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What have you all been making...part two...

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How lovely! It really looks great!

I never want to do mosaic ever again... my work decided to make one big mosaic together with all employees. But almost nobody helped finishing it in the end. So I ended up working on it two other people and never want to touch a tile again... the mosiac must measure 2 by 3 metres.

 

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I've never thought of mosaic. I'm making a little workshop area in the garage for my stuff that I forget about like tumbling stones, cutting glass and soldering iron. I don't know what to do with the bits and bobs that I have but the idea of making lovely stuff pleases me. I'm currently knitting a little jacket for my lovely boy on Hokkaido. The Hokkaido fox, or kitsune (きすね) is a big thing there so I fell in love with this foxy 🦊 coloured wool. The wool is so soft too. 

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Amazing mosaics, Plum and CT - when I think of mosaics I think of Roman villas so I clearly need to re think looking at your vibrant and beautiful designs. 

Lovely wool, PL. Don't forget to post pics of the finished article.

I have been making soap which makes for VERY boring pics - honestly! I muddled up my metrics and imperials when ordering palm oil on line and ended up with far more than I needed so, given that I can get coconut, olive and sunflower oils from the supermarket, I've ramped up production with a batch of 14 or so bars a week for the last 5 weeks and enough for another session next weekend. It's been a challenge to find space for all the bars to sit and cure for 6  weeks but luckily I have a helpful neighbour with a spare room. Guess we won't need to buy a bar of soap for at least a year but I am having fun playing with the essential oil fragrances. So far I have two batches of castile (just olive oil) with lavender,  a coconut, sunflower and palm oil batch with peppermint and another with lavender and geranium as well as one with bergamot for ES who loves Earl Grey tea! Next weekends will be clary sage and lavender.

 

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WOW😀

Can you all see me - I am the one lying down prostrate on the floor in respect!  I am not very practical, but I hope I am good at being the audience!

I think you are all an amazing and very talented bunch.  PL - that is such beautiful coloured wool that I'm sure the end result will be beautiful, you never know it might become an heirloom, passed down the generations, appearing one day on Antiques Roadshow! MT - everything looks perfect to me, and I love the colours and design, the hat looks super stylish, and very beautifully modelled! Plum - you obviously are very clever and very creative, able to turn your hand to anything it seems, you could be a one woman craft fair all on your own!  AJM - I haven't seen monochrome crochet alongside colours, its really arresting, it makes you stop and think. You have been very insightful using it for the Breast Cancer blanket, and I hope it raises plenty of awareness and money. Rachel - you are so good, I am presuming you work professionally, you must have oodles of patience! Soapdragon, I have a Portugeuse friend who makes natural beauty products.  She is keen to make things which 'help' rather than 'beautify', but so far she hasn't made soap.  She has just bought a very tiny tumbledown place, about 5 miles from me, with the express aim of collecting her raw materials from our local area, things like calendula, lavender, and various other plants I have never heard of, and making them in what she calls her laboratory which at the moment doesn't have a roof, and barely has walls.  I will ask her if she will consider soap; I think a girl should always spoil herself with her soap!

I love everything that I have seen over the previous 4 pages, but if pushed, my absolute favourite, is the giant mosiac.  Its so striking, and the amount of work involved is colossal.  CT - I seriously could see that in a museum, let alone an art gallery.  What happened to it and was there a story behind the design?

 

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Beautiful mosaics!  Love the wool too.  Soapy - soap is good, just show us the pile!  We'd be happy to see someone sniffing your results with a satisfied ahhhh look on their face!

Not much going on here, trying to sort out the scraps into useable pieces and lengths and in between playing in the garden.  

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Ha! I will post a very boring pic of soap at some point  - be warned Val and Plum ;):lol:!  Also my Kaffe Fasset cabbage tapestry  - it's only taken me 15 years - ho hum! No talent required there though as it's stitching by numbers and I still feel very humbled by other more creative crafty posts here which are far more talentful (is that even a word? It should be :clap:

However, I have used the famous forum boiled fruit cake receipt and adjusted for a simnel cake ready for Easter. I bought a block of golden marzipan so as to use one third for the marzipan disc inside the cake, one third for the disc on top and one third for the 11 marzipan balls to decorate. However, I so stupidly left the remaining 2/3  block on the work top and ES decided to help himself - arrrgh!  More marzipan bought today and lesson learned!

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I remember how I hated marzipan - until a German exchange student came bearing gifts - Niederegger marzipan covered in chocolate.  Oh boy did I ever do a u-turn!  It wasn't greasy like some Christmas cakes and it was delicious.  Since then I eat marzipan even Battenburg cakes!  I can understand the nomming!  But then that's boys - mine used to eat slabs of cheese!:roll:

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OH used to visit Lubek on business frequently .... the home of Neideregger! Gosh it's expensive, though! Lidl do nice choc coated marzipan too - and marzipan eggs at this time of year!

Will collate soap piles and photograph presently - I still have some refusing to unmould so I may have to resort to the freezer!

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Would love to see your soaps.  My son is quite keen to learn but I’ve never tried and don’t know where to start.   His hyper mobility affects his skin which is super stretchy, baby soft and really sensitive so learning to make his own gentle soaps would probably be a good thing .  

 

Took the kids candle making yesterday.  They loved it and ate really proud of their creations.  

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17 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

I remember how I hated marzipan - until a German exchange student came bearing gifts - Niederegger marzipan covered in chocolate.  Oh boy did I ever do a u-turn!  It wasn't greasy like some Christmas cakes and it was delicious.  Since then I eat marzipan even Battenburg cakes!  I can understand the nomming!  But then that's boys - mine used to eat slabs of cheese!:roll:

Home made marzipan that is made with quality ingredients is nothing like the stuff the show pass off as marzipan.  I love the homemade version that my Nan used in her cakes but can’t abide the shop stuff.  Just the smell puts me off

On 11/13/2018 at 8:57 PM, Valkyrie said:

I think I may actually have enough.  Just sewing the blocks in strips now - and on the last one . . . where's that last block gone?  ARGHHH!  All counted and matched and one has gone awol!  But here is as far as I got when I was on retreat.  The pics don't do the colours any justice at all. 

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That’s gorgeous 

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Yes, Niederegger is expensive - my sneaky treat, that was until OH decided he was working from home and I can't just pop down the shops now - even if I did, I doubt they have that in the Spar!  And that I'm going to work once a month turned out to be twice in 6 months.  Grrrrr!  Soapy - don't tell me about marzieggs!  Yeeeeks!  Dribble at the thought!:drool::drool::drool:

Heyyyyyyy neat candles Ajm - they did well!  Very fancy.:clap:

And thank you - I have sewn it together - still have the last row to do!  

I've seen the next one I'd like to try - looks easy enough - trip around the world which is slightly different to the one I made (and the first quilted ever) years ago, but this time it's like a colour wash scrappy version.  Well at least it's not triangles!

 

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Goodness - it would be such a shame to actually light those works of art! Much more basically, when we were involved in re enactment - before children - we made rush lights by peeling down dried rushes (which we picked when we were in southern Ireland many years ago) and repeatedly dipping them into tallow and lard to see which worked better (no difference and they both smelled terrible and smoked like whatnot!). Made us appreciate electricity so much!

Fab quilt/patchwork - so much patience and tons of kudos to you! I have NO patience and so require instant results when it comes to crafts! Am just about to start making Christmas tree decs from last year's now dried out drift wood in prep for December. I have a big box of assorted bits and bobs collected from Devon, Sussex and Gower in the cupboard under the stairs (having kicked poor Harry Potter out!) and really need to put it all to use before it takes over and there is no room for the hoover!)

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Sorry everyone.  My updates don’t make much sense.  Thank for being patient and working out what i mean. Eyes are messed up again.    

The rush lights sound like a great experiment and experience for children.  They learn so much even if the results aren’t perfect.   I have several blocks of beeswax from my beading.  Had to stop as I couldn’t see the tiny beads.  Also have coconut oil.  Thinking of mix the two and making jam jar candles with the children.  Not had much luck with pure beeswax as it puddles and extinguishes the flame

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7 hours ago, ajm200 said:

boys - mine used to eat slabs of cheese!:roll:

My son will cut a small portion portion from the cheese and wander upstairs with the rest in his fist.  A slab several inches thick is the norm.  Glad to hear he’s not the only one.  He’s a fiend for processed meats too.. salami, pepperoni. Chorizo or a slab of gammon.  To be fair he does balance it with a couple of carrier bags of fruit a week.  He wandered off eating a whole large cucumber earlier in the week.  He’s growing like a weed and appears to grow visibly overnight.  Hoping it stops before my shopping and his clothing bill resembles the national debt 😳

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Well fruit slightly more healthy than Ginsters or equally revolting microwaved food!  But thankfully he's into healthy now he's settled down.  Even eats tomatoes that I grow for him.  DD still likes her Maccy Ds veggie stuff - equally yuk!  And now she has her own garden she's growing herbs and a couple of weeks ago she harvested her 6 carrots!  She only has a tiny plot so I suggested getting one of those stackable systems for her little garden.  DS rents so he just mows the lawn!  Oh dear they are ageing so fast!

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Advice please, oh wise and creative ones! Now my Kaffe Fasset cabbage is finished I need to buy a feather cushion pad for it. I have heard somewhere - can't remember where - that you need to either size up or size down (ie; finished work is 15' square so I'd need a 14' or 16'). Does anyone know which it is, please? I've still not found anyone willing to take it on but want to have the backing and pad ready for when I do!

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