June Review

June hasn't been too successful in terms of my craft goals.  Actually, June hasn't been too successful overall.  I've suffered a lot this month with my illness and can't seem to get on an even keel.  It doesn't help that my meds mean I've got a head full of cotton wool where there used to be a brain.  BUT, I don't care if I don't achieve my goal, there's no self-beating here!  

Needlequest

This month was a design topic - Line.  I said I'd skip this month and just work on my blackwork, but the host, Elizabeth, pointed out that blackwork is a form of line!  I haven't completed the piece - I've just finished block 2 out of about 3,654,891 (perhaps not quite that many), but it's a long-termer.

1/1

Sew Kitschy paper piecing bom 

This month we had a jug and glasses.  I can assure you that it's beautifully printed out and sitting on my cutting table... does that count?

0/1

2014 FAL 

A quick reminder of what's on the Follow Along List:

1. Chair cushions for dining room - done in April

2. Finish the latch hook - so close!  I ran out of red wool in June.  I ordered some more and it does, sort of match.  Unfortunately it was 6-ply, rather than the 3-ply I'd been using, and about an inch longer, so it got a haircut.  It doesn't quite match, but it's not that noticeable!

Sad to say, I didn't get round to binding it this month, I just couldn't face it.  This is going on my Q3 list.

3. Silhouettes x stitch - done in May

4. Jacob's quilt - done in May

5. Mosaic tray - finito!

4/5, pretty good going! 

It's around here that I come grinding to a halt...



Something Old, Something New

"Old" - the latch hook. So no, failed.

"New" - I said I'd make a start on my stained glass quilt, and I did!  I got all the blocks done, and was about to sash it when I thought I might make it bigger and make some more blocks...



1/2

Something New for 2014

I failed to learn any new skills this month.

0/1

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I planned on making a bag from a kit.  I failed.  Didn't even get started.

0/1

Craft Book Sew along

I did manage to make something from the book Shrink! Shrank! Shrunk! which I reviewed here.



1/1

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

June was yellow, I made the blocks and put them together, but didn't get the scrap bucket made.  Let's call that a half a point!

0.5/1

Smalls SAL

Nope.

0/1

Overall that gives me a success rate of 7.5/14.




Related Posts

June goals
May review
May goals
April review
April goals
March review
March goals
February review 1
February review 2
February review 3
February goals
January review

Watch out Gaudi, here I come!

Oh yes, the mosaic is finished!  Tiled, grouted, painted.  Done.

This is my fourth completed goal for the 2014 FAL quarter 2.  You can see my goal-setting post here.

I can't believe it took me so long to get this done as it actually did take much time, working-on-it-time I mean.

It was from a kit, bought for me last Christmas, or maybe the Christmas before... I really enjoyed making this and see more mosaics in my future.

I'm thinking a large, sinuous mosaic covering our garden wall and flowing down to the ground à la Gaudi.  I might start with something smaller though, like a vase, or a flower pot.

Stained Glass Cuzco

Still searching for a name - Windows of Peru?  Peruvian Leaded Lights?  I am CRAP at this quilt naming thing.

The quilt is from the Stained Glass QAL of 2010, the fabric is Kate Spain's Cuzco.  Any ideas?

And yes, I did finish piecing all the blocks... sashing next!

giveaway wins

I've been on a winning streak!

I've won two quilt patterns recently.

In the SMS giveaway I won this quilt pattern



from Pieced With Love.  Isn't it gorgeous?

I then found out I'd won this quilt pattern:



It was from Marcia's crafty Sewing.  She had said she would have two winners, but only remembered recently and I was the lucky second winner!  This is the first time I've won anything in the SMS Giveaways!

I then discovered I'd won 500 Quilt Blocks from live.create as part of the Craft Book Sew Along. 



Seriously ladies, you have to join in this challenge each month!



Then to top it all off, I was a winner in The Village Haberdashery's CAB survey!  I won a £10 voucher.  Jealous Kerry? 

Thank you to all the lovely peeps who run giveaways, long may my luck continue!

Craft book review - Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk!

The lovely folk at GMC sent me another book to review.  This time it was a book that's been on my wish list for a while Shrink! Shrank! Shrunk!

Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  

I have used shrink plastic before (I believe it's called "Shrinky Dinks" in the US), as a child, and more recently at a mixed media class.  I wanted to try it out a bit more and this book gave me the perfect opportunity.

The book starts with a few pages of basics.  The different kinds of shrink plastic available and some tips on using it.  Then it moves straight on to the projects.

There are 31 projects in the book.  All the templates are printed full size at the end of the book - bonus points, I much prefer full sized templates to having to enlarge them.  All the projects are jewellery items, though papercrafters could find a use for them on their cards and scrapbook layouts.

There are bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings and brooches.  I love the bracelet above, I will have to find a simple bunny silhouette and make my own version.

I decided to try Not-Your-Grandmother's Cameos and, for once, didn't use a bunny image!  I was taken by the teapot so that was my choice.

You can use large punches or die cuts if you have them, I didn't have any large enough so traced the templates from the back of the book and cut them out.  Be careful cutting as the plastic is quite brittle and can shatter.  

In the book marker pens are used to get the deep almost enamel-like colour on the circle.  I didn't have any to hand so used pencil crayons.  Colours intensify when shrunk which is why you can barely see the colour on the top picture.  I think I'd prefer this done in marker pen, I may have to buy some.

The original template was about 4" (the circle) and shrunk down to about 1.5".  I'm going to string this with some beads.

I had intended to have a go at this bracelet as I think it's really funky, but I didn't have any punches big enough and not enough time to cut them all by hand... one day!

My second project from the book was these earrings.  Of course, I wasn't going to make earrings!  I thought one would be nice as a pendant.  I did this project first so didn't realise quite how much it would shrink.

I traced the image and coloured it in lightly.

Once shrunk I covered it with a layer of Glossy Accents to seal the image.  I think this is why I couldn't get a picture of it at all, too much shine.  I might make a second, turn them into earrings and give them to my aunty.

Some of the projects are more difficult.  There are rings which of course are curved, and there are 3d flowers such as this one above.  Beautiful!  I will give this a go later on.

So my opinion on the book?  If you fancy a go at shrink plastic but don't have many ideas of your own, this book is ideal. It's also great if you can't draw.  A lot of the projects are really quite original and the 3d items are just lovely.  The instructions are very well written, I had no trouble following them at all.

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Lark; 1 edition (19 Nov 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1454703490
• ISBN-13: 978-1454703495

Linking up to:













Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by GMC however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

Related Posts

Craft book review - Me and My Sewing Adventure

Craft book review - Mini Eco

Craft book review - Craftydermy

Craft book review - Playful Petals
Craft book review - 500 Simply Charming Designs for Embroidery

Craft book review - Jewelry for All Seasons
Craft book review - Wild Blooms and Colourful Creatures
Craft book review - Adding Layers
Craft book review - The Art of the Beaded Bead

Can I think of an interesting title? Nope.

At the Stitching and Knitting show at Harrogate last year, I bought quite a lot of strips of fabric panels.  I thought they would be ideal for baby books, or for cards.  Turns out I bought a lot more of them than I thought!  I frog-loving friends birthday prompted me into action.

I simply cut the panels out, layered them onto patterned paper and stitched with a wide zig-zag on my machine.  I then stuck them to square card blanks and decorated with brads and little gems.  

My mum made a load of Christmas cards one year like this.  Later on she was laughing at me for changing my sewing machine needle.  I asked why and she said she'd changed hers exactly once, that was when the existing one broke.  So she sews fabric and paper, all with the same needle... it's a wonder it stitches at all!

I've got quite a few panels like the Hot Chocolate one above but with different kinds of coffee.  I am intending to make them into little spill mats for inside my coffee machine.  That coffee machine really is a messy bugger, but I love it with my life!

Now I just need to make an effort to remember people's birthdays!

They called it Yellow, yellow, yellow...

Possibly lyrics from a Cold Play song?  Not sure...

Yellow is the colour for June in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Once again I'm making a scrap bucket.  I decided to have a good old play around with HSTs as I love them.  I did the 4 at a time method, then played around with the arrangements.

The entire set of blocks was done as leaders and enders whilst piecing the Stained Glass QAL blocks (I need to come up with my own name for that quilt!).  I love leaders and enders. As I've now finished these yellow blocks, they're just waiting to be quilted and turned into the basket, I had to find a new leaders and enders project....  I think I've just started a new quilt!

yummy yummy colours

Looking for the A Time To Stitch blog hop?  Go here

I've been buying fabric again...  The top 4 were necessary.  They are 1m and 2m pieces of Klona cotton from Backstitch for my Bluebird Park quilt.

The FQ bundle is for my Mackintosh Stained Glass hanging.  I didn't read the fabric requirements so bought this FQ bundle.  Yeah, I just need a couple of scraps for the project!  No matter, my solids stash is pitiful so this will help.  And it looks so pretty...

A Time To Stitch #7

Today I'm joining in my first ever jewellery making blog hop!  I saw the last round of A Time To Stitch and thought it was a great idea.  For this round we were told to choose any bead weaving stitch we like, choose a pattern and make three different items to show off the differences just by changing the choice of bead.

I decided to try out the spiral stitch, which I have used before to make a necklace (see here).  As a novice beadweaver, it seemed to have the most possibilities.

Now, before I start - I apologise for the photos.  My camera is still not working and doesn't seem much of a problem as my tablet takes much better photos anyway... except when it comes to beads!  I did my very best...

I started with a basic bracelet to show a contrast.  I used hematite and copper size 11/0.  It feels chunky and textural.

Next, I wanted to try using beads of different sizes.  I couldn't make up my mind which colour to use, so used 4!  The core is made of black 11/0s.  The outer beads used are size 11/0 and size 6/0 or 7/0 depending what I have.  I don't have so many of the larger beads.  I did 10 rows of each of the 11/0, then 4 or 5 of the 6/0 depending how chunky they were.  I really like this one.

So then I wondered about using beads of different sizes, and different shapes.  The only shaped beads I own are some blue cube beads.  I paired them with a bronze 11/0 core, and a mixture of blue shades in size 10/0.  I did 8 rows of each blue, then 4 rows of cubes, just to make them go all the way round.

So, there were my 3 examples.  I couldn't stop there.  Rummaging through my seed bead boxes had thrown up so many possibilities that I wanted to try.  Each bracelet only took a couple of hours to make, so I had time for more experiments.

Stripes.  I picked out some 8/0s in clear (for the core), purple, black and blue.  I made the stripes go horizontally around by picking up one of each colour in each row.  I love how chunky this bracelet is.  I think this one is my favourite.

The obvious next choice was to try the stripes the other way, in short little rows.  I went for 11/0s this time in hematite, red and white.  I used white as the core and as one of the stripes and I'm not so keen on how it turned out.

All of the bracelets so far had a good contrast between core and outer (except the white in the example above), so I wanted to see what a monochrome mix would look like.  I used 8/0s in light and dark blue.  I'd love to have a go with a matt and and shiny in the same colour... I might still give that a go.

The last experiment was with a tube of bead soup.  Bead soup is a mix of beads, different sizes, finishes and colours.  My soups are made from left over or loose beads found around the house or on the table after I've been beading.  I used cream for the core.  I honestly didn't think I'd like this bracelet but actually, it's my second favourite!

So all in all I made 7 different bracelets using the same stitch pattern.  

Now I just have to stop coming up with more ideas so I can make something different!

Thanks for joining me in this blog hop, please visit the other participants, links below.

Hosts:

Therese

Christine

Participants

Kim

Maryanne

Lola

Dagi

Shirley

Alenka

LiliKrist

Amy

Crystie

Sally

Cynthia

Bobbie

Karin

LizE

Becky Pancake

Karin G.

Ana

Wendy

Mary H.

Jasvanti