New Year's Eve - some presents, some projects and lots of germs!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!  I'm back with another post as I actually did some crafting yesterday.

But first - I have to show you this photo of the two beautiful scarves my mum made me for Christmas:

The gorgeous blue one on the left is crocheted, but it's crocheted the opposite way to usual, starting with several hundred chain and dc'ing into it!  It's actually a beautiful variegated wool in gorgeous shades of blue (my favourite colour) but the photo doesn't do it justice.  The red on is knitted, a fan stitch which does go up and down - again, it's gorgeous in real life, and it's finished with a pom-pom fringe!!

So what did I get up to yesterday?  Well the husband had to go to work, so I went upstairs and finally made up the crochet/knitting bag that I bought the Amy Butler fabric for ages ago!  I made the small version for mum for Christmas (at her request, not because I'm mean!) and made the tall one for myself yesterday.  What do you think?

As ever, the cutting took ages but it sewed up really quite quickly.  I changed the pattern for the cuff as I didn't quite understand the instructions, this time there's much less bulk in that top seam so it sits neater.

I also finally finished the bag/bed for the wierd little teddy I made.  This project has been the bane of my life the last few weeks.  It should have been really quick but took forever!  Far too much sewing up required.  Here it is in all its "glory":

As a bag...

... and as a bed.

Hm, don't think I'll be knitting this one again!!

Whilst I was upstairs sewing yesterday, my husband came home for work with presents for me!  He'd had them delivered to work and they hadn't arrived in time so he'd bought me other presents (I'd told him not to!) so here were my original presents.  And what a treat they were... more books!  (All book images from Amazon)

Around the Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman

I (heart) Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale



Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan



Free & Easy Stitch Style by Poppy Treffry

This last one goes wonderfully with my new darning foot which was the other present!!

I was going to get started on this today but guess what?  The lurgy has got me.  I feel awful so I'm going to sit here in blogland until I feel better (or fall asleep as I barely slept last night).

I've already mentioned in previous posts that I am challenging myself to make things from my craft books, well it's been a bit unstructured so far.  My First Bambina is doing a Use Your Books Challenge for 2011, well I'm joining in but my rules are a bit different.  I already have more than enough books to last me forever, so I'm going to make something from a book each month.  After the second quarter, if I have 6 completed projects, I'll treat myself to some new fabric/materials to embark on more projects from the books.  If I've completed 6 projects after the first quarter, well then I get my treat early!  Sorry Bambina, I can't put your button in as I've never figured out how to do it!  Hope over to her blog (link above) and join in!

Happy New Year to you all!

Looking forward to 2011

I hope you all had a good Christmas.  Santa bought me some lovely presents including a whole cache of new needles and some stitchy books.  I haven't done any crafting at all since before Christmas, the last few days before the big day were taken up with baking and wrapping presents and then we spent a day with the in-laws, a day with my family and then a day with the whole extended clan.  Since then I've been reading!  I thought I'd catch up with some blog reading today - only 500 odd new posts in the Google reader - you lot have been busy!

I thought I'd write a quick post about my new year's resolutions (crafty ones of course!) but thought you might like to see the books I received (they've also been added to my Craft Book Challenge page):



Stitched So Cute by Mary Engelbreit

Cafting Christmas Gifts by Tone Finnager


Simple Sewn Gifts by Helen Philipps


Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson


Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs - I've wanted this one for ages!

I thought I'd be desperate to dive in and get sewing now the pressure and deadlines are off, but no, I seem to be lacking in motivation now I've got all the time in the world.  Ah well, maybe tomorrow - I am off work until the 4th Jan.

I also received two beautiful scarves from my ultra-talented mum.  One crocheted and one knitted, I will take some photos to show you.

So, onto the resolutions.  I may well add to this list but here's to start:

1. Work through TAST1 and TAST 2
2. Complete my crocheted granny square blanket
3. Learn some new crochet stitches
4. Learn some new knitting stitches
5. Complete one project a month from a craft book
6. Try needle felting
7. Try beading flowers
8. Try silk ribbon embroidery again
9. Finish my crewel embroidery
10. Start and finish another dancer's cross stitch
11. Get Christmas presents made by the end of October

That should be enough to start, I'll probably make a page dedicated to them where I can log my progress!

If I'm not back before (i.e. if I haven't made anything) have a very happy new year!

Great week!

I am having a great week!  OK, so it's only Tuesday, but I was featured on One Pretty Thing this weekend (OK, so a lot of people are but to me it's a massive achievement!) and now I've been told that I'll be in the FaveCrafts January newsletter with my counting bean bags!  I am so excited it's like Christmas Eve has come early.  Small things...

Oh, and something else that makes me happy?  Remember my embroidered picture frame?  Here it is with the photo in it, mounted in the frame with the glass.  Love it!

(Project from Quilt a Gift by Barrie Sue Gaudet)

My online "success" also makes up for my frustrating sewing experiences over the weekend.  I'm on the last desperate push for Christmas presents now.  Having decided to abandon the idea of making gifts for my dad and father-in-law (I bought them a jumper instead!), I have now almost finished.  At the weekend we made some Cookies in a Jar, I just have to make labels for them now.  I got the recipe from taste.com.au.  I also made my own version for my dad who's diabetic.  I found a great diabetic dessert cook book last year and now all his presents come from it!  I used a shortbread recipe that just called for some butter to be added to the dry ingredients.  So, just a label for that too and they are done.

Also on the to-do list is a load of baking for presents, my lovely husband has made the gingerbread dough for the gingerbread rabbits and it's in the freezer, I'll get started on the rest of the baking tomorrow night, then hopefully finish it Thursday night.  That's not going to happen is it?  I'll be baking on Christmas Eve too no doubt.  I will be at work all week and I'm hoping they let us go home at lunch time on Christmas Eve as I also have to finish up knitting the ted bed for Rebecca's teddy.  Oh, and I have to do the wrapping and make gift tags.  OK, feeling stressed, time to concentrate on what I HAVE finished!

First up is a lap top cosy for my mum, the pig lover.  I found another pig patterned fabric and decided to use it. 

I wanted a khaki green for the lining but have very little in the way of solid fabrics, I love patterns too much.  Well, I had a brain wave.  I was in Asda and I found some of their Smart Price pillow slips in the right colour - two for just £1.69!  What a bargain is that??  There's well over a metre squared of fabric there when they're unpicked.  I used this excellent tutorial at Crap I've Made. 

(That lining IS khaki, once again it's my rubbish photography!)
I did struggle a bit with the zip.  Once I'd sewn it up, the ends of the zipper tape were protruding, a little handsewing sorted it out but I'm not sure where I went wrong.  It certainly wasn't down to the tutorial - the instructions were fantastic, I think it was just my lack of experience, it was only my second ever zip!

I also managed to finish up the caffetiere cosy for my brother.  Well, one of them.  I'd made two, one for a large 6 cup caffetiere, one for a small 2 cup caffetiere as my brother (a massive coffee lover) has both.  I'd measured and cut and sewed, then discovered that my great new sewing machine wouldn't put a button hole in them.  I'd used 2 layers of fabric and a layer of wadding but my 1-step button hole was struggling as it couldn't feed the material properly.  No problem I thought, I'll use the manual buttonhole.  Oh, there isn't one on my machine!  So I took them round to my mum's who's got a machine with a 4-step button hole.  Sorted! 

I took my caffetiere cosies home, opened the buttonhole and sewed in the threads, then wrapped them round the caffetieres to see where to sew the button.  Oh.  The large one is fine, but the small one is far too short.  About 6 inches too short!  What happened there??  So I abandoned it, he'll just get the one!

And then there was the i-pod cosy fiasco.  I think I've already mentioned that I've now made two attempts at this simple piece of sewing?  The first was far too small (noticing a theme here??), the second was too bulky to turn.  I would have loved to abandon this project, but mum had specifically asked me for one so I had to do it.  I gave up on the tutes I'd been following and made it the same way I made the accessories pouch back in November.  Success!

I added a silly little piggy bell I'd found.  Here it is with my i-pod inside - yes it's too big!  I'm going to say I did it deliberately so she could fit her ear phones in!!

Notice the pigs are upside down?  At least they are the right way up on the back! 
I know a lot of people are signing off for Christmas, but I'm hoping to do one last post with the ted bed/bag that I've been knitting for what feels like forever, and I'll show you the cookies in the jars too.  If you're leaving blogland before then for a Christmas break, have a very happy Christmas!

FNSI Results - the second one in December

I joined in with the FNSI again this week, but had terrible, terrible results.  :0(

I tried to make the i-pod cosy that I've previously failed to make, and guess what?  I failed!  Such a simple little object but I keep messing it up.  I'm going to have one more go as I know my mum really wants one. 

The other thing I messed up was a lap top cover I'm making from a tutorial (I'll share the link when I finish making it).  First I cut the pieces to the wrong size, then I realised I should have halved my original measurements and had to cut them all again.  Well, by now, I've lost the will to live, or at least to sew!  I have been sewing since 2pm as I had the afternoon off work.  It's now 7:30 and I'm going to get some tea, then do a little hand embroidery!  It's much less likely to go wrong - I probably wont share it with you until Monday though as I've got a very busy weekend ahead.

So, what DID I make? I made a crochet bag!  It's made from Amy Butler fabrics, it's a present for my mum.  When we went to the crochet class in the summer I bought the fabric and got a free worksheet and this is what I made:

Embroidered Photo Frame - a proud moment!

I finished the embroidered photo frame I'd been working on on Wednesday night, but didn't get round to ironing it until last night.  Unfortunately it was very dark when I took the photos, so they're not great, but then my photos never are and I shouldn't really blame the light!!

This was my fourth finish for my Craft Book Challenge.  The project came from the book Quilt a Gift by Barrie Sue Gaudet.  This book is full of gorgeous projects using fabric and wool felt.  There are 1-2 evening projects and projects that will take a week or longer.  Although I love this project, the instructions weren't great - at no point did she state whether there were seam allowances, and if so what they were which meant I made the machined part twice to get it right.  I basically made up my own measurements the second time.  I chose to do the hearts and the vines/flowers free hand rather than tracing her template.  Templates are provided but need to be enlarged which I always find a real pain.  They'd been reduced by 50% so it wouldn't have taken many more pages to put them in full size.

Anyway, here it is, under the glass, in the frame but minus photo:

Here's a photo of it without the glass:

 And a detail of the corner - I'm not sure if you can make it out but there are little white seed beads to represent flowers:

I really am proud of this project and have plans to make more.  This one will have a wedding photo of me and my husband in, but I'd like to make some to show family photos so will have to change the colour scheme and the hearts - I'll work something out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas cards - done! Birthday books - done! Placemats - done! Embroidered picture frame - not done!

Good morning everyone,

I'm sure there's noone out there as everyone is participating in the excellent Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day!  Follow the link to go to one of 3 pages of lists of blogs having giveaways.  I wish I'd known as I do have something I could have given away, but now it will have to wait.  I've got through 2 lists already, just the third to go!  I love finding new blogs so it's a real treat for me, even if I don't win and I probably wont!

I finished my Christmas cards this weekend!  Remember the trees made up of buttons and gems?  I turned them into cards for the parents and my step daughter:

And everyone else will be receiving a super-simple The Snowman card.  I'm usually quite glitzy with my cards and add loads of embellishments, but I had so little time this year that I thought I'd try simple.  I'm quite pleased with them.  The metal greeting adds a special touch.  Here is a shot of some of them.

All the same but slightly different.  And here's a close up of one of them:

Continuing with some papercraft, I also made 3 birthday books as presents on Saturday, again, all the same but a bit different, depending on which alphabet stickers I had!:

Here are some shots of the inside pages (pretty rubbish shots, I'm not getting the hang of this photography lark):

I said shots, but there was only one!  I'd taken 3 pictures of the same pages... you'll have to believe me when I tell you I did do all 12 months!

I showed you some coaster I was making for my brother for Christmas a while ago, and in the last post I showed you the tea towels I'd made, well now I've finished up the placemats (I'm guessing you've realised it's all a matching set!), there's just coffee cosies to go and I'll show you them all together.  I'm quite pleased with these.

The sewing went a lot better than with the coasters - they aren't as wobbly as they look in the photo, it's because they're soft with the wadding inside.  I didn't iron them when I'd sewed as I left almost a whole side for turning to avoid having to iron and ruin the wadded feel to them.  The top left is a back view of one, it's not an odd-one-out!

Next up is the first bit of work I've done on my Craft Book Challenge in a long time.  I've been working on an embroidered picture frame from Quilt A Gift (see my Craft Book page for more information) but it's been hard going as the instructions are not great.  I had to sew the back piece twice as it never stated in the instructions what the seam allowance was, or even if there was one!  So I threw the first one and did my own measurements for this version.  I've whipstitched the felt hearts in place and embroidered the vine (I've finished the last corner since I took this photo - I was planning on blogging yesterday but brought the lead that connects my husband's phone to his computer rather than my camera lead!!) and now I've just got to sew on some little beads as flowers:

The photo goes in the middle, under the ribbons, and I have a photo frame to put it in.  It will be a picture of us at our wedding and is for my husband's grandma - the only grandparent we have left between us.  I really hope she likes it.

Here's a close up of the stitching:

What do you think?  Would you be gutted to receive a photo of someone else for Christmas??

Friday Night Sew In and Cathy's Christmas Countdown

I had Friday afternoon off work and I spent it sewing.  I'd been busy all week cutting and preparing:

First up I made a patchwork bag to keep the counting bean bags I made in the week in.  I used the same fabrics that I'd used for the bean bags and lined it in pink.  It wasn't such a success this time and was pinched where I'd sewed it, but you can't see it when it's drawn in.  Here's one side:

And here's the other:

I then made this patchwork cushion using some Moda Layer Cakes I'd been hoarding.  I love the colours.  My points don't match up perfectly, but hey, it's handmade!

And here's the envelope closure back.  This is some Tania Wheeldon fabric I bought specially.

I then made a couple of tea towels to match the coasters I'd made for my brother.  I pieced a strip and sewed it to the tea towel.  I have no idea why we have that photo 3 times but I'm not allowed to delete it!  Don't you just love blogger sometimes?

So, that's the results of my Friday Night Sew In.  I'll be joining in again next Friday (another afternoon off work, yay!).

So, my monthly results for Cathy's Christmas Countdown.  I already posted on the first of December - see this post where I got to 11 gifts, so to round it up:

12. Knitted teddy

13. Counting bean bags in a draw string bag

14. Patchwork cushion

15. Set of two tea towels.

Yay!  I managed 15 again!  Now I have just 2 weeks to finish all my presents off.... Aaargh!!

I won the giveaway!!!

I won a giveaway at Prudent Baby! I've won some fantastic Penguin and Fish embroidery patterns!!  I'll show you what I make with them as soon as I can, with Christmas over I'll have more time and less pressure.  In the meantime, get over to Prudent Baby as they're having another giveaway.

I'll be back in the morning with my updates for the Friday Night Sew In and the final Cathy's Christmas Countdown.

Counting Bean Bags Tutorial

Edit - I'm joining in the Fav Crafts Blog Hop - it's a showcase of your handmade items on the 15th of each month.  I started making a new post, but I can't upload photos at all, so I'm going to link to this post and tell anyone from Fav Crafts that you can see all my projects with a quick browse, but, in the meantime, here's a tutorial for you!

I decided to make some counting bean bags for my god-daughter for Christmas as she is learning to count.  I've been collecting some fat quarters with animals on which I thought would be perfect for the job.  I have seen counting bean bags on various blogs, but I didn't follow any of the patterns, I just made it up as I went along.

I'm going to give quite detailed instructions.  I know a lot of you lovely ladies out there are incredibly talented and will already know how to do all this, but there might also be some talented ladies out there who don't know they can do this until they try, so the instructions are for them. 

You will need:
Main fabric - I used linen - 70 x 80cm
Scraps of animal fabric
Scraps of plain fabrics
Embroidery floss (I used white)
Bondaweb (fusible stuff for applique - Wonder Under?)
Machine thread (I used white for everything, lazy as I am!)
Filling (I used dried peas)

1. I didn't think to take pictures of steps 1-5, but I think it's easy enough to understand.  I cut out my squares (I used a lovely white linen) - cut 20 squares, mine were 15cm x 15cm.

2. Draw your numbers onto paper, or print them from your computer if you prefer, then trace them BACKWARDS onto the Bondaweb.  Cut around them roughly.

3. Fuse the Bondaweb numbers onto the scraps of plain fabric and cut out on the lines.

4. Fuse the numbers to 10 of your white squares.

5. I sewed around the numbers by hand using a simple running stitch in white, you could sew them on the machine or do more elaborate embroidery if you wish.  I've just used raw-edge applique as I think they'll look nice when they fray.

6. Take 10 of your white linen squares - the ones without number on.  I marked an aperture 7cm x 7cm in the middle of the square.  I then cut a cross from corner to corner, folded the edges back and trimmed them.  I also pressed them at this point so they lay flat.  Put to one side.

7. Next you have to think about your animal fabrics.  I had 6 different fabrics, some of them had larger animals, others were smaller but in lines (like the one below), others were small but randomly placed on the fabric.  You could of course use the same fabric throughout, providing you can fit 10 in the gap and that the 1 isn't too small on its own. 

In order to show the right number of animals, and to fit each into the same size aperture for neatness, I decided to piece around the edge of each.  I matched the plain fabric to the number I'd appliquéd on, then cut out strips to cover the excess animals so that it would fit in the gap.  Below you can see number 10 and the pieces I'd cut to cover the other animals.

8.  For some reason I've now switched to the 7 animal square in my pictures below!  I think  it was because I did it production line, cutting all my animals, then my piecing strips etc.  So, I pinned my first strip in place, then sewed it in place on the machine.  When I fold this back, you will see the first row of animals.

9.  I then lined up my next piecing strip to cover the animals to the left of the seven I'd selected.  It was to go on an angle.  I pinned and then sewed this strip in place, making sure my first strip was pushed back as it will appear when finished.

10. I then pinned and sewed the left side and the bottom, making sure before sewing that it would all look neat when placed behind the aperture.  This is what my block looked like after I'd sewed all four piecing strips:

Of course, you may not need four strips, you may need more or less.  I've done some with just a strip down each side and some in triangle shapes, you are just trying to cover the excess animals and make it look like you meant to do it!

11.  Now press all your seams flat.  You can see the others I was working on in the background as I did them all at once.

12.  Place your aperture squares over your block, move it around until you're happy with the positioning.

13. Pin the block in place (you can see I've swapped to One now!)

14. And stitch in place.  I used a zig zag stitch in white, but you can use a straight stitch or a fancy stitch and you could do it in a contrasting colour if you prefer.  You could also embroider it in place.

15.  Here is a rear view of one of the blocks after it has been stitched:

16.  Trim off the excess fabric, particularly any which protrudes over the edges of the linen square.

17.  Now pair your squares up, your animal print block and the relevant number.  Make sure you've got the correct number and that the number and animals are the same way up (unless of course the animals are randomly on the fabric. 

18.  Pin and sew round the edges, leaving a gap for turning.  I used the 5/8 markings on my machine for the seams, despite everything else having been done in metric!  Clip the corners.

19. Turn the right way out, I pushed out the corners with a paintbrush.

20.  Press.

Here are the backs...

21.  Now all that remains is to fill them half full with the beans and slip stitch the gaps.  I'm not the best photographer at the best of times, but I took the photos for the tutorial on Sunday during the day, but only finished stuffing and sewing last night, so I had to take the pictures with no day light (working full time means I just can't take any decent pictures during the week!), so excuse my finished photos below.

I've decided to make a little drawstring bag to put them in.  I enjoy patchwork so much that I'm making it a patchwork bag using the animal fabrics I used above.  I'll hopefully show you that on Saturday when I update for the FNSI and Cathy's Christmas Countdown.