Leather Tool Roll

Ages ago...(maybe 4 or 5 years 😲) my son asked me to make him a tool roll for his chainsaw files etc. So, because it was going to be complicated, I put it on the back burner to think about how I would do it. At one point I thought I would get on with it, but the leathers I had in the stash did not suit his ideas.

But the vendor I regularly got leather from had stopped vending... so time went on. Then in 2018 I caught a glimpse of a leather vendor just as I was leaving the Bristol show They we’re back last year. She had a good size piece, but for £30. Which I hadn’t got. So I said, what about that misshapen section? So she cut that part off, leaving her with a more squared off piece others might like. The piece I got was about twice what I used here. and only cost £10!

I find it easier to design something out of my head if it already has an interesting shape. 

Anyway, after dithering (🤨will I be able to make something he likes?) I finally decided I better do it for this birthday and get it out of my head!!

Plus - An extra file pocket and a small pocket for whatever. 

Something on Saturday

Treasure 38
Another sewing machine

I recently found it again. Probably packed away when things were all upside down in my studio.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 37

This is a rather tatty trinket meant to be a fridge magnet. But it’s ok for my little collection. 

Something on Saturday

Treasure 36

Another little trinket

Something on Saturday

Treasure 35

This was a little trinket I bought when we had a trip on a canal boat.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 34

This was a present from my mom. Just a resin painted form, but I like it. 

You can put things inside. There are some pretend bits in there.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 33

And the ‘car’ I made the following year. An accessory to the sewing machine made to hold bobbins.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 32

This was my ‘car’ one year for the club we helped with.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 31

Another small sewing machine.

This one we bought in Holland. I was interested that it was made in the USSR. This one works even less than the one from my grandmother. The parts inside are of aluminium and so bend very easily.

Something on Saturday

Now onto my little sewing collection over the next several weeks..

Treasure 31

This child’s sewing machine was given to me by my grandmother. I can’t get it to work properly, but I don’t mind just looking at it.

Something on Saturday

a bit late
Treasure 29

I love this little silver pin cushion given to me by a friend sometime ago.

I don’t really use it, but I think it is beautiful.

I Like Thankful Thursday

Last week as I said, was a bit busy. I sorted out the rest of the rubble of my stuff moved because of putting in the lift. And of course, did too much. This week the body says, REST, please.
This new little blue stool was very helpful!

However! I did get the pattern cut and sewn to check what changes I might have to make to use it again.

So, I like that with a bit of remnant that someone didn't want, I have a 'wearable toile'! Which means it is near enough in fit, so that if I finish it off I can wear it. and the few changes are simple enough to go ahead with making it up in fabric I have been saving.
Yes, I could do the same with my bodice block which I already know fits me. But I wanted a refresher about patterns because I was to help my friend with some of her pattern fitting issues.
The main change? I wanted to try a square neck. But this one is a bit too wide. So I will adjust that on the pattern next time.

The back could do with a bit of help in the lower back, but it is good enough for some summer tops. now to hem it and bind the armhole.

I love my baby iron! This lovely little present I showed you early in the year, was brilliant for pressing the seams open without getting the ironing board out.

and also last week my sister sent me some photos of my Mom. Good to see she is doing well! Mom is in her 80's. She had a lovely adventure for Mother's Day weekend.

She flew from Maine to my sister's in New York. From there they drove to Detroit area to my nephew's place. My sister's other son drove up from Tennessee. So she was able to see her great grandchildren she had never met, and to see her grandson's again after a very long time.
This photo was at Letchworth State Park. But they also went to Niagara Falls and to a camp where Mom had worked one summer as a young lady. Now she is back home.

I went with friends from church on a walk Sunday. So glad for the walker! Pretty shattered by the end, but it was so lovely to have time to just chat.

To see what the others like, follow the link to LeeAnna's blog.

All the better to see you with

...and finally, after well over a year... I can see properly!!! 👀

New spectaculars 😁

Regular Bifocals 🤓

And Bifocal Sunglasses 😎 

They had to put prisms in to deal with the double vision. It works!
So wonderful to see distance again! I worked in my studio a bit. The eye dr had said they will take a bit of getting used to. The long distance is not so bad, though I do have to blink if I turn my head quickly. The close up/reading part will need a bit of time. I stitched my daily bead project, but needed a break after that in order to do anything else. So I started sorting some of the magazines I cleared from the bookcase a week or two ago.
Next real will be the computer. That was the hardest bit. I found myself getting “see sick” 🤢, whenever I tried working online. So most of what I have done is on the phone.

I like Thankful Thursday

I like these fingerless gloves. I wear them with my thin leather gloves. It works really well when I take Holly with me to the library and shops. I can still fiddle with the lead when I type her up to go inside. Or try to find a treat in the little bag so I can tell her she is a good girl.

My friend made them for me for Christmas. I wanted to show the bit of sparkle in the wool she used, but you will have to imagine it yourself!

I like how The Thoughtful Man has been picking up on my mumbles. While my back has been so bad, I have been sitting in a chair with the heating pad behind me. Now that I am feeling like I could do some sewing work in my studio, I didn't last very long at all before the pain got bad again. So I think I said something like " I wonder if they have belts with heat that could sit against your back. Perhaps if I had warmth there, it would keep my muscles relax."

And then this arrived in the post. Yes, it is pretty good! and makes you sit properly, as well. And, no, I don't run while I have it on. 😳

I like this little torch thing. Our church gets pens and whatnot to hand out to people at our Christmas carol service. This year the company we order from (who sends us samples a least every month, but seems more often.) sent this little gadget.

It looked like a good idea, so we ordered them. Wow, we have had such comments about the torches*. Every one thinks they are fantastic. There is a magnet on the bottom you see. and  if the battery runs out, you can change it. So, it isn't disposable like a pen is if it runs out.

This is how I am using mine...I got another in my stocking at Christmas. What a help when your eyes are neither here nor there about seeing at the moment.
The bead set up for this week. (I will show what I am doing with them on Sunday.)

This photo is without a torch.

With one torch, especially helpful with the size 15 beads!!

and with 2 torches. Amazing! and especially in the evening or late afternoon when it gets dark early still.

*torch is the British term for the US flashlight.

And now my back needs a change of place. If you want to see more likes, head over to LeeAnna's blog. She is great to do this little community of sharing. I hope to get involved more as I really hope my health will improve so I can do longer bursts of time at the computer. I have tried my phone, but it comes up so small that I struggle to see it, and when I can, it is very stubborn about getting photos and text where you want them. 😒

I like Thankful Thursday

I like the colours of fruit and veg in the autumn.

Every year for quite sometime now I have decorated the tables at the front of the church for our Harvest Service. This year, I wasn't sure how I'd be after the op on my eye. The Harvest Service was less than a week from my op. I didn't know if I could manage bobbing up and down to get bits and pieces out of the bags of produce people had brought for the display.

So, the other ladies did it! As I have been telling them, it is about putting one thing next to another and letting the colours God made do the work!

I really enjoyed seeing how other people put things together this year...(out of the random amount of eyes I could see from!)

(And if these photos are fuzzy, you know why!)

I like making bread, too. So that was my job. Put the stuff in the machine and let it work...only it wasn't that simple. Still, the end results looked good. (See if you can spot them amongst the display.) and then we sliced them up for the meal.

On Saturday, I went to a local SAQA meeting. We had the privilege of having input and guidance from Richard McVitis through a day long presentation and discussion about the professional side of being an artist - things like what you call yourself, marketing yourself, showing work, pricing work etc, etc. Very Good! I remember seeing his work at the Knitting and Stitching Show several years ago. I loved it.

front and back of a teaching sample...but which is which!

Quiet and sedate. But with obvious delight at the process of making stitches.

Richard also spoke about some of the artists he was inspired by. I loved the look of the work by Anne Wilson. There was a whole book about her work, so I snapped a few photos so I could remember it.

 Richard's work is minute - extremely small stitching. Much of it is about time. The visual connect with Anne's work is strong. 

Especially the work she did, at the time of writing the book, using human hair as thread.

Not so many I likes this week, but a lot of what is going on visually for me. ( not just because of my left and right eyesight!)

oh, and a bit of space!

 I gave this away to the ladies who run InStitches...to use with transfer printing. (We met at their studio workshop space for the SAQA meeting.)
Someone was getting rid of it a few years ago and I thought, "I will use it to do stuff with transfer paints!"
But I didn't.
So, I decided that since InStitches teaches that technique, but have been using an iron, they could do more with it than I could. and I have the added benefit of space behind my overlocker to do somethings with that! I had some ideas for Christmas presents. Whether I will do them? we shall see.

I am very thankful for aluminium foil! On Sunday, we came home to a cold oven and grey dust over the food that was meant to be cooking on automatic in the oven. SO glad everything was covered with aluminium foil!
The Thoughtful Man got to work cleaning the oven. (He loves cleaning and sorting! No, you can't have him!) And discovered it was the heating element...again.

So, he went upstairs and came back with a replacement. The heating element seems to go periodically, so last time he ordered 4! I told you he was Thoughtful. 😍
So, dinner was delayed, but the new element worked and the food cooked properly. I guessed it had been about 1/3 of the way through the time it was meant to cook. We ate, enjoyed it and haven't become ill. 😷

Go have a look at LeeAnna's blog where she has links to 'likes' others have posted.

I like Thankful Thursday

Some things I have to mention that I like this week.

The African Lady I found in a charity shop ages ago.

I just wish I knew which country or people group.

more Jenny Colgan books to read.

I just returned the Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris. Very Special. Warning: you need tissues!

Still thinking about the gallery Ruth Singer had at the Festival of Quilts. 'Criminal Quilts'.

Criminal Quilts is an art and heritage project inspired by photographs and documents relating to women held in Stafford Prison 1877-1916, in partnership with Staffordshire Record Office.

and I really like using my tiny snizzers.

This one lives by the bead station - most of the time.

This one lives by the sewing machine - most of the time.

This one lives by the overlocker - all of the time. I tied this one down so I could always find it.

and these are my precious!

Called Chinese scissors. They fit round your fingers just right. They also are very sharp and pointy.
 open
I bought them at Whitchurch Silk Mill some time back. They are so very good for cutting out the Ramshackle Houses.
Funny how showing them makes you think how long you have had them. Most, except for the ones with the pretty handles, I have had for over 10 years.
I do use big ones, but these all are wonderful for snipping thread and cutting out little bits.

As usual go to LeeAnna's blog to see what others like this week.