Weeks go by so quickly!

Here it is Saturday again and I'm once more in the middle of dyeing. This time I'm trying to get pastels. I find it quite hard to keep the colours soft and hazy as I'm really a brights kinda person and my fabrics show this. But I need some soft lilacs and pinks and some sunset colours and misty dawn shades. I'll probably end up with wishy washy pieces because I've been too mean with the dyes. Oh well, I can always over-dye tomorrow. Any minute now I will have to go and rinse out and put into the washing machine. The moment of truth will then arrive when I take them out!

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I tried out the new foot and to begin with I thought it was a complete disaster. The cord refused to be caught down in all directions and especially when turning on curves. I followed the directions to a tee until I gave up in despair. I hate to be beaten so I asked for help from someone who had actually used it and produced an actual piece of work. In fact the same person who's work had inspired me to order the damn foot in the first place. She responded very quickly which was very good of her and gave me lots of tips which I religiously followed. But although I had better results they still weren't amazing. Then I tried moving the needle as far over to the left as the hole in the foot would allow and this made all the difference. It worked like a dream. The secret is to sew slowly especially when turning and to use a thick enough cord or yarn and not to sleazy a yarn either or it just mushes apart. The foot looked off centre to me so it could be that its a design fault that the needle wasn't in the right place to begin with. The only stitch possible to use is a straight stitch so the hole isn't large and there wasn't a lot of room but moving the needle as close as possible to the left where the thread comes out made the difference. I can see that it will need lots of experimentation with yarn/cord sizes and needle sizes and even sewing thread types. And possibly even the basic fabric that it is being couched onto. Nothing is simple!

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While the dye is out I need to make the Bara Brith loaf cake. So must go and get on or I'll still be cooking and washing at midnight! So what's new!