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ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Ailbhe
@ailbhe.ossifrage.net
430 followers 210 following 5.2K posts
she/her
environment, sewing, books, art
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ailbhe.ossifrage.net
While we were looked for paintbrushes for the sewing table project, Rob noticed this landscape...
A paintbrush which has been frequently dipped into paint and imperfectly cleaned. If you look at it right, you can see a background of blue sky, a middle ground of a white mountain, and a foreground of bluish, green and almost black foliage.
November 26, 2025 at 11:07 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
This is the next layer, which has been scrubbed. Smoke dirt doesn't come off. And we have no idea how old it is. The machine on top was from 1908.
The previously pictured piece with a much dirtier, darker piece of wood laid on top for contrast.
November 19, 2025 at 11:12 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Ok, the former and clamps worked. This is the first of two layers on each of four faces of this shape.
Part of a Singer treadle sewing table. This is the wooden cover which goes under the table to hide the machine when it's folded down. You're looking at the inside, on end, to show one side with clean freshly glued wood - each side is made of five layers and the outer layers came off each face in the mould and damp. Plus it's been in a fire. You can see the hole at the front for the forward side of the drive belt and the long slot at the back for the rear side. You may be able to see that the base with the funny shaped hole is a lot cleaner than the back, on the right of this photo.
November 19, 2025 at 11:06 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
It has a lock but no receiver! We'll have to find something for the lock to hook onto. I've removed it for cleaning.
A section of woodwork from a sewing machine table showing a circular keyhole and a rectangular hole in a metal plate A large bit of newer wood with no hole for the lock to latch into.
November 14, 2025 at 2:00 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Cartoon by John McNamee of piecomic.com: First image, captioned "Movie Love", two people stand in moody blue-grey tones in the rain, longish hair obviously wet. The taller one (he) has hands on the shorter one's (she) torso; she reaches up to touch his rain-streaked face and says "It's you. It's always been you." Second image, captioned "True Love": a bright living room with a bunch of white, pink and yellow flowers on a side table. She is sitting on the sofa. He is standing in front with his back to her, looking over his shoulder trying to see his own bum. His pants are down. She says, "It looks less swollen today."
November 12, 2025 at 11:46 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Painting the twiddly decorative oval (cartouche?) and realised it's a loaded shuttle bobbin case and a real of thread!
Close up of upside-down Singer logo worked in cast iron; right way up, it's an oval in three stages. The outermost ring is plain, and inside that is an upper arc reading THE SINGER MANFG. CO and a lower arc of probably-laurel-branches and inside THAT is an S made of twined strong, on an X which is structural not representing anything, and the bottom of the S has a reel of thread on it and above the reel of thread is a pointed shuttle bobbin pointing up to the top curve of the S.
November 2, 2025 at 11:58 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
I've started on my birthday present! It's a restoration project. Someone else did the sanding down the old paint, outdoors, earlier today. I started painting.
Visually cluttered image but the important part is a patterned plastic tablecloth on which is a cast iron Singer Sewing Machine Table Treadle Base in a mix of orange and beige and pale blue paint, rusty and sanded down in parts to the underlying metal. The same treadle base, turned upside down so the foot pedal is at the top The upside down treadle base, from the back, partially painted dark green The upside down treadle base, from the front, mostly painted dark green
November 1, 2025 at 6:22 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Just saw this
BBC News headline saying "Fawlty Towers actress Pruncella [sic] Scales dies aged 93"
October 28, 2025 at 11:10 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
October 24, 2025 at 2:59 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
These are the contents pages from Focus on the Past, from the 1990s. Junior Certificate history course approx ages 12-15.
August 28, 2025 at 11:01 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5...
Scene from Monty Python's stoning sketch with male actors playing women pretending to be men with fake beards and artificially deep voices. They're wearing terrible fake beards and holding stones obviously made of papier mache or polystyrene.
August 23, 2025 at 9:06 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
August 23, 2025 at 7:56 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Mended a bag by replacing faux leather buckle straps and carrying strap with cotton, with a metal eyelet for the buckle. I hope it works. The faux leather stuff is horrible.
A black faux leather bag with a bright stripy front pocket, showing the two buckles at the front
August 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Looking at the raspberries in the garden
A blue vinyl pool side with green raspberry bushes above and blue sky above that
June 18, 2025 at 5:01 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Eldest spotted this in the lavender on Thursday. It's tiny! Wikipedia:
"The mint moth (Pyrausta aurata) is a small moth from the family Crambidae, also known by the common name Small Purple and Gold." Cohorts ahoy.
Moth with spanned out wings. The forewings are reddish brown with a yellow spot, and the rear wings are much darker, with bigger yellow spots. It looks like a two-tone outfit with bright paint splashes near the hem.
June 2, 2025 at 12:53 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
I basted the side fronts to the centre back and the side backs to the centre front and I sewed one set down in the final colour at 20 stitches to the inch and then I realised. At least I hadn't trimmed and flat-felled the seams. It's all unpicked now.
May 21, 2025 at 3:26 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
In theory I'm going to sew today. But.
A black cast iron sewing machine on a table surrounded by drifts and waves of clutter -- some of it spilling onto the machine itself. Paper pattern pieces, thread spools, bags of discarded pill packets, hair accessories, fabric...
May 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
So this is the apple tree.
A mass of greenery, with the main visible colour being big pink roses. They're climbing all over a tweeny weeny apple tree.
May 17, 2025 at 3:57 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Because I was already downstairs I went into the garden and put Baumbad bags on two of the trees, and saw a baby ladybird, which is a really aggressive-looking thing. And bigger than an adult ladybird. I'm glad I looked it up rather than squishing them, because the roses and apples both need all
A close up on a rose stem of an oblong insect. It's black and yellow and kind of spiky.
May 14, 2025 at 9:11 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
There's a Calvin for this
Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" is in the bath. He goes back and forth and back and forth and makes a TIDAL WAVE! When Mom comes in, wading through knee-deep water outside the bath, he says "Beats me, Mom, maybe the seal around the tub leaks."
May 12, 2025 at 4:41 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
#MeMadeMay day 7, another top. This is the top that I made to pattern the bodice which turned into the red colour block dress. Here's the thread where I made it.
https://mastodon.art/@artbyailbhe/110743096759194314
Me in a blue daisy-patterned top in front of a wall with a white door and a big painting of a sunflower. The top is quite fitted around the bust, with a flared hemline and a v-neck, and small sleeves. It's buttoned up the front with a lot of tiny buttons covered in matching fabric.
May 7, 2025 at 5:40 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
#MeMadeMay day 6, a top made of French terry with a little pocket because I had a scrap left. I do wear this quite a lot all year round.
Selfie angle from above my head, showing my torso in a white top with an extremely busy floral pattern mainly in reds and yellows with smaller bits of green and purple
May 6, 2025 at 4:40 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Listening to a Temeraire book and someone closes up their little writing desk and I realise it's one quite like mine!
A rainbow striped notebook on a black background, which is the faux-leather writing surface of an open Victorian-style writing slope. You can see the brass hinges and the place the inkwell sits.
May 5, 2025 at 7:34 PM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
#MeMadeMay Day 4 (I didn't get out of bed on Day 3, so that was another linen nightie) is duvet dressing again - dungarees based on a Morgan Donner video. If I ever get tired of them I can make myself a couple of pencil skirts from the legs. Here's the post from when I made
Me standing in front of a white door with one knee up to show the colour variation in these yellowy peachy orangey dungarees.
May 4, 2025 at 11:57 AM
ailbhe.ossifrage.net
Screenshot showing "some days it's a relief to take off your glasses" followed by a book cover of "the president's glasses" showing an illustration of Michael D Higgins sans specs
May 3, 2025 at 5:53 AM