Craft book review Mini Eco

Good afternoon ladies, I hope you've all had/are having/will have a lovely Sunday.  I'm getting to the end of mine and wishing I didn't have to go to work tomorrow!  I did manage to pack plenty in though.

The lovely folk at Cicada books agreed to let me do a couple of craft book reviews for them, and today I have the first one for you.  I'll show you the book and then show you the project I made from it.  The book was provided to me free of charge so that I'd share a review with you, but I was not told what to say, all opinions are 100% my own.  The links are affiliate links, so if you click on them and then buy, I will get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.

The book I'm going to review today is MiniEco: A Craft Book.

I was a bit worried when I got it.  I don't want to completely trash a book, but I do want to be honest and I wasn't sure this was my cup of tea.... I was wrong!

Projects are over a variety of media.  It opens with some paper projects including pop-up cards, origami and these fab fruit boxes.

image: Garry Maclennan 

There are also sewing projects such as a funky triangular cushion and a toy snake.

                                                           image: Garry Maclennan 

Other projects covered include signs made of Lego, a space invaders Pinata that no boy (or man) would sneer at, pots and earrings made from Hama beads and a section on macrame. 

                                                           image: Garry Maclennan 

I decided to tackle the geometric beads first.  This is what the project in the book looks like:

 image: Garry Maclennan 

Now, I couldn't find any wooden beads this big, nor did I correctly read the supplies list before buying some round wooden beads at the Bead Shop, I should have bought cubes.  No matter, the project still works, it just has my own twist on it!

I started with the largest bead and attacked it with my Dremel and a sanding attachment.  You could of course do this by hand, but it's so quick with a Dremel.

Not so much geometric as abstract, but I love the effect!  I'd bought some coloured beads too.  I knew they were either painted or dyed so I had to keep the sanding shallow.  If I attempted something like the bead above, I'd lose all the colour.

The dye on the purple beads seemed to be a lot thickr than on the blue beads.  As you can see, I was able to sand bigger areas and the colour still showed, albeit lighter.  With the blue ones, it was easy to go down to the wood.

Wondering what's going on between the beads?  I also had a go at the macrame section in the book, I tried the twisted square stitch and it works great.  I used my macrame board and my Kumihimo bobbins - great investments, both of them.

So what did I make?  I was going for one of the bracelets in the book, but didn't like my first choice of cord, so made beaded "dangles" instead.  OK, they won't catch the light, but they look nice hanging from my window.  The photo is upside down in case you're wondering!

If you want to buy MiniEco: A Craft Book you can get it on Amazon, and probably a lot of other places too!  I'd love to know what you think.

Help! My flowers are flat!

It's Friday.  I'm so glad, this week has lasted forever.  I'd like to start out by saying thanks to new followers, it's great to have you along.  I'm still making my way through the Grow Your Blog party participants and trying not to scream at having to type nonsense after a lot of comments...  but I have found some great blogs that I otherwise may not have found, so it's been well worth it.

Now, I have a dilemma.  I'm after opinions and hopefully some advice on how to fix this.  I've been working on my crewel flowers.

As you can see, I've done quite a bit.  The stems are in stem stitch and the leaves are in long and short stitch.  But can you see the problem?

The stems and leaves just look flat.  The wools that came with the kit were in brownish shades of green, with some bizarre bright blue and grey blue leaves.  I decided to scrap the bizarre leaves and do the stems and leaves in a brighter, more natural green.  It seems I didn't pick greens with enough contrast, I was concentrating on blending the shades and didn't think about how flat it would look.

So what do I do?  Do I pick out all the lightest shade of green (to the left of the stems above) and restitch it?  It will be a nightmare to get out as crewel is not easy to unpick and I might ruin the other stitches.

Should I try and stitch over it in places with a lighter brownish-green thread?  If so, how much and which colour?

Is there another solution that I'm missing?

Or do I just sit and cry?

Well that was actually a quadlemma, not a dilemma, but your advice is MUCH appreciated.  One thing's for sure, I'm not starting this for a third time...

I always love these shots that skim the surface on other blogs, so thought I'd have a go!

Previous posts:

Progress to end of Jan

Introduction

the taming of the stash

I've always said I don't have much of a stash.   

Turns out that's not true. I've got a 4-drawer unit full of fat quarters.  This is how the contents of those drawers looked:

I did some ironing, some folding and some colour arranging and now the pink/red/orange and black/white/grey/brown drawers are nice and neat like this!

I removed anything that was less than a fat 1/8, folded all the FQs, then folded the fat 1/8s nicely too.  Anything smaller is to be a scrap.  Want to see my scrap cupboard?

Yeah, I know.  Just call me Mrs Organised.  Actually, that's only some of my scraps.  The rest live in this linen basket:

As you can see, I've started sorting them by colour.  At the time of writing I've sorted all the scraps in the linen basket, but none in the cupboard.

I decided something needed to be done.  These scraps had to be tamed and organised.  Cue a lot of ironing and some quilting as you go.  Wow QAYG takes FOREVER.

I'd think I was going great guns when I'd find a bit of raw edge hanging out or a spot I'd missed!  I resorted to folding the edges of a scrap and stitching it down.  Eventually, after a LOT of sewing and one and a half spools of thread, I had enough...

... to make this basket.  It measured 33" x 14" when it was a flat piece.  I QAYGed (can I say that, or should it be QAIW?) onto a piece of wadding with part of an old sheet behind it.  I then applied firm interfacing to that and it stands up really well.  As I couldn't be bothered with binding, I made a lining from an old pillow case.  It's a simple tote construction with boxed bottoms, no pattern.

It has a large hanging loop as I'd like to fix a rail up somewhere to hang them all on, but so I can take them off.  It requires some more thought.  I didn't interface the loop which may be a mistake.

I intend to make one for each colour of prints, then I'll think about solids.  I don't have so many scraps so I'm thinking I might do divided baskets to hold 2 colours - possibly à la Vera as I LOVE her basket.  I doubt I'll do them all as QAYG as it's so time consuming.  I think I'll also use it as a way to make blocks that I like and then practice my FMQ.

I put some ironed scraps in.  I've now added all the ironed scraps from the linen basket, I think it will be full when I've done!  Maybe it's time to start on the Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks quilt! *

*affiliate link.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pennies towards a voucher.

p.s. my craft room is an absolute tip!

A different kind of sampler

Remember back in January when I did a lot of bead weaving?  There's still a lot of it I haven't yet shown you.  Mainly because it's unfinished!  I finished a bracelet off the other day so it's time to show you.

This is from Seed Bead Stitching by Beth Stone,* it's a brilliant book if you're interested in bead weaving at all.  I made the peyote stitch sampler.

This is a really good introduction to peyote stitch (basically a stitch which looks like a brick wall) as it's a variety of different patterns, all made just by varying the order you pick the beads up.  In the book it's black and white, but it called for Delicas so I just used what I had, surprisingly pink!

I decided to try a stitched button closure on this one.  I used the pattern from The Beadworker's Guild Introduction to Beadwork - Bracelets *.

I really enjoyed this project and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

*this is an affiliate link.  If you click and go to Amazon and buy something, I get a few pence towards a gift voucher.

Book Review - Me & My Sewing Adventure: An Intermediate Guide

One things that I've always wanted to do on my blog is a regular series of craft books.  I am a craft book addict.  And I'm proud of it!  The lovely people at C&T Publishing let me loose on some of their new and upcoming titles and so I'm going to share them with you.  

First up, we have Me & My Sewing Adventure: An Intermediate Guide by Kate Haxell .

(image source - Amazon)

This book is 130 pages long and is a reference book rather than a project book, though it does feature some projects too.  It's a follow on from Kate's first book - Me and My Sewing Machine: a beginner’s guide, and introduces more intermediate sewing techniques.  This book does assume some basic sewing ability.

The reference section is extremely comprehensive.  There are chapters on the following subjects:

My Sewing Machines - choosing a vintage machine (should you wish to), presser feet, useful accessories
Before you Stitch - storing fabrics, marking and cutting out, hand sewing needles, how to use patterns, basting, pressing, basic hand stitches
Seams to Sew - all about different seams, the usual suspects plus some new to me such as an lace appliqué seam
Hems to Turn Up - all about hems, from handstitched to curved and bound to lace edged
Fastenings to Do Up - making your own buttons and button holes, zips, snaps, hooks and eyes, loops
Embellishments to Add - trims, piping, beading, machine and hand embroidery
Piping, Pleating, Patchwork - yoyos, ruffles, tucks, hexies, crazy piecing, trapunto, tied quilting

After this there are some things to make - 6 projects including a table runner, zip purse and yo-you embellished scarf.  The projects are all step by step and within the projects, you are given the relevant page numbers in the book to refer to in order to help you with a particular spec.  I really like the zip purse, it's a lovely curved shaped.  

The projects are fairly basic, but this book is aimed at improving beginners, to whom I think it's perfectly targeted.  If you're new to sewing, this would be a good book to have in your library.  Having said that, there are some techniques in here that I haven't tried - I must have a go at trapunto quilting.

Want to buy it?  Click the link:

Me & My Sewing Adventure: An Intermediate Guide

(affiliate link - if you do click over and buy something, I'll get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher).

Disclaimer:  I was given a review copy of the book by C&T Publishing however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.

paper pieced bunny

Before I begin, I'm still making my way through the GYB list, so please don't be offended if you've visited me and I haven't visited you back yet... it will happen eventually!  Also, if you've got word verification, please, please, please consider turning it off.  Oh, and if you reply to comments in your own comments, don't bother replying to mine.  I have enough on trying to read all the posts of the blogs I follow, let alone revisiting each post two or three times to see if the blogger has replied.  I'm sorry if you think that's rude, but I just don't have time.  OK, that's all, on with the post. 

When Kristy at Quiet Play put out a call for pattern testers with the mention of a bunny pattern, I practically bit her arm off.  Well OK, I didn't as she lives in Oz, but I would have done had she been in the vicinity.  She very graciously let me test the bunny, and didn't even try to foist an emu on me (not that I would have minded, it's a lovely emu).  

Before I began, I had to set up my sewing space.  I walk from my machine to the ironing board, the back to the other side of my machine to trim.  I was burning too many calories and even stuffing my face with chocolate as I sewed wasn't going to help.  So I pulled the ironing board over.

Simple.  Why have I never thought of that before?!?  For your viewing pleasure, he's a view of my creative chaos from the other side.

Kristy's patterns are top notch, there were no problems at all with the pattern.  A little bit of user error, but only what you've come to expect from me.  What's a paper piecing session without upside down, back to front or inside out pieces?

Hello little bunny!  This one isn't any of my rabbits.  I think the shape would be best suited to Ellis, but I thought it would be boring in white, so I used the Sketch I used on my appliquéd Colin.

The background is from one of my Stash bundles from The Village Haberdashery.  I was saving them, but then gave myself a stern talking to.  I can't keep buying fabric and then saving it for nothing in particular!

In the spirit of not creating more WIPs (360 is enough for any girl), I made it into something straight away.

I added borders, a back, a zip and some lining and called it a project bag.  It's about 12" square and doesn't have a boxed bottom (because I forgot), but it will be suitable for embroidery projects.

I couldn't find a big enough piece of fabric for the lining, so I went with two pieces of fabric sewn together.  I thought the sewing print was quite apt.

This pattern, along with a whole lot more, is available in Kristy's Craftsy shop.  I highly recommend her patterns.

smalls sal january

So, I mentioned in my last post that I'm joining in with The Smalls SAL at Stitching Lotus.  I'm hoping it will motivate me to make some of the cover kits and small charts I have. There are no hard and fast rules - you can stitch what you like and you yourself decide what is small.

This was a cover kit with an old copy of Simply Homemade.  I chose it as it was first in the little tub I put all my cover kits into!  It will also make a lovely thank you card for Nana CA for our Christmas presents.  Yes, I'm a bit late with it!  

Strangely enough, there were enough threads in the kit to complete the stitching!  I was surprised at that.  It was a quick stitch, maybe 4 or 5 hours over a few evenings.  I made a few booboos.  The middle roof has extra bits at the side and the top butterfly is just plane weird.  I can't see Nana CA looking at it and saying "you've cocked it up girl!", so we won't worry.  

Now I have to decide which one I'll stitch for February...