Countdown to Christmas - April

This is my roundup post to show what I've achieved in Allie's Christmas Through The Year Challenge.  Not that much.  Certainly not one of my better months.

First, there was the playmat for my cousin:

Then the coasters:

And, oh, that's it.  Oh dear, only 2 this month.  That brings my total to 19 but so many of them are little presents.  I've got to get on this but not sure May will be much better as I have loads to do in May!

flowers that even I can't kill...

*Disclaimer* - there is a slight possibility I might still kill then despite them being made from yarn, after all, if I can kill cactii, I can kill anything...

I've been crocheting flowers.

These little babies are all from 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet.  I just used random bits of yarn I had lying around, such a good use for the tons of yarn scraps I seem to have.  I'm happiest with the blue and purple one, the rose (the largest one) didn't come out how I thought it would, I think the petals should be more behind each other, maybe I got the instructions wrong.  I have NO idea what I'm going to do with these.  Any suggestions?

This little beauty comes from Essential Crochet by Erika Knight (see note below about this book).  When I got the book I started flicking through, saw this pattern and started immediately.  It took ages!  I've used some cheapo acrylic yarn as I had no idea how it would turn out, but I can see doing these in nicer yarn, not that it matters so much for something like this.  I attached a pin back on the rear to make it into a brooch.  I'll definitely be making more of these.

So, two more craft books used.  This is my third entry for this month's Craft Book Challenge.



Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that I have some new books.  Probably not but I'm mentioning it anyway!  No, I haven't fallen off the not-buying-craft-books wagon, my mum gave me three books she'd found in various charity shops.


The Knitter's Bible Baby Knits by Laura Long
Essential Crochet by Erika Knight
The New Anchor Book of Blackwork Embroidery Stitches


As you can see, I got to work on the crochet one immediately!  I'm not sure if I'll make much use of the knitting bible one, unless some more friends have babies I suppose.  The blackwork book looks very interesting and I'll definitely give this a try when my to-do pile goes down a bit more.

Sewing machine cover #2

Can you guess what it is yet? 

Oh, I told you in the title.  Well that spoilt that then.  I was asked by a friend to make her a sewing machine cover like the one I made for myself - see this post if you are at all interested. 

I made some changes this time.  Instead of using the DMC light effects thread, I used Perle Cotton number 5.  Well ladies, call me a heathen, call me anything you like, but I do not understand the hype about this thread.  It's pretty much like any other embroidery thread, just not stranded.  What am I missing?  Other bloggers rave about Perle Cotton.

I used all pink buttons this time.  On my own cover I used a mixture of pink and red from my stash, but I didn't have 6 of one and 7 of the other this time and had to buy a pack.  They had no nice ones in red at all in Hobbycraft so I made do with all pink.  The tape measure ribbon is different too.  On my machine I used some ribbon I'd bought from East of India but I didn't have enough left so I had to make do with this cheaper version from the craft show.

I'd also ran out of the blue spot Bliss fabric I used for my lining.  The only think I had to hand in sufficient quantities was Lily and Will yardage which I'd bought for dining room stuff.  It goes well enough.  This time my lining is MUCH better.  Confession?  I made a lining, remembered how big it was on the last version so made it smaller.  It was way too small!  I had to rip it out and start again.  This second version worked perfectly.  In fact, on this second go around the whole thing went like a dream, other than the lining issue and the 4 or 5 times I was merrily sewing when I realised my bobbin had run out about 10 minutes before!  I'm really happy with it.
I decided to pop in a little pincushion as an extra.  What follows is not a tutorial, but I did take some pictures along the way, just because! 

I made a 9-patch square from 2 inch Bliss squares.  Almost all the points match!  Wahoo!  I cut 4 strips of linen 5.5 x 2 inches and one square 5.5 inches.  I sewed the strips together to form the sides of the cushion.

I then sewed the sides to the top and this was tricky.  I hadn't thought about those corners.  I had to kind of lay them flat diagonally.  By the way - notice I press my seams away from each other.  I always do that.  Everyone else says not to but I read one blog where it said it was better and I find this way the seams of darker fabrics don't show through the lighter parts.

I turned it right side out with bated breath.... OK, so the corners are lacking in skill, but never mind!

And ta-da! One wrinkly, badly-sewed, badly-ironed pin cushion!   How do you iron things like this?  The turning inside out made the linen very wrinkly but I just couldn't iron it without making it worse!

Side view.  Hm.  I think I've made better!  Maybe I should have put piping in the edges...
You also get a glimpse of my WIP shelf there.  "A WIP shelf?" I hear you cry!  Oh yes, of course, who DOESN'T have a WIP shelf?  More about that next time...

The cutest little bear hats

Afternoon everyone, I'm back.  Not that I've been anywhere but I didn't feel like blogging over the long weekend.  I've just spent a lovely afternoon in the garden with my husband and the bunnies, disturbed only by a neighbour a few doors down beating up his wife in their garden!  Yes, I did call the police, I was very shocked by the incident but he was so big and burly there was no way I dared to step in, after all, he could see where I live.  Is that cowardly?  The police turned up pretty quickly but I don't know what happened as the man, women and child (yes, there was a child there) legged it inside when the saw the police. 

Anyway, that's not what I was going to post about, nor was I going to post about the small boy that threw a rugby ball straight at my head on Saturday - what is going on in this country?  If I'd have done that as a child, and I wouldn't have dared, or wanted to, I would have got a clought from my dad after the person I threw the ball at dragged me home. 

Anyway, that's not what I was going to post about either!  I was going to, and am going to, post about these little bear baby hats.

How cute is that?  I feel I can say that as it's not my pattern, it belongs to Alli, click here for the link.  She's generously provided the pattern in two sizes - newborn and 0-3 months.  Her whole blog is fab, so go and check it out here.  I decided to get adventurous and adapted to pattern to make a larger hat.  It worked!  I see a whole family of these...

And then some in white with black ears!  This was such a quick pattern.  People often say that, then the pattern takes me days and I think I'm very slow, but seriously, less than an hour each to make these.  And it's really addictive. 

I've been doing some more crochet, and some sewing, so plenty more to show you this week.  I hope you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend in the sun.  Oh, that probably didn't happen for you lot in Canada and the north of the US did it?  Sorry about that ;0)

Inspiration in April

After my bout of migraines last week and the weekend away, I find myself with nothing to post!  So, I thought I'd jump on a bit of a bandwagon and show you all some links to things that I've got bookmarked or pinned on Pinterest around Blogland.  A word of warning though, this isn't going to be quite like other roundups as there's no toilet roll craft or wreaths to be found here!


First up, Lynne of Lily's Quilts has set up a Flickr group for British Quilters.  I'm British (well, technically I'm English) but I'm not yet a quilter, but I had to join anyway!  If your a Brit and you quilt, come and join...

So, what have I found inspiring this week?

I'm afraid I don't know how to make the photos into links, but I've provided a link below each one.

I love rainbows and I love this embroidery from Belle & Bee

Check out the tiny squares in squares in this quilt from The Plaid Scottie

I love this bag!  Tutorial available on Moda Bake Shop


I am in love with this little bunny, Marcel the Mushroom Collecter, available on Etsy


I might have to knit me some of these slippers, but not in pink.  Free pattern available on All Free Knitting.Com


How beautiful are these name plaques?  See them at Lella Boutique


I love this crocheted bear hat, Alli Crafts has very generously provided us with a tutorial for 3-month and newborn sizes


This mani/pedi kit would make a great present.  Find the tutorial at Positively Splendid


How delicious is this pouch from City House Studio?  Just think of all the rainbow combinations you could do...





















I love the things that Roxy Creations makes, I just wish there was more writing in her posts, more about process etc.  She really is an expert sewist and I'd love to learn from her.


I saw this Really Useful storage tower in HobbyCraft and I desperately want one.  How fab would that be to store scraps and charms etc by colour?  Unfortunately the £39 price tag is a bit much for me.  If anyone wants to buy them for me, just let me know and I'll give you my address!


Pings and Needles has created her perfect diary/notebook/organiser.  Wish I could get my perfect design together!

I hope you've all enjoyed this inspiration.  It's a long Bank Holiday weekend for us Englandiers now - Friday to Monday, then the same again next weekend so hopefully I'll have plenty to show you in the coming weeks.

Success, and failure... (and a dirty little secret)

What do you want to start with?  Failure?  Failure it is!

So, I had some projects cut out and ready to sew.  The first was a fleece baby hat from Scandinavian Stitches.  I was very excited about this project.  I'd bought a fleece blanket from Ikea for the princely sum of £1 a while ago and I'd hacked it up according to the pattern.  I did the little embroideries for the labels and stitched them on.  Then I sewed it up.  Yuck.  It was horrible to sew.  Then I had to sew the zig zag across the seams.  Nightmare.  The fleece wouldn't feed regularly and getting into the top bit was hard. 

I really could have done with using my walking foot but I don't think I can zig zag with it.  I then turned the big hem and botched that too. 

I'm going to unpick the embroidered patches and start again.  Just not now!

Oh no!  My dirty secret is out - should have moved that ashtray!  Just a note of warning - I don't take kindly to people telling me I shouldn't smoke and that it's bad for me etc.  I do know. 
Failure number two comes courtesy of Tone Finnegar's Sew Pretty Homestyle.  I decided to make the slippers from the only piece of wool felt I have and to use some Tanya Wheelan spotty fabric which went perfectly with the felt.  So I cut and I pinned and I sewed.  Three problems.  First I'd missed half of the sole when I sewed so it was flapping open (forgot to take a picture), second, at no point does she indicate a seam allowance - not helpful when you've got ready made pattern pieces.  Thirdly, it was supposed to go up to a European foot size of 41.  I'm a 38.  I could barely squeeze it on!  So, I've unpicked.  Another one for the WIP pile...

So a success?  Well there have been 2 but I only have photos of one. 

I made some coasters from Last Minute Patchwork Gifts.  OK, so coasters are easy but this is the first time I've quilted.  I made four coasters using bits of layercakes.  I didn't follow the instructions in that I used a different front and back.  I used four different patterns and each pairing is different.

I don't think the instructions told me the best way to do it and I'll be doing it differently in future.  I had to sew up 3 sides, then put the wadding in and try to catch the whole 5 inch seam in my first round of quilting.  Not easy.

The quilting went well and this is my LANT for the month.  It's a simple spiral quilting.  I haven't yet worked in the ends of the threads as I wanted to get photos before I lost the light so I'll do that tonight.  I've got plans to try out other quilting patterns on these little babies!

The second success was the dress I altered for my friend.  She'd picked it up at a charity shop and it definitely wasn't a size 12 as stated so I sewed a new seam either side for her.  It was a simple straight sided dress so I sewed in a few curves and she looks knockout in it!  I really should have taken photos...

Three reasons why I love the Royal Mail

I got some wonderful post last week.  First of all I got a parcel all the way from the USA from Allie.  I'd won the Christmas through the year giveaway for March.  I got the most beautiful table runner made by Lyn at Bluebird Quilts.

Believe it or not, I've never seen anything quilted in real life.  I mean handmade of course.  It's just not a tradition where I'm from.  I was blown away by the perfect piecing, the free motion quilting and the oh-so-neat binding. 

It's beautiful, thanks so much Lyn and Allie.

Secondly I got this:

Oh yum.  This is a Kona Roll-up and some Kona grey yardage to make table mats.  A friend recently got married.  It was all quite sudden and unexpected so I didn't have time to make a present.  I asked her what she wanted and she said they didn't want any presents, but if I was offering could I make them some placemats!  She's very funky and modern so I thought some kind of rainbow design would be right down her street.  I've got some ideas, so watch this space!!


And last, but certainly not least, I got the most wonderful surprise.  Last week was a really shitty week (until Saturday's surprise trip of course!).  I'd had a migraine on the Friday before.  This is normal, about one a month but it's horrible.  Then one of my rabbits got sick which meant two trips to the vets (she's fine now, it was a stomach problem) and the news that she has to have her teeth done in a few weeks.  Then I had another migraine on Wednesday and another on Friday!  Add to this some very demanding, unreasonable German colleagues and I came home from work on Friday pretty down and upset.  Then Mr CA passed me a parcel that had been delivered to him at work.  I thought and thought, what had I ordered?  Then I noticed the name.  Nancy.  My lovely bloggy friend in Canada had decided to send me a parcel for absolutely no reason at all.  Nancy, you couldn't possibly have timed it better, you really cheered me up.  Want to see what's inside?

Look!  Check out all those beautiful fat quarters!  Of course they were wrapped up with some ribbon to look even more yummy, but when I'm given a present, I don't wait around, I rip right in!!

Also in the parcel was a little something from Sandra, my other lovely bloggy friend and Nancy's real life friend.  Not to be left out (!), Sandra had sent me a beautiful handmade pouch in the coolest cupcake fabric, with a little cupcake charm!!  Sandra is the zipper whisperer, check out the perfection of the sewing.

Ladies, thank you so very much, you have no idea how happy you've made me.

Oh, one more addition to my stash.  I picked up these pretty fat quarters in Hay.

I have no idea who they're by, but I love them, they were far too pretty to leave on the shelf!

FNSI results - late! But I do have a note...

I did join in the FSNI, but I didn't get a chance to post on Saturday due to my lovely husband.  Today is our 1st wedding anniversary and he'd planned a surprise for the weekend.  First up, I need to explain the background.  We got married last year a couple of days after the volcano in Iceland erupted.  UK readers will remember the sheer airtravel chaos this caused, for those outside the UK, I'll just explain.  Basically, the whole of north east Europe was grounded.  No flights were leaving or arriving in the UK.  Trains and ferries were still running but they were jam packed with people trying to get home who couldn't travel by plane.  After a few weeks the airports started running again but the back log was huge. 

We had been due to fly to Vietnam on the Monday after the wedding.  This clearly wasn't going to happen but we didn't want to go back to work.  Travelling by land/sea to Europe was out of the question due to the queues of people so we jumped in the car and headed south west.  We went to Wales.  Wales has quite a bad reputation over here.  I'd only been as a child and all I could remember is rain, and that's what Wales is famous for!  Well, it was the most glorious weather and Wales is stunningly beautiful.  We fell in love with the country. 

The reason we went to Wales is that we're both prolific readers and I'd always wanted to go to Hay on Wye on the Welsh/English border.  It's called the town of books due to the 25 enormous bookshops it has selling a mixture of new books, seconds, second-hand books and antique books.  There are also shops selling crafty things and antiques, plus some excellent restaurants.  We headed to Hay, found a lovely hotel where the landlady gave us our pick of the rooms and a bottle of champagne to make up for us not being in South-East Asia but on the Welsh border!  The room was up in the eaves of an old Georgian Inn, lovely.  We spent two days in Hay then headed west to Brecon on the Brecon Beacons for zip wire and horseriding fun, then on the Aberwyswth (I have no idea how to spell that!) by the sea.  Bliss.

We did get to Vietnam, but not until the May.  Anyway, so back to my failure to post about the FSNI.  On Saturday morning Mr CA told me to get out of bed as we were headed to Hay!  He'd booked the same room we had last time.  We just spend a blissful two days reliving our honeymoon!  Before we get to the sewing, here's a picture of a small section of one of the rooms in one of the may bookshops in Hay:

And this is the craft book section!  (oops, it's sideways!)

I actually didn't come away with any craft books as they were either too old fashioned or too expensive for our meagre budget at the moment.  We did pick up a LOT of second hand novels though!

My FSNI is tied in with the anniversary as I spent it making my husband's present/card.  The first anniversary is paper, so I decided to sew him a book.  I'd seen love notes around on the internet a lot, particularly around Valentine's so I thought I'd expand on this and make a whole note book with a love letter. 

I spent quite some time cutting pages, ironing on interfacing and sewing the lines in grey.

I did this by chain piecing.  I don't know if you can call it chain piecing when it's not patchwork, but I used the same method and wow, it's great, I'll be doing that again.  I used one of those gadget things I asked you all about a while ago.  It made my lines perfectly spaced.

I added in a red line down the sides.

Then I got to work free motion embroidering the text.

My machine had a dicky-fit.  No idea why.  No amount of cleaning out the bobbin, rethreading or tension-twiddling helped.  So I just carried on!  After the first page it started running smoothly through no intervention from me!!

That's what the back of the first page looks like!!

I made the cover from pieces of Bliss.

Punched holes in it all.

And threaded it with cord.

I have had some fabulous mail over the last week, but I think it deserves a post of its own, so come back tomorrow to see what the postman's been delivering!!