Hiding acorns

Do jays hide acorns? I have watched this one for about a month now. It appears to collect acorns from the old oak trees nearby and then fly down to the field and push them into the earth. Is it a sign of a hard winter to come? And - more importantly- will it remember where to find them??

Apologies for the poor picture but I was getting dressed and just noticed the jay, over the fence in the field, so snapped it through my window.

In remembrance

Our two minutes of silence was broken by a robin, singing so beautifully in my garden.

Just a bit of felting fun.

I didn't want to waste my little experiments, made whilst playing er - practising on my new machine. So I added a few beads and mounted them on cards. I have a box full of little experimenst like these. They always come in useful for birthday and thank you cards.

I still have all my daughter's crafting goodies stacked in boxes here so I just dip into all her lovely stash of fabrics, fancy paper and cards. I hope it takes a long time for her to remember that they are here!!!

What is an embellishing machine?

Machine embellishing

Wipso has, as usual, beat me to it!! She has taken photos of her machine and explained how it works, so if you want a look then pop over to:

http://wipso-astitchintime.blogspot.com/

Our embellishers are Huskystar ER10 made by Husqvarna Viking. I have owned 3 different sewing machines made by Huskvarna and have found them to be robust and reliable so the Huskystar was my choice. There are several other similar machines.

The basic idea is that fabric/wool/threads etc can be felted to each other using the machine. That means they are fused together without using stitching. The 5 barbed needles simply pierce the top fabric and drag bits into the one below, thus making them fuse together. Its that easy.

Large pieces of work can be felted down really quickly and built up layer upon layer.

The machine is light and easy to carry - after all - its only a small motor and 5 needles - it doesn't have all the heavy stuff a sewing machine needs inside it!

Clover needle felting hand punch

I have a little hand needle felting punch that does the same thing but is much slower of course. Its fine for small pieces of flat felt work like the bits I use for card making. The little hand punch works in the same way, with 5 needles that felt fabrics together - just place them on a piece of foam or specially designed "brush" and push the punch up and down on top of the fabrics. So if you fancy needle felting but don't want to splash out on a machine - then this might be worth a try. Its good fun!

Playing with my embellishing machine.

Now that the ten blinds and 2 pairs of curtains are finished and sitting pretty in the new house, I have had time to play with my new embellishing machine. Wipso has set aside time on a Monday for play to take place and we both surrounded ourselves with wools, silk, satins and all sorts of other pretty bits and bobs.

Our new machines were de-frocked from their plastic covers and play began.

Wipso is making the most gorgeous little bags, so she spent her time felting flowers and threads of every hue onto the little felt bag fronts. If you want to find out more about those then pop over to her blog. She already has orders and sold one or two.

http://wipso-astitchintime.blogspot.com/

I dipped into one of her felting books for inspiration and came up with the idea for my little brooches.

Starting with felt or fabric for a base, I added frills and twists of silk, chiffon, wool, - well anything that fitted my colour scheme and looked right really. Then I painstakingly added beads and a badge back and voila ! Cute little brooches - all different - about 2 - 3 inches across.

I think I shall make a few more for Christmas - I may even sell a few if anyone is interested.

Wipso's friend thought they might cost about £15 in the right shop - well, I will settle for £7.50!

What do you think??