Snow glorious snow, but not in this post

In a previous post I showed you how to mess up a simple coaster, well this week I've gone one step further and messed up a notebook cover.  So, here's how to turn this:

Into this:

Looking a little "loose" and "crinkley"... It's a present for my dad (and I forgot to turn it the right way up!) who has just been made Chairman of the local branch of CAMRA after years of organising the Beer Festival.  Coupled with his footie team's colours, it is him all over!  Except he's not loose or crinkly...

I covered a little box with the fabric and put a little cushion inside to hide the mess in the bottom, this is to hold the drawing pins I covered for him.

It didn't turn out so well as the fabric glue has made it kind of dirty.

I finally got round to doing something with the Forever Friends bear I stitched, I made it into a drawstring bag.  It didn't go as well as last time as it has a bit of an unintended pleat in the back.  I didn't photograph it for you as I was already feeling pretty rubbish about my lack of sewing skills by this point!

I spent a couple of hours stitching up this Spitfire design for my father-in-law's birthday card.  The design came from one of the 15 old cross stitch magazines I picked up for £3 in a charity shop.  He was in the RAF as was his father who was a Paratrouper during WWII so I thought this would be appropriate.

I also finally did something with the Angel Friends stitchery that I completed a month or so ago.  I made it into a cushion.  This cushion has a zip in the top!  My first ever zip!  It was really easy...  unless I've done it wrong, I don't know what my major fear of zips was.  There is however a mistake in this cushion - the zip is at the top!!

Finally this weekend I got started on some knitting:

I've still got some more pieces to go.  Can you tell what it is?  This was my first attempt at moss stitch and that also was pretty easy, though I did mess up one bit of the pink part...  I got confused with the stitches and decreasing.

I've been feeling a bit down about my lack of sewing ability this weekend.  The notebook was a disaster and I'm sure it should have been a lot easier, then everything else seemed to go wrong too.  Maybe I should give up and go back to making cards.

Finally finished the scarf (free pattern) - and fab giveaway win!

So, the lovely Val Laird (visit her here) finally sorted my whole photo/post thing out by telling me how to email my posts to myself, cutting out the photo problem.  I still do have a little problem as there’s a limit on the size of photos I can send (anyone know a non-technical way to make them smaller?) but it’s a lot quicker anyway!

So, first up, I need to say a massive thanks to Cathy for the fab bag I won in her giveaway. 

I’ve been joining in with Cathy’s Christmas Countdown and I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous bag last month. 

 

Look at that detail and the lovely little label!  I love it Cathy and it’s under my desk as we speak.  I'm just sorry that my photos don't do it justice, I fell in love with it as soon as I opened the parcel.  Come on ladies, join Cathy for the final month’s Countdown by posting about your November Christmas present makes, it’s that simple and you could win a prize.  All you have to do is email Cathy or comment on her blog directing her to your post.

I’ve finally finished that basket weave scarf!  Ta da…

And here’s a close up (albeit an orange close up – the scarf is russet!):

Do you want to know how to do the basket weave pattern?

It’s pretty simple, I did it in multiples of 4 stitches and 5 rows, though you could really make that any number (larger) that you wanted for bigger squares.  I had to count my stitches – it had to be a multiple of 8 + 4 so 12, 20, 28, 36, 44 all work and I chose 44 stitches. 

Rows 1-5 : knit 4, purl 4 to end of row

Rows 6 – 10: purl 4, knit 4 to end of row

Then just repeat this pattern to infinity!

I also made my dad a fabric covered notice board from a piece of black and white stripy fabric, a cork board and a couple of layers of wadding, plus hundreds of staples and a bit of PVA glue.  He’s a big Notts County fan.  Overseas readers never heard of Notts County?  Oh, hang on, I bet you British readers have never heard of them either!  They’re a football team.  Certainly not Premiership material, I don’t know what division they are in now as they keep changing the system but it used to be division 4, basically a bit up from the Sunday pub team matches!!  Anyway, they play in black and white stripes, hence the black and white theme of his presents.

That’s it for now but I should be back on Monday with lots and lots of Christmas gift finishes – if not then it’s looking more and more unlikely that my family will get any Christmas presents!!

P.S.  Look what I saw in the carpark of my local Asda:

The holidays are coming!

FNSI results - sort of!

Hello and happy Monday.

I know I'm supposed to post my Friday Night Sew In results on a Saturday, but I never get a chance.  Better late than never though.  Except it's not as I've forgotten to take a picture! I had embroidered some words for a notebook cover for my dad, but as I then took it upstairs ready to be sewed to the notebook cover, I forgot to take a photo!  I will post it when the notebook is done. 

It's not all I did on Friday night though, I also made these little drawing pins.  Not great, but my dad should appreciate them!  They're to go with the fabric covered notice board I'm yet to make him!

We also had a bit of a Sunday Morning Sew In with my stepdaughter and her friend - both aged 11.  They were sitting right next to me staring as I finished one of the drawing pins above so I asked them if they wanted to make something, oh they did!  So I got out my basket of felt and fetched down The Cute Book and Felties and asked them to choose one each.

Abi decided to make the panda, but with purple and white felt, and Alex wanted to make a monkey, with an orange face.  I quite enjoyed teaching them to sew, despite the chorus of "I can't do it!" when threading the needle, tying a knot, doing an overstitch!!  Here are the results:

I made sure to tell Mr Crafter'sApprentice to say they were fantastic, just in case he forgot!!  It was so hard resisting the urge to snatch the needle out of their hands and do it myself! 

The rest of the weekend was taken up with family stuff, but I did get a chance to get some cards made as the girls wanted to make cards.  I took them into my craft room and let them use my stuff for the first time, vetted of course, there were many things they couldn't use, but with a stash like mine, there was a LOT of stuff they could use.  Again we had a chorus of "I can't do it!" about double sided tape and cutting out stickers and they refused to follow my advice of placing things on the card and getting the overall design right before sticking anything down!

I didn't think to take a photo of their cards, but here are mine.

Masculine cards are hard to make so I'm always pleased when I come up with not one, but two designs.

Sorry about the photo quality.

I've been making cards for many years but over the last year had lost my urge and my creativity.  Now that I'm knitting, crocheting, embroidering, cross stitching and sewing like it's going out of fashion, I find it really easy to make a card and so inspiring.  Not sure how that works!

Blogger's back! Birthday stuff, craft book finds and finished things

Blogger didn't let me post yesterday or this morning, but it's finally let me in!  I'm still having to upload one photo, then save the post, go to a new screen and come back to edit the post to put in the next photo - so frustrating!

Anyway, without further ado, let me introduce you to the new love of my life, move over hubby!  This little baby was my birthday present from my wonderful mum and dad.  She's a Husqvarna Viking Emerald E116.  She's amazing!  I love her so much!

She doesn't have a name yet as I'm hoping one will suggest itself to me!  Mum also bought me some bobbins and made this gorgeous little bag to keep them in.

Look at that Herringbone stitch on the back!  She thinks she's not creative and has no talent?!?

Below are presents from my brother and husband.  I'm so excited about that calendar, I haven't opened it yet as I can't help thinking I should wait until 1st January, let's see how that goes! 

Hubby also bought me this ironing board and iron.  I had asked for them but took great delight in telling my family he'd bought me an iron for my birthday! So why would I want an iron??

Just look at the size of it!  Those are my embroidery scissors next to the iron for scale.  It's perfect for appliqué.

For my birthday day out we went to Scarthin Bookshop in Cromford, Derbyshire by Sir Richard Arkwright's mill.  It's an amazing book shop packed with old and new books on shelves which are everywhere, in little rooms, nooks and crannies, up the stair well.  I picked up these old craft books.

And the star of the show:

There is no date inside so I'm not sure how old it is, but looking inside, I'd guess thirties.  Check out these pages:

Perhaps not the modern definition of "lingerie"!

 I put my new mini iron to good use and did some appliqué for the alphabet chart I'm making for Rebecca.  I've decided though that it wont be done in time for Christmas if anyone else is getting a gift so will have to be a "just-because" present after Christmas.  I did "I":

And I started "H" which is now half embroidered.

I also finally finished my Forever Friends cross stitch.  I didn't enjoy it at all.  The threads were pale yellow and pale cream on a white background!  Nightmare...  I am happy with how it turned out.  This will be made into a little draw-string bag for my mother in law.  Is it drawer-string or draw-string?  Neither seems right.

I've also been working on the scarf which isn't that colour (neither is my living room floor yellow!)

It's now 110cm long!  I'm so bored of it, I hope it's over soon!

That's all for now.  I've got a busy weekend ahead so I don't know if I'll get much done, but I'm really starting to panic about Christmas, especially as it's my dad's birthday next week and my father-in-laws in 3 weeks and they're both really hard to buy/make for, I'd better get started... 

help needed!

Can I pick your brains?  I want to make some gifts from felt from Quilt a Gift.  It calls for wool felt.  Having done a bit of a search, there is 100% wool felt which is way out of my price range and there are 30/70 and 20/70 wool/synthetic mixes.  Are these mixes what I call acrylic felt?  The stuff you can buy for 50p in Hobbycraft?  I really need some advice as I'm going to have to purchase online as I don't know anywhere that stocks it.

In other news, I've just subscribed to Homespun Australia!  They emailed me after I'd had a bit of a moan about not being able to get hold of it in the UK and told me where I could subscribe.  I "accidentally" also subscribed to Handmade Australia.  Oh, and then I subscribed to Making and an American craft magazine which I can't remember the title of so that will be exciting when it comes!!  I've also just bought Homestyle Sewing which isn't available on subscription yet - I went a bit mad with the magazines!   I do love them though and Crafts Beautiful is getting VERY card-making heavy.

Enough with the magazine waffle!

Productive Saturday

It has just taken me half an hour to upload these photos to Blogger.  I'm hating having to go out of the post each time, to another screen, then back to the post just to upload a single photo!  More frustrating is the fact I uploaded all these yesterday and Blogger stole them!

Something very exciting happened today.  I was sneakily checking my emails and saw that I've won a giveaway!!  My first!  I won a gorgeous bag over on Cathy's Blog.  Click here to visit Cathy and join in her Christmas challenge.  Come on girls, last push before December is on us and there are millions of things to do.

So, without further ado.  On Thursday night I "mastered" the crocheted flowers - well they kind of look like flowers so that will do for me!  I used Rowan HandKnit Cotton in the end and they seemed to hold their shape better.  What do you think?

 I went to the Craft Show on Friday, and on Saturday I spent the day sewing and making.  Luxury weekend!  I finished mum's birthday presents.  First up is a little pouch to hold her sewing machine accessories.  It matches the sewing machine cover I made. 

Did you spot the deliberate mistake?  Yep, I just can't seem to keep my animals the right way up!

The lining fabric matches the lining on the sewing machine cover.

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out as I didn't have a pattern.   I then made a little pin cushion to match.

It had to feature a pig as they are her favourite.  The back is in the lining fabric again.

And yes, I did even manage to mess a pin cushion up!  I hate slip stitching by hand, it's so messy, so I decided to stitch it on the machine.  It would have been a neat little line, except that the first two times I sewed it, I missed the fabric on the back!

Despite the problems, it only took 10 minutes to knock up so I made myself one too with this lovely Matroyshka fabric.  It has a red backside.  I do want to make a fancy pin cushion at some point, but this will do until then.

Next up was a needle book.  I took the pattern from Cath Kidston's Sew! but changed it a little to suit.

The inside has felt pages.  I made a mistake at first and cut the first one too small, but it worked out in the end...

Except for the fact the ribbon is upside down!  A mistake every single project.

Finally, I made a set of little notecards, they measure 9.5cm x 6.5cm.

And then I made a birthday card.  This is the first time I've machine sewn on paper and I loved it!  My cards will be featuring a lot of sewing from now on.

I also had to make mum a card from dad, so I put those crocheted flowers to good use!

And last, but not least, is an engagement card for my friend featuring an iron-on embroidery and a charm from the craft fair.

It's mum's birthday today so I'll get to find out tonight if she likes them.  Then I have to get on with dad's presents!

Craft Fair spoils

Morning all,

I thought I'd start the post with my spoils from the HobbyCraft Show at the NEC on Friday.  We had a brilliant day (despite getting lost - Sat Nav seems to think that the Ramada hotel is the NEC) and came home exhausted.  I had a LOT of bags!

I bagged some coloured Aida and evenweave fabric, some Aida bands, some pretty cords and metallic thread, new embroidery hoops and a couple of bargin cross stitch kits.

These are knitted and crocheted bracelets - made with wire and beads.  I can't wait to give this a go.  There was a demonstration on the stall and I had a go at knitting with wire, it was quite easy though I think I'll need to practice the tension a bit.

Stickers!  I always tell myself I wont buy any more stickers, but I just love these little underwear stickers.  The black and silver peel offs are for my Christmas cards and I got some little wooden hearts too.

Essentials - finger lift tape, brad/bead organisers, tape runners, bobbin organiser, pokey tool, embroidery scissors.  Boring but necessary.

Fabric, yay!!  The ones at the bottom are half metres for the bag I'm going to make, then the rolled ones are fat quarters, the bag is a pack to make a bag (though I may not) and then I have panels...

...to make a mobile.  I also bought a bag pattern for me and one for mum.  She chose it and I'll make it for mother's day so she'll have a chance to forget!

A hanger for a panel, bookmarks to add beads to, magnetic strip, charms (a special Piglet one for mum, though I didn't use it...), ribbon, waxed wire.

Fab wool!

And last but not least, these gorgeous iron on's.

I have now had to publish this post 4 times, each time I do, Blogger rearranges it and misses bits out.  It's now removed 9 of my pictures and the text I'd spent ages typing.  I will put that into a new post and maybe I'll be allowed to publish this one correctly.