Over-locker

A nice warm, quiet afternoon of sewing didn't turn out quite as I expected. I turned away to my cutting table and suddenly it seemed that the neighbor had started up their weed-eater right outside my window. I closed the window but the startlingly loud noise continued right behind me.

I turned and for a second I couldn't take in what I was seeing. My over-locker was sewing at top speed all by itself! Look at that long curly thread it made when I was nowhere near it.

As I reached for the switch to turn it off I smelt a slight touch of burning. Then I remembered. The same thing had happened to me many years before. A small fault developed in the foot and the machine suddenly started sewing. Very eerie! 

No more sewing for a week or two while the foot is repaired and the over-locker is serviced. I find the over-locker gives such a good finish to seams that I don't like to do any sewing without it, even though my trusty Bernina sewing machine does have an over-locking function. It's not the same without the neat trim that the over-locker does as it finishes off the edges.

Has the same spooky thing ever happened to you? Do leave a comment and tell us about your experience. 

To make commenting a little easier I have removed the CAPTCHA test i.e. you will not be asked to type in random characters and prove that you are not a robot. 

Silk Flower Doll Couture

This doll's dress may not be embroidery but it is hand stitched and quite exquisite.  Click here for the link to take a look at the video of Nigel Chia's work which I first came across on Karen Ruane's blog.

I just want to start making tiny silk flowers and creating rich fabrics of flowers. The video makes it looks so easy and so quick.

The dress reminds me of the hours I spent with my Cindy doll and this Simplicity pattern.

How my mother's little Singer Featherweight sewing machine could sew too!

Florence Caulfield & Art Nouveau Embroidery

I was intrigued when I saw a design featuring these three proteas on Mary Corbet's blog and wondered if there was a South African connection. It's quite unusual to find distinctly South African embroidery designs.

Protea motif
from the Illustrated Needlework Book
 at the Victoria and Albert Museum

A little research revealed that the designer Florence Caulfield, an embroiderer and a specialist in South African flora, went to England shortly before World War I broke out. Her embroidery book, titled The Illustrated Needlework Book, features Art Nouveau designs based on indigenous South African flowers but it seems that due to the War it was never published. Sad to think she was so near to publishing but that it didn't happen.

If you have been in Cape Town at the right time of the year you may have been lucky enough to see swaths of red disas, just like the one illustrated below, growing freely on Table Mountain. It's something I still want to go and see. Where's that bucket list?

Disa motif
from The Illustrated Needlework Book
at the Victoria and Albert Museum

The proof copy of Florence's book is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and delightfully for us embroiderers some of the designs have been made available in digital format for downloading and using. They can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum website here.

On the V&A website there is a brief description of the style of embroidery Florence used, a style that included a limited range of colours and mainly satin stitch. You can see too a wonderful photographic portrait of Florence wearing a dress that she herself embroidered.

If you do try one of Florence Caulfield's designs, I'd love to hear about it and will share it with other readers in an upcoming blog post.

Till then happy stitching!

Stellenberg Open Gardens

Stellenberg in Kenilworth, Cape Town, has an open day each spring in aid of charity. Last weekend my Sunday morning was spent wandering around the beautiful gardens.

The elegant manor house dates back to the mid 18th century somewhere between 1742 and 1768 and it is classified as an historical monument.

You enter the gardens under cool, shady trees and see first this gracious view of the U-shaped house.

The gardens are what I go to see and a quote from the leaflet containing the garden plan explains why: "The philosophy behind [the] gardening is to plant each section with a different mood in mind, but always to give a sense of peace and serenity to the person walking through it".

You enter past the white garden.

Walk along the main facade of the house and over the sweeping lawns.

Through the wild garden with crisp yellow irises 

... and bronze leafed cannas that dwarf you.

Then along the stream garden with it's stonework bridge now half hidden by a tree.

Through the garden of reflection with that hedge that is fascinatingly, perfectly smooth and vertical and the rows of sculptured shrubs that are as round as bubbles.

A tantalizing glimpse of the vine walk before you get there.

A glimpse of Table Mountain across the corner of the walled garden with its profusion of plants contained by formal little hedges.

An unexpected picturesque arch of roses in the herb garden,

...sweet smelling roses.

A shady walk to the vegetable garden.

Passing another lovely old tree.

And a rest in the all-white rose garden.

...with a glorious view of the mountain.

And finally passing the tall sweet peas, just coming into flower, before relaxing in the busy yet tranquil tea garden tucked unexpectedly out of sight around the corner.

What a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning!

Home Again and Rhodes Stitch and Roses Pincushion Pattern

Four lovely weeks with family are over and there are lots of happy memories to treasure. Birthday parties; seeing my 3 year old grandson learning to swim before my eyes; building lots of Lego boats and towers; picnics in the park - even a picnic on a balcony; and family barbeques and braais - yes, they do have real boerewors in Brisbane if you know where to look.  

The jetlag is receding and I am getting busy tidying up the overgrown garden and catching up on my rather neglected stitching. There are several things on the go as you can see here on my sewing table.

This week I finished off the pincushion that Beryl and I had been working on just before I left. The Rhodes Stitch and Roses canvas work pincushion pattern is now available in my Etsy shop Lynlubell. You can see a glimpse of it on my sewing table.

After the lovely comments and feedback that customers have left previously in my Etsy shop, I spent quite some time this week completing the notes and trying to make sure they are detailed and clear to follow.  Some of those kind comments are:

"I bought several items from this seller and found them unique easy to follow patterns and as good as they look on screen." Marion Oates.

 "Lovely design with clear instructions." Marette Walker.

"Excellent pattern. Thanks for responding so quickly. Excellent instructions." Kathleen.

Sewing aside, the day is cooling down and it's time to pay the lawn some much needed attention. It's become rather patchy over the winter and the last few weeks while I was away have been rather dry. One of my favourite things is standing out in the garden as evening approaches and watering with the hosepipe.

Have a restful weekend!

Bangkok visit

Two lovely weeks in Brisbane with family and grandchildren are over, with lots of outings and picnics in the numerous parks along the sea front just down the road.

One felt ball was finished and handed over to await Chistmas day. I still have to figure out how to upload the photos via a borrowed iPad. 

The pentagons of the second felt ball are being stitched together for my one year old grandson. Those photos too are waiting to be uploaded. 

Bangkok is hot and steamy and there's lots of swimming with our grandsons. I am in awe of the lush vegetation. Gardening must be a dream here.

Storing linen

The carpet-fitters were here recently replacing the carpet in my sewing room. As they packed up and carted off the old threadbare carpet my eye fell on this. They were only too willing to leave it behind for me.

A cardboard roll is just perfect for storing linen.

Rod got out the sturdy craft knife to cut off a length for me. That cardboard is tough!

And oops! Rod ended up with 3 stitches in his leg and no running for a week! Be careful.

I've found that it's not easy to roll up your fabric to exactly the same width all the way, so give yourself a bit of extra length when measuring where to cut. My roll is about 5cm/12cm longer than the width of my linen.

There's no knowing how long my linen may be on that roll for. To protect it from any damaging acids in the cardboard I cut a piece of washed calico and stitched it onto the roll, working outwards from the centre towards each end.

I had plans to stitch neat round circles onto the ends but finally decided to gather up the ends with a strong thread instead. Much quicker. And it does the job of keeping the calico fixed in place on the cardboard roll. Also, I hope the air circulation through the roll will help keep any pesky musty smells away.

Then, out came the linen.

You can see the nasty creases in this piece. After a while creases can be almost impossible to get out. Also, the fabric can wear and get dirty along the folds if you store it folded in the same way for a long time. If you do store your fabric folded up in a drawer, refold it regularly along different fold lines. This prevents excessive wear along the same folded edges.

Once its rolled up, I don't like using ties to keep the fabric in place because they can leave puckers where the fabric is accidentally gathered up. Surprisingly, the late Kay McLaurin used a stocking to keep her fabric neatly on a roll. I tried it and it works superbly, even if it looks a little odd. Well actually very odd indeed, but I've got used to it now. I found the stocking a great solution.

You can roll up more than one piece of linen on a roll says my friend Tricia Elvin-Jensen. Just keep a note of what's on there so you can find it when you want it.

Finally, how to store those rolls? My big linen roll stands behind the storage boxes in my sewing cupboard. (The photo below is rather misleading because my sewing cupboard does not usually look so neat and tidy! I wish it did.) Any smaller rolled up pieces of fabric fit nicely into those storage boxes with the other bits and pieces.

More ideas from Tricia and Kay are to stand rolls all together in a bin or container, or perhaps work out a way to hang the rolls up on the back of a door.

Otherwise, there's not been much progress on the new pincushion pattern I've been working on and with an unanticipated visit to family starting next week everything else is on hold for a while. So, it may be a while till my next post too. In the meantime, happy stitching!

Am I the Only One? and a new Canvas Work Pincushion

I have become rather a fan of Pinterest. You can find almost anything there and quickly too. I read somewhere the other day that it almost rivals Google now as a search engine.  Search for canvas work or needlepoint and dozens of wonderful patterns or ideas instantly pop up before you and you are spoilt for choice, but I digress.

This month has flown by and not much stitching has happened. I had to move out of my sewing room temporarily so that the worn carpet could be replaced. It was an eye-opener.

I have far too much sewing 'stuff' and some of it has to go. I have stacks of old magazines that I rarely open.  It's far easier now to search on-line for patterns or ideas, so I am slowly going through them, keeping any gems, and passing them on. I also had a peek in some of the boxes of fabric stored in the cupboard. Thankfully that didn't all have to be moved out too for the carpets to go in. Some of the smaller fabric off-cuts have now gone and there is a stack of bigger bits of fabric standing around waiting for a decision and maybe a new home.

Then there are bags of stuffing, and batting that I do dip into and use, there is cardboard, odd beads, wool and the list goes on. Am I the only one who thinks all this kind of stuff could be useful one day? I wonder. Anyway, there is only so much I can reasonably keep 'just in case'. I repeatedly tell myself that I have to be more ruthless.

Despite the upheaval in my sewing room my friend Beryl and I have been working on a pattern for a new canvas work pincushion for the Etsy shop.

Beryl made a similar one some years ago and I have always admired the unusual centre and the pretty rosebuds on it. Beryl has finalised the design, most of the notes are done, I have graphed the pattern and some of the stitches and am embroidering the final version as a sample for photographing.  It will hopefully all be done in the next week or two.

The other stitching I did do was a smocked dress for a friend's 'new' granddaughter - a granddaughter who is almost 2! I'll put up a post about the little dress once the photos are sorted out.

'Till then 'Happy Stitching'.

Scrumptious Beadwork

Serious eye candy for stitchers which I found on Karen Ruane's blog. I watched more than once, well more than twice actually, but I'll leave it there.

Christmas felt ball

I've had a felt ball with a Christmas theme on the go for a while. Well, two felt balls actually. The grandchildren are growing fast so I'd better finish them soon.

 

The idea came from an old book which I have misplaced so I am making up some of the little blocks now as I go along. The book was by Margaret Hutchings and called Modern Soft Toy Making.

I made this felt ball from the same book.

It's small and colourful and an ideal gift for a new baby or especially for a baby about to start crawling or walking. Both my grandsons loved theirs. You can see here and here how I made it and there are some tips on how to stitch it together.

I'm slowly adding to the 12 pieces I need to complete one new felt ball.

 

 Just three more to go...