Looming

Good morning ladies.  I have a rather unexpected finish from my Wipocalypse list to show you today!  I went to another bead class at The Bead Shop Nottingham on Saturday.  We had block booked our classes for the rest of the year and I didn't know which one this was.  It turned out to be ... #44 - Bead Loom from my WIP list.

It was on my list as I'd been given a loom about 10 years ago which I've never used.  I never will. We used the new breed of looms in the class and there's no way I'm trying my old school one.  

photo source The Bead Shop Nottingham

I have had to steal the above photo from the website as I didn't take one. I was going to buy the loom (it's only £5.50 if anyone is interested) but mum had already bought one, but didn't finish her bracelet in the class, so bought the one she was using too and I've got to go over and collect one of the two looms from her.  

Want to see what I made?

Steph, the tutor, had provided us with 4 designs to use and I chose this chevron one.  I finished quite quickly and designed a few more whilst I was waiting for the rest of the class to finish.  I'm looking forward to getting on that.

Using a bead loom may look tricky and it is a bit fiddly to start with, but once you've completed a few rows, it's easy.  The only hard part is getting the beads in the right order to follow the pattern!

I really enjoyed this class and think I might just have to nip over to mum's tonight to collect my loom!  I'll take some in progress shots when I get going to show you how it's done.

  

Joining in with New to Me in 2013 at Fiona's blog. 

WARNING - appalling photography...

I have thoroughly outdone myself.  You've seen atrocious photography here on my blog, this ladies, this takes the biscuit.  Is that a real saying or did I just make that up?

A colleague spotted me wearing the necklace I made in the wig jig class I took and asked me where I'd bought it.  He said he wanted one for his wife's anniversary present.  I said I'd made it so he commissioned a necklace and a pair of earrings!

Mine was made with bog-standard silver-plated craft wire, but for this, as it was a special present, I bought some sterling silver wire, chain and ear wires.  The pearls are Swarovski.  I didn't have the special round jig we used in the class and at £40 it was a bit out of my price range.  So I made do with an ordinary jig and the original stars as a pattern.

The reason for the crappy photos is that I forgot to take photos of it until about 2 minutes before I left for work on Monday, the day I'd promised him he'd have it.  Ah well, you get the gist!

Which is worse, this one or the top one?  Well, crappy photos or not, he was delighted and over paid me for it!  I spent the money he gave me on salad for the bunnies*.  Such a loving mother I am.


*disclaimer: not all the money.  That would have been a lot of salad even for four bunnies, one of them being the greediest bunny since Peter Rabbit.

alphabet chart

At the end of last month, I knew I'd achieved nothing and wanted something show for the month, so I got out the alphabet chart again.  My goddaughter's birthday is just over a month away...

I'm not going to tell you what these blocks are, can you tell?

I would say this one is pretty obvious!

And I really hope this one is obvious!

This is a work in progress, I've fused the pieces down but haven't yet embroidered it.  This one is good, I know that as it's the work of Mary Englebright, taken from her book!

I also sewed the first two rows together, and completely failed to get even a half-way decent photo of them.

You'll note the first and last square of the top line are blank, this will be the same on the bottom row.  It's dividing 26 by 6's fault.

Related posts

A, B, C, D, E, F and G
H and I
K, L and M
J
P, R, S, U

luggage tag

I'm back, and back with a snappy post title too.  That was a bit of an unexpected break, I think that's the longest I've ever been between posts.  Without wanting to go into detail, things have been difficult lately, it may be reflected in my lack of making and lack of posting.

Anyway!  I went to Tunisia last week for work - no major disasters, if you don't count the panic attack I had on the plane on the way home.  Seriously, the engine was broken, why noone else could hear that there was a problem, I do not know.  Add that to some pretty hefty turbulence and lightening outside the window and you get a pretty freaked out (i.e. hysterically screaming) Wendy.  Embarrassing?  At the time no, we were all about to die, I didn't care.  Afterwards, yep, pretty embarrassing.  Major thanks to the bloke in the seat in front who talked me down...

I've gone off on a tangent... Before I left,i wanted to make a luggage tag.  I have one of those little black wheelie suitcases.  Like 95% of people who fly.  I can't identify it in a line up.  I have had to take cases off the carousel and open them to see what's inside to find my case in the past.  Let me tell you, people don't like it when you do that to their case...  I clearly needed a luggage tag.  I found a tutorial at Sew Christine which I followed, except for the ribbon to hold it in place, I used a long thin piece of fabric for that.  I also couldn't be bothered to wait for the glue to dry, so top-stitched the front panel.

Once again I used the fabric left over from my Weekender and my back pack (tutorial still to come!) so I do look quite matching when I've got my Weekender (which I use as a carry-on bag, I don't do packing light and certainly couldn't pack for a weekend in my Weekender!)

The strap I made is just a loop which I feed the tag through.  Clearly that is not my suitcase in the picture, it's just my Accordian bag which happened to be close by!  Despite the fact I forgot to write out my address details to put in the window, I did manage to identify my bag without rummaging round in anyone else's dirty pants, so it did the trick.  However, after 4 flights it's not looking so healthy, part of the stitching has come undone, the corners are poking out and it's all dirty (seriously, what do they DO with out bags??) so I feel another one coming on...

Wipocalypse July

WIPocalypse check in again! But before that, just a quick note. I had a little time for some blog reading last night before I went to bed and tonight, but for some reason, if you have embedded comments, I can't comment from Google Chrome, I have to go to Internet Explorer, but when it wants me to sign into my account, the page is all in arabic and I have no idea what it's asking me, so sorry, no comments from me!

First up, a recap of what I achieved January - June:

1. The Mackintoshesque window
2. giant granny square blanket
3. Cotton granny squares - originally intended to be a blanket, now a cushion
4. crochet rug
10. Small vintage embroidery
11. Necklace kit from Spellbound
12. Necklace kit mum bought me
13. Tea wallets
15. Bathroom curtain
16. Picnic napkins
17. Wiggly bags 
19. Sewing machine mat with thread catcher
20. Ungar #2 
21. Fleece baby hat 
24. punch needle
26. mosaic house number kit 
32. Lynette Anderson needle case 
33. Silhouttes cross stitch
34. Scraperboard rabbit
37. Clay + Pebeo paint

42. Extruding clay

46. Friendly plastic

48. Lavender sachets from hankies
49. Lunch bag
53. Red scarf with beaded fringe
57. Mega chunky cowl
59. Decopatch
61. Crochet hat for me in Hug
62. UTEE
63. Hat for Samantha

I have finished absolutely nothing, nada, nowt this month.  I'm failing miserably at this challenge.  Should we call it a half-way blip?  I did work on a couple of things.  Literally just a couple though...

My Wips

14. Alphabet chart - I have worked on this but haven't had a chance to blog it what with me being in Tunisia.

crafts /projects I have supplies for

54. Crochet cardi - all of 20 rows, burning up the crochet hook with that one!

So that's a measly, pathetic 0 WIPs from a total of 37 (projects left) done - 0%! 

Ah well, want to see the view from my hotel room instead?  

The items remaining list is not going down at all:
My WIPs
5. crochet Yoda
6. crewel Jacobean pattern
7. Crewel fire guard
8. Beaded embroidery dress
9. Dancers cross stitch
18. Chair covers
22. Applique tea cups

crafts I have kits for
23. Enamelling
25. Lace making
27. Mosaic tray kit
28. Beaded santa ornament
29. Silk painting
30. Origami
31. Hessian reindeer
35. Latch hook kit
36. Beaded lillies

crafts /projectsI have supplies for
38. Cathedral Windows
39. Tatting Course
40. Beaded Boxes
41. Sharp crochet hook
43. Hammering wire
44. Bead loom
45. Lino cutting
47. French knitting
50. Mum's chair covers

51. Jacob's quilt

52. Beaded bird panel
55. Crochet bag
56. Wedding memories box
58. Crochet fat friends (the other 7)
60. Lucet
64. Embroidered tablecloth
65. Kitchen curtains
66. Bunny jewellery - charm and ceramic beads
67. Paper beads

29th December 2012 = 67 projects.
26th January 2013 = 6 completed. 6 projects total. 61 to go
26th February 2013 = 5 completed, 11 completed total, 56 to go.
27th March 2013 = 6 completed, 17 completed total, 50 to go

25th April 2013 = 7 completed, 24 completed total, 43 to go
31st May 2013 = 2 completed, 26 completed total, 41 to go
30th June 2013 = 4 completed, 30 completed total, 37 to go
31st July 2013 = 0 completed, 30 completed total, 37 to go


And the projects added since Christmas?

a1 - Skill Builder sampler BOM
a2 - And Sew On... BOM
a3 - Daisy crewel alphabet sampler
a4 - Kumihimo braiding
a5 - Soft book animals
a6 - Hardanger SAL
a7 - CK Button kit (Christmas present from Mr CA)
a8 - fabric medium
a9 - Weekender bag

Next check in, end of August

Previous Wipocalypse posts:

June
May
April
March
February
January

Quick post - no post

Just a quick note to say there will be no post today and possibly not for the rest of the week.  I've got to go on an emergency work trip to Tunisia (before you all say it!  No, not fun...  I'll be working 16 hours days, it's 40 degrees but I'll be in a factory, not by a pool or on the beach and... it's Ramadam) so haven't had time to write any posts.  I do have some photos from the weekend so I'll write a post whilst I'm there, if I get a chance...

To put you out of your misery, the V-word I referred to in Saturday's post is a word which mean "something old" that you will find about 1 million times on every crafting website/blog and splattered all over Etsy, Folksy and Pinterest!  Nope, not going to write it here!

moooo

Good morning ladies.  I am so glad it's finally the weekend, it's been one hell of a week and a budding migraine at work yesterday didn't help much.  I killed it off with my tablets but they make me feel really strange and quite ill, so it still wasn't a pleasant, fun day.  Oh, hang on, I was at work, so it wouldn't have been anyway...

Look what I got in the post!  It came from Homecrafts who sent me the stag's head for free if I would agree to decorate it.  Apologies for the above photo, we have some serious lighting issues in our house!

The first step was to paint the head white so the brown wouldn't show through.  I took him out to sit on the bench and the bunnies were rather bemused.

A couple of sheets of decopatch paper and some decopatch glue later and he became a she!  I suppose he could be a rather camp stag, but to me he looks like a girl.  I have just realised that girls don't have antlers.  Oh dear.  Or rather oh deer.

It was really tricky getting a need line where the antlers and head meet.  I didn't get them level but then I remembered I was planning on sewing her/him/it a sunhat anyway!

It was a nightmare of construction, but take 3 worked OK!  I added a beaded daisy I made ages ago, it was the perfect match.

The head and antlers are decopatched, this is where you tear up strips of the special thin paper and glue them on randomly, but the ears are all one piece.  I cut the piece to size with the intention of decopatching over it, but using the shape to make a nice edge.  When it was in place, I liked how it looked so I left it.

I finished her off with a broderie anglais collar, perfect for the dreaded v-word look that she seems to be sporting.  I can't stand the v-word.  It's not really a style that's to my taste, but that wouldn't be a problem if the v-word wasn't so overused!  It seems anything can be v-word these days, even if you bought it yesterday.

It was at this point that I decided she looks like a cow.  I know, cows don't have antlers, but then neither do girl-deer.  She's special.  In all senses of the word.  Look how she's giving you the eye...

Thanks Homecrafts, I really enjoyed this slightly-daft project, you can't beat slightly-daft, can you?  You can see what the other bloggers did with their deer heads on the Homecrafts blog.