Christmas roundup

It's time to show you what I've done for the Christmas Countdown.  It's not much I'm afraid!

I think I mentioned that I've finally set up my computer desk?  Well, the only mousemat I had was an old one of my dad's with a picture of Meadow Lane (the ground where Notts County play) on it.  Clearly, that wasn't the mousemat for me!  Instead of buying one, I decided to have a go at making one.  After reading through several different tutorials, I knew I was going to give the Mod Podge versions a go.  I've haven't linked up a tute as I didn't really follow one, I read a few and made up my own version.

I thought I might as well make one each for my mum and dad whilst at it. I cut a bit of Lily and Will fabric for mine, some piggy fabric for my mum and black and white stripes (Notts County again!) for my dad.  I used dad's old mouse mat for mine and cut rectangles of funky foam for mum and dad's.  I smothered the back of each piece of fabric and the foam with Mod Podge.

Then I put the fabric on right side up and spent ages smoothing out any creases, bubbles and wrinkles.  I left it to dry for about 3 days, then cut to size.

Not an unmitigated success, but they're alright.  The tops are rough and bumpy and I thought that might be a problem, but I'm using mine now and it's not a problem at all. 

The blue foam I used for dad's shows through the white stripes a bit and I'm not sure the funky foam versions are thick enough.  I think they'll do for a stocking filler!

I really will get more Christmas gifts done in August, I will!!  I know, I've said that before...

By the way, I still need another 5 people to sign up for Pay It Forward otherwise my one poor PIFfer will end up with sackloads of handmade stuff from me!  Does anyone else want to receive something handmade in the post?  All you have to do is blog about it (or Flickr or Facebook or whatever) and find 3 people you can PIF to...  Come on people, you know you want to!

The not-finished stuff

I've got a fair few WIPs going at the minute, so I thought I'd show them here in a bid to make myself accountable for finishing them!

In the sewing room:

1. This Roman Stripe patchwork block is destined to become one of four chair cushions for my dining room.  Work has stalled as I'm not sure whether to make each one a different pattern.  There will be matching placemats and coasters too so I quite like the idea of four different patterns, but I'm not sure how it will look.  Thoughts?

2. I still haven't got any closer to quilting the Petit Ecole pinwheel table topper for my brother- and sister-in-law.

In the crochet bag:

3. The giant granny continues to grow - 25 rounds here.  I'm going so much slower than everyone else in the Giant Granny challenge!

4. The rainbow cushion nears completion!  No photos until it's done.

5. I'm 3 rows into 4" granny #3 for charity.

6. The ami bunny remains with only a head.  I can't get my head round the magic ring to start the body.  I pick it up, have a go, fail and put it down!

In the sewing box:

7. The needlepoint/tapestry part of the bookmark is complete, now I'm just stuck for how to finish it.  I had intended to put on a crochet edging, but my experiments with a tiny crochet hook just didn't work.

8. No more progress on the alphabet chart.  I HAVE to get my arse into gear!!

Well 8 WIPs isn't so bad.  I just have to stop myself starting anything else before I've got some of them done.

Playing God

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway recently.  It was an unusual giveaway in that Caroline was looking for a pattern tester for her Solar System felting kit. Caroline creates the most wonderful wet felted and needle felted kits and sells them in her Etsy shop.  The deal was that I had to give the kit a go and provide her with some feedback on her instructions.  I've wanted to give wet felting a go for a while so I jumped at the chance and was thrilled when I won.

I was excited when the kit arrived.  The roving was in paper bags divided up by planet and everything came in this hessian bag.  I loved the way it was packed - no plastic to throw away (the bubble wrap is part of the kit) and I got this fab bag which I plan on decorating - perhaps needle felting?

Some action shots!  This is planet Earth pre-felting.  Look at my carefully crafted continents and poles!

And here she is!  The poles slipped a bit whilst felting (Caroline does remind us that felting is an art, not a science) but I've decided that it represents the Earth in 100 years when the north pole has melted.  Is it the north pole that's melting or the south pole? I wouldn't know, I spent ages debating with a friend whether the Milky Way is a galaxy, a universe or a solar system and what the difference was!

This is what the roving looks like.  It's the top bit of the sheep's fleece and it's very soft and luxurious.  The fleece has tiny little barbs that stick together when agitated, this is the basic premise of felting.

Here we have Venus, Earth, Mercury, Pluto and Mars.  They are tiny!  The model is actually to scale, you'll see how small our planet actually is in my final shot.

Here I was getting ready to felt Neptune. Caroline provided me with paper balls to wrap the roving around.

See how small the other planets are in comparison?  And Neptune isn't even the biggest.  Actually, I don't think that one is Neptune.  I can't find the sheet with the names on, it's not Venus, Earth, Mars, Pluto, Mercury, Jupiter or Saturn.  It's the other one...

Here's the roving for Jupiter all fanned out.

And here's Jupiter with her tights on!

Ta da!  My completed solar system!  I really enjoyed making this and would love to do some more welt felting.  I have some roving left over from the kit and I think I'll try making felt beads with it. The only downside?  It's not so good for a girl with chronic eczema on her hands to spend 4 hours with her hands in soapy water!  

The kit was fantastic, the instructions were really well written and I even enjoyed reading the information about each planet - clearly it hasn't all stuck as I've forgotten the name of one of them!  If you want to give felting a go, I'd really recommend one of Caroline's kits - Go to Snag Breac's shop.

Oh, are you wondering what the Solar System is sitting on?  It's the newest addition to the dining room.  Dad brought an old bookshelf over and it quickly became my place for crafting goodies:

In here are my crochet, knitting, embroidery and beading books, along with my beading and jewellery making supplies, now at home in the dining room.  Think that's all my craft storage?  No, no, no!  This lives in the living room next to my place on the sofa:

One of the drawers holds felt sheets, another holds random bits and pieces, the other three are full of yarn (not all of my yarn!), on top is a basket with embroidery threads, random patterns, my light box and embroidery hoops and frames and various bits and pieces.  To the left is my sewing box and my knitting/crochet bag.

Think that's all? I've actually got a very large craft room upstairs too! Crafting is taking over my life and my house...

a little bit of this, a little bit of that and a Sampler Quilt block

A bit of a messy post here folks.  I'm writing this on Monday afternoon, ready to post on Tuesday, and I'm at home.  I'm not feeling well and decided that I already give enough to my day job, they don't need me spreading germs and collapsing at my desk!

I thought I'd show you a few projects/bits of projects I've done recently that don't really deserve a blog post of their own.  Oh dear, now I feel bad for them!

Another square of the alphabet chart I've been working on for almost a year now!  I HAVE to get this finished or the little lady it's intended for will already be able to read and write before she gets it! I used my fab Big Shot and a Sizzix jigsaw die for this one.  I know the Accuquilt Go has been much touted around blog land recently, but there are alternatives.  I've had my Big Shot for years and recently discovered it could cut fabric.... bonus!

I used a cute animal print and just blanket stitched around the pieces.  It's a bit of a shame that I didn't have my sewing machine when I started this as machine applique would be so much quicker and I'd probably be nearly finished by now.  I can't really carry on and do machine applique from now though as A-M are all hand appliqued.

A birthday card for a friend, shamelessly copied from the dozens of bunting cards / pouches / cushions I've seen around blog land.

And a scrappy sewn heart card. The heart was also cut using my Big Shot.  I can't remember for the life of me now who I gave this card to!
I finally got round to doing last week's Skill Builder Sampler Quilt block, I'm a week behind as this is block 4 and block 5 was put up on Friday.  I couldn't be bothered to do this before as it was so like my bonus block, but I girdered my loins and got on with it.  I really don't know what girdering your loins involves.  I don't think I've EVER said that before!

Again, I used Bliss as I have a project in mind that needs a few quilt blocks.  I ignored the tutorial where it called for white squares and HSTs and did it all in patterned fabrics.  Some were more successful than others.

Perfect points!

Really, really, really not perfect or even near perfect or even decent points. 

I need to get on and make the next one but I'm lacking enthusiasm at the moment.  I'm not sure why, it might be because I'm under the weather or it might be the length of time it takes to make each block - a couple of hours! 

Right, I'm off now to finish watching Sunday's Eastenders omnibus and do some more tapestry, followed by a bit of giant granny squaring I think.  Mr CA has been dispatched to the supermarket after he finishes work and I may just lie on the sofa and let him unpack the shopping and make me some tea!

My new best friend!

I've got a new best friend!  Meet Humphrey...

I was given a free copy of the pattern to make Humphrey by Retro Mama in exchange for a copy of Crafts Beautiful in which she was featured.

Humphrey!  Don't show the nice people your bum!  When we got our last rabbit, I wanted to call him Humphrey but Mr CA said no, so he was named Harry instead.  This time, Mr CA doesn't have a say in the matter!

Humph is made from grey linen with a piece of a layer cake layer on his belly and in his ears.  His tale is flannel so is nice and tactile. 

This morning I came up stairs with the intention of making my 5th block for the Skill Builder Sampler.  My computer took forever to boot up and so in the meantime I turned over my 2011 Sewing calendar and found this lovely little tray.  Well not this actual one, this is the one I made.  I'm far too lazy to climb down 2 flights of stairs and scan the original. 

You can find it at Boutique Nutmeg Designs if you want to make it.  The 2011 Sewing Calendar is actually a bit of a con as all the designs are available free on various blogs!  Ah well.  I've just realised it's not on my Craft Book page.  Does it count as a Craft Book Challenge?  I believe it does!

The pattern called for two 12" squares of fabric, but I used 2 layer cakes from my Bliss pack so the flat size is 10" square.  I also cocked up first time.  It says to sew the ribbons down to their intersections, so I did.  It was a bit messy as I used a zig zag stitch and the tension was all over the place, I couldn't seem to fix it.  I didn't think it would matter as I thought they'd be inside (despite me sewing them to the right side of the fabric - duh), but when I'd sewed it up, it was obvious they would be seen!  I also couldn't tie them to bring the corners up due to the way I'd sewed them, so I unpicked them and I'm just relying on where the two pieces were sewn together and the topstitching to hold them.

And what am I using it for?  To hold my Bliss scraps!

FSNI July - not much progress!

Mr CA has been working away on site for over a week, so as he came back on Friday night, I couldn't really spend the Friday Night Sew In up in my sewing room, I wanted to spend some time with him so hand sewing was the answer.

I've been without a printer for over a year as my lap top just didn't like my printer.  My dad solved this problem this week by buying me a new printer/scanner/copier and setting it up for me.  Love my dad.  I've been saving pdf patterns on my hard drive for a long time, but now with a way to print them, I started sorting them out and in doing this I found a lovely pattern for what I thought was a cross stitch bookmark.  On printing it I discovered it was actually needlepoint.  Fantastic, another LANT and a chance to sample a different kind of needlework.  I've got quite a list of needlework techniques on my Crafts page and I'm eager to give them a go.

I bought the necessary supplies:

1. Canvas.  They had a couple of types of canvas but only one in 14 count which was what the pattern specified, it's called interlocking canvas.  I have no idea what this means or if it's the right one.

2. Tapestry wool.  Despite my aversion to my crewel wool, I thought I'd blunder on!  The pattern gave the references for DMC and I hadn't looked at a conversion chart as I'd assumed Hobbycraft would stock DMC, they didn't so I picked my own Anchor colours.

3. Tapestry needles.  I love these little Pebble needle packs, I just wish they'd print the name of the type of needle on them!

I got to work.  3 hours later and this is all I'd achieved!

I'll put in a credit and links to the pattern when I show you the finished item.  And I will finish it as I'm enjoying doing it.  It's tent stitch, which is basically half a cross stitch, so it's like doing cross stitch, but only half of it, with wool. 

I do have a bit of confusion in my mind as to what this craft is.  It says needlepoint or petit point on the pattern, but I know that needlepoint is an American term.  What I'm not sure of is whether this is what we call tapestry.  Does anyone know?

Despite the small amount of progress, I'm linking up to the FSNI anyway.

Today I'm going to be working on a fantastic kit I got through the post this week.  It was sent to me by a lovely lady and I'll show you all and of course give you links to where you can get this kit when I've thoroughly tested it.  Here's a sneak peak:

Craft Book Challenge - Quilt Block

First of all, I was very pleased to hear that Australians and New Zealanders all say bloody hell!  Excellent.  OK, so my dad's second favourite method of cursing is "sodding hell".  Do you all say that too?  Anyway, on with the blog post...

 

I realised I hadn't made something from one of my craft books for the Craft Book Challenge last month, and July is running out so I thought I'd better get on it!  I decided I wanted to make a little coaster for my computer desk so chose a quilt block from 501 Quilt blocks - Better Homes and Gardens.  Is it cheating to just do a quilt block for the CBC?

As the computer desk is in the dining room, the fabric had to be Lily and Will, it's actually blue, I don't know why it looks pink in the photo below.

I had to lay all the pieces out as I went along to make sure I cut the right fabrics.  The book doesn't have instructions at all so this was a bit of a challenge, especially as it involved HSTs, quarter block triangles (which I'd never done!) and a bit of maths as the blocks in the book are bigger than I wanted. 

I have no idea if this is the right way to do a quarter square triangle, but it had the desired effect!  I made a HST, then put my acrylic ruler on the 1/4 inch mark from corner to corner and cut it.  This meant I could sew a 1/4 inch seam and it would be in the right place.  It seemed to work.

And here's the final block!  I can't remember what it's called... I'm really chuffed with it despite a couple of not-quite-meeting points.

See, they don't quite match but I think it looks pretty good anyway.

I sewed it right sides together with a piece of the spotty fabric.  I didn't use wadding this time, I used fusible fleece on each piece so there was no shifting when I turned it right sides out.  I sewed around the edge with invisible thread, then attempted to stitch in the ditch.  The thread kept snapping so I gave up.  Shouldn't I have used invisible thread in my machine?  Is there another way to achieve "invisible" quilting?

And here's the back.  You can see where I did the quilting!  It will always be this side down though so I don't suppose it matters.

I'd love to use this pattern for my placemats, but I think I'd have to use 6 blocks laid out in 2 rows and that might be a bit much for four placemats!

What's been on the hook?

Hardly an evening goes by when I'm not sitting on the sofa with Mr CA, hooking away, me, not him. I've generally got several crochet WIPs on the go and I like it like that as I can swap and change as I feel like it.  One of my ongoing projects this year will be 4" granny squares.  I also intend to knit some 4" squares.  Cath at Stitchin' Chicken has posted an appeal to help Stitch for Pleasure , Stitch for Charity to collect 4" squares that they can then sew up into clothing or blankets... oh, it doesn't say who for, I assume the homeless.  But anyway, it's a worthy cause, if someone needs to keep warm, who am I to turn down the chance to crochet up a load of grannies and even practice my knitting.

The deadline isn't until the 27th December, so please, if you can knit or crochet, pop over to Cath's post and get the full details.  A 4" square takes no time to whip up and it's a great way of practicing new stitches and using up yarn scraps, and doing your bit of course.  Above are my first two squares, taken from 200 Crochet Blocks.

I'm also joining in the Giant Granny Challenge with Angie from Le Monde de Sucrette.  Basically, you crochet a granny.  A giant one.  For no reason!  Here's my granny so far:

There's 20 rounds there so far, all in 5 different colours of a wool/silk/alpaca mix yarn that was on sale at £1.50 a ball.  Who could say no. I did these rounds quite quickly, but have stalled this week as I've been so busy.

So, does she ever finish anything?  I can hear you asking yourselves/the dog/the computer.  Oh yes!  I finished this little baby!

So now you're saying "what the bloody hell is it?!", well maybe if you're English.   I'm not sure that Welsh/Scottish/Irish/Canadian/American/Australian/New Zealandish (what is the adjective for New Zealand??)/German/Polish etc, etc, etc, people say bloody hell.  Do you?  And what about other English people?  Is it just me and my dad?  Am I tarring you all with the same brush?  I did think goobies was a real word until I hit about 26 and discovered my dad and Aunty Gwen had made it up years ago.  I think I've digressed a little...

It's a seat belt cosy!  No, I'm not nuts.  I'm very short.  I'm only 5 foot 1 and drive an old car so it doesn't have fancy adjustable seat belts.  I've endured the last 3 years of being able to drive, and more as a passenger, with the seatbelt digging into my neck.  A collar helps, I can tuck it under there, but I don't always have a collar.  When I found this tutorial on Martha Winger's blog I knew I had to make it.

Here it is all buttoned up, but not around the seat belt, I'm not crazy enough to take pictures of my seat belt cosy in-situ!  I used some supersoft Sublime Merino yarn in my favourite colour and finshed it off with a border in white sparkly yarn from my Round the Corner crochet borders book.  This is, quite frankly, one of the best things to have happened to me this year!  Mr CA of course is mortified about it and I often find it shoved in the back of the glove box when he's been driving, but he's 6 foot 2 so what does he know about seatbelt-digging-in-the-neck pain??

LANT 2 - boo hiss!

I decided to get working on another Learn a New Technique project.  I'd bought some glass etching cream and vinyl a few months ago but never used them.  I'd also picked up a plain vase for 50p at a charity shop and decided that would be my first project.  I cut out the vinyl on my Sizzix and put it on the vase which took ages.  I added the cream, waited 1 minute as it said on the jar and washed it off.  Nothing had happened so I dried it off, put more of the cream on and left it for 5 minutes this time.  The result?

Rubbish!  You can barely see the etching and it's very patchy.  Here's a close up on my blue chair:

Not one to be beaten (straight away anyway), I pulled out one of the vases that were centre pieces at our wedding and tried again with a different die.  This time I dolloped the cream on and left it for half an hour.  The result?

Rubbish!  It's patchy again!  To do a whole vase would take a whole jar of the cream and at a tenner a go, I don't think that'll be happening!

Has anyone got any idea where I went wrong?  I haven't given up LANTing but I think I might have given up glass etching... now I need to find a use for that sticky back vinyl!