hats - yes, back to the boring titles

So, in case you couldn't guess from the title, I made some hats.  Ages ago when I showed off my baby bear hats, A crazy lady that I know said she wanted one.  For her.  She's an adult.  OK, we can do that.

I didn't follow a pattern, I just winged it and I quite like the way it turned out.  I have an abnormally large head but Sam promised me hers is normal.  It didn't fit me, but it seems to fit Sam.  

When I made the baby bear hats, one of the yarns I used was Sidar Hug.  It seems to have been discontinued and it's one of my favourite yarns ever, so when I found 2 balls one day, I bought them.  They were for something for me.  Making Sam's hat inspired me and as soon as hers was finished, I made mine.

In some lights it's teal and purple, in others grey and green, or sometimes purple and green.  It's considerably bigger than Sam's, and despite trying it on every few rows, I wore it last week and it's too small!  It just needs another few rows adding to it.  That means it gets to join the beaded scarf on my list of things that need repairing but have already been crossed off the list so I'm loath to do as I don't get to cross them off a list.  I feel a new list coming on...

glass update week 9

Wednesday was an exciting day.  The stained glass window is soldered, ladies, it's actually a window!

You are seeing the other side to that you usually see and it is upside down on the board.  I spent Wednesday's class soldering the front of it, then my teacher flipped it over whilst I nearly threw up with anxiety, and I soldered the back.

See, all soldered!  I LOVED soldering, I want to solder more, anything, everything.

My soldering at first was rubbish, but it soon improved. Because of this, the back is better than the front!

The lead in most of the window is 1/4", around the nuggets I used 3/8" as the 1/4" was too bulky.  The very edge is 1/2".  Soldering the nuggets to the outer 1/2" lead was a real b*&$*r!  When I'd put the last bit of solder in place and then wire brushed it to get rid of the tallow (used as flux.  Am I talking a foreign language now?). I nearly wet myself with excitement.

Next week I'm cementing this baby, the following day I'll have to take a half day to clean it up, then I'm off to the NEC for the Stitching shows.  When I get back I'll begin the nagging texts to my uncle about when he can come and install it!  That will be an exciting moment...


Related posts

fused glass elements
glass cutting complete
beginning the leading
leading the nuggets
more leading
leading the rose and stem
main panel complete
right hand panel finished
leading finished

Spoolin' Around

Well I bet you're surprised and amazed by the imaginative title?  I didn't invent it.  That was Kristy at Quiet Play who also designed this block, block 3 for the And Sew On paper piecing BOM.

Block three went rather well!

As these were spools of thread, I used solids as I thought they'd be better for thread.  Having seen some of the other blocks made, I now realise how boring I am with my solid spools, white wall and brown table!

OK, so it doesn't meet up particularly well, but I don't mind that so much.  At the bottom it looks like I've used some of the thread.. not so much at the top or in the blue one below!

I did use a little bit of aqua spot for that bottom reel, I really should have been more adventurous but I'm just quite pleased with myself for doing it!

East Midlands Quilt Guild is having their inaugural meeting today.  I'm terrified, but also quite excited by the thought of Moira's hat...



Related posts
block 1 - Measure Twice
block 2 - disaster
block 2 - You little ripper

another retired question...

OK, so I've got the blog reading sorted out (thanks ladies!), now I have a question.  I can see how many people follow my blog, but if Google Reader is going, the Follow button will become void - so how will I know how many people follow my blog?  I'm not hung up on the numbers, it's not that important to me, but I am curious...  I like to know even if it isn't important.  Any ideas anyone?

Retired?? What am I supposed to do now??

Unfortunately it's not me that's retiring.  It's Google Reader.  It will be gone from the 1st July.  Ladies, what am I to do??  I've always read my blogs through Google Reader.  I don't know what the alternatives are, can anyone help?  Please...

Update:  I'm now hooked up to Feedly.  I tried Bloglovin' but it wouldn't sync my feeds so I went with Feedly.  It was all connected and ready to roll in about 3 minutes!

coils and curls

Speaking of which, (though we weren't), have I ever told you I recently discovered I have curly hair?  It's the sort of thing you usually know about yourself, but not in my case.  I've straightened my hair for years, in my teens and 20s it was wavy, but messy wavy with some straight bits and others not.  One day late last year, my GHDs died.  A few days later, my straightening hairdryer died.  I couldn't afford replacements, so I let my hair be.  And it's curly!  I'd always wanted curly hair...

Just thought I'd share.

I've been threatening to do some quilling for ages and it finally happened last Friday evening, after I'd been off work ill all day.  I'd been hanging around on Pinterest and decided to blatantly copy a design I found there.  Now, I hope it's alright that I stole the design - I'm not planning on selling it, or anything made from it, it was in fact for just one Mother's Day card for my mum. 

I'm also not claiming to have designed it, it was designed by a Russian lady who's blog you can find here.  That link will take you directly to her magnolia card.  These are magnolias aren't they?

I used to quill a lot as a child but haven't since and it took me a while to get back in the rhythm of it.  I think I was too frugal and used too short strips so my coils aren't as full as I'd like.  The on-edge paper stem was really tricky!  That will take some practise.  There are some amazing on-edge designs out there.  If you're interested, check out my Quilling Pinterest Board.

 

I added the glass butterfly magnet myself.  I didn't make it.   Obviously.  Not too shabby for a first attempt.  The quilling papers are still in the living room so I might just have to try my hand at a few more designs.

A place for tea

I suppose I was always bound to talk about tea at some point, after all I AM English.  Personally, I don't drink tea.  I used to, buckets of the stuff.  When I lived in Poland I'd work 14 hour days and we never had any milk at the school so I'd drink my tea black during the day.  It got to the point where I found tea with milk disgusting, I still do.  One day, about 4 and a half years ago, just before I started working at my current job and a little after I'd met Mr CA, I started drinking coffee instead.  Just like that.  Now I'm a coffee addict - I know, I know, coffee + migraines = bad news, I mainly drink decaff, just two cups or regular coffee a day and the rest decaff.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be wittering on about coffee?  Oh yes, tea!

So, Mother's Day 2012.  About 2 weeks before the event, I started making 2 tea wallets/caddies/holders from Australian Homespun Vol. 12 No. 4, designed by Jenny of Elefantz.  I thought that one of these with a nice mug would be a great gift for the mums.  I got as far as the binding, tried to attach it by machine as I was running out of time, failed completely and so they languished on my WIP pile, featuring as number #13 on my humongous list.

Tea wallets, languish no more!

 

I made the same wallet in two different fabric combinations and changed the embroidery a little.  I'd bought the tea in advance and so knew what I had and made a few changes to suit the recipients - the bottom row is for fruit teas and I missed out Earl Grey on my mum's as I know she hates it (who wouldn't, it smells like Dettol, who wants to drink Dettol?)

 

 

All I had to do to finish them off was hand sew the binding.  I managed to completely cock it up.  Check out that appalling corner! 

 

And that one!  Seriously, rubbish.  To be honest, I'm not sure what I was doing when I machine attached the first half, the corners were... weird.  I did what I could.

This one was for my mum and there are a couple of things I'm not happy with (besides the binding) - the appliquéd flowers blend in too much and are hard to see, and the ties - there should have been two sets of ties! 

There's a close up of the appliqué in case you didn't believe it was there!  You can also see one of the disastrous corners from the other side. 

My mum's was made from Amy Butler fabric, can't remember what this one for Mr CA's mum is called, I think it had Dream in the title...

We have the same old binding-corner issues going off here too, and the lack of the second tie...

But the appliqué stands out a lot better.

See?

If I'm honest, I've completely run out of things to say about these tea wallets but seem to have loaded a lot of photos.  Make your own commentry for these photos...

I have to say, tied up, they don't work very well.  I picked up one of them and all the tea fell out... ah well, mums don't mind these things!  I didn't go to see my mother in law on Mother's Day as I was too ill, but she rang me and I told her Mr CA had made it.

Don't think she believed me.