Christmas Countdown for June

Once again I'm joining in with the Christmas Countdown challenge over at Allie's blog.  We're half way there, but I'm so not half way there with my Christmas presents, I really must pull my finger out.  All I have to show for this month is this little cross stitch tote bag for my god-daughter who'll be 3 by Christmas.

I got an early Christmas present this year! The lovely Sandra sent me these gorgeous bunny buttons! What a lovely surprise, thanks Sandra! I'm going to have to use these on a present for myself as I want to keep them!

Also in the picture below is my new little tool. I've wondered about double needles before and decided to buy one to try out. I love the look of a double row of topstitching and think this may be the answer. Luckily, the day I ordered them Sew4Home did a tutorial on how to use them. So that's what the extra spool holder on my machine is for!!

 

For those of you that may have missed it, I'm starting up a new challenge / linky. The challenge is to try a new skill every month. From having a go at glass painting to figuring out how to put in a button hole, the choice of challenge is yours. There's no sign ups, so no pressure, just come and join in on the first of each month if you want to. For more information, see this post here.

Announcing a new challenge

For the giveaway I held on Sew, Mama, Sew's giveaway day, I asked people to tell me the crafts they'd tried, the crafts they did and those they'd like to try.  I've put all those crafts, and as many others as I could think of on a separate page; if you'd like a look it's here.  Feel free to let me know any I've missed.  A lot of people did have new crafts they wanted to try, and others said they wanted to improve in the crafts they already did.  Me?  I want to do both. 

I read a lot of blogs before I took the plunge and began my own, and I knew straight away what my blog name would be.  I'm called the Crafter's Apprentice as that's what I feel like I am.  I didn't know much last year when I started making things and I'm constantly learning, from books, magazines, all of my bloggy friends, blog tutorials and of course my own, plentiful, mistakes.  This makes me an apprentice crafter as far as I'm concerned.

A few months ago, I started doing a LANT challenge with the lovely Sandra.  LANT stands for Learn A New Technique.  We both had a go at a few things including button holes (Sandra) and zippers (me).  Then a couple of weeks ago Susan challenged me to try binding (yes, I will, I just haven't finished the quilting yet!) in exchange for her attempting a zipper.  Then the other day Cuckoo pointed me to a link for a binding tutorial and my idea was born.

Ladies and gentlemen (are there any out there?  Well I know there are some out there, there's one sitting next to me, but are any of them reading my blog?), I present to you

I'm loving the support and encouragement I'm getting when learning new stuff and I want you all to get that too, so here's how it'll work.  First of all, there are three ways you can go about this.  One - You could choose to join in each month and challenge to learn a new skill every month.  Two - You could drop in as and when the fancy took you, only fitting in the new skills around your busy life.  Three - You could throw yourself in and have a go at as many new techniques as you can.  Multiple links (on topic!) will be welcome.

1. Pick something you want to learn.  This can be a whole new craft or a technique within a craft you already do.  For example, you might want to have a go at putting in a zipper or using binding, or trying hand quilting.  You could have a go at knitting in the round or Entrelac, or try something new completely and have a go at wood carving or stained glass!  If you're stuck for crafts, or techniques within them, check out my Craft List, - I'm currently in the process of adding links to information, resources, how-tos and free patterns to each category.  Bear with me as it's a long job and if you've got any links to help me, please let me know.  You can alsocheck out the Technique Tutorials page, it only has a few links at the moment but it will grow each month.

2. You've got a month to try it out.  Have a look at some tutorials, ask for some advice (probably best not to ask me, but I'm sure my readers or your readers can help!), give it a go, find out what works for you.

3. Write a post about it.  Show everyone what you learnt and how you got on.  Don't forget to link back to any tutorials you used so others can have a go.

4. One the first of each month (starting 1st August as 1st July is a little soon!) I'll host a linky party.  Link up your post and check out what other people learnt. 

5. I'll collect the tutorial links that you used and add them to the Technique Tutorials page as an easy reference for others wanting to try that technique/craft in months to come.  I will also go blog hopping to find some tutorials myself, and I'll add in the ones I've already used.

Easy eh? 

Now, I'm not trying to collect followers here, I think you know my stance on that by now, so following is not a requirement, you just need to drop in on the first of each month.  So, ladies, are you in?  Will you help me spread the word?

If you would be kind enough to spread the word and get all those craft bloggers out there out of their comfort zones, there's a button you can use.  I just made it!  Does that count for my June LANT?

Just copy the text below and paste it into a html box on your design page.

<a href="http://thecraftersapprentice.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h460/craftersapprentice/055-2-1-2.jpg" alt="The Crafters Apprentice" width="125" height="125" /></a>

I used this fab tutorial here to make the button and the scroll box thingy.  If you'd like to point me in the direction of any fab tutorials for ANY technique / craft, please comment as I'd love to build up the Technique Tutorials page as a great resource.

For this particular challenge, I have decided not to include cooking / baking or photography.

So ladies, that's LANT in a nutshell.  Any questions, just let me know and I'll address anything I've missed.  Oh, and my LANT for July?  Well it'll be that damn binding!

One thing, one week

Once again I joined in with the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side.

I challenged myself to finish the elephant ballerina cross stitch I'd been working on and I managed it quite easily.

Clearly it hadn't seen the iron yet!  I'd bought it as a kit intending to use it as a birthday card for my neice as there is more to it - some stars, one of which has the number 3.  When I'd stitcher her up, I decided it would be a waste as a card, sitting on the mantel for a week then put in a box for the rest of eternity.  Not after all that bloody backstitch... why is it that I like to embroider but hate the backstitch part of cross stitch?

Anyway, she became this instead:

It's a little tote bag, measuring roughly 10 x 10 x 2 inches.  I used some lovely Saffron Craig fabric that I received as a giveaway price from Kite & String. 

The pocket is lined with the same fabric, and I added the band to the top of the pocket as an extra touch.

It's lined with a different fabric and has boxed corners at the bottom.

I'm pretty pleased with it as I made it up as I go along, not that there's anything particularly hard about a tote bag!  So thanks Amy for giving me the motivation.  The added bonus is that this is one more item towards my Christmas present stash!

Quick makes

Last weekend, after battling with my quilt block, I wanted some quick finishes.  I wanted to make some glasses cases as they'll be idal Christmas presents for my glasses-wearing family and family-in-law.  Crafty Ady has the best tutorial for making glasses cases with an internal flex frame.  I've used it before and this time it was super quick and simple.

The exterior fabric was sent to me as a lovely surprise from Nancy.  I'm not sure which line it's from but it's by Fig Tree Designs, beautiful.  It happened to go perfectly with the Breakfast at Tiffany's spot print I had to hand.

It's very hard to take a photo of the inside of a flex frame case!  Note how horrible my hand looks and the blue marker pen all over my pen.  I'm one of those messy people that ends up with pen all over their hands no matter how careful I am. 

The glasses case came together within about half an hour so I needed another "fix".  I turned to the prize I won on the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day.  Green Bag Lady generously offered 100 prizes and I was one of the lucky winners.  I received a ready made fabric shopping bag and the fabric to make another on the condition I give it away.  Reusable shopping bags is something I believe in and I have the extra strong plastic bags, though I do want to slowly swap them over to fabric bags. So far I have about 5 but I need a lot more. 

Above is the bag I received, a very pretty pink cotton bag.  Below is the bag I made which was from a very sturdy canvas.

The instructions provided on the blog told me not to bother turning the handles, but to just serge them.  I decided I was going to turn them.  Bad idea, really bad idea.  This would have taken me 10 minutes to make, but turning the handles took another 40 minutes!

Now I just have to decide who to give it to.

In other news, Susan at Canadian Abroad challenged me to conquer my fear of binding.  In return, she's going to conquer her fear of zippers.  I'm sitting at the sewing machine right now (well, clearly at the computer, but the sewing machine is just a swivel of my chair away) and I'm going to finish piecing the rainbow placemats.  Then I just have to quilt them and it will be challenge time.... arghhh!

Being a joiner-inner, but not joining crochet squares yet

I've got so much to tell you!  Nothing exciting, just blog life!  First of all, remember my Rule Britannia cushion?  A friend asked if she could buy one from me, wahoo!

OK, on to the joining in that I've been doing.  I signed up for the We Can Do It! Sampler over at Sewn.

The first week's block was a log cabin.  It had to be easier than the half square triangles I've been attempting?  (Thanks ladies for your lovely helpful hints about HSTs, I didn't realise it was so fraught with difficulties and just went blundering in as usual).  Now, I'm not making a quilt from these blocks, I just can't justify the expense in fabric and don't have enough coordinating fabrics, so I'm using fabric from my stash and making... stuff!  Any suggestions would be greatly received.

I started out by laying out some fabrics, I chose a cute little bunny for the middle and worked around that, trying to do the light and dark values as suggested.

Here's my fabrics:

There are a couple of bits of charm square in there, and a piece of layer cake and some scraps and some parts of fat quarters.

Now, we were supposed to be focusing on seam allowance.  I duly measured my first two strips and they all lined up and were the correct size.  Then I got complacent.  And ended up with this:

Clearly it's a wonky log cabin block, on purpose of course!  I really don't know what went wrong but when I measured it at the end it range from 11 inches to 12 inches!  Some trimming later and the addition of a border...

Ta da! It's a cushion!  The fabric round the edges and on the back is actually a tea towel, bought 5 for £3.50 (varying styles) from Asda.  Bargain.

I look forward to next week's challenge.  If you're new to quilting, or just fancy giving it a go without any huge pressure, come and join in.

That's not the only joining in I'm doing.  I've also signed up for

Over at Amy's Creative Side.  I'm planning on trying to finish my elephant ballerina cross stitch.  I'm not sure how likely that is as I've only got until Monday!

And finally, I've been a fan of 52 Crafts in 52 Weeks since I discovered it last year.  She's now completed her challenge and is inviting us to join in for the next 52 years.  You can do either a challenge a week, or a challenge a month, or just dip in and out as you like.  It starts on July 1st with printing.

But you know what I haven't been joining?  These crochet squares.

They're destined to be a cushion... I'm planning on sashing in white but have no idea how you crochet sashing so that should be interesting!

Why didn't someone warn me this quilting business is addictive?

When I showed you my Union Flag cushion, I pointed out that I'd pieced the blue block rather haphazardly and that it only occurred* to me later that I could have done a pinwheel block.  I rather fancied a pinwheel block and I knew I had to get cracking on some Christmas presents so I cracked open my layer cake of Petite Ecole and using this tutorial at Modify Tradition I started cutting.  I made a test block first.  It doesn't meet very well in the middle, but hey, it's my first one!

*occurred is one of the words that I just can't spell.  I have no idea if this is right.

Test block done I started by cutting my squares, I did them 5" to make the most of my layer cake.  Then I pinned them all.  I had to draw the line in disappearing ink as I went along as it kept disappearing!

With the squares sewn down the middle, I cut them in half to make my HSTs.  Wahoo, I made HSTs!!

Then for the tedious part.  Open 'em up and iron those seams flat.  I hate this part!!  Anyone got any tips for making it easier than having to prize each seam apart with my finger?

Ta da!  Half an hour, a full water reserve of steam and lots of cursing later...

Here they are all trimmed and laid out with the trimmings.  I hated trimming them almost as much as the ironing bit.  Or maybe more.  No, ironing was worse.  I trimmed them down to 4.5 inches.

I matched them all up into a nice order, then I chain pieced them.

More tedious ironing!  Anyone want to come and be my seam-ironer?

I then laid them all out to see what they looked like and make sure I had enough pairs.

Then I sewed them into blocks.  It was not particularly successful.  Here are all the blocks with points that don't match.

Want a closer look at my imperfections?

And here are the ones that do match!  5 of them.  Yes, just 5.

But what was I making?  A table runner, imperfect points and all, this will be a Christmas present!  I've just got to wait for my quilting pins to arrive and I'll be backing and quilting and binding it.  Yes, binding it.  I'm scared!

P.S. there was more ironing of seams and trimming after the blocks were made, then more ironing when they were sewn in pairs, then more when I sewed the two columns together but it's tedious even typing about it.

Rule Britannia and all that...

I was feeling particularly patriotic and so decided it was finally time to make a Union Flag cushion.  All my life I've called it a Union Jack, but that seems to anger Mr CA who says that Union Jacks are only flown on ships.   As my flag knowledge is limited, I'm going to believe him.

I used a selection of layer cake squares, I can spot some Moda Boutique in there...not sure about the others.  I cut them into triangles using my homemade template and sewed them up in probably the worst way I could have done possible.  It only occurred to me later that I'd actually made a pinwheel...  I should have made it like a pinwheel!!

My maths were terrible when constructing this as I forgot completely about seam allowances.  I was making an 18" cushion cover, it turned out 15" which was actually a good job as I only had a 15" cushion insert handy!  The cushion insert is old and very flat, must get a fluffier one.

I cut some strips, folded the edges and sewed them on to the "pinwheel/disaster" with lace underneath. 

I brought it downstairs and put it on the chair to see how long it would take Mr CA to notice it.  About 45 minutes is the answer to that.  He likes it so it gets to stay.

As an added bonus to today's post, you get to play "what's on Wendy's table" due to the reflective film on our windows.  I spot a punnet of nectarines... anything else?

FSNI June - Friday Night Unpick In

Morning ladies.  Last night was FSNI - Friday Night Sew In, or rather Friday Night Unpick In as it turned out!

Do you want to see what I did?  It's not much I'm afraid.  I decided to carry on working on the placemats for my friend and set to work piecing the final two.  Unfortunately, after laying out all the pieces for one, I realised I hadn't cut enough grey strips for both mats!  Not wanted to get bogged down in cutting, I decided to sew up one.

I put them in piles and chain pieced.  I thought it was going really well until I'd finished and laid them out.

Oh no, that's the wrong picture!!  I must have deleted the one where I'd sewn some of the strips in the wrong order.  Ah well, imagine it's all wrong!  I had to unpick various parts of 5 different rows and resew to get to what you see there.

And here it is with the rows all sewn together.  What do you think?  I think I like it...

I usually iron my seams open as it then lays flat, but this would have been a nightmare so I sewed them all the one side.  It took me 2 and a half hours to do this!  How slow am I??

After that, it was downstairs to watch Big Love and do a bit of cross stitch.

She will be an elephant ballerina with a wand with the number 3 in it.  It's supposed to be a birthday card for my god-daughter but she's turning out quite big so I might make it into something else.

I have a free day ahead of me.  I should probably cut and piece the remaining placemat, but I think I'm going to catch up on my blog reading - I'm days behind, maybe some emails - I'm weeks behind!  Then I think my day will see pinwheels...

blog award and some crochet

I have been given another Blog Award!  This time from the lovely Sandy at Cherished Handmade Treasures.  Go
here to vist her.

So, the deal is that I list 7 things about myself and pass the award on to 5 other blogs.

I hope I don't repeat anything I've already told you about myself, I know I talk a lot and it can be hard to remember...

1) I used to have 5 earrings in my left ear, 4 in the right, 2 in my left nostril and one in my belly button.   Now I have none. 

2) I have a stack of magazines in the bathroom, one under the bed and another by my chair in the living room.  They're all craft magazines.

3) My favourite meal is chips (of the English variety - I don't mean crisps), cheese and gravy (again, English gravy).  Don't knock it til you've tried it.

4) I didn't pass my driving test until I was 30.  I had my first lesson when I was 17 and two days old (17 was the legal limit all those years ago) and I passed on my 5th attempt...  No, I didn't have lessons for 13 years solid!

5) I sleep with a bunny.  Not a real one, Mr CA doesn't allow that.  He's called Bunny. 

6) I can't bear to touch cotton wool, it makes me feel seriously sick. 

7) I have a little notebook where I've written down every book I've read over the past 6 years.  I have no idea why I do this.

So, enough of that nonsense.  I'd like to pass the award to the following lovely ladies for being just plain fab:

Super Cute Tilly does the most amazing papercuts you've ever seen, ever.  She's also a whizz with needle and friend

KandiPandi is a girl after my own heart who does so many different crafts, all of them amazingly well.

Meme Rose is hopefully going to ask me to come and live with her soon as I'd love to live in such a gorgeous house - have a look at her amazing crochet.

And last, but certainly not least, Nancy at Heaven is Handmaid, published sewist extrordinaire and Sandra of Sandra Sews, a wonderful, kind, friendly lady with a massive talent on the sewing machine, two lovely ladies that I'm proud to call my friends.

And now for the crochet.  I've wanted to make a jar cosy for ages and when I set up my computer desk in the living room (although the computer now wont turn on...) I decided to crochet a cover for a jar to hold my pens.

I used Lucy's tutorial over at the Attic 24 blog - you can find it here.  I also used a Bonne Maman jar so didn't even have to do any complicated crochet-maths.  Mr CA gave me a bit of a funny look when I set it down with a big, proud smile, but when I got home from work the next day, I saw it sitting there and I just had to smile!

p.s. no, that's not my computer desk in the picture.  Observant readers will note that it is in fact a window sill.  This is because my desk is in the darkest corner known to man.

Colour...

I've got a work in progress to show you today.  A friend recently got married quite unexpectedly (to me and her other friends, her and the groom knew it was going to happen!).  She said she didn't want any wedding presents but requested some placemats from me.  She lives abroad so I haven't seen her yet or met her husband, but I'll be seeing them next month.

My friend is quite unconventional and does not go for anything pastel, floral or girly so I knew I had to go for some kind of rainbow design.

I purchased a Roll-Up of Kona solids in Bright and picked out some colours from the rainbow.  I laid them out on the desk whilst wondering what kind of pattern to go for - I was thinking of little squares forming a frame round a grey panel.  Once I'd laid them out, I knew that was what I wanted!  I got to work cutting and stitching, then matching some colours for some quilting - oh yes, I'm now addicted to quilting!

The little scraps are for me to take to Hobbycraft to match the remaining thread.  Because of the design I've chosen, I only had enough of those colours to do two placemats, but there is enough left over for another design and I thought that 2 of each would look quite nice, I don't always go for matchy-matchy.

A couple of pieces of graph paper and some felt tips later...  I'm going for the one on the right.

Check out these beautiful scraps!  I had to throw them away as they're only about 1/2 wide... I didn't enjoy throwing them away!  So far I've got all the pieces for the second set of mats cut out and ready to piece, but then I started working on something else...  Not only have I been bitten by the quilting bug, I've also been bitten by the WIP monster!