This week's conquests

Finally finished this quilt top.  It's only taken 2 years, sheesh.  I can't pride myself on getting that one sewn up in a timely fashion.   It's a pattern called Bento Box and was easy and fun to assemble when I actually sat down to work on it.  Now, can I get it quilted up before Christmas?   I'll have to decide whether I'm going to quilt it on an electric machine or the treadle.  It's a bit smaller than I originally planned as the second border just didn't look right, so I left it off.  I'll use the fabric for the backing instead and the remaining black border fabric for the binding.

Ramie - rainbow dyed sliver.  This was hard to spin.  Every once in a while there was a blobby bit of fibre which wouldn't thin out.  While I was able to just rip off those inches of sliver in some places, others made it into this skein.   It sure won't be one of the bast fibres I'll spin a lot of, that's for sure.  I much prefer flax, hemp and cotton to the Ramie.  

My yearly batch of sweet relish.  This year it was really watery and yep, is orange instead of green/brown as it normally is.  I think I usually don't bother with adding the Tumeric but I did this time.  It's still tasty but took forever to reduce and even so, it's more watery than in past years.   Maybe due to all the rain we've been getting? 

Apricots were at the market last Saturday.   I had enough for one batch of jam, a pie and 5 apricots to eat out of hand, from a 3 litre basket.   I got almost 7 cups of jam from this batch, but since I'd only prepared 6 jars, that last jar ended up in the fridge for immediate use.  I don't really mind mis-planning when it works out that way.  It's pretty yummy jam.  I really can't decide whether Apricot, Peach or Currant jam is my favourite.  I think it depends on what I'm eating at the time.

Fibre Road Trip

 The Fibre Garden is always a great place to visit.   I needed a few things to finish up my Master Spinner level 5 homework.  I could have ordered them online, as their mail order is spectacularly good, but a trip there is absolutely always a nice thing.  It's a 125 km trip one way though, so I don't get to do it very often.

They have a great selection of fibres, dyes, specialty items and even yarns.   I needed some hemp, nylon or fake Cashmere, some cotton and bamboo. I also needed a little bit of Merino, but it was a much better deal to purchase a whole pound of it, rather than just 50 grams, that I needed to get the pound.

 As well, I needed some coloured fibres for various novelty yarns and I rarely ever have dyed top or sliver in my stash.  I don't really like dyeing unspun fibres, so I got small amounts of a lot of different shades.  There is actually another green, but it got camera shy and I found it hiding under my desk after I took the photo.
  




They had just gotten some amazing dyed colourways of bombyx silk.  It was only a couple of dollars more than the solid colours of tussah silk.  I slipped two packets into my shopping basket, though there was an amazing orange/rust silk that I had to seriously consider instead of one of these.  The only one I didn't like, looked like someone had put a clown in a bag of silk.  That one just didn't speak to me.  There is only 50 grams of each and it would probably have been better to get two of one colourway to have enough to actually do something with.  These colour blends are so beautiful though, that that would have been far too practical.  This will at least be a lot of fun to spin.

A trip away

Earlier this spring I won concert tickets, for a Tim McGraw concert in Toronto.   It was to be held 4 days after my birthday, so we decided to make a long weekend of it.  We could  go to the concert, play tourist, and visit with my son.   To make it much more enjoyable, we took the train in, so we didn't have to deal with city driving and parking, both of which seem to be deal breakers with us.  We'll rarely go into the city if we have to actually drive.

The concert was really good.   I'm not a big enough McGraw fan to fork out $40 for a t-shirt to say I've been there and done that, but I've not been to a stadium concert in a very long time and this was a polished act, with a great light show.  The opening acts were okay and the only downside was a very drunk young lady, who kept leaning over hubby, to make passes at me.  That was just plain weird, especially since she was younger than my daughter! 
You know though, many thanks to Kix 106 for the tickets because we wouldn't have been able to go otherwise.

The next day, we wandered down to the waterfront and walked along the boardwalk.  It was a lovely day, really warm and a bit hazy.  It was so away from the city noise and hustle that it was a great break.  Hubby wanted to take a tour of the Toronto Islands.  I figured if we were going to do that, I'd like to take the tour on this tall ship.  However we missed the departure time by just a couple of minutes and it was going to be 2 hours before the next one.  Instead, we found this dinky little boat that was just about to leave.  It was comfortable, fun, with great commentary and remarkably cheap in comparison to the other tours.   We enjoyed it immensely, despite not being on the tall ship.

The waterfront is amazingly scenic, for a city that is.    After we disembarked from the tour boat, we wandered around and ended up at the Rogers Centre.   Being totally turned around, we walked to a subway station, took it and then a streetcar back to our hotel.  It turned out though, that the Rogers Centre was only a couple of blocks from our hotel and it took us much longer to get back than it should have.   But I was able to do a lot of people watching and boy, there are sure a lot of people to watch.  And some to watch out for too, as they race along the sidewalks, with their phone in hand, texting or talking, oblivious to the rest of the world.

Later that afternoon, we met up with my son and after a dinner out, he treated us to a Blue Jays baseball game.  We had fabulous seats and because we were in the foul ball zone, I was advised not to bring my knitting, so I actually watched the whole game.  It was quite fun despite the Jays being miserably trounced by the Boston Red Socks 14 - 1. 

If Fort Henry had been open, we could have stayed another day.  I've wanted to go to that particular historical site for years, but something always goes wrong.  This time, we planned to go and it's closed for 3 weeks, for some food festival, sigh!    The train trip home was interesting as we had to walk to the nearest subway station as the streetcar was broken down and we weren't sure we had time for it to get fixed and still make our train.  Getting home, like always, is a wonderful feeling.  While we enjoy being away for a few days, and loved seeing our son, who we don't see as often as we'd like, it's always nice getting back home.

Raspberry Jelly and Tattler Lids

It's just a bit early yet for raspberries here.  You can see them starting to form on the plants, but mine won't be ripe yet for another week or two.  I did have a bunch of raspberries left from last year in the freezer, which desperately needed to be used.  I put the frozen blocks of berries in a large saucepan, with just a little water, set it on the stove and turned it on very low.   A while later, the fruit was defrosting and the juice was starting to be released from the mushy raspberries.    I had looked for a period 19th century raspberry jelly recipe, but they seem to all require currants, which were not ripe yet.  After a bit of research which suggested raspberries are fairly low in pectin, I used a commercial pectin and the packet recipe.  I always use the liquid pectin if I'm using it, as it seems to set up better than the dry crystal stuff.

 I needed a new canning jar rack or a canner for smaller jars.  The jar rack I had, had wires spaced to far apart to support smaller jars.  I was tired of makeshift methods of keeping the small jars from touching the bottom of the pot, so I headed out to the hardware/department store to see what I could find.  I found a rack which would suit my purposes and was much less than a new canner would be.  What I also found were some packets of Tattler reuseable canning lids.  

I've read about these but never found them locally.  I didn't want to mail order these from the U.S., just for an experiment.  But, here they were, right in front of me at the store.   They were expensive.   The rings which hold the lids down are re-useable and until they get rusty, they don't need to be replaced.  The metal lids though, need to be replaced every year.   The ones I just bought before I found these, cost $2.88 for a dozen.  These plastic lids with rubber rings cost $9.99.  That is pretty steep for a product which seems to have mixed reviews, and a fair learning curve to get to work properly.  However, the re-useable nature of the item and the advertised BPA free made me want to try them.   I used two of the lids on the larger jars, since those are the ones I can guarantee I'll keep for home use.  The small jars may or may not end up as gifts, but I didn't want to give away the expensive experimental lids, just in case.


I had no issues getting the two lids to seal.   It will take over 3 years for them to start paying for themselves though and by then I imagine I'd have to start replacing the rubber rings.  So for a preparedness aspect (you know, for when the zombies eat the electrical grid and nobody makes metal canning lids anymore) and the less product in the landfill, they are an enticing product.  For the immediate financial outlay, I'm not so sure.  Plus living where we do, I may never be able to find them again, or replacement parts in the future, which would make them very expensive.

Will I use them?  Yes, sometimes but until I know that I can purchase them regularly locally, it will have to be the very once in a while extravagant purchase.   Besides, they are hard to label.  I can't just write on them with a Sharpie, like I do the metal lids... and they're a tad on the ugly side, but that may just be because I am not used to the look yet.   You know though, if a case fell off a truck and landed at my feet, I'd use them for sure because the possibilities for environmental benefits would work for me, even if the economics don't.

1830's dress

 I knew I would need an 1830's dress when I started working at the 1830's inn at Westfield.  Their costume department only had dresses for tall people and there was no way to conveniently and temporarily hem up 4 - 6 inches on a dress for a one time use. Last fall I was hunting around at a warehouse fabric store in the quilting department.  They have the reproduction prints shoved in with all sorts of other prints.  At least they are sorted by manufacturer though, so I had a starting point.  I found this madder/turkey red, 1830's roller print reproduction.  It was obviously discounted as it was just $7 a yard.   I really didn't care if I loved it or not.  At that price, a dress length came home with me.  I actually did like it well enough though.   I washed it, hung it out on the line and when it was dried, it had no wrinkles, so I rolled it up on a cardboard fabric tube, and set it in a corner.

Finally this spring, once the main part of the laundry room was done, I could move my sewing machine back to it's lovely little, brightly lit corner.  After my first day working at the Lockhart house, an 1830's farm house, I decided I needed my dress for the next weekend, when I would be there again.   I'd spent a few days researching extant examples.   Most but not all of the bodices had some sort of pleating or gathering on the front and the skirts could be either cartridge or knife pleated to the bodice.  There were a lot of boat necklines, but a few regular ones as well, especially on the few work dresses that I found.  I knew that I needed big, pouffy gigot sleeves. The gigot sleeves would take about a yard each. I knew I'd need that much because the 1838 copy of The Workwoman's Guide, had direction for making a variety of sleeves, most of which said to start with a square 15 nails on the cross, which turns out to be 33 3/4 inches, a nail being 2.25 inches.

I drafted out several different sleeves.   I was going to go with my second choice, a slightly less puffy sleeve, which I thought would be suitable for a farm wife to wear.  However, I couldn't get the numbers to work.   A much larger sleeve drafted out perfectly though and I settled on a third option which said it was included because it worked up so nicely.   It drafted out perfectly but I had to do a bit of thinking as it was almost a full circle of fabric to pleat into the armscye.

I assembled the lining of the gown as a mock up draft.  Then I tried 3 different methods of knife pleating the sleeve into the armscye.  There was no way around it.  I was going to have to cartridge pleat the sleeves.. ick..   I ripped apart the lining and reassembled the bodices, flat lining as the originals were done.   After sewing the sleeve and lining together at the bottom and underarm,  I found the only thick and sturdy thread I had on hand, a lurid purple buttonhole twist and started running my gathering stitches.  I did two rows of gathering stitches and I eyeballed it for regularity instead of marking them all.   It was close enough.  After gathering up the pleat, the sleeve fit in the armscye perfectly.  I stitched in each pleat by hand, although I only used 2 stitches per pleat instead of 4 as I'd have done for a cartridge pleated skirt.   7 hours later, I had 2

sleeves stitched into the bodice.  It took 3 1/2 hours per sleeve.  I did it over an afternoon, took a break and finished up the second one the next morning.   It was a lot of work, but the sleeves took spectacular.  I lined them and many of the sleeves weren't lined, but used a framework around the arm to support them.  Since that wasn't on my list of stuff to make, the lining adds enough support to hold the sleeves out.  The disadvantage though is that it adds a fair bit of warmth to the dress.  That will be appreciated in the cooler weather, but not so much when it's 30 C and humid!  It's bearable though and does look pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself.

Now to make a new day cap.  The old one is a wearable mockup.  I don't like it.  It's in some sort of cheap broadcloth, probably a poly/cotton blend.  I've a nice, half-white cotton muslin which will make a lovely cap.  I'll get the pattern from the Workwoman's guide, since they have a number of cutting diagrams and assembly instructions.

When worn, these sleeves puff up to a nice ball on the upper arm, with the lower arm being cut tight and form fitting.   Several other striped gowns, in similar patterns had the sleeves on the bias like that.  It was such a nice look I added it.  Not remembering how much fabric I'd originally purchased and not knowing if I could get more, I left off any pleating for the bodice.   There is always next time though :)

Around the garden - Colours of July

I took the big girl camera camera out to play today, to capture a few of the sights around the garden today.

 Black tomatoes are starting to ripen.  Cherry type tomatoes always come on early here.  There is one large tomato already ripening too.   Since the weather has been cool, I mulched around them with black biodegradeable landscape cloth.  I think it has helped a lot, holding in the heat.

 A goldfinch snacking on weeds.   I leave them for this purpose.  I'm glad I got the photo when I did though because hubby weeded them out the other day.

 I was disappointed last year when my hollyhocks didn't come back, but then I realized they are biennials.  If I want them every year, I'll have to plant more seed so they can come back alternating years.

Bergamot monarda, or bee balm.  I finally got this to bloom in the garden, after trying for a couple of years.  It should be easier but the chickens do tend to dig up my garden beds sometimes.  Once the plants are established, it isn't a problem.  I'd like to get some of the pink or purple ones as well, but the red is gorgeous.

I started these back this past February.  They are finally done, thanks to remembering to drag them out with me when we have campfires.  Once I got to the heel, they practically knit themselves.  I'm glad they're done though.   Next pair of socks on the needles will be potato chip socks - that require no brains to knit, so I can drag them around with me and not have to think about the pattern. 

A Sweet Little Ride

So we were out and about on Sunday and sitting under a table at a flea market, was a slightly battered bentwood Singer case.  Inside was a little 99k handcrank sewing machine which I've since dated to 1934.  I've wanted a hand crank sewing machine for years but not only are they difficult to find here, they're either in perfect shape and way out of my price range, or so beat up, rusty, corroded and broken that they'd never work again. 

I did a quick check of this little machine and the needle bar went up and down, the handcrank mechanism sort of worked and it had a complete bobbin race assembly.  I decided to take a chance on this little girl.  I offered $65 for her and my sweetie lugged her to the truck.  For a portable sewing machine, she does weigh a fair bit.

I found my little container of tools for cleaning vintage sewing machines.  Really, it's a tube of metal polish, some soft cotton rags, 2 nasty toothbrushes, tweezers, toothpicks, cotton swabs and a bottle of sewing machine oil.   This girl was remarkably clean for being born in 1934.   She was well used though.  There are lots of wear marks on the machine and bed.  Some of the gold decals are worn in places and the Singer badge is bent.  There is a bit of corrosion on some of the plated pieces too.  The underside though had hardly any oil build up and other crud to clean off.   All the parts moved and after cleaning, I gave them all a really good oiling.
The outside was a bit more work.  Between the sewing machine and wooden case, I spent a lot of time scrubbing.  The sewing machine itself was cleaned with sewing machine oil, to keep from damaging the gold decals.   I might hunt through the hardware store for something to protect and polish, but since it's a holiday weekend here, I was limited to what was on hand.
Murphy's Oil Soap was what I had to clean the woodwork.   80 some years of gunk came off with a bit of scrubbing.. icky....

I need to pick up a few little cork pieces to replace supports inside the base.  Right now I have pieces of folded paper, because today's a holiday and I'm still limited to what is on hand.   However, this little girl is a charmer!   Definitely not built for speed but the handcrank and slower speeds are very relaxing.  It's easy to get very accurate stitch lines with this baby.  Curves are going to take a little practice, but they were pretty good right off the bat.  This is a stress free way to sew.  I just need to remember to stop reaching for the foot pedal when I sit down to sew.