All things 'Feathers'

With the lovely sunny weather the daffodils and other spring bulbs are out and the hedgerows are greening up, so we are into Spring.  

It seems a long time ago that we were set our Christmas Challenge 2018 at Higham Piecemakers and this week has been the 'Grand Reveal'.  Check here to see what we had to do and I found this pattern online.  I love Roosters and I immediately knew I wanted to make these even though there was some minor carpentry needed!!

I did struggle to find the 'Floral Styrofoam disc' but suddenly had a brainwave and cut up a polystyrene ball, of which I have a great number for various projects.  My concern was that the glue would not hold but it seems to be alright and he stands magnificent and proud on

his wooden dowel legs, drilled in to a block of wood, by me!!  His companion is a little dowdy but the dark fabric for the tummy and wings (used in both) was what I was given.

BUT something was missing for such a beautiful pair, so I swiftly worked a smocked egg to complete the tableau!! 

Apart from dark fabric, the Rooster's body is made of silk fabrics to give him a sheen and the head cover is the last remains of a fabulous shiny fabric I bought years ago.  I bought the feathers on the internet for £2 so little money was spent on this project, but a great deal of planning went into it.

I loved making this Challenge.

My monthly Sock Club have set us the challenge of using up sock wool and we must use at least three colours.  I am an avid follower of Winwick Mum and found one of her patterns that sounded just up my street and for a novice like me is quite testing.  But I will persevere.

In this blog I mentioned the 'awful' wool my son had bought me for Christmas - well here they are finished

and I love them.  I used my signature pink cuff, heel and toes and even managed to match the stripes and have been wearing them.  Currently they are on the washing line!!

The third Monday in the month is our 'all day' at Higham Piecemakers and as a change a group of us met at a local Church Hall for a special workshop with Kathleen Laurel Sage.

We were going to make a 'Pixie House' and boy, did we work hard.  Kathleen told us at the beginning that we were to use all the fancy stitches on our machines, different coloured threads and enjoy yourselves!

Initial briefing

Pixie houses made by KLS.  Hope ours are as creative

 Well heads down after the initial briefing and we started embellishing our felt.

Machine in the bricks, windows and the door before using fancy stitching

One instruction was to highlight the windows and door so we didn't sew anything over them as many have done and which I nearly did but stopped myself just in time.  We had to do the same for the roof.  By the end of the day mine was coming along

and so it didn't take long to finish when I got home and was able to add flowers, buttons and beads and finally the smoke from the chimney.

.

I loved this workshop and learnt a lot; so much so that I am going to make some more!!

Socks and other things

As you will know if you read my infrequent posts, I belong to a sock club and am very much a newbie at this.  In December Jacqui, who owns Purlwise where we meet, wanted us to make a pair of socks for someone else.  In other words, a 'Secret Santa' to be completed by our March meeting.

So we met up last weekend and all the socks were on display.  Like a fool I had forgotten to photo mine before I packed them up so had to wait until 'Lorna' wasn't looking and then take a picture.

What an assortment of colours and designs.  The pair I received are rusty coloured ones on the seat at the front and have a percentage of Yak wool in them!!!  Really comfortable and warm.

These are Lorna's; grey with pink heels and toes.  She said she has a new coat that is grey with pink and so these would suit her perfectly.  I hope that they fit!!

We have three months to make a pair using up at least three odds and ends of sock wool.  Interesting.

I haven't been on any 50+ Adventure Club activities since January, but I put that right by doing Indoor Archery.  What fun and though I was really awful at the beginning, by the end I had hit three bullseyes!  Success.

All set up to start

I was so excited to get the first one I had to take a photo!

I haven't been able to volunteer at Chester Farm lately due to the near bankruptcy of our County Council, and everything has gone quiet there.  In the meantime I am volunteering at Nenescape and went to my first meeting of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).  The items we were looking at have all been found by members of the public through a variety of methods - metal detecting, digging the garden etc.  All the items belong to the finder but should be entered onto the national database for future research by others.  

On this occasion we were looking at buckles all of which were post medieval up to 1720.  I find this quite fascinating as some were definitely shoe buckles and makes me wonder about the person who made the shoe or who wore it and why was it in the ground.  Had it fallen off and been lost?  Unfortunately PAS meet on a Monday which is already a busy day for me so I can't get to every meeting.

Yesterday I volunteered for Out of Water, into History litter picking and planting trees along the Greenway in Rushden which has been built on an old railway line and which I use frequently either cycling or walking.

This was a small amount of the rubbish we picked up -

and another skip had been requested.  Very well organised with portaloos (thank goodness!), all the tools required, soft drinks provided by Morrisons (who have a distribution centre nearby) and pizza at lunchtime and very welcome it was.  In the morning I picked up rubbish but after lunch I helped to plant hedgerow shrubs working with someone to make the holes and I put in the bare-root plant, heeled it in and then checked with a gentle tug that it was secure.  Being an old railway line the edges were extremely difficult to dig due to stone and clinker, but we managed to clear our bag of bushes.  Meanwhile men had planted large fruit trees with the children planting bulbs and potted shrubs.  In total about 50 people turned up to help.  Let us hope that the vandals leave it alone as the Greenway should look good in the future.

Me, I went home absolutely exhausted and flopped down with a large cup of tea!!!

Thank you to the Lottery!!!

No I haven't won the Lottery but another prize.  Let me explain -

Back last November I received the Stanwick Lakes (SL) Newsletter in my email and they were running a competition.  Apparently the Lottery had asked for something to be given back to those who support it and as Stanwick Lakes must get a grant from them they (SL) wanted anyone buying a Lottery ticket that week to photograph it and send it to them to go in a draw for one of their 'Trading Places' workshops.  Well I did as I was told and I won a place on the course to make a basket.

So on Tuesday I arrived and we were told all about the technical terms for the willow:
- rods are the lengths of willow
- butt is the fat end of the rod
- whips are the thin end of the rod
etc (in other words I have forgotten the other techy names!)

We started with 6 thick rods and after cutting slits in the middle of three of them we could start

and at that moment disaster for me.  One of my main rods broke, but luckily Maggie our teacher gave me her sample piece so the picture above was not my work but the rest is!

Then we started weaving the base

Note that not all the rods had been separated at this point 

As you will see from these photos it was very sunny and hot so we had to spend a great deal of time damping down the willow so it didn't dry out, either with a spray or making sure it was covered with very wet matting.

The pile of bits on the right are all the ends from the rods used in the weaving

The base is complete and it was now lunchtime.

After lunch -

We then pushed 24 rods on either side of our base rods and pulled them up and they were tied with string, a circle was placed on the rods, the string was removed and a heavy stone on the base as we were now weaving from the side.

We started weaving the sides with 24 individual rods and concentrating hard because each rod went "over 2 and under one" and onto the next rod, working right and whoa betide us if we got it wrong because the pattern would be distorted!!

Onto the next pattern "over one under one" and onto the next rod and then the sides started to rise

Finally another round of over two and under one and the basket was looking good.

Now to finish off and the upright rods were woven along the top, the final three being cut and forced down and the basket was finished.

10" (26cm) across x 4" (10cm) in depth 

Nearly all my own work and it hasn't fallen apart yet!!

That was just one day in a very busy February which included looking after my son's puppy for half term, preparing for a 'De-stash Sale', working on the Christmas Challenge which has to be finished by 25 March, having a tree cut down in my garden, Nordic walking when time permitted, fitting in another bike ride to make it 4 since 1 January and thus getting a prize (not known at this time), a family get together + all the usual jobs one has to do.  

I need a lie down in a darkened room!!!!!!