Good Sunday Morning all!
I bought a new Brother Innov-is 950D embroidery and sewing machine! I love my old Elna, but it seems lately that it takes more time to get her up and running. Once I finally get her humming I’m out of the mood. A week ago Saturday I was ready to start a sewing project and she was not cooperating. I left my studio to find Dave to tell him of my frustration. Since we don’t exchange Christmas gifts anymore and just buy ourselves something we want, I had a great idea! Dave had already told me about what he was going to buy for himself so I told him a new sewing machine would be my present.
He thought that was a great idea. I spent some time researching online, and then with my friend Donna we drove over to her favorite sewing machine store. It helped that Donna has a Brother machine and loves it. Usually I agonize over buying anything, but after spending two hours in the shop taking her for a test run, we came home together and have been having a great time.
I completed this little purse – a project I’ve wanted to do forever. The next one I will make shorter. I used my Color Magnet material for the outside and the lining.
I’ve also been working on this project. More about it later.
Non-sewing related, Dave and I made some soap using some of the luffa he grew for me several years ago. Here are the slices in the mold before we poured the soap.
Here is the Luffa Goats Milk Soap. It has cracks from the luffa. We are starting to experiment with color so this is our first one where we added Annatto which we infused in olive oil to give it that yellow color. Right now we are experimenting with small batches to help tweak our recipes.
I mentioned in a previous post that I had one more scarf from Evi’s Silk Painting class to post. This is probably my favorite and it also took me the longest to complete.
I also did some weeding and mulching in the blueberry/blackberry area, getting them ready for their winter’s nap. I came across this mushroom and just had to take a picture of it. I could not believe it – had me laughing all the way to the house to capture it on my camera.
I used my new thermofax text screen on a piece of my Color Magnet material. Love it!
And with the cool weather, we are all snuggling together. Time for the bed flannels!
Well, that’s all for today’s roundup. Next week I’ll have a book review and giveaway. Be sure and stop by and enter.
Your fabric art is wonderful! The soaps are so interesting too – love it! 🙂
Lynn, Thanks!
Lynda recently posted..October 20 Sunday Roundup
Wow…your Elna looks just like the one we had when I was growing up. My dad replaced it when I was in Home Ec with my current Elnita. Does your elna have the cams for the different stitches?
You lufa soap looks really neat. Tweaking a soap recipe is beyond me for the time being…hopefully I’ll get that good one day. 🙂
Halle G recently posted..Pumpkin Minions
Lynda, I love your scarf! Did you use gutta resist? And I’m curious… did you dye the scarf or use silk paints? I took a class years ago that introduced me to gutta and silk painting, but never pursued it. But I really love the vibrant colors you got… nice!
Halle, I bought my Elna secondhand probably 25 years ago. It was the top of the line when it was new and the woman traded it in for an electronic or computerized. Yep, it has some cams. Cost me $500 + back then!!!
We keep making different soaps so we’ve decided to have about 8 different base formulas that we can make into anything. So if I want a Chocolate Almond soap I can use a coconut milk, goats milk or a water base. I could also take any of those bases and make them any fragrance I want. We also will have a “scrubby” base. It’s all about making it easier for us and we also decided to get rid of adding oil at trace so we’re testing our old recipes to make sure we like them.
Judy, Thanks. I used a regular water-based resist. However, it’s not the one from Jacquard. For the first class I painted the design with the resist. In the second session I painted the scarf. We used Jacquard Green Label. She steams all of her scarves. She said she likes steaming because she gets brighter colors. Thanks. Yeah, I was happy with it. I’m not sure I want to get into steaming. I’m going to go over to her house and help her one of these days so I can see how she does it.
Love that soap….gosh what a great idea. Nothing better than a homemade bar of soap and something scrubby.! Thanks for the visit. Austin was a blast. xox
Corrine recently posted..Mood Monday — Keeping it Weird
Looks like you’ve been having lots of creative fun! Does the luffa kind of dissolve in the soap, or will you be left with a piece of luffa after you use up the soap? I bet it’s great for exfoliating either way.
Leah recently posted..Shells and Succulents
Corrine, Yep, love homemade soap. Yep, sure looked like you enjoyed Austin. Thanks for dropping by.
Leah, no, the luffa will not dissolve. It will get mushy though and still usable. Thanks for dropping by.
A girl of my own heart, with a lot of creative balls in the air! Love the cats, and your experimentations below.