A roundup of 2011

I decided to make a mosaic of the projects I've made this year.  Well, I've shocked myself a little as I seem to have made rather a lot of things!  I couldn't get the photos from January, so this has started sometime in February, I think.  Even so, there are 11 mosaics below with 16 photos each and some of them have more than one item in there...  not a bad effort Wendy.

My plans for 2012 are to not stress myself out with deadline, but at the same time I'm going to continue my LANT challenge, carry on with the Craft Book Challenge, and I've also joined in TAST and the Embroidery Journal.  So quite a lot to do there then!! 

Enjoy the photos and have a happy new year!

I'm making a quilt!

I am!  I'm making a quilt!  But before we get onto that, I wanted to show you the kindness of my blogging buddies in Canada.  After meeting these two lovely ladies through our blogs, we've struck up a real friendship and they generously sent me a Christmas parcel each!

From the lovely Sandra I got:

A set of pouches in the fabbest (is that a word, or would most fab be better?) fabric!  It's travel fabric so suits me down to the ground.  Each pouch had a little present inside.

 Embroideries including a sewing basket and lots of lovely bunnies!

Tiger jingle bells (which were a bit shy, they didn't want their photo taken and kept rolling away) and little mother-of-pearl bunnies, both in these lovely little draw-string bags.

The equally-lovely Nancy sent me a mountain of crafty goodies, all wrapped up in freezer paper!

FQs from Petit Ecole, Rounneries and Pom Pom de Paris!  She knows my taste so well.

A fabric panel, some horsey fabric and a thread-snipper ring!  Ingenious - wonder if I can take that on the plane?  I'm going to Tunisia with work in January (I really am going, this isn't like the whole China debacle, I have tickets and everything!) and want to take some crochet on the plane but don't know the rules...

Scrap booking goodies (including embellishments by Amy Butler - who knew?) and ribbon.

Amy Butler ribbon, a hardanger kit and a kit to make a beaded notebook.  How fabulous are my fabuloso mates?  Thanks ladies, I'm overwhelmed with your generosity - as ever!

So, want to see the quilt I'm making?

I found a pattern, not the original one I was going to do as that was too complicated, but an easier one.  Then I laid out my selection of Sunkissed charm squares.  That took ages.  I hope I got the right balance in the end.

I cut out all the sashing pieces and the edge triangles and started sewing the rows.

I was going really slowly and carefully as I so want to get this right.  This is for my little nephew who's to be born in February and so has to be perfect!

This is the last photo I took, but I've actually got a bit further.  All the rows are sewn and half the columns.  I stopped as I got a pucker and so unpicked but thought I was too tired to carry on.  So far, my sashing matches up!!  Oh no, I've just jinxed the rest of it, haven't I?  I did debate deleting that sentence, but it's too late, the jinx has been cast.... I'll let you know how I get on!!

Winter Stitching - December Summary

Hello ladies.  I hope you all had a great Christmas?  I got some fab crafty Christmas presents but it's dark now and I forgot to photograph them, so that will be a later post.  As I have nothing crafty to show you, I thought I'd do an update on my Winter Stitching List.

By the way, if the numbers are all over the place, it's because Blogger thinks it knows how I want my post formatting...

Birthdays before Christmas

1. Crochet hook case for mum - completed at the end of October

2. A thread catcher for mum - completed at the end of October

3. 2 x car kits, 1 for my dad and 1 for my FIL - completed at the beginning of November

4. 2 x mug rugs for the same 2 men - completed at the beginning of November


Other pre-Christmas stuff
5. An item or two for a private swap - completed at the beginning of November


6. 4 PIF gifts - put off til after christmas

7. Advent calendar for my goddaughter - completed at the end of November



8. Hessian Reindeers from kit - I think these will have to wait until next year.


Christmas presents
9. Finish the CRM cushion for mum - completed in December


10. Glasses cases x 4 for mum, dad, FIL and an aunty - completed in December


11. Slippers for mum - - she's now getting a spa kit

12. Mani pedi kit (can't find the link) for mum - see 11

13. Amigurumi pig for mum - this will have to be for mother's day

14. Flash drive keyrings x 2 for dad and brother - this didn't happen so will be birthday or Christmas gifts next year

15. Keyboard duster for dad - again, this didn't happen 

16. Frilly apron for the MIL - completed November

17. Matching tea towel for above - another non-starter


18. Spa kits of my own devising x 6 for MIL, SIL, niece and 3 friends - completed in December


19. Finish the Petit Ecole table runner for my brother and his girlfriend - completed in December


20. Matching tea towel for the above - didn't happen
 
21. Yoda ami for my brother, whilst looking for that link on my bookmarks I also found this crochet R2D2 so had better add that to the list!! - didn't happen so moving to his birthday list

22. Wine cosy for my brother - Completed in December


23. Iris cross stitch bookmark for Nana-in-law - completed in November

24. Tea cup candles all round -completed in December along with a lot more candles!


25. A frog x-stitch pouch from Cross Stitcher for my best bud - completed in November

26. I'd like to finish the alphabet chart for my goddaughter. I'm on N so I find it hard to believe that will get done! - and it didn't!

27. Something for my friend's baby. - I've already made him a linen bunny, and now two bear hats.

28. Patchwork pouch for an aunty - I realised I'd already done this


29. Car air fresheners for my dad and brother - not sure if this will get done.  - this morphed into washbags for dad and FIL


30. Applique scarf for my god daughter - no, this will be a birthday gift next year

31. Christmas cards - I gave in and bought them!

32. Gift tags - completed in December


33. Cookies in a jar x 18 - completed in December


34. Scrubbies for dad, brother, FIL - in progress - I just made on in the end


35. Bird feeders - in progress - these all got finished

36. Reinbeers for dad and FIL (stolen from Pinterest!) - these were finished too

My nephew's birth in February
37. Quilt

38. Crochet receiving blanket

39. Sewn booties

40. Appliquéd baby grows

41. A cushion for his nursery 

42. Trousers

43. Crochet bear hats - done in November

Stuff for myself (for a change)

44. The dining room chair cushions

45. Matching table topper

46. And placemats

47. A needle book or 3


48. Crochet hook case

49. A coffee mat as my coffee pot drips

50. A lunch bag

51. Shopping bags for the supermarket

52. A handbag


Brother's birthday
53. Coasters with cross stitch - quotes from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

54. Matching coffee mat

55. A cross stitched towel (just a band, not the whole thing!!) again with the quotes. 


WIPs
56. Giant granny blanket

57. Granny square cushion

58. Sampler blanket

59. Hardanger

60. Crochet bag

61. Tea cup embroidery


62. Secret project - can't tell you about it!

glasses cases

Good evening ladies!  First of all, a very happy Christmas / Channukah / Saturday to you all!

It's 6pm on Christmas eve here, I finally finished Christmas at 4, then went to visit my aunty before coming home for a quick blog catch up then some baked camembert in front of the TV with Mr CA.  The relief to have everything finished!  I few items got removed from my list, but I got most things done.

This morning I finished sewing up the glasses cases I'd been working on. I started this weeks ago.  One for my mum, one for the aunty I visited today, one for my dad and one for my FIL.  Here's the fabrics I started with.  Nope, sorry, can't find the photo.  It was here, but guess what?  Blogger stole my post!  I'd copied and pasted it into Word before trying to publish it, but Word stole the photos!!

I started embroidering the pink one.

But it wasn't working so I scrapped it and started again.  This is the red one - taken from a Grace layer cake.  I cut the first panel funny, out of the centre of the fabric (?!) so had to make the other side different.  I hand quilted around the flowers in a gold thread that made me want to scream, but I love the effect! This is my first time hand quilting, so there's another LANT!

I did the same on two green panels from the Grace layer cake.  I'd fused fusible fleece to the rear before starting and I love the effect.

I think I showed you the embroidered one the other day and I apparently didn't take a photo of the fourth, so here they are all sewn up.

This is for my FIL and is cross stitched using soluble canvas (another LANT!), I used a pattern from Cross Stitch Cards & Keepsakes.

My aunty's all sewn up.  I'd accidentally cut one of the panels too small - you can see it on the picture above, and no way was I starting again after I'd done all that hand quilting, but it meant it was really hard to sew up as the foot has to go over the front, back, lining and the two sleeves. I ended up hand sewing it.

My mum's didn't present any problems!

And I'm still not happy with the speech bubble on this one, but it's Christmas Eve so I'm not going to sweat it!

I finished a load of presents off yesterday but I don't have photos.  I did 18 sets of cookies in jar mixes, including patterned paper labels and lids, also a set of 6 candles in glass tumblers.  I also made two sets of Reinbeer, found via Pinterest here.

But only took one, really crap photo!  FIL's are random beers, my dad's are special beers from a local micro brewery.  My dad is Chairman of Nottingham CAMRA and real ale is very important to him!

I made a load of air-drying clay tags (LANT 3!), stamped with the names of the recipients, and once again took a really shoddy photo.

And finally I crocheted my brother a bath scrubby alien from this free pattern.  Yes, my brother is 36, not 6, but he'll love it!  I was going to make them for the dads too, but that can wait until father's day.  love the base:

Oh, you can see my hand in the window!  What you can't see is that my eczema has found a whole new lease of life and cracks have formed on my hands.  They bleed.  It's very painful. Damn you eczema. 

Anyway, that's Christmas done.  I don't know when I'll be back, but I suspect it will be pretty soon, for blog reading, if not posting as I'm not sure I'll have anything to post about!  Merry Christmas!