A few Sunny Days

Winter has arrived, some snow had fallen down south, winds brought the cold closer to home, along with it came the rain. Not so bad we did have some nice sunny days giving me some much needed time for wood work.

Thanks to a friend Alan who re-sawed some recycled Oregon and created a coffee table for my daughter. I had the task of sanding and finishing it finish is Wipe On poly.


Having a few bits of Oregon to play with I tried turning a piece with good results, so much so Sue loves it for its colour shape and size. Finished with a Macadamia Oil






I have also been working on a couple of other turnings one of Jacaranda with a rim of Jarrah and finial the same.












The other a road side pick up given to me by Brendon another friend timber is unknown and suited my first attempt at a natural edge bowl our daughter has proud possession of this one.

Baby Blanket for Sally

From multi-coloured weave to all white baby blanket for Belinda's future sister in-law, edged in satin.
Its too easy just to tie on a new warp instead of threading each time but when you are using the same threading its so much easier and you can be sure that there are no mistakes. For this baby blanket I used a commercial 2 ply wool in an off white and added some random warp ends of spun white silk caps. A straight forward twill pattern was used to weave it then cut off, fulled in the machine on a gentle wash for a short while, spun briefly and hung out to dry. After pressing a satin edging was added along with a label and it was ready for delivery and just in time for Leo's arrival.

A quick repair & a Pen

This old Elizabeth wheel which belongs to Joan Fischer needed some TLC the legs had become unstable one of which needed to have the T-nut removed and re-set and glued in with epoxy.

While I was doing the repair Sue was busy making Joan Fischer's farwell gift a fine slimline pen with Huon Pine and Emerald green clip. Joan has retired from Fairfield Spinners & Weavers and moved to Narrabeen. Joan was founder of the Farifield Spinners Weavers & Dyers Guild which celebrated its 30th year in 2008.

Garden Visitor

We sat and watched this fellow trying to blend in to his background and then hide to catch native bee's, sadly they were to fast for him.

Daughters Wedding Shawl

Sue spent many hours searching for the right pattern before knitting this into our daughters wedding shawl - she is getting married in August. The pattern comes from "Knitting Delight", a german Yahoo group for lace knitters. Small whit beads were added that were not in the original pattern. These were the same beads as used in the tatted edging for her veil.

In between and for something different Sue was making a set of lace Bobbin's for a friend out of Chop Sticks.

These have been drilled at one end to allow Kat to put wire and beads on.

A Gift

This NSW scented Rosewood bowl became a gift for an old school friend whom I had not seen since leaving school back in the late 60's. Funy how paths cross we met up again in hospital me with a broken Tib & Fib him with a cage around his shin. Since then we have kept in contact Many thanks Allan for the reformed friendship.

Ray

A Coloured Bag Weave

Sue started this shortly after the her last post its a bit like coat of many colours, well a couple of bags to go with it. The weaving is completed more photo's to come as it progresses.

Yet another Visitor

Not being far from a creek and where a road is being widened we seem to be getting our fair share of visitors either refugee's seeking shelter or just passing through. Birds and Bats feeding off the Palm tree fruit or the nectar on the Bottle Brush and Grevilia. Our pond is becoming home to a few frogs and skinks (a small Lizard).










This morning Max our Foxie started barking aggressively in the back yard so on closer inspection Sue found behind his Kennel he had cornered a Blue Tongue Lizard who has obviously had a run in before as his stumpy tail shows.

Now My Turn...

Prior Christmas I got to make a lid for a biscuit barrel which is in a previous post, this went to our neighbour for Christmas lid is made from a nice grained pine, finial from some scrap bits.

Onto a Pot-pourie bowl from New Guinea Rosewood with manufactured lid.
2009 saw me acquiring some Rosewood which was cut into 80x80x750 50x50x900 and a few rounds 210x80 150x80.
One piece thrown in the deal was this old bit of stump which was used as a wheel chock believe it or not. It was cut in half to reveal a nice sturdy bit of timber. Possibly to become a matching pair of clocks.

Busy Lady

Its funny typing this for Sue as though she is typing it herself, so apologies in advance from me Ray.

Christmas & January are behind us, celebrations throughout with a few family members birthdays in January.
Still had time to finish our 2nd Grandsons Christening Pillow. The cushion is hand spun silk which I purchased, the embroidery of the his name done by hand, the cross was tatting as is the one on the card.









Finally Ray let me have some time on the lathe and helped with drilling and sanding pen blanks which were to be Christmas presents, I enjoyed this time although some woods just don't like some finishes and humidity has its way of causing drying problems for finishes.
I made 8 pens in all Huon Pine, Red Cedar, Jarrah, 2 Flame She-Oak, Western Rosewood, New Guinea Rosewood and a Black Palm.












Then onto a Christmas Stocking and Christmas Bibs.


January and birthday's I made a scarf for a very good friend Fay who loves Blue.



















Ray had come out of the garage to find a White Dove on our porch it stayed around for a few days before hopefully flying off to safety.












A phone call from another friend in need of a 21st Birthday present saw me back in the garage using the lathe. A few more pens another Huon Pine, Tassie Oak 2 and 2 Camphor one which had a void needing some attention which some say has the form of a heart or shaped like Tasmania.


Still there are hours I have that I can do other things besides house work, gardening, looking after Ray etc.

I have been spinning and knitting a sampler section of a Shawl here it is pinned out drying.