Speed Craft part 1

I've written about the SpeedCraft events at Debbie Bryan's before, me and mum would go twice a year.  This year the first even was in April.  Me and mum had booked to go before we lost her.  I was all set to go on my own when the lovely Jane from Loopy's Place said she'd come with me!  I was so chuffed to have a crafting partner on what would otherwise have been a very sad day.

We started in style with Buck's Fizz.  As I'm allergic to oranges, I just got a glass of Prosecco!  It went down very well... especially as a coffee and cake were quick to follow!

The first activity was a mini mosaic brooch.  We didn't do any cutting, we had a selection of pre-cut tiles, broken china, beads and buttons to use.  We only had 45 minutes per activity so had to design pretty quickly before dying our grout.

The photo doesn't show it well, but my grout is a lovely minty green.  Here's the piece all grouted and ready to be dried before sanding.  Writing this, I realise I was suppose to sand it 48 hours later... ooops!  Hopefully I'll still be able to do it. 

Next was weaving which I first tried at the last SpeedCraft event.  This time it was circular weaving on an embroidery hoop.  We had a selection of yarns and fabrics to cut into strips to use.

I didn't get very far with mine, it still needs finishing off.  I abandoned my usual blue colour scheme for a palette of purple and grey.

Next was lunch, followed by cake, followed by paper origami.  This flower was not easy to make!!  We all struggled to get the shape right.  

The leaves are just glued on to the wire in this picture, the flower stem has been finger crocheted (a new skill for me!) and I just need to finish off finger crocheting the leave stems before sewing the leaves on more securely using a few big cross stitches.

I'll be back in another post to tell you about the rest of the day.

smashing and sticking

A couple of weeks ago, me and wonderful mum went to a mosaic workshop with Lily Mosaics.  She's local to us in Nottingham, so if anyone in the area is interested, I'm happy to pass on her details, she's a great tutor and mosaicing is great fun.  I think I just made up the word mosaicing.  Spell checker doesn't like it anyway.

I completely failed to take any photos during the class, I was having too much fun choosing tiles, using tile nippers to cut them up and sticking them in place.  We had a choice of a mirror, a tray, a plaque or various MDF shapes we could cover.  I chose the tray and drew round two MDF birds for my pattern.  This is how far I got in class.

To be fair, Lis said I didn't have to leave and she'd help me finish it even though the class was over, but I was feeling very tired (and came down with a depressive episode that evening), and said I'd finish at home.  The depression grips me and I'm never able to do much craft work, it takes away my motivation, that's why blog posts have slowed down a lot over the last year or so and I haven't been doing as much sewing.  When I started to feel better, I got out the mosaic and finished it off.

The main background and bird tiles are ceramic tiles, their beaks are made from glass shards (the same kind of glass I used when I made my stained glass window).  The domes are... well they're domes!  The ones on the right are really shiny and pearlescent.  I also used some glazed ceramic shapes, buttons for the tails and some pieces of millefiori for the eyes.  The flowers next to the big bird's beak are also millefiori, it's just so beautiful.  Millefiori I mean, not my mosaic.

When all the nipping and gluing was done, I grouted it.  Waited overnight to clean the grout off the tiles, then grouted a second time for the places where the grout had sunk.  The day after I cleaned it off really well (whilst watching Special Forces: Hell Week - one of Mr C's programmes that I was made to sit through and became hooked on!), then polished it with a soft cloth.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I've bought a tester pot of paint to paint the tray with, I will show you if I ever get round to it!  Mosaic will definitely feature more in my future, I just need to find things to mosaic - wonder how the buns would feel about mosaiced (another non-word) hutches?

To see and buy Lis's work or one of her excellent kits, you can visit her website here.  That's not an affiliate link.

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.

so close, so, so close

The hooked rug is SOOOO close to being finished.  So, so close... 

Nope, closer than that, more like this...

See that?

And guess what?  I've run out of red wool.  They didn't give me enough in the kit.  I got an extra pack of the blue, but not enough red.  I emailed Coats who own Anchor.  The email bounced back...  I've found an online shop that sells Anchor rug wool, I bought all three reds they had in the hope that one of them matches.  Delivery will be 10 days!  What??  Get up to date shop, 10 days is a LIFETIME... well maybe not, but I'm running out of time to get this finished!

Not to forget Mr Mosaic...

Grouted!  Now to find my paint brush...



Related posts

starting the rug
The rug 3/4 done
mosaic - tiling done

El Mosaic

I think I showed you a snapshot of this when I was working on it?  It was a kit I got for a birthday or Christmas that was waiting for me to start it.  The tray was provided in the kit, along with the tessarae which are tiny tiles for this piece.  I traced the design onto a sticky sheet using the carbon paper provided, peeled the back off and stuck it to the tray.  I then peeled the top off in sections which gave me a sticky surface to put the tiles on.

This mosaic was different to the house number kit I did as that used glue to stick the tiles down. Also, you could cut these tiles with normal scissors, and I had to cut loads of them as the pattern is so curvy.

Now I just need to grout it and paint the tray.  Jojo asked why I didn't paint it first.  The honest answer?  Piss Poor Planning.

January Round Up

It's the end of the month, so it's time to have a look at all the challenges/alongs I seem to have joined - what was that about not joining in much this year??

First up is Needlequest.  The theme was silk shading, which I interpreted as long and short stitch.  Cue the Scabious V&A kit I bought and almost finished years ago.  This is a rework of it as I'd run out of thread.  I got quite a lot done considering I work full time and don't spend all my spare time on one project.

I certainly think my long and short stitch is improving.  I've done all of the long and short stitch flowers and now I'm working on the stems, which are stem stitch, and the leaves, long and short again.

I never expected to finish this in the month, I'll carry on working on it.  I'm really loving stitching this piece.

What do you think?  Successful so far?

This was also my "old" for Something Old, Something New.  The "new" was a ribbon flower brooch which, sadly, never made it out of the drawer (though I did find it!).  A semi-success there then!

The Sew Kitschy BOM block was sewn, last minute, but not only pieced but also finished and made into a trivet!  Resounding success there (if I do say so myself!).
  

My piece for the Craft Book Sew Along also happened, though I honestly can't remember if I mentioned it or not!  It was this spiral rope necklace.

I managed to join in Fiona's New to Me in 2014 with my turned-edge applique Colin and my efforts at woodwork!

I've still got 2 months to go on the 2014 Finish A Long, and I'm going to need it!  On my list:

1. Restart and finish Crewel Flowers - working on it 2. Finish hooking my rug - I have done a little 3.  Finish Jacob's quilt.  So far I have cut 16 squares so a long way to go with that one! - still sitting on the sofa... 4. Sew chair cushions for my dining room.  I have completed 1 piece of patchwork for 1 chair and now I've lost it... - sitting next to Jacob's quilt fabrics, minus the lost block... 5. Handquilt/machine quilt my And Sew On quilt. - I did take it to the EMMQG meeting, so it's had an outing! 6. Finish the wrist warmers I'm crocheting. - erm... nope! 7. Cross stitch the last Silhouettes picture for my dad. - I took the kit and put it in my WIP drawer, that's progress I think?
One item I really should have included in the FAL is my mosaic tray.  It's a work in progress and has a slight chance of being finished.  I never showed you, did I?

The last mosaic I did, the house number sign, had me putting on the tessarae with glue.  This uses a double-sided sticky sheet, so it's a different method.  It's easy and good fun.

I joined, but never admitted it, the Smalls Sew Along.  The perfect excuse to get some of those small cross stitch kits and cover kits done.  My entry for January is very, very, very nearly done. Should be done tonight...maybe.

I didn't join in A Lovely Year of Finishes this month, but intend to next month.  I also discovered the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I know, I know, I don't need another challenge BUT, I desperately need some scrap baskets, and what better way to make them than from scraps?  January was blue so I might have to try and shoe horn that it soon, I'll start next month.  As in tomorrow.

Oh!  Before you go, pop over and say hello to Tiff and Harry.

What have I been up to?

Not blogging, that's for sure!  I'm struggling to get back in the rhythm of it, bear with me...

There has been some craft going on though.

A bit of this:

A smattering of this:

A dose of this:

A handful of this:

A smidgin of this:

A soupçon of this:

And a LOT of this:

You know me, attention span of a gnat... maybe my word for '14 should be "focus"!

procastinate no more

I like lists.   I have a book full of lists.  To-do lists, to buy lists, craft lists, you name it, I've got a list for it.  I love to cross things off my lists.  What I don't like is when I've crossed something off my list and then I need to go back to it.  These things tend to sit unmended/unaltered for a very long time.  This Easter weekend I decided to put a stop to it!

A fairly recent addition to the "things that need mending or finishing" list is the beaded scarf I made back in March.  Day 1 of wearing it saw a line of beads falling out.  It sat on the table for a while until I decided enough was enough.  I fixed the broken line and put blobs of invisible jewellery glue on each and every intersection.  It took me about 30 minutes in total.  Done!

Number 2 wasn't something I'd made, but it did need sewing.  It was a skirt where the hem had come down.  I think it happened about this time last year.

It was occupying its own little space on my sewing room sofa, so I tackled it.  I didn't even need to sew the whole hem, I tacked the inside hems to each other with a few little hand stitches.  Took me all of about 3 minutes, and most of that was me trying to thread the needle.  Done!

The next item on the list is also the one that's been sitting on the arm of my sewing room sofa (you're right if you're getting the impression there's nowhere to actually sit on this sofa!) for the longest.  This framed cross stitch was finished in August 2010.  It was a kit by Heritage Crafts of a couple dancing the Tango, originally painted by John Clayton.  I'm currently working on the second one I have and there is a third waiting in the wings.  It just needed framing.  I bought the frames about a year ago.

Using double thread I laced the bag to keep it taught.  I then couldn't get it in the frame as it was too thick.  Luckily Mr CA is quite good at things like that.  It's now hanging in the hall.  That was a 20 minute job.  Done!

Then there was the hat, this hasn't actually been on the list for long.  I thought it was two short and needed a few extra rows.  In the end 1 was enough though I couldn't help myself and added a flower!  The extra row took 10 minutes.  Done!

Finally, the house number mosaic just needed a coat of varnish so it can be hung outside.  Technically this still isn't finished as it hasn't been hung.  That might take a while as I need Mr CA to do it and he's a bigger procrastinator than me!  I didn't take a picture of this as it's just a piece of wood with varnish on it!

Not number 125

As I was finishing up this mosaic, which is from a kit, Mr CA came over and told me in a worried voice that I'd done it all wrong.  My heart plummeted.  He pointed to the box of the kit and said "you've put number 4"

Ha ha ha Mr CA. 

WIP #26 is officially finished. It was not without it's issues.  I loved laying the tiles, the 4 took ages to get right, but the rest of it went pretty quickly.  I just did small sections at a time to give the glue time to set so I didn't then move everything I'd done.

Then came the time to apply the grout.  I could NOT get it to mix to a paste.  It was watery and thin so in the end I donned some rubber gloves, poured it on and spread it around with my hands.  This (above) is the result.

 

I should have nipped to Hobbycraft (10 mins drive from my house, if that) to buy some more.  I didn't.  I stole some from my tray mosaic kit.  It's not white.  This is how it turned out (above), so I had to spend some time rubbing quite hard with a damp cloth to get the lumps off!

 

 

And here's the finished number plate.  Not too bad.  It would look better with white grout, but considering this will be on the wall outside the house, I don't think it will even be obvious in a couple of weeks time. 

The conclusion?  I LOVED this.  I'm going to do the tray kit next, then I think I'll be ready to move on to my own design and working with some other materials.

Workin' on it

Morning ladies.  I don't have anything completed to show you, so today I've got some shots of what I'm working on.  I'm afraid I snapped some of them this morning before work in the poor light.  You'll have to live with it!

Yep, it's a new project, but it's also part of Wipocalypse, this one is WIP #27.  All the stones are glued in place, I just need to add the grout.  I spent a couple of hours laying out the number and getting it right, then adding a few of the white tiles around it.  The borders were done in short bursts as I alternated between that and the computer.  I found this better to do as if the glue was not dry, I'd risk nudging them out of place.  I finished it off after dinner on Sunday waiting for Junior CA to finish her dinner (I swear that girl is the slowest eater in the world) so I could sit at the table with everyone but still have something to do.  Oh, it was from a kit I got for Christmas.  More details when it's finished.

 

This is a secret project and it may be a few months before I post about it.  This is really a sneak-peak for Jillayne.

 

This one is completely off the list and took me by surprise!  I randomly decided to have a go at the Mini Mystery hosted by Laura of the Two-Handed Stitcher.  I wanted to try needlepoint again, as my first attempt was quite paltry, containing only tent stitch.  Wow, this is really hard!  I think most of what you see there has be unpicked and restitched at least once!

And last, but not least, the giant granny is still being worked on.  I'm getting very close to the end on this!

 

I also have my stained glass window, but I'm going to class tonight so I'll post about that later, I have some pictures from this morning and I'll take some tonight so you can see the lack of progress.  I've got two beading classes tomorrow (day off work, yay!!) and will try to write another post tomorrow, depends how things go.  Bet you can barely contain your excitement.