Meet Minty

Hello Folks.

As the weather this Sunday was predicted to be miserable (what the weather man actually said) I decided to make the day a sewing day.  Before I show you what I got up to I realise that I haven't yet introduced you to Minty.

Minty is a 1967 white Singer Featherweight that I bought from a wonderful man about 45 minutes drive away from me.  Sadly, his wife had died, she used to own a needlecraft shop and their home was filled with antiques of all sorts and lots of sewing and knitting things.  He made me a cup of tea, played me a song on the Jukebox in the dining room and I spent most of my time saying, "oooo" or "wow" or "oh my, you've got a ........."

Minty dates from 1967 which is the same year as me and although she is a officially called a white Singer, there is definitely a tinge of green in the paintwork.  They are quite often called Celery or Mint.

I came away with other treasures as well.  A Vulcan chainstitch toy machine from the 1950s which needs a little work to get it working.

An enamel Singer sign.

And a beautiful set of Sylko drawers

Complete with a rainbow of threads.  I love these drawers so much.

Anyhoo back to my Sunday.  I spent 4 hours cutting out squares for a quilt I am making for my very good friend.  The blocks are a Christmas Tree and the quilt is called Holiday Patchwork Forest.  Pattern here.

I strip pieced with Minty.

I love strip piecing, so quick and easy.

After some more joining and pressing, I'm almost up to single bed size.  Although this is a Christmassy theme I have used reds/pinks/greys/greens and only used one Christmassy print.

Whilst cutting the squares I cut double, so my next pile to sew is almost ready to go.

I visited Miss Clicky and Baby Needles today and i was able to take over this hat and cardigan that I have just finished.  

The cardigan is the same pattern as the one I made just before Christmas minus the eyelets and with a contrast row of purl.  Sadly the other cardigan didn't survive the washing machine.  My fault, I thought the yarn was machine washable, but the felted cardigan said otherwise.  This set is made in Drops Karisma so is definitely machine washable.

Lastly that lovely bright yarn I showed you last time?  Not a temperature blanket, which I would love to be making but it is a bit tricky with being away, it's a blanket for Baby Needles for when she is in her buggy.

That's me for now, I am confined to barracks tomorrow because my car is in the garage, so I'm thinking of a bit more sewing.  What will you be up to?

See you soon...........Clicky Needles.

Happy New Year

Hello Folks.

Firstly I need to say Happy New Year to you.  I hope you had a good Christmas, ours was great.  I celebrated another birthday, Mr Clicky was with us for two weeks, we met up with family and friends and we spent loads of time with Baby Needles.  

I have making as well.  I gave these wrist warmers to my niece for Christmas, made in Katia Polaris, a lovely quick and easy knit.

I completed the stitchy bit of the winter Craftpod box.

I finally got round to binding the baby quilt I made from Clicky's old work shirts in June ~ remember when purple shirts were a thing? ~ I made the binding using the left over bits.

I made this quilt using Ivy, my 1892 Singer handcrank.  

As I was trying to take some decent photos of it, I realised I had the perfect place by stuffing  carefully placing the edge of the quilt in the electrical conduit on our breeze block wall.  The perfect display place.

Before Christmas I bought myself something a little indulgent.   Our kitchen/living extension is a large space of 9m x 3m and is tiled throughout.  We also a lovely fluffy felt rug perfect for popping toes in.  The trouble with that is, fluff balls everywhere.

I bought myself a robot vacuum cleaner.  It is simply brilliant and named Colin.  I have it programmed to clean at 8am; it goes over the hard floor, under and behind the sofa, through the chair legs and dining table and into the living room and over the carpet there.  When it has finished, it goes back to the charging station.  If it gets tangled up ever, it beeps and shuts down.  The other morning I found it had eaten a loo roll like the Andrex Puppy.

We didn't go overboard with presents this year, but I received some knitty themed things.

My Mum gave me the two mugs at the back, love a knitted mug, and my lovely knitting pal Romain gave me the coaster and a tiny tin with stitch markers in.  Romain is a master at hunting down knitting presents, I'm not sure where she finds things!  The tin is so tiny, I have already lost it 3 times!

Romain also gave me this cracking Christmas card, made, I think, on a Cricut machine.

Lastly a yarny delivery I received this week.  I wonder what it might turn into?

Right, that's me for now I'm off to catch up on blog reading, it may take a while!

Bye for now...............Clicky Needles.