ I’ve kept the prices well below Amazon or Abe Books but if you want to make an offer let me know. I will be adding more and magazine groups as I dig them out.

We’ve had a new wooden fence built over the past week or so so our weekend looks like a bit of gardening. I hope you have a good one too.

So it’s September, Already

I think I must have slept the past few days as I woke this morning to September. I love the Autumn, I love the cooler weather and the longer dog walks and so do they but I wish someone would make the clock slow down a bit. Why does it always have to run on the fast setting?

I finished the cards and, as I couldn’t make up my mind, they’re on all various backgrounds and card bases.

Using up the cotton yarn with another market bag for the fair table was a bit close but at least I know I can make another one the same.

This one is to my own pattern, which I did actually write down for Tracy, as I couldn’t find anything, even on Ravelry, that looked how I wanted it to.

Maggie Grey, Fiona and I had lunch this week to catch up and to sort what I may need to get my head round for the next WoW Book or two. I have some ideas brewing.

Speaking of ideas, I have an ever growing To Do list but I keep being blocked by the mess in the studio and the overflow room. It’s hard to feel creative when you have to spend ages trying to find things and then fighting for space to work so I trashed the place.

It’s a fight to not be distracted with the things I’m finding but I have made the long arm accessible again. Which of course means more quilt tops added to the above list.

There’s an awful lot gone in the bin and recycling, a pile for eBay and selling and a load to move on but at least I’m feeling a bit lighter for it.

We have grandpup Remi staying with us so that makes the girl’s morning routine of their snuggly slumber on their blanket on the bed for half an hour is being a bit cosy. I’m grateful we treated ourselves to a huge bed when we built the bedroom as there would be no room for us!

I had an amazing few hours yesterday morning playing with Laurence Franklin himself trying out a few machines but more on that very soon! Exciting!!

Have a lovely week.

High Summer

I finished the little beetle cushion and it looks nice on the settle.  Here it is with a couple of panels Elsa and Mike bought me for my birthday, also made up into cushions. 

It’s been a little warm to be doing fabric type things in the studio, it is after all the conservatory and can become a little warm in there. I did dig out the Sizzix though and trashed the place with paper to make some cards for the C table.

These are some card toppers I’ve finished today, just trying to decide if I should mount them before they go on the card fronts, the Manila type ones again, as the hessian backing is a very similar colour.

I’m trying for variety!

In the crochet department I did made some Scrubby Soap Sacs.

You keep the soap in the little cotton bag and use it as a sort of flannel and as they’re different colours you can tell which is whose . When you think 100 years ago, and less, they didn’t have much in the way of plastics and certainly not the amount we seem to have in such a small area as a shower cubicle. If they could survive back then we can certainly do better now.

The Forget Me Not Blanket is being raffled for the GSP Rescue UK using Facebook, draw on the 12th October. Tickets are £2 each, 5 for £10 or 12 for £20. The last blanket went off to a lovely lady on the Isle of Wight and raised enough for the high vet bills of a couple of the poorly rescue dogs.

I’ve been trying to play this golf game. Beginners lessons are over and I’ve been out on the course a few times with friends. I’m learning as I think I need the extra exercise, it’s really rather sociable (we have a lovely little group of us from the village who have learnt together) and I want to be able to go out with Chris, Elsa and Mike who all play. The other day John decided to join me, he doesn’t play. We hired a buggy and Willow could come along too.

It was a lovely afternoon starting with lunch in the club house and a beer afterwards. Nice to spend time together in a lovely setting.

I hope you are managing to keep cool in the heat like Ellie if you are having it too!

500th Post!

Well it’s taken the best part of 10 years to get here but this is my 500th post! I started on the old Live blogging platform, moved to Blogger which was great for many years and now I’m here on WordPress. At least the move to WP didn’t lose all the previous posts like the move to Blogger did all that time ago!

Anyway, I’ve had a few finishes this week. A small 8 inch square mixed media piece has gone to a local exhibition supporting a Leukaemia charity.

The exhibition details are here.

I have made a few things for the village Christmas Fare including a few more baubles in the correct size, not the wrong size stated on the pattern.

Some boot cuffs of which there will be more.

And some lavender bags.

I think I might use this style to do some cards too, it’s from something I saw Gina Ferrari at Fan my Flame do and she gave me permission to play.

I had to wait a little to do them as my drive belt snapped on the Artista whilst doing a stitchout for a little badge for the Village Fete of all things. The machine engineer was very surprised it had happened, as were Bernina when he spoke to them. Not a cheap repair but I’m so glad to have it back and working nicely again.

I finished a silver beetle for the Little Entomologist which needed to live in the silver, glittery box.

This one has lift up wings.

While putting on the beads I was seriously considering whether it would be able to fly with this bead or that bead instead. I mean, really?! Funny how the mind wanders when it’s in the zone.

For a little bit of stitch that I could do without having to think about it too much, and is in keeping of course, I found a beetle tapestry by Alison Farnworth-Cole.

Some of the colours are a bit close so it’s something I had to do in good light but it’s only 8 x 9 inches. I know I could have created it myself but it came with everything, I didn’t have to think about it and it was quite therapeutic. I’m now looking at backing in a velvet I have on a roll with a bit of watered silk piping perhaps. Stuff I need to use up!

I’ve also bought another one for those don’t want to think moments.

Well it’s that time of year again when GS and I shared our birthday, his 3rd. Elsa and I found a balloon that hardly fitted in my car.

He was a big success though so it was worth walking through the town with him.

He did take refuge on top of the propeller after a while though.

Today is our wedding anniversary and next week is John’s birthday so Slimming World won’t be very happy with me for a while, oh well.

I think I will tidy the studio for a bit and see what inspiration is hiding. Have a good weekend.

Sorry, MIA

We’ve been back to Wales for a week and it was glorious! Just as the big heat hit we were in the house next to the sea with lovely breezes and somewhere for the girls to cool off on their own beach.

Lots of major zooms on the big sand beaches too.

Walks with friends and their dogs with tea and home made cake afterwards.

I took the mobile studio and even managed to unpack it but didn’t really use it so failed again! However the soul is soothed, the girls are still in recovery and I’m ready to start thinking about the C 🎄 word properly!

On the Sunday of our return we had a amazing day at McLaren for the German GP.

Lots of amazing cars to see on the tour and a chance to be in Mission Control during the race and listen in to team orders directly to Carlos and Lando too. It was all thanks to Grandson in Law who is one of their apprentices. Lovely facilities and it was great to see the passion from all the people who worked there. It was a truly amazing race as well, at one point Josh’s heart rate was 111 just sitting watching! We were very thankful to be asked.

A bit more creative stuff to come soon.