I'm back.......and I've finished something! Yay!

Sorry for the radio silence around here lately - its been an extremely busy time recently and I've been struggling to keep up with making, blogging and checking other people's blogs. If I normally visit your blog and comment then I apologise for not popping round as much as I would normally this last month - I've got a lot to catch up on!!

The busy period culminated last weekend when I was volunteering at the Stitch and Craft Exhibition at Olympia. I spent a couple of days (Friday and Sunday) there teaching people how to crochet - mainly butterflies and flowers. The picture below is just some of the many little things I made over the course of the weekend - I think I could crochet that butterfly in my sleep now!! (If anyone is interested the butterfly pattern is from Issue 3 of Mollie Makes).


I've never taught anyone anything crafty before so teaching at Stitch and Craft was a real eye opener! It was tiring and at times hectic but in general very rewarding and fun.

Amongst all the chaos I also managed to finish a project for a change! This is a picture of my finished doily rug that I mentioned in my last post.


I'm really pleased with how this has turned out. It was really fun to do something different too and it came together so quickly as it is worked in three strands of chunky yarn with a large hook (I used a 17mm). The pattern is by Dainty Loops and is available in her etsy shop or on ravelry. It is also perfect for the space I had in mind, this is what it looks like in situ in my bedroom:

Hopefully finishing this project will spur me on to finish some others on the go! Although not before I spend the evening catching up on all the blog posts backed up in my reader.....

xxx

On the go at the mo!

I haven't finished anything much recently as I seem to be working on some bigger projects at the moment so I thought I'd show you some glimpses of those so you can see what I've got on the go!

Firstly I'm still working on my quilt. I'm hand quilting this so its pretty time consuming but when I actually get down to doing it I am really enjoying it. I am bit worried about getting to the binding stage though!


I also always like to have some cross stitch or a tapestry on the go for those evenings when I want to do some craft but my brain doesn't feel up to concentrating too hard! At the moment I am working on "Think Happy Thoughts" by Emily Peacock. I've pretty much done it all apart from the border - I've left it because it is supposed to be brown but I'm thinking of doing it another colour and I can't decide! I'm thinking maybe grey...


I also always seem to have a crochet project on the go! I've been planning to make this doily rug for ages but only started this week - its taken me a while to get round to ordering the chunky yarn! I got the pattern from here but it is also available on ravelry. It is done using three strands of yarn at once and a big hook (the pattern recommends 15.75mm but I am using 17mm) so it comes together really quickly - very satisfying! I suspect this will be the next project I finish:


Just before Christmas I learned to knit so I also have a knitting project on the go. I am working my way through the Knitty Gritty book and this is the first project in there. It is a very simple scarf and probably doesn't look very impressive to all of you knitters out there but I am actually extremely proud of it - I never thought I was going to crack knitting so this is quite exciting for me! I'm looking forward to finishing this and moving on to some more complicated projects!


Hopefully I'll actually have something finished to blog about soon! What bigger projects are you working on at the moment?

Granny blanket update!

I've finally got some progress to report on my granny blanket! Yay! So I thought to celebrate I'd share some pictures with you.


After a lot of procrastination I eventually got round to attaching my 100 granny squares together and now it actually resembles a blanket!


After lots of thought and a few tests I decided to attach them using a slip stitch through the back loops (there is a fab tutorial here). I think it took a bit longer that stitching the squares together would have done but I like the effect so I think it was worth it.

Unfortunately, when I was finished attaching I laid it out on the floor to take a look and I wasn't happy at all! It was all lumpy and wouldn't lay flat. Very disappointing. I think a combination of my tension changing over the period I made the squares (as I was still learning) and crocheting the squares together too tightly combined to give this effect.


Oh dear! I was just hopeful that blocking would help and thankfully it did. Some water and over 100 pins later I had turned the wonky blanket above into this:

Phew! I am much happier with it now. After a few days blocking the blanket was much flatter and squarer (as in the first two pics). And in future I will block more frequently - maybe not every square but definitely smaller sections of squares.

I haven't decided whether to add any more squares to this blanket or not. My original intention was to make quite a large blanket but that was before I realised quite how much yarn making the blanket would take and the subsequent effect on my bank balance! Unfortunately due to my inexperience I chose a bit of an expensive yarn. At the moment I am planning to leave it for a bit and work on some other projects and see how I feel at a later date. I've already got lots of ideas for other things I want to make....!

Crafty Intentions 2012

I'm not really one for making New Year's resolutions but I thought it might focus my mind to think about some of things I would like to achieve this year creatively and for this blog. I have also posted photos of some of my favourite things I have made over 2011 in the hope that it might make you read this selfish post right to the end!!

My creative intentions* for 2012 are:

1. Try at least 4 new crafts - either in classes or self taught.


2. Get involved in craftivism/crafting for charity


3. Teach a crafty skill to someone else.


4. Finish my granny blanket - this will involve attaching together the 100 squares I already have and possibly adding many more!


5. Finish at least one knitting project. I've only just learned to knit and I'm not sure whether it will be my thing or not but I would like to try and make at least one thing to give it a go.


6. Hand make the majority of the cards I send.


7. Turn my Emily Peacock tapestries into cushions - this is something that I have been meaning to do for ages and I just need to get on with it!


8. Have another go at silver clay jewellery - I bought all the kit at the end of my course and its just sat in my spare room ever since. Whoops!


9. Look into getting a stall at a craft fair, probably selling mainly glass goodies, maybe with someone else.


10. Use up some of my fabric stash BEFORE I buy any more. I should probably try to do this for yarn too!


11. Write a tutorial for this blog.


12. Have 2 blog giveaways and participate in some swaps.


13. Aim to blog at least once a week.


14. Start using ravelry and documenting my projects on there.


15. And to finish on a more general intention, I always like to have several projects on the go but I would really like to get better at finishing things before starting new projects!

Phew - looks like I've got a busy year ahead! I've actually already managed to put the wheels in motion for some of these intentions already and it looks like I should probably get started on the others! If anyone is thinking of putting a list together like this then I would definitely recommend it - just typing this all out has got my brain whirring with things I want to get started on. Hmmm....maybe I should take note of number 15 in particular!!

Hope you are all having a lovely (crafty) weekend xx

*I was inspired to use the word intentions rather than resolutions by Heather - I think it sounds much more positive and less pressurising!!

Another go at quilting

I was getting a bit fed up with sitting round the house after my accident on holiday and I didn't have any plans for the weekend so when I saw that my local craft studio was running a beginners quilting weekend course I jumped at the chance. I've made a quilt once before and although it turned out OK I made lots of little mistakes along the way and I thought it would be useful to learn properly. Plus I am slightly addicted to buying fabric and I need to start using it!

After discussing possible ideas I decided to make a simple quilt with square patchwork to make the most of all the fabric I had. I took a few pictures along the way but, as always when I get involved in something, not as many as planned. (Apologies for the photo quality - some are on my phone and it was a miserable day on Saturday).

I cut 96 six inch squares using a rotary cutter and ruler and roughly arranged them to sew together. I seem to have been drawn to pink fabric (again!) so this is going to be quite a pink quilt but I tried to balance it out a bit with some turquoise and blue patches.

After much pinning and sewing and unpicking and resewing and swearing at the sewing machine I came up with this for my quilt top:

I didn't take any pictures of the next stage which involves making the quilt sandwich with wadding and backing and then loosely tacking all the layers together. Once that was all done it was finally time to do some quilting! YAY! Unfortunately making the quilt top had taken longer than expected and by this stage it was 3pm on Sunday and I was flagging! I just had time to start quilting but would have to take it home to finish off!

My initial plan was to free motion quilt in a swirly pattern. The teacher got me started on this and I had a go. I don't know if it was because I was very tired or it just isn't my thing but I found the free motion quilting SOOOO stressful! I just couldn't get the balance between the stitch speed and the speed to move the quilt around at so I ended up with wildly differing stitch lengths! After much huffing and puffing I'm ashamed to say I decided to admit defeat and give up. I really want to learn how to quilt beautiful swirly patterns but I don't think this is the project to do it on - I think I will have to start with something smaller and less challenging initially.

By that time it was nearing the end of the class so I just had a go at quilting a couple of straight lines on my quilt and brought it home to finish off.

Unfortunately that means I now have another thing to add to my WIP list! Since I got home I've been thinking about this more and I think I might unpick the straight machine quilting I did and hand quilt this one. I really like the effect of hand quilting and it is an opportunity to try something I've not done before. Plus I like the idea of sitting with this on my lap and feeling cosy whilst I quilt on a cold Autumn evening. It also means I won't have to fork out for a walking foot for my machine! It would take a long time though.....I'll keep you updated!

Dotty xx

Work In Progress (WIP)

The problem with doing so many different crafty things is I often get involved in a new project without properly finishing the previous one. I always have several projects on the go at any one time which is great because if I get bored with one I can always pick up another but it does mean I have lots of unfinished work hanging around my flat!

With this in mind I've decided to start doing a regular (maybe monthly?) Work in Progress (WIP) post - partly to show you what I've been up to, partly to try and shame myself into finishing them! Hopefully by the time I do my next WIP post some of these will be finished:

1. Emily Peacock Hug and Kiss cushions


I finished my Hug tapestry over a year and a half ago and the Kiss one sometime last summer. These have now been sitting around for over a year waiting to be turned into cushions. I've bought the backing fabric, the bobble trim and the cushion inserts and yet somehow I still haven't managed to spend a few hours making these into lovely cushions for my bed. I have no excuses!

2. Granny Square Cushion

These granny squares have been sitting around the house since the early summer waiting to become a cushion! They were originally going to be a blanket but the cotton I was using was really splitty and I decided it would drive me mad making a whole blanket so a cushion it is! I need to block these first (I've not done that before) and then decide how I am going to attach them together and how I am going to back the cushion - either fabric or more crochet. All this indecision has left me doing nothing!!

3. Fused glass jewellery

I've got loads of these pretty glass cabochons waiting to be turned into jewellery. Most of them are made of dichroic glass which really sparkles - they should be lovely when I get round to doing something with them!

I've also got these ones which have been attached to jewellery findings already. I want to take some decent pictures of these to put in my folksy shop. I've had a go a few times now but haven't managed to get any good enough photos yet - it is difficult to photograph glass!

4. Emily Peacock and Rob Ryan tapestry

I was given this kit for Christmas and it is a perfect present for me - I am a big fan of both Emily Peacock's and Rob Ryan's work. This is actually going quite well at the moment. I started this in the Spring and am about halfway through it now. I have finished most of the tricky picture part of the tapestry and now I am just working on the background. This means it is perfect for evenings in front of the TV when I want to do some sewing but need something that doesn't take too much concentration.

5. Granny Square blanket


Even though I have decided to make my other granny squares into a cushion I still wanted to make a granny square blanket with a white background. I am using a granny square pattern by Jane Brocket that I found in Mollie Makes magazine. I love this pattern - it makes quite a large square with a really nice squishy feel to it. The pattern is based on a blanket of 54 squares but I would really like to make mine bigger than that so I think it might be crocheting this one for a long time yet. I've done 20 squares so far so we'll see if I change my mind when I've got a bit further! I've realised that I probably shouldn't have chosen such expensive yarn - this is going to be one expensive blanket!

6. Fused glass photographs

I am currently trying to take photos of my fused glass pieces. Mainly to keep a record of what I have made and also to show you on this blog. Also I am thinking of trying to sell some pieces in future - there is only so much glass I can fit in my flat but I would like to keep making so I think I will have to sell some to stop myself getting buried in it (this is only a small fraction of what I have made) and also to help fund future making!

7. Stained glass pieces

I have two small stained glass pieces which I need to solder some chain onto for hanging and then polish up so they are finished. I won't put any pictures here as I am hoping to do that in the next couple of days (ha! a likely story...!) and then I will put up some pictures then.

8. Plushies

I have various monsters and fish in various states of completions that I am making for gifts and my folksy shop. These look a bit sad without their stuffing so I'll put some pictures up when I'm finished!

Phew! That was a long post! I feel a bit exhausted thinking about all the things I need to get on with, let alone actually doing them! Hopefully next time I do a WIP post some of these items will be finished.....

Dotty xx

PS. Sorry if the pics are a bit dark - its a horrible day here. Not good for taking photos but perfect for staying in and making!