Joining the SAL

Avis and Claire have been doing a SAL for many months now.  They completed a large cross stitch project, then decided to do another and invite other people to join in.  We're not all stitching the same thing, we're stitching our own projects, but using the SAL as a kick in the butt. 

The other participants are:

Avis at http://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com 

Claire at http://claire93.wordpress.com

Gun at http://rutigt.wordpress.com

Kate at http://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com

Carole at http://aslightobsessionwithbooks.wordpress.com

Eleanor at http://sunandcake.wordpress.com 

Alison at http://minervahandmade.wordpress.com

Jule at http://fromtheboudoir.wordpress.com

Elizabeth at http://garden4therapy.wordpress.com/

We'll be posting updates every 3 weeks and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to stop me stalling on my blackwork project.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to work on this since I joined the SAL a couple of weeks ago for several reasons.  Firstly, I've been on holiday and only just got back.  I didn't take it with me to work on as it's pretty big and also because I've run out of black stranded cotton!  I tried to buy some more in Hobbycraft and they've completely run out of both DMC and Anchor black.  I popped in again yesterday and they still have none....

I'm working on the crosses for the next section and hopefully I can get my hands on some black stranded cotton by the time I'm done.  As it stands, I've got to finish rows 8 and 12, block 10 and do block 11 completely.  This is my goal for the next check in in three week's time.  Fingers crossed that black stranded cotton hasn't been discontinued!


Related Posts

blocks 8, 9, 10, 12blocks 4, 5 and 6
Block 3
Block 2
block 1 finished
Block 1
The tiny version

bunny 27

Yep, I've been making more bunnies.  This time I made ballerina bunny from   (that's an affiliate link, if you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards a voucher.  I am not affiliated with the author or the book, I just own a copy (which I bought)).

I have a real knack of making dorky looking amigurumi!  I think I need to get some of the plain black safety eyes as these googly ones are a bit too comical.

Ballerina bunny didn't want me to show you her bum, but I wanted to show you that she doesn't have a tail.  There wasn't one in the pattern and as I messed up baby bunny's tail, I left it off.

She's bigger than her brother, which makes sense as he's Baby Bunny and she must be older as babies don't do ballet.

Aaaaah, sibling love.

Related posts

bunnies 1, 2 and 3
bunny 4
bunnies 5, 6, 7 and 8
bunny 9
bunny 10
bunny 11
bunny 12
bunny 13
bunnies 14 and 15
bunny 16
bunny 17
bunny 18
bunny 19
bunny 20
bunnies 21 and 22
bunny 23
bunnies 24 and 25
bunny 26


Craft Book Sew along

Giveaway wins

I've been hit with the lucky stick again!  In the recent Moda Love bloghop, I won the prize from one of my favourite designers, Bonnie from Bonnie and Camille!  I won 2 charm packs of Miss Kate, 4 patterns and a pack of M&Ms!  I can tell you that American packs of M&Ms contain more M&Ms than British packs...  Thanks so much Bonnie, I'm most stoked about the hand written note that has pride of place on my wall!

I also won a giveaway from CrossStitcher magazine (the UK one), which is a really modern cross stitch magazine.  I got this lovely Dimensions kit that I'm a bit afraid of as I've heard Dimensions kits often don't have enough materials to complete them, and that always gets me!

Yay for generous bloggers and companies and yay for my luck!

Kerry's wedding jewellery

I couldn't decide whether to show you this or not, so I am.  I made this hair piece for Kerry's wedding.

It's cupchain with Swarovski pearls and separators.

I added ribbon so she could tie it, but she's decided to wear it more as a band across her head so she took it off.

I have no idea why I'm so embarrassed to show you all this!

viking knit

Guess where I did a class?  Yes! The Bead Shop Nottingham, how on earth did you guess?!?

The class was on Viking Knit which is working with 0.3mm wire using a tool to make a kind of braid much like with a French knitting spool.  It's usually done using a Lazee Daizee tool, but we used some wire held round a pencil which worked just as well.

After creating a braid, or length of knit, it looks like this.  Not great eh?  The next step is the work it through a draw plate, ours were plastic, starting with a large hole and working your way down until the knit is compact.  It's magic, that's all there is to describe it. Magic.

See how neat that looks?  Nothing like the pre-drawn braid.

See?  I was very impressed.  I made mine into a bracelet with end cones when I got home.  I bought a draw plate as I want to do some more of this (I'm thinking coloured wire to make necklaces), but I didn't buy a Lazee Daizee tool as they're £20!  I'm going to use the pencil with wire held on with an elastic band!

As this was new to me, I'll be linking up to Fiona's Something New for 2014

There will be radio silence from me for the next week.  Me and my lovely mum are off to the craft hotel for 5 fab days of crafting.  Potential burglars!  Mr CA will be here and he's the one you don't want to tangle with.

Orange Peel QAL - first update

I'm not sure if I've ever told you that I plan to join in the Orange Peel QAL held over at Button Button?  If you want to join in, there's loads of time, we've just got started.

I'm making a mini of some description, so I only need 36 blocks.  We have another 6 weeks to go, so that means I need to be making 6 blocks a week.  I got started with the green blocks.  It uses freezer paper applique and is hand stitched.  The blocks are oversized and will be cut down afterwards to avoid having to make sure the orange peels are precisely placed.

I'm digging through my scrap bins for this one, so these are just a random variety of greens, all appliqued onto a low volume background, in this case, Bike paths.  I can't believe I just said low volume. 

Yellows next...

And to think I'm allergic to oranges, hope I'll be OK!

October goals

Come on October, this is going to be a good month, I can feel it in my water!

Needlequest

This month is 3d stitches - so I'm about to have a go at stumpwork, exciting and very scary.

Something New for 2014

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

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I'm going with the Mackintosh-inspired wall hanging again.  I got so much done last month, it seems unfair not to list it again.


Craft Book Sew along

There will definitely be at least one entry this month, I have several books I need to review.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

This month is brown/black/grey. I'm going to carry on making scrap buckets for each colour.  I haven't decided how I'll separate the neutrals - probably 1 for brown, 1 for black and grey and 1 for white... I might need to sort the scraps out first and see how they look.  

Smalls SAL

I want to finish the mini cross stitches of my bunnies and as I've only done the boys so far, I have 2 more to go.

2014 FAL Q4

This is basically Q3 list with the 3 finished items removed!

1. Placemats to match my chair cushions from these scraps

2. Flower Patch bag using this kit

3. Hessian reindeer, bought many moons ago and now it's time

4. Mackintosh wall hanging, here's a photo of the pattern

5. Circle of Geese mini.  Remember this top?  I want to make a mini out of it.

6. Quilt And Sew On

Yes!  Finally!  

7. Cuzco quilt

It just needs sashing, making into a top, a backing made, quilting, then binding.  Not much then!

8. Applique cushion.  Remember this?  And no, I didn't iron it before I took the picture.  I'm going to FMQ this and make it into a cushion.

9. Mustn't forget the latch hook rug!  I will get it finished this time.  I said that last time too!

Related Posts

August review and September goals
August goals
July review
July goals
June review
June goals
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