Splitting Logs

 Spent the day helping some friends turn some of their wood reserves

into firewood, with the help of a hired log-splitter.

Once split, they were thrown into the ute, then taken to the woodshed. There the tipping tray of the ute made made unloading a lot easier!

Five ute loads, or about 2.5 cubic metres of split firewood, ready to be stacked up under cover for future use. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but imagine how much more exhausting it would be to chop the wood with an axe, and move it by wheelbarrow!

Bulk Buy

My supply of sewing machine needles was almost depleted, so I went looking to buy some more. There are not many places nearby that sell them. 

There is a Spotlight. They sell all varieties of Schmetz needles at $8 for 5 needles, but the local store seems to be always out of stock of the commonly used sizes. I could mail order from their warehouse, but that would add $12.99 for delivery.

There is a Lincraft. They no longer sell Schmetz needles - they seem to have moved down-market in all their haberdashery items. Their needles are  $3-odd for 5, but very poor quality. I had one bad experience and wouldn't buy them again.

My only other option is a sewing machine dealer, who sells needles labelled "Janome", which are also about $8 for 5.

So I went looking online, to see what I could find. I placed an order on 1st April, and only 2 weeks later (not bad considering the Easter holidays) this arrived from the UK:

For approximately $33 including postage, I now have 50 Schmetz needles in the size I use most. Hooray! That should last me quite a while.

I wonder why they don't sell 10-packs in Australia?

Speedy Planting

How to plant 120 bulbs in under half an hour:

This "garden auger" drill bit was one of my birthday presents, along with a box of several hundred assorted spring bulbs. This afternoon we planted 120 daffodils and jonquils very quickly!

Extension Table

This is why I went to Geelong on Wednesday:

To collect the extension table for my "new" machine. The lady I bought the machine from had just found the table when doing some more cleaning up at her mother's home, so contacted me to let me know. I was very happy to hear from her, as I had been wondering about ordering one (if they were still available).

It has taken me over two months since I bought it, but the Janome is now set up in my sewing room. And the extra flat surface of the extension table makes working on fiddly things like the next Bloom block easier.

New Arrival

Today I went to Geelong, and this came back home with me:

It is a Janome Memory Craft 6500P. I've never owned a computerised machine before. I read lots of online reviews of this model before I went to look at it. This one was originally purchased in May 2010, but sadly its owner's sight has deteriorated to the point where she can't sew, and in fact has had to go into care. Her daughter was selling the machine. I took a few bits of fabric and some thread with me to test its functions, like buttonholes, some fancy stitches, and sewing binding on a quilt (those off-cuts from my challenge were handy for that). The machine did everything beautifully, and very quietly! A couple of the feet are missing, but are easy to replace.

It is very solid, so I won't be moving it around once I get it set up in my sewing room!

New Glasses

Good-bye old scratched glasses, hello new shiny ones!

The new ones are hard to photograph. They are blue and shiny red, and the colour appears to change as the light hits them from different angles. They are definitely not the ugly men's glasses that were all the the first couple of optometrists had to offer me. I love them!

Finger Light

Today at Sit and Sew, one of the other quilters showed us a purchase she had made at the Craft and Quilt Show:

A finger light! I didn't see those when I was looking around at the show. I hadn't seen one in real life before, only on the internet. Various sites sell them in sets of multi-coloured lights, but for sewing only the white would be useful. An inidentified stand had just the white ones, for $3 each or 5 for $10. They take hearing-aid batteries, but I don't know if the batteries are replaceable, or how long they last. It is something that looks like it could be handy, but I suspect that they are the sort of item that will just add to the world's plastic waste problems.

Holes

The post-hole digger has had a work-out today:

Making holes for these posts:

Posts are sitting loose in the holes so far - do not panic about their irregular orientation! They are to protect the new water tank (behind the plastic one) from any wildly reversing vehicles.

Welcome Home. And Comments Chaos

Welcome home to my trusty Elna Lotus!

It has been out of action since the 29th of March - nearly 8 weeks. The problem wasn't in the foot control, as I had suspected. It was a burnt out capacitor in the motor somewhere. I actually got it back earlier this week, but late today was the first chance I had to set it up and do some sewing. It is so nice to have my old friend back home again.

Ignore that sticker from Statewide on the machine. I do not endorse them as machine repairers. They put that sticker there in 2009 and it has a permanent adhesive so I haven't been able to remove it yet.

Comments.

If you have left a comment since some time yesterday, I have not received any notification. If you are also a Blogger user, you may have noticed the same thing on your own blog. Thank you, Google! Presumably this is something to do with changes made for the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) on 25th May. But there are no answers on the Google Support site, only a lot of bloggers asking what on earth is going on.

I will try to reply to comments where I can, but it is quite likely I will miss some. So please excuse me, I'm not deliberately ignoring you! I hope Google can sort this out quickly, because it is a bit of a nuisance.

AQC

The Australasian Quilt Convention opened today in the Exhibition Building in Carlton. I volunteered for white glove duty, which meant I could get into the show free, and also get up close and personal with the quilts.

This is me getting my hands on a quilt I never expected to see in real life. It was made by Cherry, a blogging friend in the US.  I watched this quilt being made on her blog. You can see her inspiration here, some early progress here, more here, and the finished quilt here. I was very excited when I found out that Cherry's Van Gogh entry was in the group of finalists that were touring to AQC. I was planning to get a photo with my hands all over the quilt, but that was thwarted when it was hung in the top row!

There were lots of amazing quilts on display, but by the time I had done my 2 hours duty, I was too overwhelmed to think sensibly about taking some photos. 

The only thing I was interesting in looking for among all the vendors was a thimble. I was looking for the leather stick-on ones which a couple of people recommended to me. But no-one seemed to have them for sale. However, I did find the one in this photo at one of the Japanese vendors:

The needle threaders were not from the show - I popped into Daiso on the way back to the station to see if they had any thimbles. No luck, but I've been having a lot of difficulty threading needles lately, so these were a good find.

My only other purchase for the day, apart from refreshments, was these:

I do love mochi! I've only found one shop in Ballarat that sells them, and the price there is more than double the city price, so I like to stock up when I'm in town.

Machinery

This morning this big truck came to visit us:

Or more accurately, came to visit our waste treatment plant. The system has a service visit every three months. At the last inspection the technician informed us the tanks needed pumping out. It is 3 years since the plant was installed, (It is strange looking back at the linked post and seeing that 3 years ago there was no house here) but of course it has only been connected up and operating for about two and a half years.

*******************

Last Thursday my trusty Elna Lotus started sewing flat out all by itself while I wasn't even sitting at it. I think the foot control has a short in it. I've looked for replacements online, and I can buy one from Germany for about $120.  I'll have to think about that.

I used the treadle machine to finish the blocks I was making on Thursday, but it isn't very portable for going to sit & sew days. So today I pulled out my Singer 222K Featherweight, and spent time giving it a good oiling and a clean-out.

Its light doesn't work, which wasn't surprising. However a replacement LED bulb I had doesn't work either. More investigation will be needed into whether both bulbs are faulty or there is an electrical issue in the machine. Occasionally the motor seems to slip when I start sewing, and when I tried reverse the motor did the same thing. But it is a beautiful little machine, and it sewed this week's square of my year quilt onto last week's very nicely. It is light (although not really as light as a feather) and conveniently transportable in its carry box, so will be good for taking to sewing days if I can get the light working.

Later today I had to be in Ballarat for a meeting, and I popped into the Statewide Sewing Centre shop. I was a bit tempted by a new machine, but the saleslady did herself out of a sale by telling me they could put a new foot-control onto the Elna's cord for $68. So I'll be getting that done anyway.

Holes in Things

The labels I had for sewing onto the little quilts I finished the other day were printed on some very tough fabric. I managed to put a hole near the top of my middle finger:

Not an easy photo to take!

I wasn't even aware that I use my middle finger when hand-sewing. But there you go, I push the needle with this finger. And after I got the needle stuck in the hole several times, I had to stop hand-sewing. Maybe it is time for a thimble!

I've never worn a thimble, although I know I have a couple somewhere. But of course I couldn't find them.

Yesterday after a trip to the dentist where he informed me I have a two teeth with holes that need filling (actually a couple of fillings that need to be removed and replaced), I went shopping for a thimble but couldn't find one that fitted me.

Today I was in a different part of town, and found this one:

It's not ideal, as the metal cap is on the fingertip. But as you might see in the photo above, I'm not using the tip of my finger to push the needle. At least I can do some sewing for now, and when I go to AQC next week I will look for a better option. Any recommendations for brands or styles of thimble?

As if holes in my teeth and my finger were not enough, this also happened today:

Fortunately it could be repaired and I didn't need to buy a new tyre.

This is the fourth punctured tyre I've had since I started this blog!
2009
2015
2015 again
Am I just unlucky?

Useful Gift

Last Christmas one side of the family ran a Kris Kringle instead of gifts for all. Our price limit was $5 to $10, so it wasn't an expensive activity! As the presents were opened in turn, we played one of those "steal the gift" games which can be so frustrating. I took along some Lindor balls, which one of the nieces was very happy to end up with. When it was my turn, I stole this gift:

I thought a little light box could be very useful for tracing patterns and the like. Of course it was stolen off me later, but by someone else who lives in this house so I ended up with it anyway! Whoever contributed it to the game over-spent - these cost $15 at Kmart.

Today I found another handy use for it. I started working on a project which includes some paper foundation piecing. Placing the papers face-down on the light box:

 Made it easy for me to put a dab of glue behind piece 1, then position the fabric:

 Thirty-six times!

For Sitting and Sewing

A couple of weeks ago amongst the junk mail that arrive in my inbox was a review of a new product called the "Lap App". It is a little table for your lap. It has spool pins, and a magnet for holding pins and needles, and a few other features. Here's the link for the details: Lap App Road Test. Here's a photo from that review:

I thought it was a cute idea, until I tracked down the price and found it was $130 (and with a 4-week wait for orders).

However, there is a handy woodworker in the family, so I showed it to him, and today at a sit & sew day I made a cover for my very own portable sewing table:

I used Jodie Carleton's "Sewing School" fabric for the cover.

Notice the extras: I have 5 spool pins, not just three. And 5 magnets, too!

I noticed that another Australian retailer is now selling an unfinished, uncovered version for $59, plus $12 postage. They will probably pop up everywhere now.

Creepy

Meet "Creepy"; an Aldi special this week. Tool or toy?

I don't normally name machines, but this little guy seemed to need one. He creeps along, with his little whiskers spinning around, collecting up dog hair and other detritus. He is a bit like a crab. The dogs aren't very impressed with him, but they tolerate him better than the regular vacuum cleaners. And he did find several of Dot's balls that had disappeared under furniture, so that made her happy.

What do you think? Tool or toy? My initial thought was "toy", but he can get under beds and cupboards that a regular cleaner can't reach, so maybe...

Posts

Digging holes - another use for a tractor:

Proving yet again it is a tool, not a toy!

Here the tractor is being a wheelbarrow, carrying bags of cement:

And two posts are installed with invaluable assistance from our neighbour Reg.

Machine Woes

Ever have times when it seems machinery hates you? I've been that way this week.

I started quilting my recent mystery quilt, and all was going OK until on Monday afternoon the bobbin ran out. I wound a new bobbin, but the winder didn't stop automatically the way it should, and there was too much thread on the bobbin before I stopped it.  I removed what I thought was enough thread, but actually wasn't. When I pushed the bobbin into its case (little hint there - if it doesn't just drop in, that's a sign of a problem!) it wouldn't rotate properly. And then I couldn't get it out of the case.

Eventually I managed to lever it out with the help of a screw-driver. But that put little nicks in the bobbin. So in my attempt to not waste too much thread, I destroyed a bobbin. Cost so far: $5 (plus a bit of thread).

On Tuesday I had other stuff to do, so couldn't get back to the problem until today. First I wound the thread off the wrecked bobbin onto a new one. Most of it, anyway. This time the bobbin winder stopped correctly. Then I did some quilting on a practice piece, but couldn't get the tension adjusted correctly. It would sew OK for a short distance, then jam up with the bobbin thread too tight to feed. And when I removed the bobbin case from the machine, there was an extra loop of thread out of the edge of the case that shouldn't have been there. This happened a couple of times. Perhaps the bobbin case was also damaged? (Cost of new bobbin case, $119.)  I rang the dealer in Geelong and spoke to their service department, who suggested I take the whole machine in for them to look at. So after lunch, I packed the machine up, popped it in the car, and drove the 75km to Geelong.


Of course the machine worked fine for him. No jams, no tension problems. I don't need a new bobbin case. But he did make one adjustment:

He moved the pre-tensioning bit so that instead of pointing straight down, it is at this angle. He said not to use the little hook between the pre-tensioner and the tension disks. According to him, this way the thread will flow through the machine better.

He also said my bobbin tension was too low, which may have happened when I was messing around trying to get the jammed bobbin out, or may have always been too low. He cast doubt on the needle I was using, even though it was a new one I put in before starting this quilt on Sunday. He showed me a different place to oil the machine from what the manual says. It started to feel like everything I'd been doing with the machine was completely wrong.

Anyway, the machine is back home. I have booked it in for a service in about a month (the first time they had available). I hope it behaves itself until then.

Quilt Showcase

Went to the city today to check out the Vic Quilters Showcase at the Craft and Quilt Fair, which is on until Sunday. I volunteered for white glove duty, which meant I got free entry to the show, and got to get up close and personal with the quilts. But I didn't take any photos! There are some amazing quilts on display though, and the winner of best in show is just stunning. Worth seeing if you can get there.

My feet were very sore by the end of the day. Definitely chose the wrong footwear for the job, but I did manage to get to 10,000 steps before I got back to the train, so I could just relax when I got home.

My only purchases for the day:

A couple of pairs of gloves from Daiso, and some pins. The photo doesn't show it properly, but the gloves have three fingertips missing. Only the last two finger have tips. The idea is to use them for quilting, but not have to take them off all the time to tie off threads or the like.

The pins are for the curved piecing I am doing on my mystery quilt. My old dressmaking pins just didn't want to slide into the patchwork fabrics, so I treated myself to these very fine ones. They are only .4mm thick.

Losing Weight

Not that sort of weight!

Yesterday I went hardware shopping and bought a bunch of pipes and pipe bits, and these:

These Quick-Grip clamps are amazing. They open with just a light touch, rather than having to be squeeeeezed open. The occy straps are not quite what I needed, but they were the only ones about the right length. But I will need to head back to the shops to find something a bit better than these ones.

Today all the bits went together to make this:

And what they do is amazing!

With the quilt suspended like this, manoeuvring it is so much easier than I would have believed! A lot of the weight is gone, and jerks caused by the quilt falling off the edge of the table are eliminated.

Cost of hardware bits: $99 and some cents.
Easy quilt manoeuvring: priceless!

Men At Work

A larger-than-expected concrete mixer arrived this morning, with enough mix for the foundations of the fence across the back of the carport:

Foundations for the fishpond wall:

And a bit left over for the greenhouse floor:

Later in the day a new toy tool got a work-out:

The tractor now has a mowing attachment.