Sunday, December 30, 2007

Boney fydies

I have photographed some of my bits and pieces, just to prove that I am actually enthusiastic about the Take it Further Challenge.

This first picture is of my embroidery threads. The first two boxes (pink and green) are my DMC threads, and the end box (actually a broken clear box) are my Anchor thread, spare threads and spare winders.

I keep all my threads in numerical order, because when I cross stitch from graphs, they give the number and numerical order is just so much easier to find.


As each card winder finishes I am putting the new threads of that colour onto a plastic winder, as I think that will last longer.

This is my trusty 6 inch embroider hoop (smirk).
(No points for guessing what this is of).

I actually have a variety of embroidery hoops from three inches all the way to a large rectangle winding frame.

Hoops are not an issue. lol.





This is my trusty ironing ham. Displayed are my faithful scissors.
I recently had these sharpened. The red ones are quality Brazillian scissors with a slightly serrated edge. They cut beautifully. My DH was using them to cut hay twine in the horse's food shed until I rescued them and offered to put them through him if I found them there again.
The silver ones are Japanese drop forged stainless steel ones. My DD says her earliest memories of me are using these same scissors to cut out fabrics. I have had them a long time.

I do own other scissors but these ones are special to me.
My Clover iron. Since I am doing applique work in this Challenge and other little things, I have
decided that my Clover iron will be perfect.

Shown on my new sleeve board. I have been wanting a proper sleeve board since forever (I had made one previously out of a cardboard cylinder that finally died after all these years). I finally shouted myself one before Christmas.


These are the handiest things, and I am looking forward to giving them a good workout.


I have a boiler steam iron as well, but as I am running late with all these gizmos, I wont be loading it up for this entry.

Yeah, hands up who wouldn't kill for one of these babies? My very own daylight. I got it at the Crafts and Stitches fair in August this year. If I talk too much about that day I will get so cranky, but that is because of the Equine Influenza.

This light cost me $75 where normally they are about $129. They are bringing out one with a rechargeable battery some time this year. I want one.

I could not believe the difference this light has brought to my work, especially my cross stitching.

Provenance:

This is a crazy quilt cushion cover made by my grandmother, although I have no idea when.

She was born in 1898 and died in 1957, so since I was born in 1953, I never really knew her.

My mother gave me this when I talked to her once about teaching myself crazy quilting. She thought I might get some ideas from it and then throw it away.

WTF?


(Luckily she is no longer her to ask me what that stands for.)
This is the reverse of the above cushion cover. You can see it is well worn from using old fabrics and then use as a cusion. I so wish I could know the stories about the fabrics. I have so little of my family history.







Rather than have you think I disparrage my mother, she was the one who developed my love of sewing and taught me to cross stitch and some embroidery. I will always be grateful to her for that. I still miss her very much.




This is the first garmet I ever made that used crazy quilting embroidery techniques. Remember I am self taught in almost all my crafts, although I am a qualified dress maker. The fabric strips are velvet and the lining is antique Thai silk (yes it is). It is a vest in child's size 10 and I made it about 22 years ago for my eldest DD. It appears not finished, at the front, but it had hooks and eyes for a while. After she gave up wearing it, I took them off and just keep it as a nice piece that I once made.

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