Sewing Projects

After what seemed like a crazy couple of weeks I'm feeling fresh and the batteries are somewhat recharged so here's a few new things to share.

Felt Ball

"Make me a ball" came the request from a dear friend. So, ever up for a challenge I agreed this was my fourth attempt. They say a poor handyman blames his tools but I blame the poor instructions that I got from my book. I had to get out a protractor to measure 72 degree angles for my hexagon, which I'll admit I cannot remember the last time I needed to measure an angle with a protractor since Maths GCSE. Failed attempt No1 looked like a star shaped ball, so not a ball. Maybe I hadn't cut them out accurately enough, so I cut a second set of 12 hexagons, remeasured all the angles on my template just in case and guess what ? Star shaped ball no 2. So I went on the internet googling " hexagon ball gone wrong" and while I didn't find any images that matched mine I did find some more detailed instructions. I undid both star shaped balls and cut out 12 paper hexagons and pinned them to the two halves of my ball and then stitched them together et voila almost perfect ball. It seems bizarre that not having the paper made that much of a difference. (Note, nowhere in the book did it mention using paper.) In one set of instructions I read online the writer had somewhat defensively written, if it doesn't turn out right you haven't followed the instructions.Anyway, here's Sanford eyeing the ball, he didn't quite know what to make of it if I'm honest.

 Project No. 2 - Use embroidery hoop

I've been meaning to try my hand at embroidery for a while now and finally made an attempt while watching Season 2 of 24. I sketched an owl using my invisible ink pen and kind of made it up as I went along. I pulled out what I think is a machine embroidered table cloth and tried to copy a few of the stitches. It's a start.....

Sleepy Owl

Also my new dslr camera finally arrived which I didn't use to take these pictures with but I did take the ones below with it. Learning all the menus is a feat in itself. Farley looks like a poster boy for animal rescue but he loves to sit on the balcony, snooze and watch the world go by.

Three Faces of Farley

Photography - Surf Groms

We were asked to photograph a friend's children at Surf Camp. It was a strange morning light wise but it's amazing what you can post edit. Here are some of my favourites. Mackenzie and Griffin were both very photogenic and it was a fun morning.

Surf Ramblings

Summer's here, yeay. The water is finally warm enough for the Spring suit which  I wore today. Trouble was my skin sort of stuck to the wax a little bit which was slightly uncomfortable. The solution is apparently vaseline, who knew ? It's these pearls of wisdom that I get when chatting to fellow surfers. I managed to elicit a "That was really cool" from an audience of four when I caught one of my few waves from that session which was very gratifying. It's not something that has happened before so I'll take whatever I can get.
The other day I met a photographer who was working on a new magazine called Boardtalk who also gave me a good tip about riding steep waves which was to be at an angle. It's nice to practice a sport that has time for leisurely chats every now and again. The dolphins have also been out a lot lately I'll admit when I see the fin pop up I freak out a little bit but as long as there is more than one I know everything is good.

Birdwatch

The other night I had the idea for a surfing bird series if you thought there's only a finite amount of bird
puns you would be wrong. I am steadily working up a few of the sketches and having a lot of fun doing it. Some of the surfing greats have names appropriate for bird puns which for me is a good sign.