Delighted with my darning foot

After cursing and fiddling with the darning/free-motion foot I picked up for my sewing machine a month ago I finally had time to get it to work properly. The manual for my machine offers no insight and the package the foot came in has nothing printed on it other than the name. I assumed the best way to work this thing was without feed dogs to allow for the implied free-motion. HA HA! Silly me. I also assumed that using an inverted embroidery hoop would give me more control and allow for more even tension on the underlying fabric (wool felt in this case)I found a diagram to this effect. Again HA HA!
The stitches weren't catching and the tension was way off on the bottom. My frustration levels were rising and so was my blood pressure.... then I walked away (in an uncharacteristically grown-up fashion). I came back to my machine days later and pretended not to have any clue as to how free-motion sewing SHOULD work.
As it turns out, my machine would like the feed dogs up and engaged with nary an embroidery hoop in sight. Who knew?
Now that I do know though, I will likely need to buy thread in bulk. This free-motion stuff is fun and hypnotising and burns through thread like there is no tomorrow.

Felted Cuffs, the next generation

I had some scrap pieces of felt from making larger things and decided to make more cuffs. I love wearing big jewellery and mostly can't afford it. I have some issues with all the leather cuffs out there too. They are a bit boring. In any case, I sweated over making this felt and I don't intend to waste any. So I went out and found some glass beads and shell buttons and did my best to blind myself sewing into the dark of night to satisfy my craving for felt that sparkles. Imagine satisfaction in blinding yourself. I should be locked up!

Felted wall hangings

I am participating in an art fair this December. It's the second time I've done this fair and I really enjoyed doing it last year. Since it's in a gallery they make you go through the whole application procedure. I think it's worthwhile just to keep up practice jumping through gallery hoops. I re-wrote my bio and justified my practices on paper. Being forced to think that way about what you make is dull but usefull.
This is one of the felted wall hangings I made for the show. I used some of the new techniques I learned this summer from Jessica at her excellent felting workshop. I also went out and invested in a darning foot for my sewing machine and spent two afternoons trying to make the thing work (it came with no instructions and my sewing machine manual was no help at all). It was worth it though. That is a fun attatchment. I can burn through the thread in no time.
My mom and dad were up for a visit and Bad Babs photographed nearly the whole procedure on her camera from roving to rolling and cutting. She had to leave before it was dry so she missed the sewing machine part but it looks like she has the makings of an excellent documentary on the fabulous skills of her daughter. I expect nothing could be more rivetting than an expose on felting.

Felted Stag Head.....?

Yeah, who knew. I was asked about a year ago to make a felted stag costume for my step-father in law. I said sure. The deadline was not for a year, LOADS of time. Naturally I didn't think anything more about it until the mad halloween scramble hit our house in September. At which time I also needed costumes for two small girls. Luckily for me the girls found princess costumes at a thrift shop and were quite happy for me to do nothing other than their make-up. I was pleased enough to be a witch for the third year running. Sadly for me (though a relief to him) I didn't have time to make or find Boss Hog a costume. I was thinking of Sherlock Holmes for him but will have to save that for next year.

I did manage to drag him outside to pose in the stag hat before we sent it off. It was about three degrees outside and the only white shirt he had was thin linen. Boss Hog was a soldier and let me pose him for about 15 minutes before the camera battery died and I let him go back inside. I am a cruel and unusual task master, no?

Digging Potatoes

Here we are harvesting our first crop of potatoes. We are not farmers. We have no idea what we are doing and planted them WAY too late. I think we may have just tripled what we actually planted. Not a wildly successful harvest. But we learned a lot and got our hands dirty and promise to do better next time. Arlo wanted to pick potatoes in her pj's because they have farm animals on them and she thinks she is a farmer like grandpa K.

Grandpa K (who is a certified organic farmer) hooked us up with some seed catalogues. Apparently we're meant to plan our yard just after we clear up from the chaos of Christmas, not in spring, who knew? Not I.

Next years garden will be as many purple and pink veggies as we can cram in to our wee plot. The princess veggies rein supreme around here, obviously.

***Editors note: I crassly forgot to mention that the stunning hat I am wearing in this photo was made for me by the lovely Postmodern Hausfrau. A thousand appologies. It is knitted and, while I didn't ask, I wouldn't put it past her to have invented the pattern for it as well. Delightful as always.