Wednesday Love: A new project

This week I am feeling very happy to be crocheting again. I have projects which I call my "Pick up, put down" projects and they can take years to finish. I am coming to the end of my last project like this which is a double bed quilt I am paper piecing by hand for my friend's wedding (4 and a half years ago - nearly there!). It is now so big that I can't easily carry it around with me when we go out so I have started my new project a little early. I have had four quilts to finish before I allowed myself to start anything new with knitting or crochet but I have had itchy fingers to get back to it for a while.

So here is my new blanket (in progress). My nephew, who's 3, was a little confused that I referred to a strip of 5 flowers as a blanket. The kids seemed to think it looked more like a hairband!

I found the pattern on Pinterest and here's the link to buying the pattern on Etsy. It's simple in that it really is just one flower repeated but the pattern also shows you how to crochet it together as you go so when I finish the last flower it won't be a case of having to start a huge sewing together job, it will be finished - hurray! I found this lovely yarn, which is a blend of cotton, cashmere and silk (Bella by Debbie Bliss) in a flash sale on the Black Sheep Wools website for just £1.99 a ball. I think it's being discontinued so I stocked up and we'll see how big this blanket turns out, depending on if I think I've had enough or I run out of yarn!

Teddy bear's picnic

Over the past week I have been practising my crochet again. My sister gave me a lovely Amigurumi japanese crochet book for my birthday a couple of years ago. It's been on my to-do list for ages, but when two families I know both had their third babies on the same weekend, then it spurred me forward to have a go. I was pleasantly surprised as the patterns were written in a way I haven't seen before, but they were very easy to follow, even for a novice like me. I finished the first bear in two days.

This is baby Reuben's bear. He's travelling about half an hour away.

This is baby Eva's bear. She's travelling almost to the other side of the world.

Happy travelling bears. I hope you bring lots of smiles.

2011 - a crafting year in review

I was having a little look around on blogs and I saw a great review of the year on the Attic 24 blog and so I thought I'd have a go as well. It's been a very interesting exercise.

I can see that...

- January and September aren't great months for crafting, usually as I am trying to get the house back on track after school holidays.

- I'm happy that my August photos aren't about crafting but about getting out and about, building sandcastles, watching balloons and finding gorillas.

- I really enjoyed my scrapbooking from June onwards as the things I had learnt in online classes with Donna Downey, Julie Fei-fan Balzer, Christy Tomlinson and Emily Falconbridge all started to come together on my pages.

- It looks like I did little crafting in November or December, but actually I was crafting non stop making things for a craft fair and to sell to raise funds at church. My conclusion is that I can't manufacture items for sale like that at the moment as I don't have enough time.

- My kids are very photogenic!

You may notice a little robin just above - there's more on him to come soon.

Wishing you all a very happy crafty 2012 xx

The Whiffle Tree Trading Post

I've been a bit quiet on here lately as I have been crafting flat out to get ready for the Whiffle Tree Trading Post, which was a local craft fair yesterday. I had a really good afternoon and sold lots, had lots of compliments on my work and lots of nice chats with fellow crafty people. As someone who normally sits at my desk to craft it so nice to get out and hear positive feedback on what I enjoy making.

My best sellers were my cards, which I placed in some nice little baskets from Ikea.

My crochet roses also sold really well. I have about 5 left.

I made a few of these bags. These didn't sell at all but I think they are gorgeous! They are based on a pattern from Amy Butler's book "Style Stitches", (with a few little tweaks). I don't mind that they didn't sell, as it means I have stock for a craft fair I've signed up for in January! I made a large embroidered bag, which you can see in the picture at the top. I did sell one of these bags and took commissions for two more for bags with different birds on. It was a good lesson to learn what people like, and my embroidered birds are a bit more individual than a patterned fabric bag.

Here's a closer look at some of my Christmas cards, including my favourite one made with a stamp by Crafty Individuals, which I coloured in and embellished with sequins - sometimes less is definitely more!

And a few more Christmas cards...

I'll be back soon with more photos of my other cards.

Felted Crochet brooches

I have been working towards a little fundraising at my church again and I have been making these flower corsage brooches using my newly acquired skill of crochet. They have been quite popular and I have been taking orders!

The best thing about these is the wool. It's called "Wash and Filz it" and it's a washing machine felting wool. This means that I make a wobbly flower with my novice crocheting and then I pop it into the washing machine (usually with a load of dark or colourful washing) and it comes out all tight and neat - hurray!

The larger flower is made using a pattern from the Mollie Makes magazine, with a covered button in the middle, I found that pinning them onto a piece of printed card made the brooches look even smarter.

I'm afraid I can't link to the pattern for the rose as I'm fairly sure I've been following it quite badly and mostly making it up as I go along - it's all to do with the difference between American and English crochet patterns. However my method seems to work quite well and it looks nice at the end!

Crochet - at last!

I've been very quiet on here for the past few weeks because the summer holidays are so surprisingly busy. I'm feeling very happy with the time spent with family outside - as Shimelle says "Live first, Scrapbook second". I've got lots of photos to scrap and stories to tell and the time spent doing something different has definitely been inspirational. I now have a very long "To Do" list!

I found myself with a quiet afternoon a couple of weeks ago and saw a Let's Get Crafting magazine about knitting and crochet which came with six balls of wool and knitting needles and crochet hook. We were away on holiday at the time so I only had my patchwork sewing with me so I bought the magazine. I've been promising myself that I would learn to crochet for nearly two years. I've had some beautiful books for the past two birthdays and I've been reading the fantastic Attic24 blog (very inspiring) but just haven't got around to it.

Here are my first attempts at crochet. The first is a little bear from the magazine and the second is a flower from the front cover of the Mollie Makes magazine. I am hooked ( pun intended!). I am particularly pleased with the flower and this morning I found some fine felting wool online called Wash+Filz-It which you crochet (or knit) and then wash in the washing machine to felt it. It even comes in some lovely multicolour versions.

So there's another craft I going to try to squeeze in!