crystal pillows

The beads made in the post were actually made in November.  I discovered this post languishing in my drafts...  Poor neglected crystal pillows.

They're made from the book Creative Seed Bead Connections by Teresa Meister.  It is a fabulous book and I'd highly recommend it to any beadweavers out there.  

These little components started out life as a little strip, this photo was clearly taken in the middle of the night, in a cave...

This photo could do with cropping, but I have no idea where to find it as I've taken at least a million photos since then (slight exaggeration) and Photobucket is rubbish for finding stuff.  Well it is if you never name your photos or categorise them...

I used different combinations of 3mm crystals in black or gold, 8/0 seed beads in gold and 11/0 seed beads in black or gold.  I'm actually quite impressed I remembered that 7 months later!

I made four in total.  They took me hours.  HOURS.  Now to make the links to make them in to a necklace... I'll show you the finished piece in another 7 months or so...

Can you tell what it is yet?

It was pointed out on Instagram that that's probably a fairly inappropriate thing to say...  In my defense, I thought he was dead.



I posted progress shots on Instagram for May's block for the Sew Kitschy paper piecing bom.  Only one intrepid Instagramer knew what it was.  Can you tell?

Yes, that's right!  (Oh dear, I seem to be hearing those voices again...), it's a food mixer.

A yellow food mixer with a black bum made from Sketch which was the wrong fabric... never mind.

It also features a burnt bit.  I thought I could pretend it's dirt from the chocolate cake the mixer is mixing.

Damn you iron - see what it does?  It's just random, the iron wasn't dirty but every so often it likes to deposit burnt bits on my fabric. Or the husband's shirts... 


Related posts

January - oven gloves
March - bowl

In progress

I am crap at progress posts.  Really, really crap at them.  I never post them.  Must try harder.

Remember this?

Yes, that's right, it's my Union FLAG rug.  It's on my  2014 FAL list, and also is this month's Something Old, Something New goal.  I want it finished.  

Not doing so badly so far!  The random bits of wool aren't so random.  I marked them out every 10x10 stitches to give me something to mark my progress.  There were 52 squares to fill.  Now there are 33.  

Speaking of the  2014 FAL.  I actually have very little to nominate for my quarter 3 projects.  I have several WIP needlework projects, but all of them are large and so I'll only want to nominate one or two.  I know that I have a massive list of what I call WIPs, but in reality, most are just kits, or supplies I've bought for particular projects.

The solution?  I'm going to start a load of projects!  Yep, start, not finish.  Above are 2 bag kits, a bunny softie pattern, the scraps from the dining chairs to make placemats with, a reindeer kit, a stained glass panel using fusible bias and my Cuzco bundle for making a Stained Glass quilt.

Like the good girl that I am, I got started cutting out the fabric for the stained glass quilt.  Cutting.  Lots of cutting...  Don't hold your breath on any of these projects, it's going to take at least a month to get them all started. Am I crazy??

Wooooo weeeee woooo

That was the Dr Who theme tune... did you get it?  Mr CA had a birthday at the end of May.  He's very hard to buy for and his wishlist is very uninspiring.  I needed a plan.  5 minutes on t'internet and 2 tickets were booked for the Dr Who Experience along with a hotel in Cardiff.  Now I wanted to add some homemadeness to the mix.  The next day (after I bought the tickets, not the day after his birthday, that would have been pointless) was the Guild of Modern Quilters of the East Midlands meeting, conveniently held at Stitchcraft... a quilt shop.  

I took the free pattern for a Tardis very generously shared by Trillium, and off I went.  Fabric bought, sewing machine out, massive mess around me, a Tardis was born.

It's paper pieced, though I think that's obvious!  If I'd only thought about it earlier, I could have done some embroidery on it too.  Want to see the back?

No?  Ah well.  I made it up into a zipped pouch.  Quite a large one as the block is 10".

Some stash fabric for the back...

Some more stash fabric for the lining...

One fat quarter wasn't enough for the lining, so I used 2.

The birthday arrived. The pouch was handed over.  Know what he said?  "What is it?"  Well Mr CA, quite clearly it's a Tardis.  "Yes, I know, but what is it?"  

Birthday present FAIL.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, marks the last time I will ever make anything for him.  Ever. 

I will conquer you Improv...

I've been improving!  OK, so it's a very gentle kind of improving.  Sort of following a tutorial improving.  But improving is improving.  And I'm not talking about improving as in improving, I'm actually saying improving.

This cushion is made following Mod Mosaic, a free tutorial by Oh Fransson!  It's a great wonkilicious tutorial, though I don't do wonk very well, as witnessed by the minimum wonkiness above.

this gigantic cushion was made for Jacob, to go with his quilt, so uses the same Scoot fabrics with white.  I talked about the making of this cushion a few weeks ago, saying I was going to use a 20" cushion insert and wanted it to be snug, so had sewn it to 21".  Good job I did, when I went to buy the insert, I discovered The Range doesn't sell 20" ones, I had to go for a 22" instead.

I hand quilting inside each piece with Perle 8, wonkily and improvly.

and backed it with whatever I had to hand!  Slight miscalculation on the backing front - the whiter fabric was supposed to go over the zig-zag fabric.  I can't think in 3d.

June goals

With May so successful, how will I get on in June?

Needlequest

This month is a design topic - Line.  I think I'm going to skip this one and carry on working on May's blackwork.

Sew Kitschy paper piecing bom 

This month we have a jug and glasses, let's see if I manage this month's pattern!  I actually finished May's block on Sunday but didn't get it posted in time!  I'll show you later in the month. 

2014 FAL 

A quick reminder of what's on the Follow Along List:

1. Chair cushions for dining room - done in April

2. Finish the latch hook - go Wendy, go!

3. Silhouettes x stitch - done in May

4. Jacob's quilt - done in May

5. Mosaic tray - if this doesn't get done, you all have permission to beat me.

Something Old, Something New

"Old" - I'm putting the latch hook down as old... I really want a full house for the FAL this quarter!

"New" - I'm going to make a start on my stained glass quilt

Something New for 2014

I hope to join in again this month, let's wait and see. 

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I have a bag kit I bought years ago.  I started cutting out, so it's time to get it done and dusted.  I'll show you a photo when I get started.

Craft Book Sew along

I won the giveaway for this last month!  Now, there haven't been many participants and it's a great challenge.  All you have to do is make a project from a book or magazine and link up on this page to be in the running for the prize.  This month it's Tula Pink's City Sampler.  There's a new linky and a new prize each month.  Come and join me?

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

This month is yellow, I'm going to carry on making scrap buckets for each colour.

Smalls SAL

I will stitch Tiff or Ellis to go with Colin and Harry.
.


Related Posts

May review
May goals
April review
April goals
March review
March goals
February review 1
February review 2
February review 3
February goals
January review

Save the Stitches block 2

Last month for Needlequest I restarted Elizabeth Almond of Blackwork Journey's Save The Stitches for the theme of blackwork.  I'm not joining in this month's needlequest, so I wanted to continue stitching this blackwork sampler.

The photo above shows where I was in my last update.  This is block 1.  Since then, I've finished block 1, but didn't think to take a photo until I'd started block 2.

Here's where I am now.  The 4 full blocks to the left are part of block 1, as is the small motif in the centre.  I've now done the cross stitch outline for block 2 and am beginning the filling stitches.  I love stitching this and would work on it every evening, but alas, a rug-hooking project was calling my name so I've had to set it aside for a week or two.

I attempted to take a close up of block 1, but it was too sunny.  Yes, you read that right, too sunny!  I'm using accents of copper, platinum and gold thread as stated in the pattern, and some gold beads too.  I will try to get some better photos next time.  If anyone else is stitching this project, please leave me a comment, I'd love to see it.


Related Posts

Block 1
The tiny version