Monday, December 10, 2018

TUSAL 2018...and the Full Moon for December

Well it's time for TUSAL. To learn more about TUSAL go here to Daffycat's blog. 

 My ORT jar.....
The last full moon in 2018 is called the Cold Moon. It is also called Long Nights Moon, and the Moon before Yule.

I'm a bit late with my post on here but I did manage to get my post on Facebook on the right day :)

Take care. 

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

View from my window......

So I was sitting there sewing away and I caught a glimpse of something red out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a fox carrying a very dead squirrel in it's mouth standing on my neighbours driveway at the edge of our front lawn. It then proceeded to dig a hole  in our lawn and bury said squirrel.

What cheek!! 

It was there for quite awhile and my husband and son took a few pictures. It's not the first time we've seen her/him. I think it's living under our neighbours back shed.

The first two were taken by my son from my window.


My husband took these from the front porch. I think the fox noticed him perhaps.....





It then finished covering the hole it dug with leaves. At that point a car came along and it sauntered off.

Take care:)

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

TUSAL 2018...and the Full Moon for November

Well it's time for TUSAL. To learn more about TUSAL go here to Daffycat's blog. 

My ORT jar and my sewing buddy Deva....

The Full Moon in November is named after beavers who build their winter dams at this time of year. It is also called Frost Moon and Mourning Moon, depending on the winter solstice.

Not much to share these days. I'm psyching myself up to reupholster a rocking chair. See that blue fabric in the background of the pic. Total bargain at Fabricland. It's a sky blue velvet upholstery that was $20 dollars a metre marked down to $7.

I'm also working on a new doll. It's for a doll club challenge. The theme is "Make a Queen" which is pretty open ended. I still haven't decided which queen I will do.

Take care :)

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

TUSAL 2018...and the Full Moon for October

Well it's time for TUSAL. To learn more about TUSAL go here to Daffycat's blog. 


My ORT jar.......

October’s Full Moon is the Hunter’s Moon and every three years it's also the Harvest Moon. It is also called Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon, and sometimes Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon.

Yes I recall my dad going deer hunting around this time of year. Way the heck up north. I'd have to go with him as my mum worked.and I wasn't old enough to stay home by myself. Then we'd end up with venison which I really dislike. My dad would can the meat in mason jars just like you'd do fruit and pickles and such. Dad would have to cook it when my mum wasn't home...she was a vegetarian. The gamey smell of fresh deer meat when it cooks. Not pleasant. IMHO anyway. He used to put a spice on it to kill the smell. I think he used cinnamon. Didn't help :(

Take care :)


Sunday, September 16, 2018

A Finish.....

This is a doll I have just finished for a mermaid challenge at the Dollstreet Dreamers club. The doll body is from a book by Patti Medaris Culea called "Creative Cloth Doll Beading". Her head is from another book by Patti called "Creative Cloth Doll Faces".

I had a hard time finding a good place to take pictures as it was a bit overcast. I probably could have gone outside but it was about 81F/27C at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Sweltering and no breeze. Opening the back door was like opening an oven. 

I haven't made a doll in awhile so the face was a challenge. I made a big oops with her mouth and covered it up with white gel pen. Then to hide that I gave her extra pink cheeks. In person it looks okay but in the pics it looks a bit extreme.
She has a very rubenesque figure so making a bra for her was a bit of a challenge. I'm quite pleased with what I came up with. Wired shell like shapes.

And here she is.......
I am so glad that she is finally finished.

Take care :)



Monday, September 10, 2018

TUSAL 2018 and the Full Moon for September.......

Well it's time for TUSAL. To learn more about TUSAL go here to Daffycat's blog. 

 My ORT jar.....

"The Full Moon closest to the September equinox is called the Harvest Moon, and it is either in September or October. The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon nearest the September equinox, which occurs around September 22. Most years, the Harvest Moon is in the month of September, but around every three years, it occurs in October."

That's interesting. I never really noticed full moons before I started doing the TUSAL stitch along. You're never too old to learn something new.

Take care:)

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

WIP - Mermaid

I've been quiet lately as I have been working on my mermaid doll for the Doll Street Club challenge. Things are moving along slowly.

It's a good thing I still have until September 15th. Doll makers will tell you that sometimes the doll you are making has very definite ideas about what it wants to look like. I know that sounds weird but it's true. I have changed her look so many times but I think I'm okay with what I have now......on the bottom bit anyway. Her very bodacious top part is giving me grief.

She is from a pattern by Patti Medaris Culea. Patti did a lot more complicated beading than I have done. I kept it simple by only doing an edging. It turned out that I was very limited in my bead selection as I wanted to use what I already had. I picked out six colours that sort of matched the fabric.

I had some issues with the 7 separate "scaled" pieces that you are supposed to wrap around the tail. Hmmm.
 
After attempting that a few times I gave up. I didn't like the look with all the closed end bits showing up on the front here and there. It was sort of unavoidable if you wanted to cover the tail with them??? I felt it looked unfinished.

I ended up unpicking each end of the 7 bits and sewing them altogether into one strip. Even then it wasn't quite long enough to cover the tail even spreading the strip out as much as possible. Annoying. I didn't have any more fabric to try something else so I decided to go with what I had.

Then I had a problem. I didn't want to use Patti's idea for covering the raw seam between the torso and the tail. She used synthetic organza chiffon. She sealed the edges using a candle. It's very pretty but I couldn't see myself doing that...OMG. A disaster waiting to happen...LOL 
 
To fill in the gap from the end of the strip to her body I decided to use what the pattern designer had already provided. The actual pattern piece for the tail had an edging but the directions told you not to use it. To cut the edge straight instead. Which I did. So I cut a scrap of the fabric using the pattern piece. Then I used "Wonder-Under Pellon transfer web to attach it to her torso. It was pretty old stuff but it still worked.


Still needs something though....sigh. Tried a jeweled belt sort of thing but not quite right.

Still a work in progress. 

Take care:)

Monday, August 13, 2018

WIP ...........

The doll club that I belong to is having a mermaid challenge. I decided to use a pattern from "Creative Cloth Doll Beading" by Patti Medaris Culea. The doll is called Franalizia of the North...you can see a pic here.

Obviously there will be beading involved. Nothing too complex. I've chosen a piece of batik that I bought at a quilt show some years ago. It's got shades of pink, orange, peach, purple and even a gray blue. I'm not a fan of pink but the other colours sort of make it okay. I do have a lot of beads I'd like to use up so this is a great project to do that:)

I have all the mermaid tail pieces sewn. There are a lot of fins as you can see. Now to touch up a bit with my iron, do some top stitching for wiring in the fins and start beading.

This should keep me busy for awhile....LOL 

Take care:)

Saturday, August 11, 2018

TUSAL 2018

Well it's time for TUSAL. To learn more about TUSAL go here to Daffycat's blog.
 
My ORT jar......
"The Full Moon in August is named after North America's largest fish, the lake sturgeon. Other names for this Full Moon include Grain Moon, Green Corn Moon, Fruit Moon, and Barley Moon."

This is what a Lake Sturgeon looks like. They are very weird looking and also they get very big.  
Source
See what I mean. To read more about this particular fish go here........LINK.

On another note I thought you might like to meet my Quality Control Manager:)

Take care:)

Thursday, August 2, 2018

A finish......

A few posts back I mentioned I was making a dragon. I have finally finished him.

The pattern was by a designer called Melinda Small Patterson. The pattern was so well drafted that it came together perfectly.

Originally I chickened out and decided to make the head without an open mouth...big fail. It turned out very weird looking.
I decided to go for it and after all that angst it turned out to be fairly simple to make. As long as you read and follow the directions...I will fully admit not something that I am good at. After reading them aloud several times until my son had definitely thought I was losing it...it twigged.

I decided to use some small commercial cat eyes I had in my stash. I took the existing paint off the back using nail polish remover. I then repainted them with Lumiere by Jacquard. I tried a few colours but decided that the Sunset Gold was best with my fabric.

Instead of struggling with making the eyes on the actual head I decided I would make them in another way. I glued the cat eyes (after removing the shanks) onto a scrap of my fabric and then I hand sewed the strips made from the pattern pieces supplied. I carefully cut out my eye from the backing. 

This is what I ended up with. A bit rough but once glued to the head it looked very good.

The pattern supplies templates for drawing and sewing the veins in the wings. I decided to use freezer paper instead because my fabric is dark. It seemed easier than using a fabric marker that my old eyes wouldn't be able to see:) .

I also forgot to sew the tail end bit before I turned the body...ooops. It was difficult enough turning it because of that narrow tail but I just added more difficulty by quilting the chest area.
I used a thin batting that I think is called "Warm & Natural". It's almost like a thick pellon or felt. I guess felt would work too.
My mistake with the tail was serendipitous actually. I intend to stuff the tail rather than use sand as the pattern suggests. I also want to use an armature so the open tail will work out better. See how I rationalize my mistakes....LOL If I read all the directions first I wouldn't have as many ooops moments.

I had some issues with the wings though. I think I may have overstuffed them and made them a bit too heavy. I had to unpick the buttons a few times trying to get them tighter so that I could pose them.They keep on flopping down. Next time I might make the wing in one piece and then wire them.

So here he is.



I haven't named him yet. Apparently a dragon will never tell you his name because then you have power over him...or so I've been told :)

Take care.





Sunday, July 15, 2018

Making a nest part 2..............

Here is my nest after I added the fiber and tacked down the stray ends. My husband drilled some holes in the plastic eggs so that I could sew them on rather than gluing them. Much more secure.

I Googled to see what type of bird lays beige speckled eggs and I found that sparrows do and we get them in abundance in our backyard. They seem to nest mostly in the hedge we have along one side of our garden. It's quite a substantial hedge well over 8 feet high and very thick. We once had a cardinal nest in there that was washed out by a heavy rainfall. We rescued it and put it back as both mum and dad cardinal were freaking out very loudly. Luckily they weren't bothered by our intervention. After that peace reigned.

Here's a nice image of a field sparrow's nest.
Source Unknown
So a beginning. I'm not sure what I will do next with this block.

Take care:)

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Making a nest.......

.........or attempting to anyway....LOL

So this is what I'm trying to do....
Find the directions to make this here .....link.

I was super lucky in that I had most of the suggested embroidery colours.....642, 840, 3781, 3782... with the exception of 611. I substituted  611 with 640...and then I added some green....370. I added the green because against the fabric I was using the above combination looked a bit too beige.

I followed the instructions but I wasn't all that happy with my results...sorry I forgot to take a picture. I didn't like the satin stitch in the middle. I thought my attempt looked messy.

So I decided to omit the satin stitch and started building the nest from the center outwards rather than just around the edge.

I merrily went allong and made my center bit and then built up the sides. It was too small.....RATS!!!!!!!

 Second attempt.......
Getting there but I'm still not all that in love with it. Too perfect. I thought about adding a bit of fluffy knitting wool fibre. It looks more like a nest in a way. 
Maybe if I tidy up some of those loose bits....hmmm.

I will  return. Take care:)


Thursday, July 12, 2018

TAST 2018 and TUSAL 2018

I've been keeping up with the stitches. Not hard as my sampler isn't that big. Some of these stitches I will never do again...ever...LOL  I'm right handed but I was taught to sew left handed so sometimes it's hard trying to get my head and hands sorted out. A few beads need to be added too to tart it up a bit.

The Full Moon in July is the Buck Moon, named after the new antlers that emerge from the  foreheads of male deer around this time of the year. It is also called Thunder Moon, Hay Moon, and Wort Moon.

It should be called the Weed Moon this year as it so dry the only plant life that seems to be thriving are weeds. No one is cutting their lawn as the grass is dead for now. Once it rains it will revive. As a result everyone seems to have a lot of Queen Anne's Lace, Bellflowers and Wild Chicory in their gardens. Even along the roads where there are grassy areas. I don't mind as it means the wildflowers are starting to come back now the city stopped spraying weed killer along the road verges. Some call them weeds but I guess it's really a point of view. It's been years since I saw so much Wild Chicory...usually only way up north.

 Well since it is a full moon today and therefore TUSAL time here is my ORT jar...lots of colours.


Take care:)