What do you do when stuck at home with the lurgy?

Why, craft of course!

I came down sick with a sore throat on Thursday and have been sniffly-snuffly and fuzzy headed since then. Leaving the house is about the last thing I want to do. So with all the extra time on my hands I got the perfect chance to craft. It also helps that it is far too wet to tackle the growing mound of laundry, even if I could be bothered.



This card was a quickly-made commission from Crafty Things because she had to work, poor thing. It is for her father's 70th birthday, if my lurgy-fied brain is remembering right. All the supplies were her own. Card, yarns, rub on alphabet. Couldn't be easier. It turned out nicely, I think. Simple, elegant and certainly not too girly.

Of course simple is best when crafting with the lurgy. Otherwise it is far too easy to make heaps of mistakes that just have to be fixed later.



This cross-stitch fits the bill. Nice blocks of colour and a cute design. I've been working on him for a couple of weeks now. He makes the perfect project to stitch on while watching a movie, and because Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is about to be released there have been plenty of Harry Potter re-runs for me to watch. I love watching the first movies, they all look so young in them.

Anyway, this teddy will eventually have the words "Days... to remember" next to him. He is the the last kit from Crafty Thing's stash that I have to stitch but don't worry, I picked up a new one at the Craft Fair when it was here the other week. This adjustable hoop/frame system came from the Fair too.



It works with several different sized sections that screw together to make different sized rectangles. Then a plastic strip with little teeth is clipped onto the sides of the rectangles. You stretch the fabric over the frame and the teeth hold it in place. The handles then clip over the top to make it comfortable to hold. You do have to make the rectangle the right size to go around the edge of the whole design because the fabric ends up with little holes in it where the teeth grip it. So you need a decent amount of spare fabric. This teddy design only just has enough, it gets a bit hard to end of threads at the edges of the design. That's the only problem I've had aside from a little difficulty putting the aida on. Evenweave fabrics are much easier. I think a little practice will help. The whole frame is lovely and light though, and doesn't lose tension like my Q-snaps tend to do.

There's one other project I have been working on, but it deserves a post of its own. Besides, my lurgy-fied brain has just about had it. Time for some more stitching!

Finished Blanket

In amongst lots of other things I have finished my crocheted blanket. It is lap sized and very snuggly. I really like the colours and the technique of joining as you go was a great one to learn.

On the go at the moment is a stitching from Calico Farm Designs - sorry but there are no pictures - and another neck warmer using Frog Tree alpaca yarn. I am experimenting with a little bit of the lacy pattern from another scarf pattern in the crossed over section of this scarf.

Finished Some Knitting

A recent purchase from Bendigo Woollen Mills led to the knitting needles getting to work again. Part of the purchase was some very soft Alpaca in colourway Dusty Coral. Cruising through Ravelry led me to this pattern and here is the finished scarf.

The crochet hook is also busy at the moment with some Granny Squares. These are being made in to a blanket. The yarn for this is Bendigo Woollen Mill's Luxury in 10 ply. The colours I am working with are Leaf, Lake, Autumn Glow and Ghost. Sorry no photo as the one I tried to take does not show the colours well at all - will try again soon. I stumbled across a new way to join the squares as you go - quite nifty! Being 10 ply yarn the squares are quick to make but it is being fitted in amongst all sorts of other tasks so progress is slow.

An enjoyable day at the Craft Fair led to the acquisition of some new pieces of fabric, a couple of patterns, a mini iron for applique, a new applique mat, some silk ribbon for more dyeing experiments and another set of good pinking shears. Now all I need is the time to create some things with all these acquisitions!

Time for a Happy Dance!!

You know what that means! Warning: This is a picture-heavy post!



Uh huh! The Spring girl is finished, the lucky last in the whole set. Here they all are together:



Don't they look good all together like that. I haven't worked out yet exactly how I'm going to put them together, or what they will actually end up being, but that's ok, there's no rush. There's plenty of fabric around the edges of each girl so I have plenty of room to move. Of course, I immediately moved on to something else, and finished it too! (ok so that's because I finished the Spring girl a little while ago, but hadn't taken any photos yet but shhh, no-one needs to know that!) So here is a cute May Gibbs bookmark front and back:



It is based on her famous book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Crafty Things had the kit sitting around for years, so I ended up stitching it instead.

And yes, I have the next one all ready to go :-)


In between doing those cross-stitch projects I made these from a pattern produced at my local-ish quilt shop.



Meet "Moggy" and "Sproggy". (No I didn't think of those names, they were on the pattern. Wish I did though!) They are not very big and only took me a weekend to make. Plus I did them all myself, no help needed :-) My machine-sewing skills are improving slowly!


So until next time, off I go to do some proper work.

Drawing Day 2009

Calling all those who love to draw. Why not participate in Drawing Day 2009 by creating a drawing on June 6th and uploading it to flickr, your blog or one of the other particpating sites. Check out the information on the Drawing Day site.

Playing with Inkscape

Crafty Things has been playing with a new little computer program called Inkscape. It is a vector drawing program. She made me a tag for my blog posts.


Ta Da!