Shiny ✨ New Things

 With all good intentions of using what I’ve got, which I’m doing mainly, sometimes it becomes hard to resist the new stuff. 

The week before last I saw my friend at knitting and natter who is currently making 2 lap blankets following the Canalside CAL by Lucy of Attic 24 and seeing the colours used in real life very quite vibrant.  Thinking about this I thought it lap sized blankets would make a good Christmas present (this Christmas is the intention) so ordered the colour pack from Wool Warehouse. (Even the spellchecker thought ahead of my typing!!).

This is the start so far, only a few rows in.

Not content with that I went to my local yarn shop to get some Aran yarn to try out another crochet project that I’d seen in Inside Crochet magazine, designed by Sam Sabido of a crochet ‘coatigan’ to try a sample to crochet later in the year. The pattern uses Rowan yarn, which is really expensive so I bought other branded acrylic/wool yarn to try out.  I might have a go at this pattern a little later in the year.

Here’s a sample of the crochet which looks quite good.

Whilst in the wool shop I bought this yarn as well, which is acrylic and is called Stylecraft Colour Burst in the shade Catherine Wheel, and thought that Flo would like this one as a jumper using the school jumper pattern again.  I will do a pattern on the front but the back is plain stocking stitch, ideal for taking to knit and natter sessions.  The colours are really pretty and the yarn is really soft.  

So that’s the yarny stuff.  I went to embroidery group on Monday and did the second part of a workshop based on designs for the book Hand-stitched Landscapes and Flowers by Katrina Witten of Rowandean Embroideries.  I remembered that long ago I did a workshop with her through Barnsley Creative Embroiderers with a little kit from which I made this little piece. It’s only 3” x 4”.

This time I made a hydrangea but I didn’t want a plain background so I used this dotty one which I think was a mistake. It is much bigger than I wanted so I’m not sure how to display this.  I would have like to have made something a bit smaller. Having got the inspiration, may try a smaller size. 

However I thought the book was worth exploring so I ordered it from World of Books and it came yesterday.  The condition was described as good, but it looked like new!

But I am continuing to crack on with some old stuff, which I’ll share soon.

End of January 🎍

 And the beginning of February. So here’s a round up of what I’ve done in January.

Above is a photo of the snowdrops and cyclamen at Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne over a weekend ago.

I have two finishes this month, both knitted. Some sewing and a lot of drawing. 

First off, started and finished in just a few days is this beanie hat with pom-poms. I was looking for a child’s beanie hat for my granddaughter and found a pattern in the current issue of Simply Knitting (on Readly) which is actually  a dinosaur hat but I omitted the spikes. Nice and easy so I will write the pattern out to keep for reference.  This is to go with some mittens that I finished in November.

Second finish to a bit longer and was just finding last night and it is a cardigan in James C Brett Aurora in what I would call unicorn colours.  This is knitted for another granddaughter as it’s the sort of colours she wears.  I decided I would sew on different coloured buttons to finish. The pattern is Stylecraft 9707 and I did the V neck version but the sleeves are knitted plain stocking stitch instead of the lace pattern.

A bit bright, isn’t it. Enough to brighten these grey days.

As for sewing I finished off two quilts for West Dorset Peoject Linus. One was my own fabric pack and another was my friend’s quilt as she found it too much to make.  They were both the same patterns with small squares and larger ones and the fabric was Flower Fairies.

I’ve got another pack to complete for this month and the same layout, so I’ve already make the top and I’ve just got to layer and quilt ready to take to February’ s meeting.

I used a wet day to sort out some orphan blocks and make them into cushion covers and small table toppers as shared in my last post.here

I also sewed a new project bag. I used the lining for the size of the bag as this was cut out a couple of years ago and never used.  There was even a pocket in it. I then cut out out fabrics for the outer and drawstring casings. Because of the lighting on that day the colour of the drawstring is blue to go with the blues in the fabrics. That was a quick make one dull Saturday morning.

With Dorset Creative Embroiderers I made. Start on this hydrangea flower inspired by the book of Embroidered Landscapes and Flowers by Katrina Witten of Rowan dean Embroidery. (Google decided to split the name up). This is mine so far

I’ve made an ATC this month for the TG ATC group based on winter weather.  I used the front of a Christmas card for this, a bit of a cheat. I added torn white card to the bottom front, brush on some Stickles fine glitter glue and lightly brushed a Distress ink pad in light blue around the edges. 

With the same online craft group I also made a couple of cards

If you looked at my recent posts or follow me on Instagram (@suewilduk) I have been trying to keep up with #sketchbookchallenge for 2025. This is run by Susan Yeates and artist who runs courses.  I didn’t register ad I only wanted the prompts and do my own thing.  There were a few days I missed out and I will go back to those pages and try to get finished by beginning of this month.  I’ve quite enjoyed drawing and some paining too and I will share another post next week with more pictures of my sketchbook. 

Looking back January was a packed month!  In February I hope to make progress on a new knitted jumper and also make progress on my Yorkshire Blanket, which hasn’t been touched in a while. I won’t get lured into new challenges and try to clear some clutter (see how that one goes!).

Happy February - the days are getting longer at least! 

Getting Back Into Sewing.

 The stormy weather of this last weekend and Monday has made me put together a Project Linus kit that my friend collected for me recently. This is a four patch easy square pattern with plain small squares and large squares with small bow shaped butterflies.

Where Bourne Quilters meet is a room at a local social housing organisation and the Scrap Store.  The housing organisation rehouses vulnerable people so I’m guessing that what they move into is very basic. It was mentioned about making cushions or bed runners, but the details are vague.  So I took out samples of blocks I’ve tried out over time that have been hibernating in my craft room.

First off is this wonky block which I made possibly 16 years ago at a workshop in Barnsley. I took an orange background to appliqué on to. This was rectangular so I had to add some length to square up so a couple of strips top and bottom of the back fabric. I didn’t quilt the cover.

Another project is this foundation pieced butterfly, which was a more recent sample from a Zoom workshop back in 2020 by Jo Avery.

I have layered and quilted this top and used red fabric for the envelope back. It was quilted in the ditch and then a circle around the butterfly. 

I had a ready quilted piece in purple and I wanted to do something different with this so I made this into a table mat, which could simply decorate a table. I used plain purple binding sewn from the back, turned over and zigzagged to hem the front.

This block was a design by Red Pepper Quilts that I tried out once and haven’t made again. The fabrics used were assorted Thirties style ones, so I kept the quirkiness and used strips from similar fabrics to bring up to a cushion size.  I haven’t quilted this yet, but layered up all ready. The envelope back fabrics may use 2 different fabrics.

A last small project was using this Dresden plate and appliquéing onto a background. It may become a fourth cushion.

So hopefully my makes could help others and reduce part made things that are cluttering my space. 

Getting Arty

 A few years ago I had a go at the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge, which is run annually by artist Susan Yeates.  Although one can register to receive tutorials from other artists I decided not to and just see the daily prompts on Instagram.  

I started by sketchbook by taking some pages out of an old A5 sketchbook, folding to A6 and sewing the signatures on the fold using pamphlet stitch. So that’s the paper and for the sketching and mark making I am using my collection of graphite pencils, coloured pencils, fine line pens in different colours and a small palette of watercolour paints.   I have been posting onto Instagram daily, which has fed through to Facebook.

Below is the first 4 days

The first day was Fungi, so I drew a Fly Argaric mushroom. I added a mushroom washi tape stamp in the top right corner. I also had an ink stamp of a mushroom so added those to the space. Day two the topic was pens and I drew from my collection of graphite of fine liners and gel pens.  Day three was tea, for which I used a sketch pencil to draw a teapot, mug and tea caddy.  Acorns were the subject for day four. Like day one I also had a washi tape stamp and ink stamp for acorns. I used fine liners in different colours for shading.

The next batch are as follows

Cakes for day five, so I chose a couple of scones with jam and cream. Day 6 was an item less than an inch and I chose a piece from a jigsaw puzzle that was made up over Christmas. I draw around the piece and coloured in with colour pencils. Day 7 was something purple and I drew from my small knitting pouch. Day eight’s subject was exotic fruit and I drew figs from an image from a plant catalogue.

Last collection for now covers days 9 to 12.

Day nine’s theme was glass and I used a Sherry glass and wine glass as a model for these pencil sketches. Day ten was metal and for this I used a twisted wire card holder first with pencil and drawn over with fine liners. Day eleven was underwear and I used my camisole vest (sorry but the days were somewhat cold so taken to wearing a vest under my clothing).  Day twelve is something beginning with L and I used Lego leaves from my flower arrangement Lego kit.

I’m now up to Date 14 now and so far have enjoyed the experience and refreshing to do something for a few minutes on a daily basis.  I hope I can try to keep this up at least until the end of the challenge and maybe beyond, 

January

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Monthly marker for January and one of my Christmas presents, a Lego Chrysanthemum.  How was Christmas for you? After the busy-ness before Christmas it all went quiet. I’ve not been well with this cold that’s been going around but feeling a lot better now.

I’ve had more Lego to build in the form of the flower bouquet and this is the progress to date.

I like to savour making the kits over time rather than getting it all done quickly.

I’ve not got any resolutions make for this year, other than to try and finish projects and declutter as best I can (that’s a joke!). To this end I’d like to clear a hexagon project I’ve had going for some time. 

This is a pile of 35  (7 x 5) 6.5” squares. Most incude the 100 hexies 100 days from previous years. I have a name for the quilt already which will be Conversation Piece.

As well an existing project I had started something new, which is art based and called the 30 Days Sketchbook Challenge by Susan Yeates on Instagram.  I did this for a while in 2021 and hope that I can keep it up for the whole 30 days.  I make myself an A6 booklet from the remaining pages of an old sketchbook makes it a good size for achieving a small drawing each day. First day was Fungi so I drew a Fly agaric mushroom 🍄 less the spots, I did try to put some in. I added a mushroom stamp and a self adhesive washi tape stamp.

Day 2 is pens and I used some of the pens in my collection. I have quite a few gel pens.

Day 3 is Tea and I’ve done a pencil drawing of my tea pot and mug.

It’s quite refreshing to do something different.

I’ve made a small change to my craft room by getting a larger peg board to replace the smaller one and a cork board.  I’ve got a large banner which was made some years ago so I pimped that up with flowers which were stuck onto the cork board. There is a gap between both, which will have some small quilted/embroidered items. 

But I have the first finish for 2025 which is an Aran Cardigan. A bit of a cheat as I finished the knitting in November, but it’s proper finished as I added buttons, bought in Devon last month.

There’s a couple of knitting projects to finish this month, so I must crack on and get them done. Also I have my Yorkshire blanket to continue with, so enough to keep me busy in January.