The hat boxes

The hat boxes have needed cleaned out for a while. As is the way with storage boxes they had become more and more stuffed with stuff! The stuff wasn't hats. I use these boxes for some of my sewing and temari-making things. There is a fourth, the smallest one, which is upstairs with boxes of fabric scraps. As it happens, only the middle two sized ones got a clear out today because during a break in the very heavy rain showers, I went out to do a spot of hedge hacking.

fuchsia & rhododendron ponticum 'trimmings'

The first box I tackled contained, among other things, bits of elastic and curtain tape, old, clean wool socks that provide temari filling, and the badge off Toadlet's first school sweatshirt. When DerbyshireDaughter and DivingDaughter were at that school there was no uniform. Nobody batted an eyelid when DerbyshireDaughter went to school one summer day wearing a teeshirt of mine as a dress. Toadlet only went to the nursery class there and the reception class and then we moved up to Scotland. She remembers the deep maroon uniform colour as brown and she hated it.

old socks

I've made enough room in that box for my jar of thread bits. When I'm making temari I drop all the thread ends into a jar and it makes a pleasing muddle of colourful strands. Every now and then I have a rummage through it for a particular colour that I've run out of and need a short length of.

I like the almost nest effect

The jar with a small temari and a couple more below. Check out temarikai.com for history and more info.

So! Back to the hat boxes! The next guddle stuffed into one of them was leftover embroidery wools (loosely called tapestry wools). I think I can find a use for these at Oasis. I can wind them into small balls for M3 who likes to change the colour she is knitting frequently.

Next, all the needles came out. I have quite a collection (there are more upstairs) because I inherited some from an aunt. The packet in the bottom left corner of this pic has the price 9d on it, so its vintage is pre-1971. I have not identified the use of some of her 'needles'. Does anyone recognise the two below and know what they are for?

They were in the packet shown but I don't think  that was their original packet. I've now slotted them onto the same card as some other varied purpose needles.

The other two hat boxes will have to be tackled another time.






Meanwhile the woodshed rose, Albertine, which I can now smell if I stick my nose right into a bloom, is thriving as usual.

Patchwork in progress

 The gales and heavy rain of the last couple of days are set to continue for a while so I've used the time when I couldn't work outside very easily for making some new coasters. They are now for sale in my Etsy shop. Their sizes are between 12 and 14cm square.

I also finished making a table runner, which measures 79cm by 28cm

the back of the runner

And then there is work in progress. When I took this photo, my hair, which I just washed so it wasn't pinned up in its usual twist, fell and swung across the camera lens. I took another but then decided I quite like the shadow effect.

After this weekend, which will mainly be concerned with archery matters, I plan to get out several large pieces of scrappy patchwork that I made over  year ago and decide what they are going to be.

Meanwhile the winds howl, the house sings, the hail showers blow through, clattering on windows and down chimneys, and this may be the best sunlight we're going to get today:

Restarting scrappies

After a long break, the scrappies are go.
When the weather is as dreich as today it's a fine thing to do.

Besides, I needed a new coaster

mug coaster

before I start on the big stuff again.