Sewn on!

Just to prove I can finish things off completely here's the tshirt edging sewn onto the right tshirt!!!    Yes, I have been known to sew onto the wrong one in the past!!!

Now this tshirt was a really, really cheap one I got in America last year but the quality is really good.  I've bought this brand before on our trips 'over the pond'.  Thing is, this really cheap shirt now looks slightly smarter for it's bit of tatting.  Well, I think so!!!

I used my very favourite thread to sew it on.  Well, let me clarify that.  It's my favourite for looks when I've used it but not my favourite for using!!!  Not easy to use is the invisible thread.  Why?  Well cause you can't see it - it's really invisible!!!!  A good light, plenty of cussing words and a firm word with myself and I can do it!!!!

I've teven atted with this thread before a few years ago - here's a link.  Not one of my favourite things to tat with!!!

After HDT comes HWT

Have you ever tried HWT.  No, no, no, not HDT but HWT?  Hand Wound Threads.

It's one of my favourite threads.  You take two or three sewing weight threads and wind them on to a shuttle together.  Needs a bit of concentration so that they go on equally but well worth it.

So this is what happens when you use the three spools shown below.  The plain blue is a machine quilting thread which I bought in a tiny store in Cincinnati.  The one in the middle is Perfect Quilter (which, incidentally, Gina gave me many years ago on one of our outings) and the one on the right is Valdani which I bought from a UK supplier.

Now not even I would think normally of putting three such different variagated threads together but I think it WORKS!!!  See the bottom picture.

I find that three sewing weight threads HWT work out to a size 20.

This is another tshirt edging.  I've started sewing the last one onto the shirt so should be able to show you soon.

Oh, another goat arrived yesterday - 105.  Thanks Brigitte.

An edging for a tshirt

I started this just around Christmas time as a 'pick up, put down' project.  One of those 'what shall I do now' projects when you've been working on something most of the evening, finished it and you're feeling tired and just need something to keep yourself awake until bedtime!!!!  

I used the 'Oh SO simple' edging as I know this off by heart now!!!!  When we took the car to the garage last week I remembered it and took it with me as we knew we had a three quarter hour wait for whatever it had to have done to 'be done'.  Now it's finished the next big obstacle is getting it sewn on to the tshirt!!!

Of course you can guess what thread I used - Lizbeth Pink Cocoa!!!

Down memory lane!!!

More of my favourite earrings that I mentioned last week.

When I found the bath plugs I found these too - two more of my favourite pairs.  Most of the earrings got thrown out with the bath water, marriage, job and the house I lost but these seem to stick to me like that stuff that sticks to shovels!!!

I obviously used to wear strange earrings wherever I went and my dentist greeted me on one visit with the pair directly below.

The other pair were given to me by a five year old pupil.  I seem to have mislaid one of the pair so I took two photos of the one to show what it's capabilities were.  I used to wear one with the seat up (gentlemen only) and one with the seat down.  This time I've left the lid down on the one photo.  Modesty prevailed as it hasn't been cleaned in years!!!!

Just to prove

I'm not a liar, liar pants on fire!!!  Here are the earrings I was telling you about in this post here.

If you look hard at the left one you can see that it says 1 1/2" too!!!!  I still have a HUGE soft spot for this pair!!!  Not that I think I'd wear them nowadays as I don't go to any posh parties anymore!!!

By the way - thanks to a few more people we now have 104 goats in the herd here!!!

New HDT

A week or two ago I had an email from Sherry (Ladyshuttlemaker) asking me to test tat something for her for her new book.  Now being as I was towards the end of sorting out 'stuff' to submit for Palmetto I said yes.

Well she sent the files and my heart dropped!!!  NOT a technique I've ever really given much time to or ever wanted to!!  Certainly NOT one that I've ever tried.    I've done the odd drawing for Georgia along those lines but never wanted to try it.  I really, really wished I'd not offered!!!!!  But, as I'd promised I had to give it a whirl.

Now Sherry's book is mostly based on EXCELLENT pictures with not too much text.  As you know I'm a 'gobby' sort of person and talk a lot.  A real challenge was this test tat.  

The result?  I'm now HOOKED on this technique and really enjoyed what I did with it.  Sherry's pictures/instructions are fantastic and by the time I did the second piece I was wondering why the OG had never wanted to do it before.  Part of the fascination for ME was the use of colour.  Well done, Sherry, you've got an OG converted to this technique and those patterns.  Not sure when the book will be out but I'll be in the queue.

This is what Sherry sent me as a 'thank you'.  WOWEEE - don't you just love the colours.  Zing a ding, ding.  You can find more in her Etsy shop here.  These two are called 'Bell Peppers' (on the left) and 'Rose Petals'