Tell them about the Honey, Mummy!

You may remember my recently completed Yeti.  Look at that cute face!  I have a two day craft fair this weekend at the Arena in Picton, and I'm hoping the folk there will love the Yeti as much as I do, so I've made another one.

The Yeti with green eyes looks a bit like a mischevious little boy Yeti to me.  My new Yeti with lavender eyes looks like a helpful girl.

Once she was completed I thought I would use some honey fur I had in my stash.  I did not realise immediately, in fact until Pete pointed it out, that the honey fur made my honey yeti resemble none other than the Honey Monster.  This goes to show how versatile the pattern I created is!

When last I mentioned the steamer trunk I had removed the paper from the interior, the next job was to clean the exterior.  Unfortunately, the glue beneath the canvas had disintegrated to a revolting state, combined with dirt.  Bucket after bucket of filthy water was disposed of and still it looked disgusting, especially where the canvas had been torn and ripped.  In the end I had to remove the canvas from the side panels, it just wasn't salvageable   The canvas on the top, fortunately cleaned up nicely.  The wood actually looks quite nice, so it will get a light sanding and then some restorative Tung Oil. As I want to store, among other things, fabric inside the trunk it would be inappropriate to use oil on the interior in case it got onto the materials.  Therefore the interior is to be sanded and then sealed with a polyurethane.

I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Have a happy day!

Wooden Boxes and Steamer trunks

I was passing by a local antique shop last week, when I noticed two lovely wooden boxes they had outside the shop.  I love wood,  and like to have lots of wooden things around me. This got me to thinking, how could I used a box in my life?  Our house is, for two people, quite large, but there is a lack of space for new objects.  But then it occurred to me, I had been thinking of getting a sewing box to organise my sewing area. I know you can't believe that I would be messy can you - however, below is the evidence. 

There is no space left beneath my chair due to the tins of lambswool thread, buttons and beads, and the roving which has sprawled out of the sewing box which cannot contain it all. Then you can see my pot of scissors, pens, pencils and filling prodders, a bag of filling, a maple leaf bag full to the brim of felt, and a bag of material.  There are also plastic boxes of embroidery thread, and a woven square basket containing sequins, ribbon and other sundries.  It is a mess, and any time someone comes to the house, I am scrabbling to tidy it up so that the room is presentable.

Anyway, back to those boxes I saw, they inspired me to look on Kijiji, an on-line selling forum which I have used previously.  There I espied an old steamer trunk.  It has a green canvas to with wood battens and metal end pieces on the lid.  It is in a sorry state, the interior stinks, so much so that it has been banished to the shed so that it doesn't pollute the air of the house.  So the first job, with a mask on, will be to vacuum the interior, then remove the remainder of the peeling paper.  Then a solution of bleach, dish soap and water will be used to sanitise the interior wood.  Then Pete will take over and he is going to refurbish the exterior so that it looks beautiful.  Pete would have taken over anyway, so getting him to say he will do it from the beginning is a bonus, it means I can sit back and enjoy the process rather than be frustrated because he is pushing me out of the way so that he can do it, so that it is done properly!  Said refurbishment together with the trunk will form part of my Christmas present.

I will take photos of the trunk to show its current state, and how it progresses, but it has gotten much colder and I'm not going out to the shed at the moment, so the photos will have to wait.

I have been busy sewing.  A raccoon:

A skunk: 

Also I bought some material which just spoke to me.  It said Yeti.  Here is the back view:

The front:

And his face, I shaved the material so that the features are more flush to the base:

He is soooo cute!

Have a happy day!