Category Archives: Crafts

We Made a Picture

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I had a project I’ve been meaning to do but I knew I would need help, ie someone with artistic flare.

I chose Daisy. Lucky Daisy, though possibly not because she did most of the work.

I keep everything including a tin box full of old brooches that I can’t sell (tried and failed) and don’t want to wear.  I know some were my mother’s and the rest, possibly my Great Great Aunt Kate’s and Great Granny’s.

This is a Victorian mourning brooch and full of meaning and history. I am just not sure whose.  The hair belongs to a baby.  So possibly my great-uncle who died at 6 months old from meningitis.

This is a fibula pin – silver filigree Hamsa hand (Hand of Fatima) with red glass cabochons,

So, firstly, I bought an gilt oval frame off Fleabay and then 1m of padding and another of cotton black velvet.  I had a plan.

OH made a wooden back to the frame. Daisy marked and cut out the padding to the right shape.

 

At first we were undecided about whether we needed the padding or not. It was bulky behind the velvet.  We tried it both ways and in the end decided to keep it.  It would make attaching the brooches easier.  Then I stapled the fabrics to the board and Daisy cut off the excess material.

Some of the brooches aren’t in fact brooches but are shoe or dress ornaments so needed sewing on.  I tried, and failed three times.  I hate sewing.  Daisy, however, was brilliant.  She worked like a surgeon.

 

And here is the finished result. I love it – just how I wanted it to turn out. I’ve hung it in my work shed.

Aunt Kate and her cousins are also in my room.

I am so glad the brooches didn’t sell and are out on display (ignore the ceiling – there was a leak last winter).

They are hanging where they should be.

A New Piece of Kit

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I will admit that I do find stabbing away every afternoon making my hand-felted sheep quite difficult at times.  I have a terrible habit of tensing my jaw while gritting my teeth and this is not good.

And then, a few days’ back, it suddenly dawned on me (and I have no idea why I didn’t know about these things), that I could possibly buy some contraption that could do the stabbing for me.  Surely something had been invented.

I did my research, watched endless YouTube videos, and looked at various options and decided on this nifty piece of kit – A professional hand held needle felting machine.  The seller was very helpful and I liked the fact it came from Ukraine too.

Oh yes, this bad boy is going to change my felting life.

And it does!  Obviously it took a while to get used to a new method and I soon realised that my days of bingeing on Netflix series were well and truly over as it is also has the potential to be a very dangerous piece of kit if I’m not concentrating 100% on it – think tattoo gun only 1″ deep, ouch, ouch, ouch!

The “felting gun” operates from slow to fast with a “volume knob” and my afternoons are much easier now. I don’t soley use it and alternate between using the gun and then stabbing by hand with my original needles to make my sheep.  Each method does a different job.

Does it cut down the time (each sheep takes about 2 hours to make)? – not really, but it does make things much easier. I 100% recommend this piece of kit.  It is well worth every penny.

I also listen to the radio in comparative safety with no lapses of concentration.

A Funny Old Day

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Winter seems to have returned today and we are all grumbling.  It was 12°C with a mean F7 westerly so about 8°C.  Brrrr.

I spent my morning productively taking the internet to bits.  Our whole network had ground to a halt so I repositioned the router upstairs (for better signal), reset all the extenders and re-attached them to the network.  So far, I have tripled the signal strength around the house, and am praying it stays like this.  Our internet signal is my bête noire and in Shetland, without fibre, 22 Mbps is jolly well racing along.

In need of a break from argumentative, yet invisible, technology, I took to my shed after lunch to admire my one sweet pea flower that I have successfully grown from last year’s seeds.

I made another sheep – the white one on the right – to add to my latest bag of stock.

And then it was the turn of the real sheep.  They had spent their day in a field with deep thick grass – everyone’s winter grazing for when it snows.

The grass has really taken off this year.

I could barely find Lambie.

Rattling a packet of ginger biccies, they all agreed to come inside which means all my outside animal chores are done for the day and I need not go outside again.

Even Lambie cooperated.

This is always the tense bit as I can’t double back to close the field gate and the ponies are just around the corner eating their haynets.  They could so easily run into the field.

Once through the main gate, I ran back to shut the field gate so the ponies couldn’t go in.

And then there was my follower. Today it was Barrel doing his best for an extra biscuit but the packet was finished so I had nothing to give him.  Sorry Barrel.

My Day Out

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This morning I did all the things I had to do, like feed animals, put the sheep in their field and walk the dogs.

And then I drove over to a friend’s and we had a lovely day out, away from everyone and everything.

First stop was Scalloway for a quick dog walk around my most favourite little public garden – I think this is Gibblestone House gardens.

I was very slightly obssessed with the trees there – scyamore maple.

A delicious lunch with the statutory extravagantly decorated hot chocolate for me, and onwards to the Burra (a pair of interconnected islands—East Burra and West Burra) to see emus and wallabies at The Outpost, like you do.

This is my first visit.  The wallabies were a bit far away and not very interested in us.  I, on the other hand, was fascinated as they hopped off.

Then there was a shed with a beautifully warm aviary and lots of enthusiastic chirping.

I made good friends with this chap who apparently according to Google is a green-cheeked parakeet. As there was no one around to ask, I spent my time just whistling, which was a great hit and the bird whistled back hopefully happily at my efforts. I used to live with an African grey and seem to remember she loved whistling.

And then the total stars of today – two emus with the best hair do’s.

I have never seen emus up close.  They are very strange in a prehistoric way, especially found living in Shetland.

And then lastly on to the home of Burra Bears.

The bears are very special (made from old Fair Isle jerseys) and there is a long waiting list.

And then home and back to the real world.  It was a lovely much-needed day out for me.

Need a Rest

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I was going along quite well this morning.

Everyone was fed, put in fields where they should be, most home chores done (pickled some eggs and vacuumed) before I drove into town for a physiotherapy appointment.

As I was early, I popped into Jamiesons’s Knitwear to see if they needed more sheep.

I like to have spare with me just in case because a sale is a sale and I hate an empty field.

My field was already well-stocked but no matter my new bag of sheep will keep for another day.

Then my physio appointment which was very helpful, a quick run around with a trolley at Tesco’s trying to remember everything on my shopping list and I finally drove home.

And now I feel absolutely “cream-crackered” and have taken to my bed along with various animals who are hopeful I will get up and feed them their tea.

No chance – it’s an hour early and I need a rest.  So that’s my diary appointments for this week all done and I have absolutely nothing ahead – my idea of heaven.  I shall concentrate on my physio exercises.