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.

WOYWW - ruffled feathers

2 machines, neither in action.

Well I did appear to ruffle a few feathers last week at Whats on your workbench Wednesday, so maybe I ought to apologise this week?

NO, no apology, just a bit of education instead.

Last week I made a passing comment about my 3 sewing machines, and all you paper crafters started having palpitations. 

Only the other week Hettiecraftcz justified two glue guns because one was on special offer.

And papers, the things I could tell you lot about your scrappy piles when seen from a distance!

Pot calling the kettle black I say.

Pop back a posting and you can hear about how my baby blue Singer has risen from the grave.  Following that posting, Twiglet of Sisters Crafty Creations, sent me a darning plate from her old Singer (a machine now long since departed from this fabric ladened world).  On removing the sewing plate from mine, I discovered a section that yet to be de-fuzzed.

And if you recall from last week, my vaccum cleaners has broken down, so that is the stage the machine is at, waiting to be de-fuzzed.

The desk itself has several part finished items, some doorstops / bookends waiting to be filled, some waiting to be made, a stack of books waiting for me to attach the covers, (which are in one of the boxes under the desk).  All of which need to be finished for Dolgellau Thursday Market.

And finally, tomorrow (Thursday), there will be a small giveaway on this blog in recognition of all the generosity out there in the blogging world.

Handmade Monday - Technology

Singer 347 - complete with zig-zag stitch

Handmade Monday is normal the post where we show you what we have created with our own fair, crafty hands, but today I thought I would introduce a bit of repair to group.

I was given this sewing machine through the freecycle system ( you list things you no longer want, and someone collects it for free, or in my case, you ask for a sewing machine and someone realises they have gathering dust that belonged to their mother.).

I was told the machine was in perfect working order when it was put away.  Unfortunately whilst that may have been true, its 10 years or so in a box had slightly stiffened up the joints.  Also, the little toolbox had become seperated from it, and so it arrived with no bobbins.

Singer, I thought, no problem, I'll raid the handcrank machine.  However it turns out that a drop-in bobbin is a different size.

With the wonder of the internet I found a site that sold bobbins for this model.  They arrived in 3 days.  I loaded one up, but boy was the tension miles out! It took some time to persuade the machine it wanted to behave.

However now that I had the machine up and sewing, I felt the motor was a bit sluggish, so I assumed the belt needed replacing.  Once again I began searching the web to find out if it was possible to get a new belt.  Not only did I find somewhere to buy the belt, but I even found a blog that showed me how to adjust it.  I left a comment on the blog and by this morning the blogger had offered to e-mail me a copy of the manual, all the way from Indiana!



My machine was manufactured in 1965 I think, (obviously there is a website to type in your serial number to work out the age of the machine too).

So by the now my 2nd hand rather tired Singer Sewing Machine is like a brand new machine.

As thanks to the wonder of the internet and the generousity of fellow bloggers, I shall be arranging a small giveaway on Thursday if you wish to call by.

Foot note below




Footnote (pun intended), if you were wondering, this is the generic free motion embroidery foot above a piece of cardboard.  I haven't found anyway of dropping the feed-dogs so I have covered them up!

Handmade Monday, Goodbye and Thank you!

HANDMADE MONDAY
Time is always short in our household. I didn't post a Handmade Monday Blog last week and I only just snuck in to WOYWW as the 124th person!

I asked my OH to look after the youngest child whilst I upoaded my photos.  This was the scene that greeted me when I came downstairs!

GOODBYE
So in the interest of reducing child labour I shall be taking a blogging break over the school holidays. (Well not posting very often anyway).

However, I shall be supervising a lot of this:

Encouraging a lot of this:

And clearing up a lot of this.

I shall of course still be busy designing wirework jewellery, attending markets and craft fairs.

THANK YOU
I had a bit of a grumpy weekend the other week, and my Monday comments really lifted my spirits.  So as a thankyou I thought I would do a giveaway.

There is no catch, I'm not recruiting, just saying thank you!

On Friday (when I've made it),  I shall draw a name out of a hat. You just need to be on my followers list (and have an e-mail or blog contact on your profile).  And the 'winner' will receive a heart necklace and earring set which was how you cheered me up!

Thank you once again, and see you back at the regular spot in September!