A tale of two pouches

So, I made another project from a craft book - yes, that's number four this year!  The book is I {heart} Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale.  I fell in love with her little patchwork cosmetic pouches so went to buy 7" zippers in every colour available to make a whole batch of them.  My local HobbyCraft let me down and I only managed to get four in decent colours.

I started with the purple.  I chose from my tiny stash of purple prints and cut out the linen parts.  I sewed it all up and made a whole ton of mistakes.  Here they are for the world to see:

See how bad my points are?  And the whole thing is kind of wonky.  I put this down to inexperience and also the linen which was very thin and kind of stretched and moved as I cut it.  Also visible on this photo is where I didn't turn the top edge under enough before attaching the zipper - see how it's peeling open?  I also used entirely the wrong colour for topstitching the zip in place, it is far to obvious and the mistakes are magnified.

Here you can see some very loopy, messy topstitching which doesn't even go to the edge!  Another major factor is the zip end.  The pattern in the book was great, the instructions very clear except for this one part.  I didn't feel that she explained how to neated the edges of the zipper tape properly in the corners - a photo would have been good. It's probably got a lot to do with my inexperience but it just didn't make sense to me.  It's the same at the other end.

Here's the rear view so you can see I'm not hiding the good side!!  Notice the square and the edges where it looks like stitching has been undone?  It hasn't, it's the edge of the fabric, really shouldn't have used that bit!

That was all very negative but it was a learning curve and I've picked up some valuable tips.  So, I embarked on a second pouch.  This time, I interfaced the linen before cutting it and marked out my 1/4 inch seam lines.  The linen looks much better but I've still messed up my points.  I'm hoping this is something that comes with experience and doesn't mean I'll never be able to do it as I love patchwork.  Here's where I'm at:

and the view from the other side and the other end:

Christmas Countdown - January Roundup

Another update!  I've also joined in with Christmas Through the Year over on Allie's blog.  I didn't get much at all done this month - just the one paltry present... must try harder next month.  But here he is (again), my frog prince as a present for a frog-loving friend:

I hope my friend wont make him lie on his side all the time like Blogger does!

Craft Book Challenge - January Roundup

This is a round up post of my Craft Book Challenge attempts for the month so no new stuff - sorry!  If you're not already joining in, come join us at Liesl's blog.

I managed to use 3 of my craft books this month:

Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan
I made this patchwork scarf:

Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Long
And knitted this frog prince that Blogger insists on showing sideways

Free and Easy Stitch Style by Poppy Treffry
And got to grips with free motion embroidery.  See my post here if you're interested in learning more about it.

Three books in one month, not bad!

No post - post

I've just popped in to tell you that I have been crafting this week, but I wont be posting yet.  The problem is that I leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark and I'm sick of posting horrible, orangey photos that look nothing like my work due to the lack of light.  I'm no photographer but my frog photo (see my last post) made me realise that I'm really getting the photo thing wrong.  So, until the summer returns, I'm going to craft away during the week but instead of giving you real-time updates, I'm going to save it all up, photograph them at the weekends during the daylight hours and then eek the projects out in posts during the week.  I just need a little time to get ahead of myself.  I currently have one secret and one "public" project finished so I need to get some more done this weekend in order to post 3 - 4 times next week.  Please bare with me and don't unsubscribe!!

The frog prince

Remember this little fella?  Nope, he's not a monkey ;0)

He's a frog prince!  He's from the book Knitted Toys by Laura Long (third entry for the craft book challenge this month!! and my first Christmas present this year!).  He was much easier to knit than that teddy I attempted - he was mainly in one piece, with just the arms and eyes separate. 

Sorry, it's sideways, Blogger and my computer conspired against me to make him sideways.  But look!  I took him outside - my first decent picture on this blog!


Linking up to the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side. 

A new addiction - Free Motion Embroidery

Good evening,
I thought I'd drop by and show you all what I've been up to today.  I've been hankering to try Free Motion Embroidery.  My husband bought me a free-motion foot for Christmas and then I was promptly too ill to try it, then too busy!  Today I made the time and wow!  It's brilliant!  I was literally so excited earlier today I was bouncing around.  Before I came crashing down to earth, but we haven't got to that part of the story yet.

I used a brilliant book to help me with this technique Free and Easy Stitch Style by Poppy Treffry.  Does this count as part of my Craft Book Challenge? I didn't make one of the projects, but I followed her steps for learning the technique. 

I started with a bit of scrap fabric, just moving around with the foot:

Fun!  I then did as she suggested and cut a load of squares from an old flat sheet that had been drawn on...  I hooped up and got going.  I haven't cut any of the floating threads here, but I think you can make out a heart, a flower and an attempt at a butterfly.

I then started to work on individual motifs, outlining them twice.  The hearts are a little odd at the bottom, it took me a while to realise it was better to stop the machine then move up again to get a crisp angle rather than an arc.

More motifs.  Erm, that one to the top right of the flowers is a coffee cup and the one to the left of the hoop is supposed to be a bird!  I did find the hoop kept getting in the way of the little screw that holds the needle in ~(my excuse, sticking to it!).

The next step was to find a picture and copy it.  Oh how I laughed!  AS IF!  I can't draw at all and thought I'd never manage this....

But I did!

I have various things stuck around my craft room and on the shelf was a fairy I'd stamped and embossed for my Christmas cards a few years ago.  This one was a leftover.  I decided to draw her.  Wow!  I was SO impressed.  The photo of the stamped image didn't come out so well as it's actually in colour with black and gold embossing.  I haven't done the fairy's face, but I don't think it's a bad effort.  Even my husband was impressed.  (I don't need to tell you the stitched version is the top one, do I?!?)

Next up was shading.  That was tricky and I'm not convinced I've mastered it.  We were supposed to be experimenting with thread colours, but I just used a cheap black thread I had and a full bobbin.  At this point I changed to a bobbin which was wound with purple thread.  I don't like the way it looks.  I'll definitely have to experiment with colours later, but I was more interested in learning the technique at this stage.

This was followed by applique shapes.  I felt like I'd taken a step backwards, I could do a square a minute ago so why couldn't I do it now??

Practice, practice, practice... and some motifs in the squares...

And on to motifs!  Flowers, hearts and a cupcake.  Again, we were supposed to experiment with fabrics, but I just grabbed what I had from my scrap bag and wasn't even careful about my cutting out which is why the cake is odd.  I just wanted to master the sewing, I can manage the cutting and fabric choosing.  I also tried a bit of writing.  At this stage I had white thread and yellow in the bobbin so you can hardly see it (and Blogger refuses to turn the photo round!), but it says Cupcake and Flower on the piece to the right.  I was pleased with it!

So,enough with the practicing, let's get going!  You must have realised by now I'm a bit impatient!  I chose some lovely Moda fabrics, cut out a flower and two leaves by tracing the patterned fabric, Bondawebbed them down and sewed.  I could not be happier with the result.

 I decided to make another four of these and make them into little lavendar bags.  And this is where it all came crashing down.  At this stage, I had not touched the tension, the machine was threaded correctly, NOTHING was different from last time.  So why were the bobbin threads forming loops on the top?  I tried rethreading, cleaning out the bobbin case, altering the tension.  Nope, can't do it.

After a frustrating half hour, I gave up.  I desperately want to continue learning this technique, but this is a stumbling block I can't seem to get over.  Can anyone out there help me at all?  Or direct me to someone that can?  Honestly, I'm gutted.  I had dreams of 4 finished Christmas presents by this time.

edit: I'm not sure I made it clear about my difficulties.  I used the same thread, bobbin thread, material etc with the one above that kept messing up as I had used with the successful one - that's why I'm so stumped!  Literally nothing had changed.

Yarn, yarn and more yarn - works in progress

A quick apology - Blogger is insisting I have my party buttons in the middle, not the end of the post, I've moved it but Blogger says no!  Keep reading to see the photo of the baby blanket and a link to the pattern and wool shop.

I have been knitting and crocheting away this week, so I've got no finished projects at all!  I wanted to show you something so you didn't think I'd just disappeared, so here's my works in progress.

First up, 2nd item from my Craft Book Challenge for January and first Christmas present of the year - a knitted toy, almost finished:

Can you tell what it is yet? (Said in an Australian accent (that was a Rolf Harris reference by the way)).

Secondly, I've been crocheting a baby blanket for a friend.  Another friend suggested it to me and I said in horror "but she's due on the 14th March, I can't crochet a blanket in 2 months!".  I got on the internet, got the yarn (the softest, most beautiful Sidir Snuggly Baby Bamboo in cream - it's divine) and got started.  I'm half way there after just 4 days!

This is also the reason the toy above isn't finished, my crewel embroidery has barely been touched and the dishwasher still needs emptying!  I can't stop!  I blame the gorgeous wonderful yarn.  It's a bit wonky at the bottom as I didn't quite get the hang of the pattern until about row 8, but I've got to do a couple of rounds when the length is finished so I'm hoping I can sort it out with that and a bit of blocking.  I have no idea how to block but I'll find out!

The free pattern is from the Lion Brand website - find it here

For UK knitters/crocheters, I bought the yarn at this website, it was the cheapest I found online, delivery was quick and there were no problems, I'd recommend them.

Cards and Crewel

Good morning,
I'm a bit late in posting - I was intending to do this yesterday but I have a computer lead which looks like my camera lead but which doesn't fit in my camera.  I brought that lead with me yesterday and so failed to download any pictures.

I've been working on a crochet baby blanket and a knitted toy recently, but I don't have photos yet - I'll post about that later in the week.

Today I wanted to show you the progress on my crewel embroidery.

I've had to transfer it to a frame as my 8" embroidery hoop wasn't big enough, my 10" is rubbish and doesn't keep anything taut and I didn't want to crush my stitches by moving it the hoop.  I haven't got much done - just a bit of work on the lower 2 leaves as I'm addicted to crocheting that baby blanket at the minute.  I have to get some done though as I imposed a deadline on myself for this piece - I want it finished by the end of January.

I had the urge to make cards this weekend, something which is starting to happen more.  After the wedding I seemed to abandon card making completely, maybe I'd had an overload, but now I feel more inspired to make them. 

The first card was actually an alteration.  I'd made it a while ago but I'd spelt Sympathy without a P so I had to redo that part.  Unfortunately I need this card for a family friend.

I then made a birthday card for my friend.  I'd received some card making stuff from my stepdaughter for Christmas and was really inspired by these Build a Cake stamps from Papermania.  The friend is male and it's really hard to make male cards, especially year after year, so this seemed perfect.

I was so pleased with it, I whipped up another 4 - my heat gun was on fire that day!

I need to get on the card making more and get some stock together.  I have a website to sell them, but it desperately needs updating.  That's one of my goals for the year.

Stitching in the Ditch (well, to the side of the ditch really)

I've finally finished something!  My first finish of the year on 12th January - that's a bit rubbish really!  It is also my first Craft Book Challenge finish of the year.

This project was taken from Sew Darn Cute (see details on my Craft Book Challenge tab) and was really good fun to make.  I love doing patchwork. This was my first time doing "stitching in the ditch" though and I am not very good at it! 

Here's the scarf:

All rolled up.  It was hard to get a shot of this scarf as it's not very bendy and I couldn't fit the whole thing in a picture.  The light is rubbish too, I need to try to just take pictures at the weekends of my projects as I'm never at home during the day light hours - but I wanted to show you!

Here it is fanned out (look at me trying to be artistic!):

They are all Moda fabrics from layer cakes I bought - one was Freebird and the other Boutique but I can't remember which the others were and don't know which range these fabrics were from! 

Here's a close up of my stitching in the ditch:

Can you see where I wander away from the ditch?  I didn't know if I should sort of stretch the materials apart (there is a layer of wadding in there) as I sewed, sometimes that seemed to work, other times it didn't.  Ah well, I suppose I just need to practice.  Any tips?

I'm planning on making two more, one in reds and browns and the other in dusky aquas (from the same Moda stash) to add to my present box.  I started cutting last night but then my husband saw the scarf and said it was weird.  He backtracked saying that it's only as he's never seen a scarf like that.  I wore it to work today anyway, tied like a tie as it looked strange and bulking in a knot and 2 men immediately poked fun at me.  :0(  I'm ignoring them.

Edit: I just want to say thanks to Rachel of Tiny Pink for her suggestion of where I can get some Bliss - Rachel, I couldn't email you back as you are a no reply blogger so I really hope you see this.  Thanks!

A cry for help - BLISS

Ladies, I need your help. I can't get hold of a Bliss Layer Cake, other than from Etsy where the shipping is £9.  Are there any of your lovely ladies in the UK who know where I can get some on-line or who can get it for a reasonable amount in their local shop?  If you do know of anywhere, please let me know!!  I'm desperate for some Bliss!

2011 Weekly Stitch Along

Good morning everyone!  I don't have much to show you at all as I've just been crocheting granny squares and working on my crewel embroidery.  I have started sewing a scarf which is part of my Craft Book Challenge, but I don't want to show it to you until I've finished.

I don't know if anyone else feels the same, but I don't seem to have much motivation to craft at the moment.  I got all those lovely craft books for Christmas and a brilliant pack of papercraft supplies from my husband, but I've had no motivation to make anything!  Crazy isn't it?  I've now got time to craft as I'm not struggling to get Christmas ready, but I can't be bothered!  Hopefully it'll come back this week.  I just need to keep reading blogs as that inspires me.

I'm working on my crewel embroidery for the 2011 Weekly SAL blog.  It's a group of stitchers who are working on large projects -  mainly cross stitch but other stitching projects are welcome.  We post our progress each week as a way to keep ourselves motivated.  It's fun to see everyone's project growing.  If you're working on a large project, or you've lost your stitching mojo, come and join in, new members are always welcome.

Here is my crewel embroidery so far:

I've made a lot of progress this week.  Here's how it looked last week:

I hated stitching this at first, I've found it really difficult but I'm well into the swing of it now, though I do unpick quite a lot!  It's very different from my cross stitching experience, not only the range of stitches (parrellel stem stitch, long and short stitch, satin stitch and the dreaded french knots), but also that I have the outline, but I have to make the stitches fit and blend the colours as I see fit... It has been a challenge!  I'm trying to get it done for the end of January (so three weeks left) so I can start a new cross stitch design I've been hoarding. 

Let me know if you sign up for the SAL!

Pillow Party at Stitched in Colour

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.stitchedincolor.com/p/bloggers-pillow-party.html" title="Blogger's Pillow Party" target="_blank"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_N_GiKhs_VOc/TRy_tvufbZI/AAAAAAAAAGg/5YOY9dM2VGk/S170/Button.jpg" alt="Blogger's Pillow Party" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Come and join the Pillow Party at Stitched in Colour!  I'm submitting this little baby - my first ever pillow, my first ever zip, my first ever traced stitchery project, my first ever lazy daisies and an embroidery especially for my best friend:

I found the stitchery on a blog and loved it, loved the sentiment and the little angels, so I chose some colours and began stitching.  I added the border in myself.  I knew I wanted the pillow to be purple as that's the accent colour in her living room.  I bought this material in HobbyCraft as it was one of the few purples they had and, funnily enough, it matches her existing (store-bought) pillows exactly!

She's been my best friend for 25 years since we met at the age of 8 (yes, that's right, I'm 33!) in the queue for the trampolines at the local school's Play Week.  We've been through thick and thin together, good and bad, through my wedding and the birth of her daughter (my wonderful and often-mentioned on this blog god-daughter) and we're more like sisters than friends.  The stitchery reads "A friend hears the song in my heart, and sings it to me when I forget the words".  I really enjoyed stitching this project.

A crochet-filled week, with a bit of embroidery and the plan to sew!

This week I have mainly been crocheting and embroidering.  I caught some kind of virus on New Year's Eve so have been feeling really rotten.  Then the day before I was supposed to come back to work, we had some kind of problem with the sewers (of the toilet variety, not the kind who sew) in which they flooded into our cellar...  Add to that one sick bunny and I didn't go back to work on Tuesday as planned.  Instead I stayed in and waited for the Sewage company to come and sort it out, after taking Tiff to the vet.

Tiff is fine, her stomach was in stasis but some injections sorted her out.  I had to isolate her when I got back to check she was eating and passing it as it's hard to tell when there's two rabbits living together.  So I was out in the garden every 10 minutes seeing if she'd pooed, whilst the house smelt of, erm, poo, waiting for men to sort out my poo.  What a great day!  I was convinced they wouldn't ring me as promised, but would just knock on the door so I didn't dare go up to my sewing room.  It turned out I was right and they had just knocked on the door so good job I didn't go upstairs.

I have been experimenting with crochet stitches.  I have the book Handbook of Crochet Stitches by Betty Barnden and I've decided to work through it, having a go at most of the examples:

These are the basic stitches first - double crochet, half treble crochet, extended something can't quite remember, trebles, double trebles and treble trebles and also a front stitch double crochet stitch.  It might seem a boring exercise, but I quite enjoy it and it's building my confidence!  I'm using some cotton that I found in a charity shop.  There was a basket of yarn with some of these balls of cotton in there, me and my mum snagged them all for 50p each!

I've also whipped up a few grannies.  Here is my paltry collection so far (I intend to do enough for a blanket - in about 5 years!!):

 You can spot the latest ones I've done as they are MUCH bigger than the original ones!  I can't figure out why. 

I also decided to have a go at the tutorial for a granny heart at The Royal Sisters (tutorial is here).  It didn't quite work.  Hmm, not sure what I've done there!  Doesn't look very heart shaped does it?

In amongst all this crocheting, I have done some work on my crewel embroidery - quite a lot of work actually.  Here's how it looks now:

I'm taking part in the 2011 Weekly SAL and this is my project.  I actually joined last year, thinking it'd be done pretty quick, but I struggled with it at first and then Christmas got in the way.  I'd never done crewel embroidery before, or even knew what it was, and this kit turns out to be for Advanced stitchers - it didn't say that on the internet!  It is starting to flow now though and I hope to get it finished soon so I can start on a large cross stitch.

Last, and definitely least, I've chosen some fabrics for the scarf I intend to sew from Sew Darn Cute.  This will be the first in my Craft Book Challenge for the year, and if it works, I'll make another to add to my present stash.  I want to be clear, I haven't cut these fabrics, or figured out the order, or even ironed them, I've just chosen them!

Gorgeous, gorgeous greens as I don't own a green scarf.  They are from the Moda layer cakes I bought, but I have no idea which range or even if they're all from the same range!  I'll let you know how I get on!