PennyDog Blog - Adventures in resin jewellery, business, patchwork, cooking and more...

Complaining to Gutermann

pennydog — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:37:32 +0000

This post was drafted on 22nd December when I sent off this letter. As I have had absolutely no reply from Gutermann and it is now the last day of January, I thought I would publicly share this and also highlight their lacking customer service. I think I’m going to switch to the Cotton Patch’s own brand of thread or maybe Aurifil- I’ve got a spool of each to try. For now, it has to be said that my machine is coping with the Gutermann thread after I gave it a second go BUT it is straight line quilting and the problems have been when free motion quilting For FMQ I am going to have to think long and hard before starting to quilt my latest project.

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I sent this e-mail off to Gutermann after an unpleasant evening of frustration and panic at not getting the quilt I am making for OH’s mum finished in time for Christmas. I was planning on having my birthday evening off, but no- I lost so much time I had to work through to the next day…

Hello, I am writing to complain about the inconsistency I am currently experiencing between different spools. I use the sew-all thread for quilting and I am now having to mix 38 with 414 as the large reel of 414 colour that I purchased will not feed correctly through my machine and it causes the thread to bunch up at the back of the work. I spent two hours changing needles 3 times, cleaning the entire machine, altering the tension and rethreading, changing the bobbin, etc but nothing worked. I then put in a small spool of 38 that I have and it worked perfectly, as have a couple of other colours I tried! I am on an urgent deadline as this is to be finished for Christmas and I now do not have time to go out and get another reel of 414. I am very disappointed as I always use Gutermann as my machine can reject inferior threads in the same way. Is this a discrepancy in thickness or finish between different shades, or is this likely to be a faulty batch? I would appreciate your urgent response.”

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Yeah urgent response Gutermann, not delete my message and ignore me completely. Hopefully someone from their marketing team will read this and reply. All I want to know is why my thread is not as good as it used to be, yet maintains a high price point. An offer of a replacement would be nice too, considering.

A sneaky peek of my new room and a couple more for the Pinterest Challenge

pennydog — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:49:33 +0000

I’ve decided that recipes I’d pinned on Pinterest count towards the challenge, but I felt that if I did two of them, that would make it count more! So yesterday I made cheese and spring onion beer bread- dead simple, no kneading, no rising, no fuss! Here’s the recipe.

I also made salted caramels, taking this recipe and sprinkling sea salt crystals lightly over the top I’m not sure how I feel about salt on them yet, but once dipped in chocolate I have a feeling they will work much better. I need to cut them up, but I couldn’t resist popping a circle out to taste. I’m in disbelief that they actually set! To make them exactly as I have, substitute the butter for sunflower spread and the cream for Weight Watchers extra thick double cream. It works! You will most definitely need a sugar thermometer though, there’s no way around that!

I’ve been moving into my new room in the garage. I still have a wall to paper, some skirting board to go down and some stuff to put on the wall so it feels a bit more homely but it’s getting there. Please excuse the clutter, some of it is crafty destash stuff I have listed here, other bits just need allocating a home. I love having a double school desk to use as an extension table for my quilting and the red cabinets with the textured white wall, I think it works really well! Who knew I had so much ribbon that I need two more hangers putting up though?! I can’t wait to get my fabric on the shelves and all visible for easy selection but I am waiting for boards to come in the post (I have been waiting over a fortnight so I am starting to get quite impatient).

I got a new clock yesterday too! I will give you a proper tour when I am completely moved in, I can’t guarantee at the decorating will be done by then though!

PS- that quilt on the desk that you’ve seen a million times before on here? I’m nearly halfway through quilting it, then I’m going to bind it by bringing the backing fabric forward and I will have my very own quilt just for me!

Cut away applique tutorial

pennydog — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:17:51 +0000

I’ve made a video on how I do cut away applique working from the reverse of the fabric. I call it reverse applique in the video but I don’t really mean that It’s by no means a masterpiece of the silver screen and the video angle does get better as it goes on I promise. Hopefully it will be useful still and not too boring. If it gets boring, just imagine I’m Kirsten O’Brien, it frightens me how much I sound like her on recordings…

Handmade and Heritage

pennydog — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:19:22 +0000

I thought I’d do a little blog post about Amiee from Handmade and Heritage today. I had posted about the goldfinch quilt I am making over on Crafteroo (which BTW is now trimmed and basted ready for quilting, thank you for asking!), and Amiee really wanted one, but could not forsee having the time to make one herself. I suggested we did a swap of sorts so I have now ordered a charm pack of the same fabric I used a layer cake of to make this so I can make a wall hanging for her in exchange for one of her amazing bird embroideries!

So without futher ado, I present said amazing bird embroideries. I’m getting a Jay one yeyyyy!

Sewing stuff- a bit of progress and a fabric giveaway

pennydog — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:01:49 +0000

I couldn’t wait to show you this. I finished up the satin stitch around the edges and I finished the piecing at the top to finish the quilt top. I’m going to quilt each tumbler different to the one next to it (this might just mean two patterns, but we shall see), but for now I’m waiting for the backing fabric to come before I can baste it! In the meantime I can decide on the quilting, sew on a button eye and square up the edges.

Also if you also like doing this sort of this, Ali at Very Berry Handmade is hosting a big “Resolved to Sew” giveaway! To enter you have to share your sewing resolutions for 2012.

Mine are to sew more for me- the above goldfinch quilt is for me so I’m on my way already!

I also want to learn to sew clothes- and I am starting an 8 week course next Wednesday which also covers soft furnishings (I might get some curtains made for my new craft room- yey!) so I am on the way to doing that too!

Anyway if you want to enter, this is the post and there are LOTS of prizes up for grabs- I would like to win the £40 Fancy Moon voucher as they have all kinds of bright and wacky fabrics, just what I need since my fabric collection seems a bit tame! There are FQs and glorious fabric pieces up for grabs to add to your collection, the closing date is 26th January. Good luck!

Mega destash going on!

pennydog — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:32:18 +0000

Shameless plug but I’m selling off a lot of stuff, as I’m moving into my new craft room! You will find my list over on this thread on Crafteroo if you wouldn’t mind taking a look? I’m updating before 11am each day so please keep checking back regularly, and all prices include UK postage! Everything must go! Here are some of the current highlights…

Marilyn stamp – £2.50

Sparkly black 30mm-ish buttons – £2.50

Faux jelly teddy mould for resin or clay – £4

To give you a heads up there will be lots of resin moulds added this week, maybe even tomorrow if I get the room a bit closer to being organised!

Sewing stuff

pennydog — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:54:12 +0000

I made this cushion for my sister as a belated Christmas present. It was going to be 7 rows of felt petals but my sewing machine was struggling to get in over the layers and I was feeling lazy, so I stuck with 3 and a blob in the middle. It’s not the neatest thing ever but I was so fed up with it that it will do!

And this, well I’ve not told you about this yet. I’m making a tumbler quilt from layer cakes. I’ve only got 3 more rows to add to the top. It’s a bit boring and simple though, so I’ve decided to appliqué on a rather large Goldfinch. It’s not done yet, I need to satin stitch around the edges and add the feet and the beak detail before it’s done. I’m videoing this as a tutorial for the Craft Pimp blog and I will give you the link once it’s up!

I also managed to do a lot of cleaning and bake two lots of my brownies this weekend. The floor is down in my craft room too so I’m starting to move stuff in (anyone want to take two Billy bookcases with doors on off my hands?!), more pictures to come shortly…

One last thing. If you promote your business on Facebook, I wrote this article earlier in the week, it might be a useful read if you’re not au fait with all of the rules over there.

Another long term project

pennydog — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:03:57 +0000

After being inspired by this on Pinterest, I decided it was time to pick up a crochet hook again.

I’m making 20 of these squares by sewing two Amy Butler charm squares back to back, blanket stitching and then crocheting around, so it won’t be massive. It should be do-able. I was going to use my sharp crochet hook and do away with the blanket stitch but it was struggling to go through 2 layers of quality cotton, so I left that for another time.

So far I’m on my third square. The first one worked brilliantly…

The last two I’ve had to reduce around because it’s been curling up and I can’t seem to get the stitch numbers right. I’m not even sure if this thing is actually going to be able to neatly match up with the other squares :S Oh well.

Husky Mushing

pennydog — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:23:47 +0000

I just realised I promised you a post about when we went dog sledding last Wednesday and I hadn’t yet delivered!

We had about an hour and a half of riding between the two of us, which was 3 goes each… here are the six dogs:

From front to back… Nanook (not pictured- she’s a white one), Koda, Minx (my favourite), Willow, McKinley and Dashka.

Ready to go…

My first go- two dogs, with Dashka and McKinley just going in a straight line… (rubbish photo, but it was late afternoon in January!)

Koda decided she wanted to go search the ditch on my second ride (where I learned you shout WHORE to go left- yes seriously- and GEE to go right) and had a fight with alpha female Dashka as a result. We tried again but they tried to pull me into said ditch which resulted in a girly scream, but that made them stop very quickly! So I had to go back and start again, this time with Minx, Dashka and McKinley…

Here’s OH with his three dogs on his perfect second run- you can actually see Nanook in this picture, she was a hard worker (and just a puppy too)!

There doesn’t seem to be a picture with me and the final team (Nook, Willow and McKinley), but I beat OH’s time because he ended up with Koda and she acted up again wanting to cut corners and getting taffled up with the other dogs leads.

We then stayed overnight in a teepee. I say stayed overnight as there wasn’t any sleeping really- there were gale force winds and trees blowing over, etc. The poles moved in 2 inches all the way round which meant the canvas at the top was touching the chimney which is a slight fire risk. As far as I’m aware they had to rebuild it after we left. The toilet tent blew away and the door kept gusting open all night. Needless to say I had a good nap when I got home!

This was me, in a balaclava in the morning after the fiasco of the night before…

Finish-a-Long 2012

pennydog — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:50:46 +0000

I have a couple of WIPs but one I have started recently which doesn’t count as a UFO (unfinished object). However, I started a footstool with Max and Whiskers fabric well over 6 months ago now, just after I made the sewing machine cover but before I finished my first baby quilt. And it’s still sat there- the stool base and a handful of pinwheel squares stacked on top!

So for this quarter, I am aiming to finish this and linking up to Rhonda’s Finish-a-long on Quilter in the Gap. By the end of March, I will have got my act together and finished this. And by then I may go back to my advent calendar and placemats I was supposed to make for Christmas and didn’t finish :S