November

After last month’s blogging marathon, it’s taken me until almost the middle of November to post anything.  It’s been busy so far with my Mum’s 90th birthday celebrations (she had the big birthday last Thursday) culminating in a surprise party on Sunday at my sister’s with us, our husbands, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren present - 18 of us in all.  She enjoyed the surprise to seeing everyone together.

Returning to normality, I went to West Country Embroiderers group on Monday doing a painting and embroidery workshop entitled The Wave, which was a lot of fun.  It was run by another member of the group and it’s great that using similar shades of blue how different the pictures look.

 I made a second painting while I had some paint left.  I made a more stormy wave with this one

This was teacher's sample so this is the sort of look we're aiming for..

I’ve just finished some knitting today as I completed the Fair Isle fingerless mitts.  They’ve just got to been washing and currently being blocked.  I'll have to think what to knit/crochet next.  I'll post photos in my next blog post when all the ends are trimmed after blocking.

I've spent some time this afternoon doing some secret sewing, but it's what I wanted to do has not quite worked out how I'd like.  So might have another bash at it tomorrow.

Weekend before last David was at Swanage Railway and the weather was awful so I stayed at home and sewed.  A friend of mine wanted to make book covers and I gave approximated measurements but I had a go just to see if those measurements worked and they did.  I didn't quilt them but did back with outside fabric with some Vilene to give extra body to the cover.  Here they are

I had an A5 one (with the cats) which had a narrow spine and and A6 (with the wellie boots)which was a hardback spiral bound book.   I've got a diary to use from next month and am looking to cover that instead of the plain green cover that it has.  Makes it a lot easier to see in my handbag!

That's it for now.

An October Furtle

The end of October and a time to do my round up of what been happening this month.  Its been a productive one, especially here on the blog which I've not done so many posts in the month for a long time! This will be post number 8 including this one.

I've knitted, sewn, crocheted this month and we've been busy with other things too. At the end of last month we went to Yorkshire and I bought goodies at Yarndale and took some sock knitting with me and I finished the socks, even wearing these as I type.

Although you can't really see in the photo the self striping yarn has got glitter, which has got to be good for cheering up a dull day. Although I wasn't that brilliant at the strip matching it actually didn't matter too much.  The yarn is Opal which I bought a couple of years back in Shrewsbury when on holiday.

I finished off a cardigan for Flo for her christening a few weeks ago.  More glitter here as there it was in the yarn, which is called Baby Twinkle.  She had a lovely white dress which my daughter Sarah bought in France in the summer and this cardigan went well with it.

I've also had another knitting finish - I finished my cardigan.  At long last.  I'd almost finished a little while ago but I wasn't happy with the length.  Although I'm short I do like a decent length of cardigan so as it was a top down knit I just had to undo the garter stitch 'rib' at the bottom knit another pattern repeat and garter stitch rows to make it a bit longer.  I added on the button and button bands to the front and done.  I bought buttons the other day so they will be added on. Please excuse the rather grim face I had on when taking this photo!

On Saturday I had a new cast on - one of the purchases from Yarndale was this fingerless mitt kit from Lucy Locket with basic colour work.  I tried Estonian braid stitch for the first time (the arrow stitches at the bottom and top of the mitt.  I finished the first mitt last night, so the ends aren't sewn in but I'm pleased with how it looks.  I've just started the second mitt at the Knit and Natter this morning.

For crochet I made a couple of Yarndale Teddies for a friend in Knit and Natter to take out to New Zealand where she will be staying with her family out there.  She saw me crochet them for Yarndale and asked if I'd make two for her.  They were made from stash and I made a girl and a boy.  I gave them to her last week and she was really pleased and sure her grandchildren would love them. The Yarndale teddies pattern is by Lucy of Attic 24 and the post with the pattern is here.

Also at Knit and Natter we've made other things as well!  A few weeks ago another friend had bought along a cat she made out of a pair of socks and a week later some of us had a go.  This is mine

The body is made from one sock the head and tail from another.  It needed the addition of buttons for eyes and a ribbon for the bell which hides the stitching of the head onto the body.  I also added a nose and whiskers as well.  There are a lot of tutorials via Pinterest to look at about how to make.

Inspired by this last week we made a snowman from a sock!  Using rice to weigh down the snowman (it took a lot more than I thought!) it was made in no time at all and soon we had a snowman parade!! The hat and scarf were from two different patterned socks, with glue eyes, buttons and pipe cleaner nose were added.

Another crochet project I started was this one back in February.  I saw an Instagram post and decided to have a go at making a crochet rug (there's a post about it here).  I noticed just now that I've used half trebles in a sample but for this I'm using double crochet into the back of the loop in the previous row.  Think I might have to re-think this, but this is how it looks so far

With four strands of yarn and a thick hook this is growing quickly.

I've sent off some blocks to block mamas of the Siblings Together quilt charity.  Here are some quirky birds, made improv style

And some crumb blocks requested for a mini block drive - I ended up making 12 of them.  It helped that it was a rainy weekend!

If you'd like to help with some blocks here's the link.  They are addictive so there may be more of these blocks to come.

For the November block bee that I'm in the Mama this month wants a log cabin block and just the one of those, so that'll fit in a standard envelope for postage.

And lastly, for something completely different I made a felted soap at Craft 4 Crafters, which I mentioned in my last post here.

Blimey, this has been a busy month.  November is shaping up to be another busy one too.  Not sure how many posts I will manage then.

Linking up with this month's Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere

Craft 4 Crafters

This is a bi-annual show which takes place at the Royal Bath and West Showground in April and October and I went with friends to visit last Friday for the October show.  This has multiple crafts from papercrafting through to sewing, felting, quilting and embroidery and local groups exhibit here.

We did a mini workshop making felted soaps with Tracey of Felt Sew Somerset which was a lot of fun.  Mine was orange which has a citrus fragranced soap inside the felted wool with a darker orange silk thread running through.

After lunch I had a look around the textile hall which was to side of the main hall which has quilting and embroidery displays.  Some traders, but not many as there was also a quilt show that weekend in Malvern so it take away many quilt shopping opportunities.

There were kaleidoscope quilts displayed by Avalon Quilters

A couple of knitted scenes by charities

This was raising funds for the local hospice

And this was for Sue Ryder charity.  In both cases I did leave a donation for taking the photos

These fabulously decorated bras - just to prove that patchwork doesn't need to be a quilt.  This was made by ladies taught by Heather Fowler.

There were also 50 embroidered hearts from the Embroiderer's Guild

Although busy to begin with the show quietened off towards mid afternoon.  It was interesting to watch some of the paper craft demonstrations.  I don't think that the textile traders did as well as the paper crafting ones as not all were in the main hall and some were on the mezzanine floor above which wasn't that busy.  But it made for a nice day out with friends and the journey from Poole is not too lengthy either.

100 Hexies 100 Days 2019

I took part in this Instagram Challenge back in July and 100 days finished earlier this month on 8th October.  Amazingly I've managed to keep up but I prepped the hexies at the beginning of the week for the week ahead of each theme.  Apart from one week I've managed to keep up with most themes. So here's the roundup of the challenge.

Week 1 (6 days) About Me

Week 2 - Summerlicious

Week 3 - Teeny Tiny Things

Week 4 - Starts with B

Week 5 - Rainbow (that was easy - I just used one fabric!)

Week 6 - Adventure

Week 7 - Japan

Week 8 - Sewer's Choice - for this I chose fabrics from a mini charm pack called Grand Canal.

Week 9 - I Spy - spot the hexie that's upside down, adding to it's air of mystery!

Week 10 - Berry Cute - this is the week where I went off-topic and went for shapes instead

Week 11 - Sewing Notions

Week 12 - Vintage

Week 13 - Creatures

Week 14 - Favourites - I chose a coastal theme

Week 15 - Last week and 3 days - Playful - I chose pirates for this theme

This is the collection I collected in a small fabric bowl.  I'm not sure yet how they will be arranged but they may become separate projects.  It was a lot of fun choosing the fabrics and fussy cutting so a good exercise.  Thanks to @sewfoxymama on Instagram for this challenge.

Finish A Long - Quarter 4

After my flurry of posts at the beginning of this month, the finishes from quarter 3 of the Finish A Long passed me by and it's now time to post my proposed finishes for quarter 4.

On my list is a cardigan, which should have been finished but is hibernating having had more socks knitted, a small cardigan for Flo (in time for her christening last Sunday) and 2 more crochet teddies (as requested by one of the Knit and Natter ladies).  I wasn't happy with the length so I took it back to lengthen, but I've now got to pick up the button and button bands to finish.

I've still got the Tubix quilt and the Kingfisher quilt, but since the last quarter there has been progression and both have been layered and tacked (basted) and I have started quilting - the Tubix by machine.

And the Kingfisher quilt

More recently I've taken part in a Scrap Busting Sew Along by Sugar Bowl Crafts and made this strippy block quilt top.  At the moment I'm not sure if it needs a border, possibly using a mix of low volume strips which I've had left over from the Kingfisher quilt.  Need to think about that one.

Also ongoing, but no hurry for that is the Bramble Patch mini quilt kit based on Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses which I purchased at Festival of Quilts back in August.  This is my progress so far. A bit creased as the project has to fit in the box with all the other bits and bobs in the kit.  It's square at the moment but the blocks will be set on point so there are 8 half blocks to make.

I will have some small Christmas projects to do so I'm taking a few items off the list until next year as I don't want to overwhelm myself with getting other things done.  If they've waited long enough a little longer won't hurt.

So this is my listing for Quarter 4 of the Finish A Long.