Come over and visit a new blogging adventure...

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Please come over and visit Crafty Things at her new blogging adventure...

Just sharing my creations in a tag challenge and other WIPs that I am creating.

Finally Finished

This blog has been very neglected since late last year but at last I have finished the ripple blanket for Avid Reader and felt that it deserved a post.

Ta Da

It fits over the top of a double bed with no overhang and as requested the ripple colours are random and every now and then a variegated ripple was added. Avid Reader is very happy with the result and I am pleased to have finished it. The super easy instructions from Attic 24 were just brilliant.

It is a nice heavy weight blanket that will be used for snuggling on the couch and an extra layer come winter time.

There will be no more posts for a while as Avid Reader and Crafty Things focus on other interests and work/study for the time being. Thanks to all our lovely visitors for dropping by.

I Was a Winner.

Boy, oh, oh, boy, I was a winner in a blog giveaway run by DragonflyCrafts. Look at the lovely goodies I received.

The parcel with lovely photo card.

The contents. The sewing on these is just so even and the colours fit together beautifully. Thanks very much, Fiona.

On the creating front a few felt softies have been created. The first was an elephant - made as a sample to show a group of children. the pattern came from the very useful book on my bookcase - My First Sewing Book Hand Sewing by Winky Cherry. The patterns in this book have been ever so useful over a long period of time.

The eyes are split pins and the tail has been plaited on after the sewing was finished. The idea for the split pin eyes came from the kits I have purchased from Paper and String. The elephants sewn by the children were then decorated with glitter and fabric paints whereas mine was left very plain.

Second on the felt softie creating spree was a little car. This time I created the pattern myself with some help from some images found trawling the web. Again this was a model to inspire a group of children.

When I worked on this softie with the children we left out the split pin idea. I had tried this to see if it would look like a door handle but in the end decided the car looked fine without this addition. I did wonder about adding buttons for the wheels but have not tried out that idea yet.

Last on the creation line were some Perching Doves from Fa La La La Felt. I purchased an ebook copy of this great little book of felt Christmas decorations and chose the doves to have a go at first. I tried out several different variations before settling on the way I like to make these. They are a little addictive - I couldn't just make one!

With these two I followed the directions in the book to stitch the wing detail but I added the curve at the top of the wing and a second row of decorative stitching inside the first.

With these two I experimented with stitching on a wing that I had cut out with pinking shears but in the end found this to be a little fiddly. I also experimented with both blanket stitch and running stitch around the outside and decided that I preferred the running stitch. I love the way Amanda Carestio has designed these to be sewn onto pegs! Instead of buttons for the eyes I again resorted to split pins.

The ripple blanket is still slowly growing - lucky for me the recipient is so relaxed about when she will get the finished item!

Happy Crafting

Long Time, No Posts Probably, No Visitors but...

As always the same old excuse - things get busy and something falls by the wayside.

There has been some crafting going on but getting down to the putting it on the blog has not been happening.

Avid Crafter has made some beautiful gifts for friends. She sewed a patchwork scarf, knitted a neckwarmer, created a bag, cooked chocolate brownies and bestowed these as gifts to four of her friends. Sorry no photos at this stage - they are there somewhere but not easily found.

I have Zentangled and found that it is a great way to snatch a little relax time as you focus on just creating the pattern you are working on. I bought a little sketchbook to do my drawing in and then decided it needed a cover. I had seen something that I liked in Kata Golda's book - Hand-stitched Felt - so I hunted out some felt and created a felt cover with pockets to keep my pen, pencil and shading stub in. I had a trial create first and made the stationary pouch exactly as described in the book and then adapted this for my sketchbook cover.

They were great fun to make and I used a little bit of felting I had made for the pocket. More about the felting later in this post.

Here is one page of my drawings using the Zentangling. I am having great fun experimenting with all the patterns that are shared from the newsletters, flickr pool and various blogs.

Next bit of crafting was gifted to my mother. When the Craft Fair was in town I went and looked and spent and signed up for a felting workshop. It was to make a scarf from a long piece of wool batt to which you added pieces of wool tops and silk to create a design, wet it down, worked it over and over and over to felt it altogether. In the end you get something like this.

Next shot shows a close up of one end.

I was pretty pleased with the result. This was something I had never tried before and I enjoyed creating it. I came home with some more batting, tops and silk to try out some more but stuck to much smaller pieces than the scarf. I have used the pieces for the pockets of my book cover and stationary holder and cut some up into squares for some cards.

One last little link. I stumbled across this set of tutorials and loved the little needle book. Just the thing to keep your needles safe when travelling.

Happy crafting!

Things Discovered

Just a quick post with a few links for you.

I just came across this tutorial and am just waiting until I can try it. I like the idea of a carry strap and the lovely big button holding everything together. This is one of the positive things I admire about the crafty blog community - so many people are willing to share their ideas.

I also came across this art idea. The idea of breaking down complex patterns into easily repeated patterns that are then combined to create very interesting images was one that really appealed to me. I followed a few links and was amazed by the number of images being created.

Have you seen the envelope project coming together at Meet Me At Mikes. I am enjoying watching the window display grow. We sent our envelope off and it was very satisfying to see it in amongst all the others. Check it out over on Flickr.

Photos and Chitchat

I am still working on the ripple blanket. It is slowly growing in size.

Even though winter is definitely here there is still some lovely autumn colour around. Here is an autumn leaf photo collage of some leaves that found their way into my back garden from a tree in a neighbouring garden. The colours are just so rich.

Have you read about this little project.

Meet Me At Mikes are asking for decorated envelopes to make a window display and to be part of little bit of crafting goodness and sharing. Inside your envelope the folk at Meet Me At Mikes are asking for a little bit of crafting ephemera. One lucky person will receive all the goodies after a lucky draw. Avid Crafter and I are putting an envelope together soon.

In the mail this week I received my copy of Mettazine by iHanna. It is all about art journaling and I have been waiting patiently for it to arrive after I purchased it from her Etsy shop a while ago. I love it - there are definitions, explanations, inspirations, prompts and some ephemera to get you started. I like the wallpaper cover and the touches of colour sprinkled through it. Thanks very much iHanna.

I am making some recycled books as well. They are A5 in size and all the pages are old photocopies folded in half so that the print is hidden and there are lovely white pages ready for some drawing or writing to be added. There are 15 leaves which makes each notebook have 30 pages. The covers are made from scrapbooking papers or decorated watercolour paper and the back is a piece of sturdy cardboard. They are bound with a stitched binding. Each one had a piece of brown paper tape on the front for a label. They would not be any good for collage work as the binding would not have enough flexibility.

I am thinking of putting some in our Madeit shop - the poor neglected place. Would you buy something like this? What price do you think would be good?