Handmade Monday - camper van

Sorry, a quick snap on the phone.

This is a very very quick post, with minutes to spare for Handmade Monday now hosted over at Handmade habour.

A friend from OH's work, has resigned and is off travelling, so I couldn't resist making a special card just for her.

It would need some refining if it were to go into production, but it reminded me of you Wendy, (sorry I've not been around much lately, I do pop by and read yours and many other HM blogs, I just don't seem to find time to contribute or comment).

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.

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 - I'm stopped.

I am completely doorstopped

Hello Handmade Monday, haven't you come around fast?  This week I have been juggling working with half term - 2 children and no formal childcare.

I've agreed with Funki Blue in Aberystwyth my 'range' to complement my fabric greeting cards.  One of the products we agreed on, is doorstops.  But lets not beat about the bush, doorstops are not for posting.

So I thought if I concentrate on producing them first, then they will definitely be ready whenever I can borrow the car and go to Aberystwyth.

I have just been filling a batch, but was called back after my (very nearly) 3 year old had a major crisis - he spotted a hole in his sock! So I have a batch to fill, a batch to sew and then it all starts all over again.

Handmade Monday - ahead of schedule

Handmade Monday is hosted by Wendy over at 1stuniquegifts and surely means you post on a Monday? However, I am being highly organised this week and writing this early, because I know I will be busy tomorrow.  My college friend is coming to visit and we haven't met up since these two, were this size.

A few weeks ago I posted my early attempts at dumfing.  I thought you might like to see how my 'skill' is developing (OK the word skill is a little premature).

My first landscape, it is supposed to be Cadair Idris Mountain from Dolgellau

Bluebell woods

A field of daffodils

Twiglet has been very helpful, and I am hoping that she will spot her input my next post about dumfing. (Just putting this correction in quick  - dumfing is Twiglets word for needlefelt, 'cos of the noise her embellisher makes - me I just use a clover needle).

In the meantime I have a house to tidy, and blogging techniques to perfect, as my friend said she wants to ask me some questions about blogging.  So next week you may see my profile change to Blogging Consultant.

As a prelude to such a role change I thought I would let you into a little secret that Wendy at 1st Unique gifts told me, (at this point you realise that my friend ain't going to gain much knowledge from me, but I'm very good at getting it from everyone else).

How do you 'follow' 1st Unique Gifts if you are on blogger (or follow anyone else on Wordpress)?
On your dashboard page, scroll down below your reading list, and you will spot add, click add, and paste the relevant url.

Handmade Monday - Flumpfing

Needle felting kit

Welcome to this weeks Handmade Monday.  Rather later than planned, I thought I would show you one of my Christmas presents.

I asked OH for needlefelting bits and bobs.  I explained that I needed a base, a needle and some wool and left it up to him.

OH later explained that this was really hard, as he didn't want to buy me a kit, but couldn't find one website that sold everything. Likewise he found difficulty in find a suitable mix of wool so settled on 5 shades of brown!

I haven't had as much time with it as I would have hoped.  The needlefelting bits are small enough to fit in a basket in the house, however I feel that those vicious little needles are far too tempting with the curious children who live in my house, so the kit has to spend much time tucked away.

After my initial experiments with shades of brown, I bought an additional pack of wool and set to work.  These are my recognisable results so far.

a rather chunky tree

an owl, that really needs a crescent moon

As to this weeks title? Well I came across needlefelting through Twiglets blog (a chance google hit I think).  Twiglet calls it dumfing, but somehow with a quick malapropism it has become flumpfing to me.

Handmade Monday - Treble clef earrings

Hello Handmade Monday - I'm back!  I'm sure you didn't miss me, but I missed you xxx

Well I just about survived last week, but only managed one day of my two day National Trust Craft Fair.  A migraine caught up with me on Saturday evening.  I don't suffer from stress migraines, I suffer from relief migraines!

(Yes I made it on time to every event on time, children suitably dressed (including allowing my son to drop off his sister at the ballet party dressed as lion, just because everyone else was dressed up), attended school plays, sent my cakes to the Christmas fair, and made enough wirework jewellery for the Craflwyn National Trust Christmas Fair, set up my stall on time, looked at my stall thought 'phew' and then the migraine saw its opportunity.)

Craft fairs are funny events, there you sit with all your wares on display and yet it always takes me by suprise when someone asks me 'is it handmade?'.  So I take my pliers and some wire.  It is also quite a liberating time, as I never have enough time and tools to make something from start to finish, so I fiddle, and fiddling with wire can have some interesting results.

Matching treble clef earrings!

On Saturday I set about making a treble clef earrings.  I managed the first treble clef with surprising ease, but it took most of the day before I managed a matching one!  I attached them to their earwires this morning.  Now to upload them to my shop, to match the treble clef necklace.  And then off for a trip round everyone else at HM.

Handmade Monday - wirework bracelets

Last Wednesday I showed off the jasper stone and wirework bracelet I had made, but I didn't currently have anything else on the bracelet bar so this week I have been paying attention to that.

First I fixed up a few beads to make a glass bead braclet design I have made before.

Next I tried out similar beads with a greek key design.  The greek key, needs to be smaller and neater in my opinion, but as a first attempt I am quite happy.

Greek key wirework - I think the technique needs some perfecting!

And with a few other designs that I shall keep under wraps for now, I suddenly had a full bar for the Christmas fair that my wirework jewellery attended without me on Friday.  (I don't know how the fair went, as I have yet to collect my stall).

Do you know why I take part in Handmade Monday?  Of course I enjoy your company, but it isn't that, its that I need a little discipline in my chaotic life and having a Monday deadline helps me remember the day of the week. Give it up for Monday whoaoooooo. (Please see Cbeebies if you need help with the tune!)

Handmade Monday - Bear essentials

one job completed, one to go

Handmade Monday is a day to celebrate your weeks achievements (because there isn't a lot of achievements to celebrate in mine!).

I have not adjusted my mind to crossing the garden to the studio, since the clocks have changed.  After all, I now have to dress up warmly and take a torch.

So this week all I feel I have worth showing is my bargain purchase and my guilty find.

Mango-Pango bear is sat on a pair of curtains I bought for £3 in a charity shop.  They are too long for the window, no problem I thought still a bargain.  Of course when I got home, I realised I didn't have the right coloured thread.  It has taken me 1 month to travel the 19 miles to the nearest haberdashery to buy the thread.

Anyway, tonight I not only finished the hemming, but I also tidied my desk (look out on Wednesday for WOYWW to see if it has stayed that way).  And there, under all the usual mess I found Mango-Pango bear.  Mango-Pango was passed to me for a bit of TLC but I forgot all about him, but then, so I think have my children.

I solemnly promise that Mango-Pango will have two legs attached before I go to sleep tonight.

Handmade Monday Bucket Bag

Well what have I been up to this week?  Handmade Monday always helps me see what I have achieved each week - but in truth I'm beginning to realise I may have been on a work avoidance for the last few weeks.  You see I'm still playing with fabric when in truth I should be back at the jewellery drawing board by now!

So here is my final make with fabric.  I really wanted to make a bucket bag in minature, I think it is more of a flower pot bag!

just 20cm across and 15cm tall!

Or perhaps a cup cake shape.

My wirework jewellery along with my newly completed bags are at the RSPB Ynys-hir craft fair.  This runs for a fortnight in the Visitor Centre - you set up your table and then leave it for the staff to run. 

Way back in April or May I decided I couldn't do craft fairs and ensure childcare so I have only done a couple of events since then.  But what have I been missing out on?

Talk about a moral boost!  I couldn't set up my table as other crafters kept dismantling it to inspect things!  I eventually came away with a bag commission but on a very big high!


By Saturday morning my emotions came crashing back down to earth - I have lived in Wales since 1993, and I am mad on sport, so my Saturday morning was organised around THE GAME (rugby world cup semi-final to you disinterested others).

Fairbourne beach

However Saturday afternoon allowed me a reality check of what is really important in life, and I spent a wonderful hour at the beach with my OH, and two children, and reminded myself that it really was the 15th of October!

Handmade Monday - Christmas is a'coming...

Hello there Handmade Monday ... this the day in the week when we all admit what we've been up to.  Or at least what we have finished.

I've never been one to put the Christmas Decorations up more than a week before Christmas.  I only go Christmas shopping in December and I don't send Christmas cards more than one weekend before Christmas.  But this year, I have started thinking about Christmas gifts for craft fairs good and early.

Did you know that there could be so much effort to get a Christmas stocking just right?

I've tried fattening, thining, shortening, lengthening, I'm still not sure I'm happy but here goes:

Footnote: (pun intended), I'll get the iron out when I get to the final design!

I think I still might tinker a bit more. I'm trying to achieve a vintage look.  Any suggestions gratefully received.

Knitted sock update: progress continues on the right foot, but panic is beginning to set in, I had to continue for around 6 inches, then do something... if I can't find the instructions soon, then my deadline (that I set myself) of October 2nd, might just slip away.

Doting parent update: I am proud to announce that I removed the stabilisers from my 5 year olds bike on Sunday, and she rode off into the sunset!  Unfortunately the 2 and half year old appears to want to follow suit - he crawled at 5 months, walked at 10 months, so I guess riding a bike by 3 is in his schedule!

So pop over to 1st unique gifts and see what everyone else has been up to.

Handmade Monday sock it to you!

Handmade Monday is an opportunity to see what people have been making, noone said it had to be any good, so -I'd like a bit of a fanfare please, maybe a drum roll too. I would like to show you the LARGEST thing I have ever FINISHED in knitting...

Here it is, the left foot:

It is bad luck to put new shoes on the table, what about new socks?

And here is the right foot:

I'm a bit too busy at the mo, but I am aiming for completion by the end of the month.

I treated myself to a sock kit from Laughing Yaffle, followed the instructions, and hey presto, it worked!
Now I suppose I should tell you about my knitting:

• The kit comes with 5 needles, I lost one within a few hours, this must be why there are 5, because I was able to carry on knitting.
• I have never completed anything other than finger puppets (which I did design myself), and that would have been when I was 12.
• I can't knit without looking.
• I really dislike stopping mid row, because when I was about 7 I turned my knitting around and went back the wrong way and everyone laughed at me!
• When my Great Gran was going doo-lally she would put 2 or 3 heels in one sock. 

This to me is the best feature:

grafting the toe!

The instructions for grafting the toe were clearly gobbledy-gooch, they couldn't possibly work, but I thought I would give them a go before complaining ... and I was of course proved wrong, they were perfect.  Look, can you see a join on the middle 8 stitches? Neither can I, and I know which colours I joined.

My partners words of encouragement included:

• I hope you don't intend to sell these they will be the most expensive socks ever.
• When I dropped a stitch several rows earlier: what they've got a hole in them and you haven't even worn them yet?

Anyway, despite the level of laughter that will be coming from the likes of laughing yaffle and Rosmademe, I can proudly say that ONLY took me 2 weeks, just the right foot to go.

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!

Handmade Monday no. 20

I want to highjack my Handmade Monday blogpost for a thank you post instead. (Sorry but it is really long too)!

Caroline (who I 'met' through Handmade Monday), over at Redneedle Sewing awarded me a Versatile Blogger award!  Now Caroline awarded this on the 6th of June, but I have sunk into survival mode for the last couple of weeks and I just didn't feel my acceptance speech would be at its best.
So I waited, and waited and here we are now on the 20th June, and I think I finally am ready.

Here is how my mind processed the news:
I was really chuffed and extremely flattered.
Firstly, someone really is reading my posts!
Secondly, I always read Caroline's blog, but if she is calling me versatile does that mean she reads mine? Hey hang on a minute, my blogs aren't versatile, are they?

Now my chosen specialist subject is wirework jewellery, so I do blog about making that.

Then of course, I do like to tinker with fabric, so when Dreamstar did a tutorial on flowers I had to give it a go.

Oh and then there was the occasion I managed to bring potty training into my blog.

One of my chickens has made an appearance too.

Hmm maybe I do skate about a bit then....

So back to the point.

•  In accepting my award I must place a link back to the person who awarded it
• Share 7 random things about myself (heaven help you)
• Award 7 recently discovered bloggers and contact them to let them know.

So my 7 random things:
1. I restored a Morris Minor pickup from the chassis up.
2. I can speak Welsh, but only only ever use it to speak to my 4 year old!
3. I set up a business when I was 14 called Holidays for pets (I think it only lasted 2 summers!).
4. I hold a motorcycle licence, but haven't riden one since I was 19.
5. My favourite flower is the sweetpea.
6. I am mad on pretty much every sport - and Wimbledon starts today.
7. Wednesday sees me attending my daughters first every ballet show - wish me luck!

And the 7 bloggers I wish to award are:

• Laughing Yaffle - because she appears to be mad.
• Hettiecraft - because she makes me laugh
• Bugs and fishes - she introduced me to World Wide knit outdoors week.
• With u in mind - anyone that can take on all the work for her own wedding is versatile in my mind
• It's an Alien Life - I particularly enjoy her take on the matchbox challenge.
• Tales from a cleaning cupboard - Patti lives near to me and I know how versatile she is as a person, the blog is just as wide ranging.
• mmmcrafts - an American lady, who I came across when I was looking for a sewing pattern

Its an all female list.  The majority of these people I have met through groups like Handmade Monday where like minded people share their ideas and their makes, so why not have a look at their sites and see if they inspire you too.

Handmade Monday no. 17

So its Handmade Monday time.  I had accepted that I needed to take a week off as I had nothing to show ...

This week I was planning to complete wirework pendants for my 2nd shelf (in the new shop that I'm always harping on about).  I have concentrated on established designs as they are quicker to make than fiddling with new designs. But I felt that you wouldn't want to see work you can see over at my Polly Polkadot shop.

... and then last night changed everything.  I got the children in bed and asleep by 7pm, we had all eaten, I had washed up and the OH had even hoovered the floor.  So there was nothing for it, but a trip to the studio at the bottom of the garden.

This the only pendant design I would class as finished from last night, the rest are 'designs in progress'!

But I had an excellent session, with lots of ideas to work on.  The following are snapshots taken this morning.

Tree

 I spent ages on the first pendant, but I just couldn't get it to lie how I wanted it, so I think that might go on the noticeboard until I come up with a new way to use it.

Chain of hearts

The second piece was a chain of hearts, I don't think I have the balance right yet, but it has potential.  In addition, I have discovered that I will be able to manage short pieces of wire for earring hearts.

The squiggle

Next I moved onto a squiggle.  I was pleased with the form of this.  I'm not confident with random design, but over all this doesn't look too symmetrical or contrived!











This pendant doesn't have enough curve to the tail, but it is a starting point.

Back again to the treble clef.  I have been intending to make a treble clef for some time, but never getting around to it. I was delighted with the result and this will definitely be in my online shop, and on the infamous second shelf!

OK, so now I must move onto the 3rd shelf, something a bit different just to hedge my bets on sales!