Recent content by Toddy

In all these years, and the calm organisation of it all is appreciated, I think your own clear unbiased and steady hand on things has made the whole competition a quiet pleasure....even if it's a somewhat frustrating competition as I try to choose just one or two.....

It's always hard, it really is. They're all really good, they're all on topic, they're all appealling..... M

We have had a beautiful May Day :D Just so lightly overcast that it took the glare out of the Sunshine, but warm and calm and bright. I made fire, just because I could, and brought in the Summer properly, but these folks, they really did bring in Summer :D...

Do smells trigger things for you too ? My moses basket was made of seagrass. I remember lying in it looking up at the clouds, and being rocked gently, I can still hear the gentle slap of the water against the hull of the boat. My parents had lain the basket, with me in it, down on the burden...

Before I could walk, on Sundays my Dad used to put me up on his shoulders and carry me across to the village across the river where my Grandparents lived. We used to stop off at the castle (less than quarter of a mile from where I live now) and he put me down on the grass....in those days the...

I have memories of infancy too. I remember being small enough to toddle out of the house and watch the blackbird building her nest in our garden hedge....it was just at my eye level....I walked before I was a year old, and I remember the next year that I could see into the nest, and I brought...

My Dad tied me to the clothes pole with the washing line too....to keep me off his tools while he built a boat in the back garden. He said that bairns ought to be born with a big ring in their back.....so you could hang them up where they could watch but not run amok. Years later I saw RM talk...

Up here the Planning Dept really don't want to end up in a snarl over something that could have been sorted out at the very beginning by folks just having a conversation. They're really not interested in having to involve lawyers. They're busy, but not so busy that they won't reply. The rules...

Sorry, that's a 'phone the local council planning dept and ask for help' kind of thing. The Council Planning Dept are surprisingly helpful. The other thing to do is to ask the local Councillor. Again, they're inclined to be helpful. And, yes, Scottish law is not English/Welsh law.

Keeping it dry and mould free is an issue. Decent foundations are essential. If you have electricity available, then a desiccant dehumidifier ( Meaco, Zambezi) is worth the money. It takes out moisture, moves the air and gives out gentle heat. It's a win/win.

Two other things that came to mind. Firstly, there's a big and well informed group of people who collect and use old sewing machines, and someone there will know and help. Pretty sure of that. https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/dbx1-needles-for-model-1213-style-machines-12x1-needles-8290835...

To me that looks like an Industrial sewing machine needle. That long groove is characteristic.....I don't know if modern ones will fit your old machine though, but it's another avenue to explore. Might be worth an email to someone like this company...

I hoped that they sold needles they had made on site, or at least in the UK but their site says that they stock John James pebbles....those are needle cases of different types of needles....but those needles are made in China for Entaco...supposedly to JJ's specifications, then checked and...

So, a very long time ago I posted a thread of recommendations of needles that I would buy. I am known to be really fussy about the quality of my needles, and the thread was favourably received. Your thread had me look again for such needles on eBay, and lo and behold, for up came a set from...

Seriously, do you have eBay ? and if you do, search for your equivalent of Vintage needles....specify carpet ones....and it might surprise you what comes up :) I buy, and use, vintage needles. I have sewn since I was three years old, it's my total chill out; I hand sew. Modern needles are carp...