giveaway win

Yes, that's right, I won another giveaway! Whilst my luck in my personal life continues to get worse and worse (house still falling down, builders taking their sweet time getting us quotes, let alone starting the work, insurance company refusing to pay up, insurance company refusing to renew our insurance for all the reasons it's denying when refusing to pay the claim (bunch of criminals - oh, might as well name and shame - it's American Express Insurance Services, avoid at all costs), car still trashed, health still bad), my luck at winning giveaways, and apparently my talent at writing entire-paragraph-sentences, continues!

I won this lovely book over at Alison's blog.  It's one of those books I'll be flicking through again and again as it's gorgeous.  There are several projects I want to attempt (wish that WIP list would just disappear along with my to-do list!).

This lovely mirror is one.  I'd never thought of doing an embroidered mirror.  And this cushion is just so cute.

Bookends!  Genius!  Such a lovely book, Alison wrote a proper review, if you want to read it, it's here.

Thanks Alison, I'm thrilled!  And yes, I have added it to the craft book list.  The number is getting quite scary!

chain maille

I'm going all repetitive again ladies, no not more tea-light holders, more chain maille bracelets!  And when I say "more", I mean "one".  Oh dear, this post isn't going well so far is it?  I'll start again.

I made a chain maille bracelet!  It's the byzantine weave again, like I made here and here.  I see I titled both those posts "Chain maille" too.  So at least I'm consistent with my repetitive behaviour!  This time I used blue wire.  That was startlingly obvious, wasn't it?

Bit of an arty shot of the three together.  I've been wearing the copper and silver ones together and wanted some coloured ones to go with them.  I made the blue first as I have a lot of blue clothes.

I haven't worn a single blue item since I made it...  I have more wire to make more colours of bracelets, but I have other things that need doing first!  Anyway, this blue bracelet fought me all the way.  The silver and copper ones were nice and easy and quick.  This blue one was a pain in the arse.  The jump rings kept falling on the floor and they wouldn't open or they were opened the wrong way or the pliers slipped...  It was just frustrating from start to end.  Interestingly though*, I made 2 more jump rings than I'd need.  I mean that I made a load of jump rings on my Gizmo, no counting or anything and when I'd finished the bracelet I have 2 left over.  

I'll get my coat...


*OK, OK, so it wasn't even slightly interesting.  But I tried.

And Sew On - the one with the iron and the first one. Again.

I'd fallen behind with the And Sew On BOM, hosted by Kristy at Quiet Play, so it was time to catch up.  I got May's block out and my box of Bliss/Ruby scraps and got to work.

I can't remember what this block's called.  I think it's Press On.  I could probably look it up... nah, I'm too lazy!

This actually went together pretty easily.  The only bit I struggled with was the bottom part with the legs of the ironing board.  The three blue spotty parts were cut from one layer cake which meant I had to get the angle right as there wasn't much spare fabric.  It only took 4 goes.  On each of the outer parts.  Yes, I'm crap at paper piecing!

A little piece of patchwork being squashed into submission ironed. And, to keep it authentic, there's a thread there on the ironing board!  Multiply that by 1000 and you get my ironing board!

The iron is modelled on my own iron.  I think this picture is sideways on.  Took me a while to figure out what it is!  I think in my previous And Sew On post, I gave the impression I don't like paper piecing, I got that from the comments I received.  I do!  I really enjoy it, though it is frustrating sometimes.

Which brings me neatly on to the next block... frustration city.  Oh no, sorry, it's called Measure Twice.  I majorly buggered this up the first time I made it and was always planning on a remake.  I'd found some tape measure fabric too, so it had to be done.  Kristy says on the pattern "this one is easy"!  Oh but it is not.

So there we go, the finished block.  The green spot represents my cutting board and the other fabrics are the ones being measured.  I should have done some of that.  See that?

I'd sewn that top seam, joining the tape measure and the cutting board 5 times.  5 times.  And it was still too short.  So I fudged it.  It's staying like that!

With the exception of the strip where the tape measure is, I sewed each and every seam at least twice.  Usually more!  Kristy, this one should be advanced!

Just a little note - emails are backing up in my inbox.  I have a new phone, one of these touch screen malarkies and I can not write emails on it.  I just can't type on it at all without it looking like this:

lajlebagbj je;a sejeb;g

so I can't answer emails from my phone as I usually do, that means it has to wait until I'm on the home computer... that doesn't happen that often and when it does I have posts to write and blogs to read, so sorry ladies, I am ignoring you but I don't mean to!

Hardanger SAL #5

Morning ladies, I've got the next installment in Mabel Figworthy's Fancies Song of the Weather SAL for you today.  This is June's block.

Once again, I can't get the white to show as white - the background fabric is the same white as the stitches, no idea what's going on there.  I'm resigned to the fact I'll never get a decent picture of this project.

June marks the end of the 6 blocks I was putting together:

I'm not convinced I've got the border right on this, but it looks pretty enough.  Those split twists (inside the cutwork squares) were a bugger to do!

Here it is with May's block:

July's block is already out, so I should get on with stitching that, but I have a commission to do first!  Commissions are scary!

Related posts

January and February

March 

April
May

more lighting up (getting a bit repetitive here!)

Not last Wednesday but the Wednesday before was the last glass class of the term, no more classes until October!  The previous class I'd only got as far as cutting out the pieces for another tea light holder so I had to work really quickly this time!

There was grinding and wrapping in copper foiling and soldering and balancing and soldering and soldering and more soldering!

I really should have cleaned the solder off the glass and washed off the sharpie marker before taking the photos!

Seeing them together, I definitely need to add wire and beads to the orange/yellow/red one.  I think it looks quite plain in comparison.

I could also do with improving my soldering.  I'm considering buying a soldering iron so I can make these at home, to use up the scraps of glass I have and to practice, but if I can't cut the glass cleanly enough, I don't have access to a grinder...  decisions, decisions!

a little distraction

Ooops, that wasn't on any of my lists... I'm starting to think I should do the cover kit challenge, just so I have a list to cross these things off of...

cover kit from recent issue of Cross Stitcher magazine

And Sew On - A Stitch In Time

I completely failed to do May's block for the And Sew On BOM hosted and designed by the lovely Kristy at Quiet Play, but I did manage to do June.  I will have to come back to May later, in fact, I started piecing it at the weekend but my sewing time was very limited so I didn't get it done.

But anyway, this is May's block - A Stitch In Time.

I didn't really have any disasters with this one. It doesn't line up very well at the end but I think it just needs a trim.  I also think my hexies are squashed and I'm starting to think my printer resized the templates.

The tea-cup in the pattern has a stripe across it, but I thought this piece of Bliss was reminiscent of my favourite Cath Kidstone mugs - they're the size of a mug and a half and so I have 8 of them!

I stuck to dotty fabric for the hexies, thinking it would be easier to piece, they still didn't line up great, but I don't think anyone will be inspecting this!

I'm really enjoying this BOM.  Kristy, Derek says thanks!




Related posts

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

block 3 - Spoolin' Around
block 5 - Snip It Real Good