End of October 👻

 No ghostly goings on here, just quietly going about things and crafting.

I’ve spent the past few days making squares which will become zippy pouches.  Mainly sew and flip strips  onto wadding and fabric background square bases. It’s using up scraps of strippy pieces and making a bit more room in my scrap box.  

I’ve even used some scrap pieces of wadding to make large pieces of ‘Franken-wadding’ below you can see how many pieces in one square. I just overlap slightly and zigzag on the widest stitch to join together.  It’s good enough for small projects and uses up waste wadding pieces. My friend has kindly given me some zips to help get the pouches done.

This month I finished of a Project Linus quilt with a sea theme 

And finished the quilt top of another quilt. That’ll probably be layered and quilted this weekend. This is another boys quilt, this time with sports gear.

The Project Linus group supply the kits to make the quilts which are ready to sew so returning the completed quilt back next month.

There has been some knitting done as my granddaughter requested some mittens because she lost her gloves. This is a Sirdar pattern from the book of accessories featuring gloves and socks.

I’ve also been knitting a pair of socks taking part in Sockoween and found that some yarn I bought at Yarndale back in 2022 had autumnal colours and I matched that with a mini skein I bought as part of a set at the same festival this year. The first sock is below and with the second sock I’ve just got past the heel and picked up the stitches for the instep decreases after working the heel.  The pattern used are the Incantation socks by Kay Jones of The Bakery Bears here

I’ve also been working on the Yorkshire Blanket CAL. I started this late on and the CAL is approaching the end with the joining the blocks together with contrasting yarn. I’m probably not going to finish this before Christmas, but that’s ok. We’ve got plenty of crochet blankets, but this pattern is more about the learning of new techniques to me rather than a race to get a blanket done. I’ve made 9 blocks of the 12 different designs so far. There are meant to be 2 of each block, so there’s 15 blocks to do, which may take me to the end of year (at least).

In my previous post I did some paper crafting, and there’s more detail here

I hope for November to get some finishes.  The socks, the pouches, and the Linus quilt top at least. Looking forward to next month.

Some Paper Faffery

 Sorry if it’s been a little while but there’s not been much going on.  Last Monday I went to Hotchpotch craft group and made Christmas cards (sorry, I didn’t mean to mention the C word just yet). It was an enjoyable morning with friends. 

These were made from triangles of Christmas paper and the offcuts paired to make another set of trees.

Today I made small boxes from a Zoom by Jan from the Townswomen’s Guild Internet group.  It needed double sided card so I used some pink card from The Range.  I needed a whole punch but couldn’t locate a single hole punch that I had so had to use an office two hole punch. Needles to say one of the boxes has numerous holes in it! The second one went much better.

While having the paper crafting stuff out I opened an old kit that a friend gave me last week. This is an old Stampin’ Up kit to make cards and a book mark. I tried to follow the instructions but one or two bits were missing, I think. So I did my own thing.

This was an owl kit. There were instructions to decorate a money box, but I didn’t have that. I made a card and a bookmark from this.

There was another kit to make more cards I’ve layered up but I’ve left blank to decorate later.

My friend also gave me a box making kit and this was already perforated ready to make up.  They’re sort of Christmassy and would be hand for small gifts (as are the ones I made earlier).

But I’ve not completely gone over to the dark side. There has been some knitting action as I finished a sock this weekend. This is the Icantation sock, pattern by Kay Jones, in autumnal colours as my entry to Sockoween.

And there’s been a quilt top too. This is a Project Linus quilt kit I collected the week before.  

Carry on Crochetiing

 I’m still working on the Yorkshire Sampler Blanket by @meemamakes (Emyleah Newbery). I’ve made 8 squares (out of 12) so far so here is a round up.  I haven’t made them in order as I started this last month and the Crochet Along started in July and I only found out about this when I followed a month long Instagram hashtag Yarn Friend Rock. 

Here’s the first square

Fields of Gold (even though it’s in a purple pink, which I thought was Fuchsia Purple or it could be Boysenberry.  I couldn’t find the label to confirm.  Anyway I mistakenly thought it would use up larger odds and ends of previous blanket makings. How wrong I was, I went and bought a few more balls while on holiday in Amble (Amble Pin Cushion, really lovely wool shop, they have fabric too). Later I bought a couple more balls of yarn in my local wool shop Why Knot Wool shop. 

Another of the squares in progress called Foxgloves. This was in Cypress

A third square called Brontë, a nod to the Victorian author sisters who lived at the parsonage in Howarth.

So I carried on with a fourth. This was crocheted in Gold and is called Mill Wheel. Both the second and third were done while away on holiday.

My next square, started when we stayed in Yorkshire is the Yorkshire Rose.  The flag is a white rose on a blue background so I chose blue, this colour is Cornish Blue, was just right.

The sixth in green is Wildflowers and I really liked the petals and leaves in this block

Next is lambing season in Duck Egg which I finished this week

And another soon followed. This one is called Rolling Hills made in Kelly Green.

I’m really enjoying this journey and am currently working on a ninth.  There have been 2 squares that have defeated me so far but I’m sure they will work out better when I go back to trying them again.

There will have to be another set of 12 plus there are instructions for joining the square together with a neutral ‘sashing’ yarn.  I haven’t thought about what colour to use for that yet.

This post is number 1000.  I’ve written 1000 posts since 2007.  I will reflect on that in post 1001! 

Blimey, it’s October

 

I’m a bit late in posting my September makes.  Due to IOS 18 making things difficult with posting photos on my blog, now sorted, I seem to be late with posting.  Looking through my photos September consisted of getting a new carpet, making 2 quilt tops, starting a new crochet project and having lost a stone in weight.

I am using some blocks that I have in my stash that have been made into quilt tops and I’ve even sorted out some backing fabric ready to crack on with quilting this month. This is all from stash and the only extra I had to make was a cross block.

I also used a collection of fabric which I’ve had for some years and made a rail fence quilt.  I have a backing for that too.

So these will make 2 small quilts for Project Linus.

For the knitting I finished a jumper. My granddaughter received it yesterday and she loves the colours. This is Aurora by James C Brett and I used a plain raglan jumper pattern.

I liked the Aurora yarn so much I bought a different colourway to make a cardigan for my youngest granddaughter.  This has been useful car knitting on our holiday at the end of the month.

The colours I would call Unicorn, although the yarn company use a code rather than names for their colours. But so far I’ve done the back and one front and started on a second front.

Just before going on holiday I came across a Crochet Along that I had to have a go at, which was the Yorkshire Sampler CAL, by Meema Makes.  You can see my previous posthere. I’m quite enjoying making these squares and I’ve now finished a fifth (of the 12) square. This is the Yorkshire Rose, which I made in blue as the background of the Yorkshire flag is blue but a different shade.

At the end of last month I sent this ATC in the theme of Under the Sea

And had this in return from Judith 

And I also made a card.  Not sure what occasion I’m going to use it. 

All this as well as being on holiday for over a week but more of that in another post.

In the Crochet Groove

 I’ve recently gone down a crochet rabbit hole by discovering a crochet designer called Emyleah Newbery of Meema Makes.  Her pattern, The Yorkshire Crochet A Long (CAL) is a sampler of granny squares which started back in the summer and I’ve joined this rather late. I started week before last week with this square .

I got on with another

Last week a third block was made

Then a fourth

And a fifth is in progress.  My intention was to use up some Stylecraft Special DK from previous blanket makings, but I’m now limited in colour variations.  Being on holiday in Northumberland last week I added  some new colours by visiting he local yarn shop in Amble, called Amble Pincushion, a lovely shop packed with yarn, fabrics and haberdashery. A real Aladdin’s cave.

More about my holiday soon and a trip to Yarndale. We’re finishing our holiday and travelling back home tomorrow.

Loser!!

 I have lived with fluctuation of my weight for most of my adult life and as such I have been on diets to try and shift it. My latest diet is with my local Slimming World group as I need to have some encouragement to do this. 

I decided on this before going away on the river cruise holiday in April and joined afterwards. I had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic during lockdown and because of that I had the diabetic program online, which wasn’t the same as in person and my weight had slowly and steadily increased to a point where I wasn’t comfortable.

Anyway that said getting into the swing of the diet, which is described as Food Optimising.  In a few weeks I lost half a stone. I was really pleased.

By the end of June I had another certificate, this time 1 stone loss (14 pounds).

  The loss is slowing but last week I managed to reach a loss of 1.5 stone (21 pounds). Not only that I was Slimmer of the Week for consistent weight loss so I was well pleased 

I’m not big on exercise, but I do go for a daily walk.  It has helped that I’m focusing of eating more healthily, not that I ate too much of the wrong stuff and have mostly cut out alcohol.  We usually had at least one bottle of wine at the weekends, then it became two so feel better by cutting out completely.

My aim is to lose a total of just over 2 stone, so I’m doing quite well.  We’re due to go on holiday next week so see how it goes.  

September

 Tuesday 3 September 

Although I’m retired, somehow September seems like a new year.  Children return to school and there is an autumnal air which seems fresher, somehow.

A fresh start in our household comes in the shape of a new carpet in the dining and living room floors. We’ve had our old carpet for nearly 20 years and high time for a change.

I asked if we could have an inset coir mat so we didn’t have to deal with door mats that creep. It looks much better.

My car came in useful to take the old carpet and underlay to the tip.

Last Friday (although just in August) I went to the Creative Craft Show in Farnborough and it was also a chance to see some old friends while up that way.  It has a mixture of crafts - quilting, knitting, crochet, paper crafts - so a good variety of things to see.  The exhibition centre is part of what was once the Royal Aircraft Establishment, but now has an airport and business park as well as the exhibition centre.  

I took some photos of the quilts of a display by the Contemporary group of the Quilter’s Guild in the theme of Doversity.

As I kept out of the way of the carpet fitters this morning I decided to make a couple of cards.  I couldn’t  take part in the Zoom meeting to make I took the requirements and photo to suss out how they were made.

Saturday 7 September 

Friday was a miserable day, but a good day for getting on with some sewing. I had 3 small quilted pieces and made them into pouches.  The larger one with the orange zip will be for my friend but the others will be for a charity sale in October.  It was very quick to make up and takes these squares out of my UFO pile.

I then used some mainly blue strip blocks together with 2 cross blocks and made one more cross block and arranged these together.

I felt the quilt top needed to be a bit bigger so after going through stash looking for a largish blue piece I came across a fabric I’ve had for years with fish on it, which fitted the bill. So that’s another small quilt top with the backing fabric in the photo below and another UFO progressed.

Next I’ve had some fat quarters that have been in my stash for a few years so I decided to make these into rail fence blocks. They are really pretty and feminine with flowers and butterflies. Just look at the selvedges.  The fabrics were from an old Lewis and Irene range.

The blocks were arranged on my bed but I’ve only sewn to top row.  By this time it was getting on for 5pm and about time I thought about dinner!

It was really good to have a quality bit of sewing time.