September review

It's time to see what has happened challenge-wise this month.  Not that much...

Needlequest

The theme was Autumn and I got re-started on my Hardanger project, stitching the September block.



Sew Kitschy paper piecing bom 

September was the last month of this BOM and I can safely say I've failed quite spectacularly to keep up with this BOM.  Trivets WILL be made...

Something New for 2014

There was Zentangling and Micro macrame this month, not to mention my amazing Knooking!



A Lovely Year of Finishes

I said I'd finish the Mackintosh-inspired wall hanging which is a quilt pattern from Quiltessential.  I did get a fair bit done, but it's not finished.

I've done all the reverse applique, and the bias binding is now in place and stitched down.  I stalled when it came to quilting it as I'm not sure how to do it.

I wondered about a loopy FMQ in each block, but then I wondered about matchstick quilting.  Suggestions would be gratefully received.

As you can see, the edges are not perfectly straight, and one of the corners is very skewiff, this is also putting me off finishing it as I'm not sure how to go about binding it...

Craft Book Sew along

I reviewed The Zentangle Workbook 2 and Knook, I also made a bunny from Amigurumi.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

This month was orange and my 3 orange scraps weren't big enough to make a scrap bucket... I'll wait for October's colour.

Smalls SAL

Completely failed.  I blame the Hardanger!

2014 FAL Q3

We're at the end of Q3, so here's a quick rundown of how I faired:

1. Bag of the Month June bag - done!

2. Bunnie softie - done!

3. Placemats to match my chair cushions.  Still at the "scraps in a bag" stage

4. Flower Patch bag kit - nope

5. Hessian reindeer - nope

6. Mackintosh wall hanging - in progress but not finished

7. Circle of Geese mini.  Not even thought about

8. Recycling bag for our kitchen - done, and a matching hay bag

9. Quilt And Sew On - not touched

10. Cuzco quilt - all the blocks are made, I just need to sash and join them

11. Applique cushion.  FMQ not done

12. Latch hook rug - still sitting unbound

So I managed 3 out of 12, and worked on 2 others.  Not so bad.  Bet you can't guess what will be on my Q4 list!

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

hardanger

I'm a bit late this month talking about September's Needlequest challenge, but I am joining in this month! The theme for the month in "Autumn" and I immediately knew what I wanted to do.

A year ago I posted my last update on Mabel Figworthy's Fancies Song of the Weather SAL which was a Hardanger sew along I was doing.  You can find links to the previous months at the bottom of the page if you want to look.  I'd got as far as August, keeping up each month, but then I got really ill and this was one of the things to be put by the wayside.

Here's my completed block for September, the first month of autumn.  It features couched borders, Rhodes hearts, eyelet blocks and some simple wrapped bars.  I had high hopes of also doing October and November to complete the Autumn months, but this frustrated me so much I didn't get it done.  When I was working on this last year, I loved it and enjoyed most of the stitches.  I don't know what went wrong this time but every stitch was frustrating.

Here's September with July and August, completed over a year ago.  I'm making two panels with a 2 x 3 layout and will be adding a Hardanger sashing when I've done.  If I don't throw it out the window before then!  Wish me luck in not abandoning it for another year...

Related posts

January and February

March 

April
May
June
July
August

Swarovski love

I love me a bit of Swarovski bling.  Which is fatal when I go to craft classes at the Bead Shop as they sell lots of Swarovski.

I'd bought these pearls a while ago, the larger ones are 4mm Petrol and the smaller are 3mm light blue.  I wanted to make a pearl necklace, using a traditional knotting technique.  Mum lent me her Knot-A-Bead so I thought I'd better give it a go.  I used grey C-lon cord.  The gadget was hard to get used to, then great, but whenever I stopped to make a drink, eat my dinner, feed the buns, whatever, I lost the knack.

I didn't want a plain pearl necklace so I created a beaded cluster to dangle from it using this lovely twisted jump ring and a short length of textured chain.

I wear a lot of blue so this will see plenty of outings.

More recently I bought the dragonfly wings Swarovski Elements piece, and some Golden Shadow crystals in various sizes to go with it.  I'm in the process of beadweaving a necklace to hang it on. By "in the process" I mean I chose some seed beads, chose a pattern, tried to get started, failed and so put it to one side...

This was a little kit I got when I came second at the bead show last year.  I'd put it to one side to put together when I had a minute.  I really only did need a minute... maybe 5? to put this together.  I'm going to hang it on some chain.

Simple pendents, made in minutes, but very effective.

How do you spell pendent?  Is it pendent or pendant.  I'm getting confused with the french word meaning "during/while".

bunny no. 26

Yes, I really have made 26 bunnies!  I thought it was a lot but didn't realise it was quite that many.  Wonder how long it will be before I reach 100?

Last week when I was supposed to be making felted flowers for a book review, or maybe working on my blackwork, or finishing up any of the projects I've started, I felt the urge to crochet.  This little bunny was born.

This little fella is 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 think he looks so surprised as he has a very wonky tail.

I used a 3.5mm hook and aran weight yarn for the head and limbs.  Because the yarn is so heavy, he's very thick and sturdy.  I didn't have a suitable aran for the jumper, so I used 2 strands of DK held together.  The DK yarns were different shades, I like the mottled look.  He's sitting with us in the living room at the moment.  His sister is currently being born...  Because who doesn't need 27 hand made rabbits?


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


Craft Book Sew along

finishing off

I have been finishing off WIPs!  Yay for me, not something that happens round here much, despite my best intentions!

I went to a class to make this bracelet in December last year.  I then had a 'mare trying to sew the ultra suede on the back as I cut it too small. Fast forward 9 months and I tried again, and succeeded!  I didn't enjoy sewing the backing (and all those edging beads which are size 15/0) on, which is a shame as I enjoy bead embroidery in general.  This is now a brooch and I'm very pleased with it.

I'm less pleased with this, which has only been a WIP for a couple of weeks.  It's my knook spa cloth, relegated to being a dishcloth, and what a bloody mess!

I added a loop so I can hang it from the tap, and a crochet edging to try to neaten it up.  Didn't work, did it?  Ah well, first time knooking and all that... 

This kumihimo braid is only a week or so old, but it was nice to get it out of the box where I keep half done jewellery components.  I added some lucite flowers held on head pins with Swarovski pearls, and hung them from a short length of chain.

I'm really pleased with this one and have worn it already.  I'm also pleased with the alternative method of putting on the end caps that I came up with.  Not so neat, but I have long hair so it doesn't matter.  I know how to do it better for next time.

I made this bracelet back at the beginning of August, and all it needed was a clasp!  Clasp added.

Bracelet done.

I feel all virtuous now.  I might just go and start a few (dozen) more projects!

Save the Stitches update

It's time for another update of my pgrogress on Elizabeth Almond of Blackwork Journey's Save The Stitches blackwork sampler.  If you're new to my blog, you can see links to my previous posts at the bottom.

Instead of moving my Qsnap around after each block, I decided to hoop up an area and stitch as much as would fit in that area, then add the metallics before moving on.  Below you see half of row 8, all of block 9, half of block 10 and half of row 12.

I like this method.  I haven't added the beads.  As I've had problems with them being caught in the frame, I'm going to wait until I've finished the whole thing before adding the beads - another couple of years then!

Here's how it's looking so far:

Related Posts

blocks 4, 5 and 6Block 3
Block 2
block 1 finished
Block 1
The tiny version

beading not knitting

During a couple of our classes at The Bead Shop Nottingham, Steph the tutor had worn a bracelet made from Superduos which looked like it was knitted.  My mum was smitten with this bracelet.  I had a good look at it and when I got home that night, I started to try to replicate it (with Steph's permission, well, we kind of bullied her into it!).

I had some galvanised silver Superduos which are like a double width seed bead with 2 holes.



Success!  The actual weaving was easy, it was starting it off and getting into the right position to start weaving that was the hard bit.



A tube of Superduos doesn't go that far... it wasn't quite long enough for a bracelet so I had to add an extender chain.  Mum was thrilled with it (or she did a great job at pretending she was!).

Reverse Applique wall hanging

I've shown you a couple of sneak peaks of this project so far, and of course the entire solids fat quarter bundle I bought as I needed a couple of solid scraps, so I thought I should perhaps show you a bit more.

I'm making a wall hanging using reverse applique and fusible binding so it looks like a stained glass window.  I'm following a pattern for this one as I fell in love with it and hand to have it.  Above shows the coloured squares being sewn on and trimmed.

This is how it looks from the front.  I sewed down each marked line, I then had to cut out the white fabric from in front of the coloured pieces.

So this is where I am so far.  I actually started sewing on the fusible binding after taking this photo, I'll update you on that soon, but it's going so fast I think it might be almost finished... I hope so as this is my September goal for ALYOF.

Kumihimoing

I got my kumihimo disk out again recently, it's been ages since I used it.  My mum had given me a kumihimo book and lent me another, Kumihimo Basics & Beyond.  It's a brilliant book, designed for working through from beginning to end and full of great hints and tips along the way.

One of the projects in the book, and also in the Beadsmith Kumihimo book was to use 2 different stringing materials of different thicknesses.  I'd recently got some C-lon which is used for stringing beads or doing micro macrame.  I thought I'd pair the purple C-lon with blue 1mm rattail.  The rule of thumb is you measure where you want the braid to go, then multiply by 3.  I must have multiplied by about 10 judging by the length of the finished braid!

The spiral effect is very gentle as there isn't too much difference in thcikness between the two materials.  It was going to be a bracelet, but I'm thinking I could make a 3-wrap bracelet, then cut the rest up to make a necklace, maybe with a double braid...  I'll think on it.

I tried again, this time with green C-lon and 2mm rattail in white.  Much better.  And a much better length, though it's two times too long for a bracelet!  I also used the No Knot Start technique from Basics & Beyond which is such a simple thing, yet I'd never thought of it.

I hope to do something with these braids soon, and I also intend to have a go at kumihimo with beads...

There will be some non-jewellery posts coming up soon, so my sewing and stitching friends, please don't despair!

Linking up with:

Craft Book Sew along

Micro macrame

Micro macrame is basically little tiny macrame with beads.  Me and my wonderful mum went to another craft course at The Bead Shop Nottingham to find out what it was all about.

The piece is pinned to a macrame board whilst you're working on it, so I didn't realise what a mess it looked when I took it off!  We were supposed to use size 11/0 beads, but I just couldn't thread them onto the C-lon cord we were using, so swapped to size 8/0s.  If you're a beader, that gives you an idea of the scale.  If not...

This ruler is showing centimetres, so this piece is about 3" long, including the ring.  I do intend to finish this as I did enjoy it, but I just don't know where the time goes... 

I'm liking up to:

Something New for 2014

  

Craft book review - Zentangle 2

I have another craft book to review for you.  GMC sent me quite a few when their last catalogue came out and I'm still working my way through them.  This one is Zentangle 2, Expanded Workbook Edition.

Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  

I'm quite intrigued by Zentangles, I'm an avid doodler in meetings or when I'm on the phone (I got told off for it in my appraisal, apparently it makes it look like you're bored!), so I wanted to see what this was all about.  I like the idea that it can be used for scrapbooks and journals, and presumably other papercrafts, too.

It's only a thin little book, but it's got a lot of patterns in it.  They're laid out like below, showing you how to make each one, then a picture of them in use.

You can put Zentangles into shapes too, and this page gives some fab examples.

There are then some workbook pages, letting you fill the boxes with Zentangle designs, the ones shown and the previous ones.  I like the one on the left below as it looks like pinwheel quilt blocks.

Then there are some shapes, all divided up ready, to fill with tangles.

Want to see my attempt?

I did this whilst watching TV and enjoyed it.  It was relaxing, but more structured than normal doodling.

Since then I've been filling up the workbook squares when I'm not stitching or knooking or kumihimoing.

As well as using tangles in papercrafts, my "big idea" was a Zentangle stitchery.  I'm using a piece of Sashiko cloth in indigo and some white Sashiko thread.  I've only got as far as dividing my circle, but next I'll move on to the patterns.  I'm not sure if this will work as the thread is quite thick, only time will tell, so stay tuned!

Paperback: 32 pages

Publisher: Design Originals; Revised edition (7 May 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1574219103

ISBN-13: 978-1574219104

Product Dimensions: 27.2 x 20.8 x 0.5 cm

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Linking up to:








Something New for 2014

  

Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by GMC however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.