WOYWW - Getting better

Good morning Whats on your workbench Wednesday.  Following last weeks chaos I felt I had no choice but to come up with a new system.  It is unfortunately still work in progress because one chest of drawers has yet to arrive and rather a lot of things are still waiting to be sorted through.

I decided the first thing to do was rearrange the bedroom.  This meant moving 3 chest of drawers, one bookcase and one double bed and of course 3 sewing machines and their table.

When I finished, I looked at OH and said 'isn't it exactly the same, but the other way round?' and the response was 'whatever keeps you happy'.

I ordered two chests of drawers (and parted with real money - quite unheard of for me). But you can't spot them because of the chaos, and because one set is still in a warehouse in Swindon. (The big arrow points to the corner of one drawer, just visible!!).

Anyway the outcome is looking very promising.  I have one side of the table for free motion embroidery, one side for glue, one side for straight sewing and one side completely burried under things still to be sorted.

Today I have to make 9 doorstops for Grug Studio, Dolgellau, so my blog hopping will be dotted throughout the week again.

WOYWW - the end is nigh

Good morning WOYWW-ers (what's on your work bench Wednesday-ers), this is the sight that greeted me this morning. Not great.

I didn't bother putting the ironing board away at 10.00 last night, because I knew that once I had despatched the children this morning I would be straight back to sewing (papercrafters: sewing involves ironing)  (If you look in the background you can see I was very good and hung up the iron).

The book on the chair is pressing a daffodil greeting card.  I was one card short to despatch to Aberystwyth for Funki Blue, so their parcel can go today.

But why on the chair? Well today I will let you look over the back of the sewing machines. (Cue psycho music)

 

  Actually, you lose the sense of depth from this angle, so you will never know whether the sewing machine is taller or the pile of stuff behind!

My daffodil greeting cards were part of Fairetail, Machynlleth, window's display for St David's Day, and yesterday my doorstops and books made it into Grug Studio, Dolgellau's window display.  I only dropped off my samples to Grug Studio in the morning, so this week I have to make like mad to replenish my stock.

So why is the end nigh? Well, I have always promised myself that when my business turns a reliable profit regularly, I'll treat myself to a decent storage system, but I think I have to take my current order rate as a sign that the business is going to become reliable.  Because I can't continue in this chaos.

It has arrived!

In the hope of making a few of you jealous.  I wish to announce that the thing us WOYWW-ers have been waiting for has arrived in deepest, darkest Wales.

I showed it to OH and he said 'I don't get it?'  -  There is no hope for some people.

Should you be holidaying in Dolgellau this year, and see someone wearing a WOYWW badge, it will probably be me!

Thanks Julia.

WOYWW - Baby blue in action

As normal my desk is covered with all the thoughts inside my head.

I checked the title of WOYWW and it definately says 'Whats on your workbench Wednesday', so this week I shall stick to showing you just my workbench.  And as normal my desk is covered with all the thoughts inside my head, while the bed (behind me), is covered with all the fabric required to transform those thoughts into items.

But I am delighted to announce that the Baby Blue Singer Sewing Machine is back in action.  I received the machine through the Freecycle system, but it needed a little tlc.

I adjusted the belt to its max position the other week, but I guessed it still wasn't tight enough (I had never looked at sewing machine belt before)  Anyway, the machine beat me to it, and began slipping before I had got around to ordering a new one.

There is a great, sewing machine parts site, it changes its name depending on what sewing machine brand you are looking for, so for the life of me I can't remember the name, but anyway, the belt arrived by return of post, I fitted it and Baby Blue is back in action.

This allows me to leave Baby Blue set up for free motion embroidery, and my Pfaff set up for normal sewing.  (Please don't let me bore you with the different settings required).

This idea is great, apart from one small problem, don't tell Baby Blue but - I just haven't bonded with it yet!  It works, it does the job fine, but it just isn't the same as my Pfaff.

Anyway, this is what the new combo, produced today.  A glasses case and a business card case, (in truth that is my ironing board, not my workbench, but you can't really expect me to move all that stuff).

Sometime soon, I might finally get around to photographing the glasses cases well enough to list them.

Woyww - An apology!

To make up for last week's refusal to apologise over sewing machines, I shall start this week with an apology about word verification.

I am sorry, but I didn't know that my word verification was turned on, I only discovered it when Annie left a note.  Hopefully I have now turned it off.  So spread the word - are you certain your word verification is turned off? help your friends by letting them know if what their's is doing and then let them choose!

Back to the slightly less important issue of my desk on display for all to see because of Whats on your workbench Wednesday.  And for the first week ever, I have tidied before your arrival.  But then I stopped.  I didn't want you to have nothing to look at.

On my desk is some squares of felt, some squares of fluff (aka as fleece), a set of pliers, some flex frames and for some reason a universal remote control still in its packaging.

You probably know why all of this is, as no doubts my cries of pain, anguish and general frustration could be heard from where ever you are sitting.

On Wednesday afternoon the fluff finally arrived, I planned to make some glasses cases with it.  I quickly made a mock up.  It didn't look great but it was good enough to photo for my St David's Day giveaway.  I noted a few changes.  Then headed off for my St David's Day market.

Since returning from the market I have been fighting to make 7 (yes that is all), just 7 little pouches.  To be fair, my problem was trying to make 7 different designs at the same time, but as each glasses case requires 3 different sewing feet (don't ask) I thought I do them as a batch.

You can't see the blood sweat and tears on them can you?

flack

flick

I worked the applique in fleece rather than cotton, as I feel it will stand the wear and tear better.  I wanted to continue the theme of the range, so used a contrasting colours for the rim and lining.  I made phone cases as well as glasses cases.  And general drove myself insane to produce this small batch of flick flack glasses cases and phone covers.  I shall think long and hard before commiting myself to make any more!

Handmade Monday - The recycling centre

This is my post for Handmade Monday, hosted by Wendy at 1st unique gifts.  But this week it is not my work you'll be looking at ...

A most exciting event occurred in our town last weekend.  The Dolgellau recycling centre opened its gates! This may not sound exciting to you, but when your nearest tip is a 40 mile round trip, it really is exciting.

I'm not sure if they are offering a loyalty card, but we will be applying.

So far we have emptied the trailer (where we store bulky rubbish), started on the studio (where we store bulky rubbish), started on the loft (where we store bulky rubbish), started on the children's room (where we store bulky rubbish).

In going through the children's room I came across their car seat blankets (I had a dedicated blanket for the car seat, so that if I couldn't find it in the house, I knew I had left it in the car - do you understand the logic?).  They both had their own blanket.

Now as you may or may not know I have a handcrank Singer Sewing machine which I resurrected from a dusty corner of my neighbours house.  Although I enjoy using it, it is too slow to be my favourite machine.

I was not allowed to use a sewing machine until needlework classes at secondary school.

I was not allowed to touch my mums sewing machine until I was 14.

I found myself shouting at my children for fiddling with tension and pressing buttons on my Pfaff machine.  So I decided that the handcrank machine would be ideal to let them loose on.

So this weekend they both converted their blankets into cushion covers.

I can't claim the design taxed my sewing skills.  I can't claim that they could have done it on their own.  But my 5 year old and 3 year old, turned the handle and watched their very own blanket metamorphose into a cushion cover before their eyes.  And they are very proud of it.

St David's Day Giveaway

Welcome to my St David's Day Giveaway. There are 3 reasons for my giveaway.

1.  St David is the patron saint of Wales (where I live), and the day is very well celebrated here.

My daughter went to school today wearing her Welsh Flag as a cloak.

My son went to Ysgol Feithrin (nursery school), where all the little girls were wearing National Costume (pop over to Lunch lady Jan's blog to see a photo of her in hers!).

And at the Dolgellau Thursday Market where I have been this morning, everyone came in wearing a cennin pedr (a daffodil).

So here is my give away:

A notebook and glasses case, which can be changed for a phone cover.

2.  The giveaway is also to acknowledge the generousity of the blogging world in passing on info to one another (every asked a question on you blog? you'll be swamped with answers), but I have also received a couple of gifts,so I wanted to give a bit back.

3.  And finally, I have recently been awarded the Liebster Blog Award, not once, twice or three times, but FIVE times.  Well, whilst I am very flattered I can't very well re-do the award again, so here is a link to my latest three awarders, I ask you to take a look at their blogs.

Sandee , this one is over the pond.
Black Willow a belly dancer no less!
and Annette over at DevonCountryDiary

So how do you enter my giveaway?  Well after you've taken a look at the three blogs above, just leave a comment below and ensure I have some means of contacting you, e.g. so long as you have a blogspot blog I can trace you, if you don't, please leave your e-mail address.   And finally, the giveaway will be closed at a random time on Sunday evening GMT, (ie.when children are in bed, and I remember to do it).

Thank you. Pob lwc.