Superpig!

A while ago (summer time maybe?) I showed you this photo of a new project I had started.  It stayed like this for months and months and months until I picked it up and finished it in one sitting!

It is from the book Sew Sweet Creatures by Lark Craft.  I was asked to review this by GMC, however all opinions are my own.

There are 16 projects in this book, and I love that they are shown on the index, not just a written name, but a picture of the project.  It makes navigating the book so much easier.

How cute are they!  I want to make that little fat lion!

Lots of them have cute little accessories too.  It may surprise you to read that I didn't make the rabbit...  I'm not sure why, but I decided to make the pig.

All the templates are full size - I love that, I hate having to find somewhere to enlarge projects and I can't just "nip to the copy shop", I have no idea where there is one or if these things even exist in this day and age!

There are loads of photos for each project and the instructions are well-written and easy to follow.

Ta-dah!  No idea why these photos are so blurry... maybe Superpig was flying around so quickly I didn't notice, but my camera did.  Or maybe I'm just crap at taking photos!

The mask is removable, it's just tied on.

As is the cape.  Want to see what's underneath?

A little curly tail!

This pig was sewn by hand, though it would be possible to do some of it by machine, it would be far too fiddly for me.  I enjoyed making this little pig and I like some of the other projects in the book, I would recommend it for anyone who fancies having a go at making some whimsical little creatures.  

frilly flowers

Today's post is about a beading class we took at The Bead Shop Nottingham with guest tutor Kerrie Slade.  It took place during National Beading Week which was at the beginning of August.  I'm definitely not one of these bloggers that makes something in the morning and posts about it in the afternoon!

We learned to make these lovely daisies.  They are made using 8mm Swarovski pearls in the centre, we brick stitched around them using size 11/0 delicas which are cylindrical beads so sit together really nicely.  I couldn't make my mind up which colours to use, so used them both!  The daisies weren't too difficult, but were quite time consuming and I only got these three done in the class.

You might be able to see the loop on the right.  In the pattern there is a loop on each end of the bracelet and it is fastened with a ribbon.  This is really not a look that I like, so I decided to put the loop on one end and make a toggle for the other.

I made a toggle using the delicas and following instructions in one of Beth Stone's excellent books.  I much prefer it like this.

Luckily the toggle fits nicely through the loop and neither is too big.

The class sample had 6 flowers, but was too tight for me, even though I have quite small wrists.  I made 7 flowers and it has enough dangle in it.

I have to confess.  The class may have been in August, but I didn't actually finish this until the end of September!  At least I got it done though!

Hardanger #5

Ladies and gentlemen.... I have finished!

I have finished my second SAL project which is  Mabel Figworthy's Fancies Song of the Weather SAL Hardanger sampler.  I started it in 2013, so it took a while, but the last couple of weeks I've been stitching like a demon to get it done.

There are 2 panels, each with 6 blocks.  This is January to June.

We have a wrong-way-round photo here... damn you photo!

And here is August to December, which is the one I've been stitching on for this SAL.

See, I finished that ribbon rose!  It doesn't match any of the blues, and it's 6mm rather than the 4mm called for, but finished is better than perfect!

I knew I wanted some sashing between the blocks, so I consulted my embroidery book library.  In The New Anchor Book of Hardanger I found this zig zag hem stitch which seemed perfect.  I really enjoyed doing it!

So here we go, both pieces together.  I have no idea why I started the second one so close to the edge and I'm kicking myself for it.  I couldn't put in an outer border and it will make it difficult to frame.  BUT, it's finished!

Tune in in 3-weeks time and I'll show you my next project.

I'm sewing along as part of a SAL, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan

Something totally not me - apron

Silversmithing is a messy business.  It's dusty, OK, so the dust is tiny particles of silver, but it's still dust.  From the beginning we were told to take and apron and it took me a full 14 lessons to remember I needed one!

Of course, it had to be handmade.  I had a flick through my many books and settled on a pattern in Sweetwater's Simple Home by Lisa Burnett, Karla Eisenach & Susan Kendrick.  There was one thing that annoyed me straight away.  The top has a scalloped edge.  Here is the pattern in the book.

See that?  Enlarge 200%.  Why??  Why couldn't you have just printed it bigger?  I'm seeing lots of negative space on this page... room for a bigger pattern clearly!  That's just laziness and thoughtlessness on the publisher's half.  I didn't have access to an enlarging photocopier so I decided to take a different tack.

I used this fabric with circles, I did my best to match 2 pieces up right-sides together and then sewed round the circles to create a scallop.

It doesn't match perfectly (this is the other side), but it's not bad!  Haha, take that lazy book publishers!

And then this happened.  Stupid Wendy.  

I think this took me less than 2 hours to make.  The ruffles were probably the most time-consuming part, after chosing the fabrics of course!  The main fabric is from Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille.  I thought the bottom ruffle was too, but saw it was a fabric by Valorie Wells.  No idea what the others are, other than the solid grey ties which are Kona Charcoal.

I really should have taken some measurements of my body before starting this.  It was designed for a size zero 6' woman.  Bear this in mind if  you make it.  I could do with another 4" or so on the width of the top part as this just kind of hovers between my nipples.  It's also too long, the top ruffle sits below my knee!  OK, so I'm a busty 5' 1", but I bet there are more busty 5' 1"s reading this than 6' size zeros!

At least it keeps me clean...

I wonder what I was showing you on this photo?  Clearly the back of the apron, but why?  Answers on a postcard...

baby blanket

A lovely colleague should be having her baby boy around now.... push Carol, push!  I had to make her a present and settled on a baby blanket.  I'd bought some balls of Whisper White yarn a while ago, but never got round to using it so this seemed the ticket.  It's a lovely soft Merino yarn and is in a shade of bluish-white so seemed perfect, especially as I began it before I found out the sex of the baby!

I used a pattern from Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.  It's a very simple ripple pattern and I enjoyed it.

These photos were taken whilst it was being blocked.  I finished it on Monday night and was blocking it around 10.30, way past my bed time!  Having to give it to her on the Friday, I knew I didn't have any other chance to get daylight pictures so I took these on the Tuesday when I had a day off (craft class - coming up!).

I started it back in November, plenty of time!  Then I didn't work on it again until February.  Unfortunately, although I remembered how much I like to crochet, and although I liked the pattern and the yarn, it hurt my hands and I could only do a couple of rows at a time so it took forever!

I'm not sure it is big enough so I'm hoping she has a little baby!

Craft Book Review - Seed Bead Chic

The generous publishers at GMC sent me another book to review.  Although the book was provided for free, all opinions are my own and I was not told what to write.  The book in question is Seed Bead Chic, which you can see on Amazon here.

This is a beautiful book full of gorgeous projects.  This is definitely not a book for the beginner, some of these projects are pretty complicated.  A few that caught my eye are:

This Art Deco brooch, I think I'll make this one at some point.

This tube necklace.  I had intended to make this, but didn't get round to searching for the tubular material it's strung onto.

This lovely summery piece which I may well make, but I'd probably make it in copper as I'm not a fan of yellow gold.

This lovely bracelet.  This is actually the project I chose to make, but I made it into a necklace.  See below for more details and pictures.

This is another one I intend to make at some point.  I don't like the giraffe print beads much so I need to find a nice alternative.

I decided to make the bejewelled barrel bracelet as a necklace.  It required 2mm Swarovski rounds (as do a lot of the projects in this book).  I did some searching on line and bought some from Mail Order Beads / The Bead Shop Nottingham, not out of loyalty but because they had the best price on Swarovski.  I paired them with white 15/0 seed beads and clear 11/0 seed beads.

The actual necklace is a copper herringbone tube which was really easy to do, though it took a while!  The barrels are stitching in place so they don't all clump together when wearing it, as I'm going to prove in the next photo.  Oh yes, a photo of me.  In fact, my very first selfie!

I love this necklace and have worn it a lot.  The instructions were really clear and very easy to follow, I didn't have any false starts or any moments of "eh?  What does that mean".  Though remember, I do have some experience bead weaving so can't vouch that a beginner would be able to follow the instructions.  The weaves themselves are set out at the beginning of the book with easy to follow diagrams and written instructions.  Overall, I like this book and think it's a great addition to the library of intermediate to advanced bead weavers.

Let's finish off with another selfie:

Product details Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Lark Books,U.S. (7 Dec. 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 1454708174 ISBN-13: 978-1454708179 Product Dimensions: 28.2 x 21.6 x 0.9 cm Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

Heart Embroidery

The project I'm going to show you today was actually embroidered at the beginning of December, it seems I've got a bit of a backlog.

I was poorly with my infection and my removed teeth and I felt like embroidering.  I picked a book from my groaning craft book shelf (actually I have far more than one shelf...) - Sweet Stitches from the Heart by Anne Sohier-Fournel, Agnes Delage-Calvet and Isabelle Leloup.  This is a really lovely book with a mixture of cross stitch and embroidery patterns in it.  I also have a similar book by some of the same authors - A Rainbow of Stitches - both are great for small projects like this one.

The flowers are embroidered with long and short shading, the yellow centres are satin stitch.  The stems are, predictably, stem stitch and the leaves are detached chains.  The outer heart is stem stitch too, everything else is back stitch.  I painted the frame red to match, though it looks orange in this photo.  This isn't a great photo - why wasn't my new year's resolution to learn to use a camera??

wrap bracelet

I made this wrap bracelet ages and ages ago and was waiting to post about it until I've sewn a button on for the closure.  Well, I'm not convinced that is ever going to happen, so I'll post about it and hope it will spur me on to doing it!

I used 2 pieces of 1mm satin cord (rattail) for the sides and just weaved over and under and through the Swarovski pearls in the centre.

I used two needles, one on the left and one on the right, so it was pretty quick to do.  It wraps twice round my arm.

yuck, how gross is my arm!  My skin is all either that lovely shade of red, or milk-bottle white. No tans round here...

My original idea for the closure was a woven knot.  I chose Turk's Head ring from Celtic Knots Beaded Jewellery by Suzen Millodot.  It took me hours!

It's less than an inch small so it's too small to use as the closure.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it though as it did take me hours to make!  I could bead embroider round it to make a pendent maybe...  and another WIP is born.