That Pile of Pennies is no more……

 

After putting my little penny rug on hold for a wee while, I decided a couple of days ago to get stuck in and finish it.  This year I am determined not to have more than one UFO hanging around.  I was bitten by the string quilt bug but have since put that aside to finish my penny rug.  I’ll come back to the string quilt when I feel the need for some machine sewing, so I guess that will be my ongoing UFO for a while.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this little rug.  It was my very first attempt at making a penny rug, and I didn’t have a pattern or really much of a clue as to how I’d go about it.  I did have a little guidance from my dear friend Kaaren.  She has also made a gorgeous penny rug, without a pattern.  Perhaps she may show you soon.

Speaking of Kaaren, I received some beautiful Valentine’s gifts in the mail from her yesterday.  There were lots of pretty and yummy goodies, but I haven’t taken a photo as yet.  The yummy goodies no longer exist now anyway. *wink*.  Thank you so much Kaaren….. you are always spoiling me!

I am about to trace off a stitchery and begin work on a gift.  That will keep me busy tomorrow as we will have no electricity for around six hours due to some scheduled work nearby.

Teresa was meant to be spending the day here with me so we could begin work on a little quilt we’d both like to make, using wool.  Unfortunately we had to cancel those plans as the road between her house and mine is under water.  We’ve had lots of heavy rain and serious flooding here this past week.  We intend to get together next Wednesday.  Looking forward to it Teresa!

I hope you are all enjoying some creative moments.

Julie :)

Progress … a pile of pennies

I’ve had so much fun making these pennies. I’d started out with 39, but as I progressed I decided I wanted a slightly bigger rug. I think there are now 54 in total.

I will begin pinning them all down this evening. Then I can start assembling the rug. I hope to have it complete in a few days.

To all my fellow Aussies... Happy Australia Day!

Julie :)

Pretty Pennies

 

I’ve spent a good part of my day with the tedious task of cutting pennies for my penny rug…  117 of them to be precise.  With this being my very first penny rug, I am a tad hesitant to use my good wool.  I have some really nice wool blend felt, which is from Italy and the quality is just gorgeous.  It’s nothing like the awful cheap felt that is harsh to the touch.  This stuff feels lovely and soft, almost fluffy.  The wool fibres are visible, which I think gives it a nice texture.  It also doesn’t contain any of the chemicals that regular felt does.  And the best thing is that it doesn’t fray like 100% wool tends to.

Now I’m left with this pile of scraps, which I’m thinking may be good to use as stuffing for pincushions, rather than waste it.

I’m a little ‘stingy’ with my 100% wool.  Perhaps as it’s not readily available and tends to cost a small fortune.  I think I’ll save it for a few special projects on my list.

Now it’s time for me to tidy the kitchen and my sewing desk.  Then I am going to start the fun part of stacking and stitching.  I may have some progress to show in the next few days.

Julie :)

Maisy’s Flowers Pincushion

 

You may remember one of the birthday gifts I received from dear Robyn was the Hatched and Patched Maisy’s Flowers Pincushion kit.  Since all of my commitments have been accomplished and I’ve been feeling ‘free’ the last little while, I decided this was the first thing on my ‘me’ list that I wanted to do.

I think it turned out so pretty.  I filled it with silica sand, which is so good.  It sits nicely and the pins slide in and out easily.  I love working with wool, and this was a pleasure to put together.  I enjoyed it so much, I’m thinking I’d like to make some for gifts.

Thanks once again Robyn!!  It’s as sweet as you.

I’ll be playing with wool again this evening, as I’m going to try my hand at making a penny rug.  I have quite a few wool projects on my list, so I’m really looking forward to winter when I can snuggle up in my cosy new lounge room and play with wool.  Oh, just the thought is nice.

Julie :)

Something Different…….

 

I dug out my beads the other day and had a little play around.  I wanted to make some little scissor fobs.  Gosh darn it!  It’s been so long since I’d done any beading, I just sat there for a little while staring at all the different beads and findings.  I took beading lessons with my sister quite a few years ago.  While I did enjoy it and made quite a few things, it was my sister who got really hooked.  She has made some truly beautiful pieces.  I had fun looking at different beads and remembering where they were purchased.  All of them were bought over in Perth, while I lived there.  I remember all the different little bead shops my sister took me to.  I remember one particular time we spent the whole day together perusing bead shops.  We sat down by the Swan River to eat a yummy lunch and we went through our bead stash together.  I remember laughing that we were like two little kids going through our show bags.  I have so many beads that my sister bought for me and each of them hold treasured memories of her and I spending time together.  We both now live back here in Queensland.  She has since had a gorgeous little boy and I’ve become glued to my sewing machine.  Neither of us have done any beading for quite a while.  Maybe one day soon we’ll spend some special time together, just her and I and see what creations we can come up with.  Are ya reading this sips??

These are the little scissor fobs I made on Friday.  They are simple, but sweet.  My favourite is the one with green and purple stones and the sewing machine charm.  I think next time I will use bigger beads to make them a little chunkier.

I’m off to play with some wool now.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Julie :)

Tassel Tutorial

 

I’ve had quite a few people asking how I made the tassels that were shown on my last post.  Being a little difficult to explain, I thought a tutorial may be easier to understand.  They really are very simple though.  :)  Obviously there are many ways to make tassels, and I don’t claim this particular method to be my own.  I was taught this method way back in primary school and over years I’ve found it to be most effective.

You will need to make yourself a template.  This is what the thread will be wrapped around to make the tassel.  I like to use template plastic.  Cardboard is an option, though it tends to become a tad dog eared & tatty after a few uses.  If you don’t have template plastic, a plastic ice cream container lid is a good alternative.

There are no specific measurements required, although the height of your template will determine the length of your tassel.  Mine is about 2.5 inches high, 3 inches in width.  You need to cut a slot out of the template, about half inch down from the top, about two thirds of the way across to the left of the template.  The slot should be about half inch in height.   At the top left and right corners a small slit needs to be cut.  This will hold your hanging thread in place.

Take a length of thread from your chosen skein.  Do not separate the threads, use all six.  A good length is about 16 to 18 inches.  This is going to be the hanging thread of the tassel.  Holding the thread at the ends, gently twist it in opposite directions until you feel it becoming tight.  Slowly bring your hands together and the thread will naturally twist back upon itself.

Double knot the two ends of the twisted thread.

You now have the hanging thread completed.  Carefully slip each end of the thread into the slots of the template, keeping the overhang to the left of the template.

Now it’s time to wrap your thread around the template to develope the tassel.  It’s hard to judge what length the thread should be, so just keep in mind how chunky/fluffy you’d like your tassel to be.  I usually just leave my thread on the card and wind the whole thing.

Start by holding your thread taught at the very bottom of the template.  Then begin winding the thread as neatly as possible around the entire length of the template, from bottom to top.  Continue winding until you feel the tassel will be at your desired thickness.  Finish winding with the thread at the back and bottom of the tassel.  Snip it off parallel with the bottom of the template.  You will now have two lose threads either side of the template.  Simply tuck these in behind the tighter threads to help keep them from unravelling.   If you’re not careful it may begin to look a little messy, but appearances mean nothing at this stage.

 

Now it’s time to wrap the thread around the tassel to hold it all in place.  This gives a really nice finish if done neatly.  Take a length of thread ( it’s hard to determine how long, I usually cut mine about 10 inches long), and place one end at the very top of the template, holding it with your left thumb.  Bring it down just below the bottom of the cut out slot and begin winding the thread around the tassel,moving upwards and making sure the length of thread at the beginning is still hanging from the top.  This will be one of the tails which tie it off at the end.  Continue winding the thread as neatly as possible.  When you’ve reached the top of the cut out slot, it’s time to cut the thread.  Make sure to leave a good 5 inch tail at the top.  Tie the two threads together in a double knot.

Thread one of the lose ends into an embroidery needle and thread it under the wound threads down to the bottom of the tassel.  Do the same with the remaining thread from the top.

 

Both threads are now neatly pulled under the wound threads and will sit flat, becoming part of the tassel.  Snip the lengths off close to the bottom of the template.

Gently remove the hanging thread from the slots at the top of the template.  Pull taught and tie in a double knot as close to the very top of the tassel as possible.

Tie the open ends off with double knot.

Now you carefully slide sharp scissors under the wrapped thread at the bottom of the template and snip.  I just prefer to slide the tassel from the template and then cut them

Trim the ends up nicely, give it a bit of a fluff up and you now have a pretty and practical tassel.  So many different projects call for tassels, and this sure beats buying them.

If you like big tassels, you can make them without using the template.  Simply take an entire skein of thread, fold in half and wind thread around following the above steps.  These make nice big fluffy tassels.

I hope these instructions are easy to understand.  If not, feel free to email me any questions.

Julie :)

Prettiness….

 

I’ve spent the morning playing with pretty threads, making tassels.  I’ve been busily making my Pay it Forward gifts and what I’ve chosen to make requires tassels.  Frustrated by the lack of colours available, I decided to make my own.  This makes matching the tassels to the fabric I am using so much easier.

The tassels I’ve purchased in the past always seemed to be flimsy and would unravel easily.  Not anymore!  Obviously they can be made as large or small as required…. as chunky or as slim as desired.  And to add an extra special touch, it’s always fun to adorn them with beads.   I’ve managed to yield 5 medium size tassels from one 79 cent skein of DMC thread!  Can’t complain about that.  To make matters even better…… one tassel takes under 5 minutes to complete.

Mindless fiddling can not only be fun, but also rather productive!

I hope you’re finding some quiet time for productiveness also.

Julie :)