A Week of Finishes

I’m finished with the mask making for the time being, but as masks and face coverings are required in shops since Friday, there may be more to make.  Who knows?

In the meantime I have been finishing off some projects.  You will have noticed that my monthly marker for this month was this woven embroidery 

I set to and not only got the weaving finished but also trimmed the excess fabric and backed it.  Now I have to find somewhere to hang it.  Before it was hidden I took a photo of the back, with all the starts and finishes.  The circle in different colours is the stem stitch that’s sewn for the final finish.

And below is the finished item.

I started this at West Country Embroiderers back in October at a workshop given by another member of the group. The basis of the landscape design was simple with the sky, hills, fields and road/river and as you can see I did sections at a time.  It was an enjoyable and relaxing make.

My second finish was a cardigan I started back on Christmas Eve and the yarn and pattern is by Stylecraft in their Bellisima yarn.  It was a darker red than I wanted but I liked the way it turned out.  It has a stitch pattern on the sides of back and fronts also down the middle of the sleeve, which is in the photo below.

It did hibernate during the past couple of months as I had some trouble with the stitches to be picked up and knitted for the front button and buttonhole bands, but I decided it had to be finished so I did what I had done and re did it and it worked out ok. 

My third finish (well, just finished the knitting last night) was this Spindrift shawl.  I’ve yet to sew in the starting and ending tails and to wash and block, which it needs to get into shape, but it’s looking good.

The Spindrift shawl is a free pattern by Curious Handmade and the yarn was a Flower Power charity fund yarn special dyed by Sherry Iris (on Etsy.com) in Wild Strawberry.  I’d been looking for a one skein project to use this and the shawl was just right. This picture was taken last night as I’d finished it.  There will be better photos next time.

It starts off with a few stitches but with increases in each row, there’s a massive amount of stitches at the end and a picot edge.  It feels lovely and I shall enjoy wearing.  But first, washing and blocking!

But don’t worry - I won’t have nothing to do!  I’ve started to crochet a mini Dahlia blanket with the remains of the Dahlia yarn pack, like this one below that I made earlier this year, but with a random colour selection as the yarns in the pack dwindle.  This a a super pattern by Attic 24 . The stitches used look the same on the front and back, which is really brilliant and quick too. 

I’ve still got some quilting and there’s the ongoing Sew 4 the Soul project too.

So still plenty to keep me busy!!

Guess What I’ve Been Making?

More masks!

I made 11 Friday and yesterday, then another 4 today.  Some were given to my daughter and others made for my friend’s group and some for TG.  There may be more this week. This time the folded ones.  I had to buy some elastic cord and Vilene to proved the third layer.

One thing I haven’t blogged about but has been plodding along with has been my Sew4thesoul book, which I started at the end of June and will be ongoing for a little while. The book consists of wadding pages onto which fabrics is sewn on and using embroidery to embellish like the strip piece that I made a few months ago (and still is ongoing as well).  Here are some pics of the pages.

First 2 pages and circles and strips

These are pages 5 and 6 (the photos didn’t load in the right order) has Suffolk puffs.  On page 5 I used the pillowcase fabric I used for the Frontline Facemasks and will embroider the name.

pages 3 and 4 were crosses which I embroidered on the printed fabric on the left. I painted the flowers with watercolour pencils.  I made a pocket on the right with another printed piece and used ribbon yarn for the cross and connecting thread for the tag.

Pages 7 and 8 are fabric weaving and I’ve used fabrics that I’ve dyed ar painted from some time ago and added lace, ribbon and a strip of sari ribbon.

As I’ve said all the pages are in progress and I’ve  not joined page to page as yet.  The pages are currently joined at the spine.  I really don’t want to hide the backs of these pieces as they look really interesting.

I used wadding scraps joined together to make the pages.

Watch out for more progress on this.

A Finish and a Quilt Top

Following my last post, last weekend I finished blocked my Hastfagring shawl and it drapes really well, so here are a couple of photos of it hanging up.  It looks quite good, doesn’t it

My finish this week is the last of the Little Box of Crochet projects from back from September 2018.  It’s a lovely little sleeping fox called Gareth, after England Football manager Gareth Southgate, who was famed for wearing a waistcoat. Fox Gareth is crocheted in Waistcoat Stitch (hence his name) which looks like a knit stitch and creates a very firm fabric.  It’s not an easy stitch to do as it is hard on the hands with the firm Rico Cotton and together with changing colours it became challenging to do, but I managed to get the tail, head and ears done (the body was made ages ago) and sew the parts together this morning.

All the bits ready to sew

And there he is, done!

As for quilting I have a quilt top made. The Youngish Quilters Block of the Week’s last block was made on Thursday morning.  It was another appliqué block but stars this time.  Having run out of Bondaweb I turned to using the iron on Vilene appliqué method that was used for the Orange Peel block instead.

I didn’t really like using plain white sashing for framing the blocks, so I utilised the white background fabrics on the horizontal bands and other colours for the vertical ones with assorted squares for the corner stones.  It looked less stark than plain white fabric.

I needed some wadding and also backing and binding.  My local quilt shop, so local I can walk to it had wadding and threads for quilting.  Wool Warehouse had some of the Cocktail Time fabric (it’s now discontinued) so having ordered the fabric on Thursday it arrived on Saturday morning.  I’m hoping to layer up tomorrow to get on with quilting.

Another finish I hope to get done this week is my dark red cardigan which has been hibernating for a few months. The sleeves and side seams have been sewn, so the front bands have to be knitted up. If I can get the picked up stitches right that shouldn’t take too long.  See how we go.

July 2020

Below is my monthly marker for July

This is part of a darning picture that I started last year at one of the West Country Embroiderers workshops  and still haven’t finished.  Here’s a full photo of the embroidery.

I’ve got a couple of finishes already this month as I’ve finished the Autumn Garden (Hostfagring) shawl and it’s even been washed and block and it drapes well,  but I’ve had problems trying to display a nice photo.  But here is is being blocked. The two little balls of yarn are all that’s left!

I used Stylecraft Batik Yarn Cake in Stargazer with the addition of another Batik yarn, the yellow, which is Old Gold. I started this shawl back in November last year and crocheted the gold tip and then started on the rest of the shawl, which was in 6 instalments at the beginning of June and it came together really quickly.

Another quick-ish make has been on Sunday afternoon was a coat for my Luna Lapin.  I already had 3 felt sheets but it wasn’t quite enough,  so I substituted some pink fabric that was used for Luna’s dress for the coat facing and facing the collar.

This pic shows the fabric lining inside. I also cheated with the buttons as I didn’t make buttonholes but put  popper fasteners on instead.

She wanted a scarf 

So I knitted her one.  She’ll be cosy when winter comes.  Luna Lapin is designed by Sarah Peel and her website is here.

Another finish has been my last book, which I finished yesterday - The Midnight Line by Lee Child, which I really enjoyed reading and the storyline was really believable with short chapters that fitted well with my half hour reads.

So my next read, which I started today is The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson about his growing up in Des Moines, Iowa.  I also bought a book today of Favourite Poems.  Poems that are familiar in some way to us and I just wanted something different to read, alongside the Bill Bryson book.

I was pleased this afternoon after months away to go to Kingston Lacy and although we could not enjoy the kitchen garden it was a nice walk that ended with ice cream.

Furtling in June

June May have been only 30 days but they’ve been busy ones. We’ve had socially distant visitors and socially distant visiting has been done too.  The sunny weather has helped a bit with this.  I’ve finished now with the mask making and I wrote about it here . 

I’ve also been busy with some crochet finishes of little kits, some sewing of a new pouch and quilt blocks and started a new knitting project.  There’s been some books read with my half hour daily reading sessions too. 

This month I made up the two kits (left) from Crochet Now from a few years back of Brian the Brown Bear and Henry the Hedgehog. On the right I’ve finished off kits in progress from Little Box of Crochet of an Entrelac Tunisian crochet pouch and a Toft cockapoo.  The animals all like of an little corner shelf along with my small flock of sheep.

I’m continuing with my Höstfägring shawl by In the Spring Garden which is growing quite large.  I finished part 5 yesterday so just part 6 to go. Excuse the other items on the floor.  This has been worked in a Stylecraft Batik Swirl yarn cake together with a mustard yellow ball of Batik yarn. This next part will create the point on the other end of the shawl.

I also decided to finished the Attic 24 Neat Ripple blanket.  This is a lap sized one which finishes at 36” wide by 40” high.  There’s still some yarn left to make another, but I may make a corner to corner blanket.

A new start, knitting this time the Spindrift shawl, designed by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade, here.  Progressed a bit more than in the photo below. Using the Wild Strawberry yarn from Sherry Iris that I bought last month.

June also saw some progress on the Youngish Quilter quilt, but I’ve still got one more block to make and to put together, so that will be sorted next month I hope. 

Another bit of sewing had been a fabric postcard for the UKQU postcard swap on the theme of two colours. It was posted on Friday and I’m awaiting a postcard.

I started on another new project (oh dear!). I like the Sew 4 the Soul project by Anne Brooke of Hannemade .  This is to make a wadding book and decorating the pages with fabrics and embellishments.  I’ve enjoyed the You Tube videos describing her work process. Due to lockdown I’ve been using what I’ve had to hand rather than buying so I spent a couple of hours joining small pieces of wadding to make the pages, instead of chopping up a larger piece into pages. The wadding will be covered so it won’t matter. Catching up with buying wadding, Bondaweb and other bits and bobs may be in order next month.

Blimey, June was flipping busy! I’m linking in with  Mini Archie’s June Furtle Around the Blogosphere . 

Masks and Scrubs Bags

For the past almost 2 months, along with other bits and bobs, I’ve been making Facemasks and scrubs bags for a couple of local groups- For the Love of Scrubs and Frontline Facemasks. 

The bags were for medical and care staff to be able to put their medical scrubs into when finishing a shaft and the whole lot can got into the washing machine so as to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.  The bags were made of cotton fabric to take a hot 60 degree wash.  I reckoned that I made 43 in total of those.

I had a go at ear savers, but didn’t make many of those, just 10.  They are bands to go at the back of the head with buttons for the elastic to go around

About the same time as I made bags I was also making some face masks too and had a specific pattern so the inside lining could have a filter of some sort, be it Sew In Vilene or more basically a piece of kitchen towel, between the outer and lining. I used some of my own fabric as obviously I have quite a bit, and a request at one time was for child friendly ones for adult Carers to wear and I could dive into some of my novelty fabrics. Later I was supplied with sheeting and other cotton fabric by the local coordinator.

By mid May, elastic was becoming a problem, nowhere had any, but by the end of May everywhere had some.  A request was for more male masks so I made some in plain blue sheeting and also grey.  Below are just a few of those I made.

This week the demand for Facemasks has decreased so it has been decided to close the Frontline Facemasks group at the end of July.  When this started there weren’t enough of these items to be had, but now face mask protection and PPE is readily available so I can understand why this has happened. But I’m pleased to have done my bit in helping in a small way during this Covid Crisis.  Below are the last 10 masks that I’ve finished today.

So in total I made 

43 scrubs bags

75 masks

10 ear savers

That’s not bad work in two months.