Juliana round 4

Round four was a NIGHTMARE. I had to do a lot of studying before I started this round.

Can you see how the chains twist and turn? This meant a lot of switching of shuttles and ‘do not reversing’ of work too. I did give it a quick glance at the iron but didn’t pin it out or anything. Hoping the next round will help me out with that!!

I’m trying to draw the pattern up as I progress but this is becoming almost as hard as the ‘diagnosis’ of how it’s done! I think I’ll soon have to abandon the middle part and just ‘do’ the rounds as ‘rows’ - if you understand me!!! I’ve already stopped putting picots on the drawings and instead am putting numbers in red text. 

I got quite giddy after a while doing round four - but I’m glad I persisted.  Kudos to BC3 for sticking by my side!!!

Accordion pouches

Today I’m showing off the accordion pouches I’ve made and which are now packaged ready for my trip to Palmetto Tat Days in September. 

There are duplicates of these fabrics too although the centres are different in many cases. 

If you’d like to have one put by for you please drop me a comment or email me and I’ll make sure it goes on the table with ‘reserved for ...’ on the package.  The cost at Tat Days will be $13 which is £10 in sterling.  If you want close up pictures of any of them (open and closed) then just ‘shout’!!!!

If you’d like one anyway then again please email me and I’ll give you a quote for postage too.  I will be able to package several together for the price of one and will combine with poke proof pouches and tissue holders too.

Starting all over again

Well it had to happen!! Juliana version 1 is over and done with and sitting sadly by my side as I re-did rounds 1 to 3. I’m a lot happier now. This is my last comment on version 1 - not that I’d really decided to ditch it then!!!  Have you noticed that I ditched the colour too?  I’m using a slightly different blue now as I thought it might bring me ‘luck’!!!!!  Well, not really!!!

I did the centre (round 1) exactly as before so that was fast and easy. 

On round 2 I eliminated a ring at each end to avoid the horrid overlapping that happened both for me and in the original picture which I could just see when it was enlarged.

Round 3 - all I did there was anchor the clovers to each other with my favourite technique - very small picots. Now I’m happy to carry on to round 4. I’ll keep you posted!!!

For a complete change

Today I’m going to invite you into the private side of my life. As you’ve probably realised I do have another side to my life in which I take part in other things and leave my shuttles at home - sometimes!

At the weekend the town celebrated Shakespeare’s Birthday. Celebrations have happened annually for centuries and it’s an occasion when the town becomes very alive.

This year the Town Trust along with Escape Arts organised a first ever scarecrow competition. I go to several craft groups during the week and one of them is for our two streets which are sort of ‘isolated’ by the traffic system but are a quiet haven a five minute walk from the town centre, theatres etc (and the bard’s birthplace). We’re called Neighbours and Needles and our self imposed ‘remit’ is to drink coffee/tea, and knit sew etc. BUT we try to take on projects which involve us all and benefit other groups/charities round the town. If somebody ‘needs/wants’ something made and we get to hear about it we’ll do it.  We also try to raise money for good causes like the local hospices.

So we decided to join the scarecrow competition. 

The weather was NOT kind to us because of the very strong wind on Saturday but it didn’t rain so that was a good thing. The photos below show our scarecrows made from 2 compost bins and 2 pedal bins. AND guess what - we WON. SOOOOOO exciting.  

We even persuaded two police people to pose with our 3 witches from Macbeth AND Mr Shakespeare who happened to be one of the judges!!!!  Apparently they were very impressed by our attention to detail - especially on the 'ingredients' in the cauldron!!!