Sunday, August 26, 2007

Dearie me, I've been a busy bee this weekend. There has been lots of mindless quilting, which is always a good thing, it means this quilt is getting closer to completion, and that will make me very happy indeed. I have also listed lots of spare fabric and books and wool on Ebay, so that will clear out a pile of unloved stuff within the week. And I contemplated the pile of woodworking magazines, which are from the '80s and also among my treasured things, and decided there were just toooo many boxes and they needed to be rationalised. Of course I can't get rid of them, not when I want to make things like this one day; it's a swift, and I need one badly to skein the wool that I intend spinning. You know, when I have time.
I hate ripping pages out of magazines, I had the messy edges. So with these I got cunning and cut the spine off them first. I used an old rotary cutter, and made several passes until Ihad cut through the whole magazine. This is the perfect opportunity to slip and cut yourself badly, so it pays to go slow. I started the cut slightly in from the edge, and when I had all the rest of the spine separated I ran the cutter backwards to sever that first bit. It doesn't work to cut fabric backwards, but this worked fine.
Then it was simply a matter of flipping the pages over and deciding what to keep; anything worthwhile went onto the first pile, the rubbish went onto the pile further away. I am building up a stack of pages, and one night I will put them all into plastic sleeves and store them in a ring-binder. It has really slimmed down the stack, there are a lot of ads and product reviews for defunct machinery in these issues, so most of the magazines I saved only 20% of the pages. It has worked so well that I will tackle my quilting mags next. I bet you thought I'd dealt with them already! I'm all talk.
I used to work in a furniture factory, and I am capable of making simple things. These are two that have survived. The tray is just as good as when I made it in 1991, but the stool needs refinishing. Some nameless children covered the top in stickers, which have worn off and left disgusting residues; it must be 15 years old at least. It lives in my pantry, and I use it every day to reach things on the top shelf. Mereth will remember another set of stools we made 27 years ago; no-one ever went to use them without being warned 'Careful! They can tip over....AAAAGGHHH, I Told you to be Careful!' So finally they were thrown away; they looked lovely, Baltic pine and all, but were so unstable.

I'm quite proud of my first attempt at dovetail joints....
And yes, that's my other applique project, discovered when DS and I were moving a high bookcase and a box toppled off. Inside were the beginnings of a Christmas applique quilt; I wonder why I squirrel these things away in strange places. Guilt? Maaayybe.....

9 comments:

  1. Goodness Keryn, you have been busy, Flylady would be proud! You are certainly a Jill of all trades - I'd love to be able to work with wood.
    *hugs*
    Tazzie
    :-)

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  2. I hope you do well on ebay - as long as you keep everything fairly cheap, offer a few bargains, and sell in fairly large batches, you will do ok. And then when the parcels arrive from the US with all the lovely new fabric from the proceeds, trust me - you won't miss what you sold!

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  3. I have to admit, I haven't thrown the stools away, I thought they might be good for decorating purposes. I was their last victim, after all those warnings to the kids I stood on one, fell off and thought I'd broken my arm it hurt so much! They've been banished to the shed ever since!

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  4. Wow, you can make quilts AND do wood working??? I'm amazed. I would have thought one would have one interest or the other, not both. Now why would I have thought that?

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  5. More power to you for having the woodwoking as well as the quilting!! I always wanted to do woodwork too, but I guess it was not meant to be, or I would be doing it! haha.
    And, OH, I am soooo happy Mereth kept the stools! I was so secretly hoping they had not gone for ever! Even if they are a little lethal.
    I have kept a lot of glossy magazines in the hopes that one day I would decoupage a tray... I dont think it is about to happen any time soon.

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  6. Wow, imagine just stumbling on those Christmas appliques. Love the wooden things you've made and thank goodness you kept the woodworking articles that you wanted, I was afraid from the way the story was going that you were going to throw them out entirely :-).

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  7. Oh long time no comment but I have been here.......I recognise those blocks up the top ow is the quilting going.......would love to see when finished.........nice wook work.....I made a coffee table once but nothing to fancy........

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  8. me again.....sorry about the bad spelling.....I am tired.... don't you hate not seeing it wrong until you have clicked post comment

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  9. Oh I love that wood tray! and I love, love, love that quilt!

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