Mini Archie's June Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Hello!  I feel like time is (sort of) returning to normal because June feels like it's been about the right length.  I wonder whether July will follow suit? I hope you've had a good month and are ready for a furtle?

I haven't mentioned my first project at all until now, either here or on instagram, perhaps because I've been so caught up in the daily games of #WheresMiniArchie that posting anything else seemed a chore? After last month's Furtle, I realised my furtling had not been thorough and I hadn't mentioned two things I'd done/started in May - I think I'm on the Bad Furtlers list!

I knitted these socks for a friend (using my default cuff-down pattern from Regia, which comes free with Regia sock wool) and the yarn is Made By Penguins' rainbow speckle sparkle yarn in a merino/nylon 4ply.  I'm afraid you can't get it now as Lisa-Lou does a special range of dyed-to-order rainbow yarns each year and this year's have already been dyed.  It's still worth having a look as her yarn is gorgeous and quite the nicest yarn I've ever knitted with. Made By Penguins even has an app, which you can find in the Apple and android app stores. 

Here's a close up of the socks, you can just make out the gold sparkles among the rainbow speckles.

The other thing I've been working on this month is getting the background fabric attached to the nine patch blocks (see them here) to set them on point (I love a nine patch on point!). I've got two sides attached and the other two are pinned and ready to sew. These will be joining the embroidered Summersville blocks, once everyone has their background fabric attached.

It has taken longer than you would think to get to this point (even for me) because I had a problem with the bobbin thread when I sewed the first two sides on. On around forty to fifty of the hundred seams, the bobbin thread had snapped at some point along the seam, often more than once. This was usually where a pin had been but sometimes near a seam. The machine sews fine and the bobbin thread doesn't become unthread, it just breaks. Sometimes it breaks completely, other times one of the plies breaks and leaves the stitch hanging on by the skin of its teeth, but all those seams needed to be redone.

I unpicked twelve seams and restitched them with a different thread (Bottom Line (a 60 weight polyester thread), this time) and had only one break when I rattled over a pin (I always sew over pins, just not usually at speed!) so I was happy that the thread was strong enough and I then stitched over the top of the remaining eighty-eight seams with Bottom Line as I didn't trust the original thread not to break.  The next set of seams will be sewn with Gutermann Sew-All (also a polyester thread, 50 weight this time) and if I'm happy with it (I think I will be as it's what I use for dressmaking and I've had no problems with thread snapping), then the rest of this project will be sewn with it.


I mentioned that in my inferior furtling last month I'd missed out two things I'd been working on.  The first was the socks, the second was the backing for my ET Phone Home quilt (see it here (item three) on my FAL list for this quarter - you may notice that the socks aren't even on it! *hangs head in shame*). I bought this from Saira at Olive + Flo Handcraft from her backings section, which is well worth a look, and it's Art Gallery Fabrics and was only £5 a metre.  Yes, £5/m!! I know! Saira sent me all she had and it was just (and I mean just) enough for me to make the backing and pattern match. (Thank goodness for small repeats!) I had enough for two whole lengths and then split the remaining piece in half lengthwise and joined the short sides to make another length. I hand tacked the seams from the right side (I think there were two 90" seams and one 45") using a ladder stitch and folded back and machined over the tacks from the wrong side. Here's a picture of it folded, with one of the seams showing:

In case you can't see it, Mini Archie volunteered to point to it:

Mine Pointy Stick is useful for all sorts of fings!

Then he decided a close up was in order:

I finks you'll be able to see it now, yes?

Given that black is such a tricky colour to spot a seam on, he decided some better lighting was in order:

There, that's betterer!  You can definitely see it now!

Let's just say I'm glad that sewing is behind me, but it was well worth the hours of tacking!  (It's much easier than pinning and hoping because you're working from the right side and can see that everything is lined up - I'll be doing it again, hopefully on fabric which isn't black!)


P.S.  Is anyone else finding that there's all sorts of funny things happening with Blogger and picture/text alignment? I centre something and it jumps to the top of the post, then it's not centred anyway, then it displays as breaking up the text even though it isn't, then... I'm assuming it's to do with the new interface they're bringing in (which I've tried several times but unless you're on a PC and can hover the mouse over them, there doesn't seem to be a way of knowing what all the icons mean and I've lost posts and reverted them to draft more than once so I'm sticking with classic Blogger until I'm forced to move!)



Linking up to the June Furtle 

If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share. This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up. Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome. If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help. Please add the Furtling button to your blog post: copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXDD7-BYr5nXJtGn7HIFUcDUZfLGBTpazWKP8TCUWdkA6zd2285lbJX4aoMug6QyKDdxtxA-njWnhvf0GugU-An4z5lTFcqmYnae0Gb68FR0ZmydWYETGSa2oF1NeQDMVNwZBnUHTpsD7/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email. This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 15th July; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the June Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter