Some New Needle Books

Here are some of the needle books I made in preparation for the craft fair the other week. Some pretty green ones: The 1st uses some cute spotty fabric from Amy Butler called Sunspots, and the other is Floating Flowers by Kaffe Fassett, which is one of my all time favourite fabrics. Isn't that green button cute? I picked it up on ebay as part of a set of vintage buttons - I love it! Here are some very BRIGHT needle books: I love that combination of pink cord and blue button with the Free Spirit sewing-themed fabric. The heart fabric is thrifted - it's part of a blouse I bought last summer - partly re-purposed for a sun hat (which was very cute!), and now I've used this last bit for a needle book. It's very vibrant - you'd certainly struggle to lose this needle book amongst all your crafty bits and pieces! These are all up for sale on Etsy now, and will be coming to my in-development Facebook store soon. Facebook fans will get a 5% discount during the first couple of days of my shop opening so sign up as a fan now! I'll be adding some more needle books over the next couple of days too.

A new pincushion

I've been missing crocheting a lot over the last few weeks - it' s such a useful craft because you can pick it up & do a round or a row any time you get the opportunity, which with 2 4-year-olds running around is a real bonus. It's also great to do in front of the TV! I also wanted to experiment with using crochet & fabric together AND I have some huge great bags of stuffing material to use, so a new pincushion seemed like a good idea. I think the fabric & the cotton yarn look great together. I've just used what I think of as single crochet at the moment (I am now totally confused about the UK v USA crochet stitch names)& a scrap of gorgeous Kaffe Fassett material I had to be used up. It measures around 6cm across which I guess a lot of people would think is a bit big for a pincushion but I rather like large pincushions - nice & easy for me to find amidst all my clutter. I'll probably do the next one a little smaller if I can get my crochet under control.

My latest creations & works in progress

I have no idea how I am getting anything finished at the moment - there is so much to organise with our house & garden. Of course, work in the garden has to be a bit of a priority at this time of the year - we want to have some veg to harvest come the end of July. And because it's the end of the month I've also been busy catching up the hours I work for Any Questions Answered - an entirely marvellous text answering service. Now I can rest easy that I'll get paid this month!

In spite of all this I have managed to get a couple more things listed in my Etsy shop - a new bag made out of some marvellous retro-style fabric & a little sun hat for a toddler. What pleases me most about these is that they are my own patterns which I developed myself & have worked through by trial & error. I have never been that great at thinking ahead (chess is a mystery to me..) & so I feel pretty chuffed that I have been able to plan out patterns that haven't left me with huge holes or strange lumps in the finished items!

I have various works-in-progress at the moment. I've cut out some fabric for a couple more hats - this time in navy stripes which I hope will look rather dapper. I am trying to resist buying more Kaffe Fassett fabric so I can make MORE hats until I have finished the current ones. An incentive if ever there was one. Soon as I have them done I will be off to the Cotton Patch...

I am contemplating entering the crochet challenge on Craftster - which is rather brave of me because I have never even posted on there before. The theme is 'Summer Crochet' & I have a good idea that I am working on. It's a bit make it up as you go along but I like what is happening so far... What I love about crochet is that I feel confident enough with it to just start on something with just an idea in my head. I don't feel that about knitting at all... but maybe that's just because I haven't had quite as much practice with knitting.

I also have another bag design on the go. The idea is to create a bag large enough to get in a whole load of supermarket/farmers' market shopping in it whilst still looking reasonably stylish. I have my prototype underway - it's at the part sewn up stage. One of my reasons to create a bag like this is my own annoyance with 'bag for life' style shopping bags that fill up so quickly. I also have some gorgeous fabric with a huge pattern on it that would look great as an enormous bag... but, of course, I also need to avoid it looking like a big sack. I think that's the trouble at this stage!

A spotty sun hat... and some gorgeous fabrics

Inspired by the gorgeous warm, sunny weather we've had recently & the realisation that both my sons need new hats (which they wont wear & we will lose after a couple of days carrying them round!) I thought I might have a go & creating a sun hat pattern. Using an old hat as starting point for a template, I put together a 1st attempt using some scrap fabric (some ancient slightly smelly curtain lining in fact!). That turned out ok so I had a go at the real thing. One of the great things about my crafting learning curve is that it continually brings home to me how important it is to prepare thoroughly before you starting cutting away at your most beautiful fabrics & yarns... creating test pieces is irritatingly time-consuming but saves me time & money in the long run.


It has been a very satisfying project - reasonably quick to create & fun to do. The first one I have made has a head circumference suitable for a 1 year old (ish!) but unfortunately all my friends' kids are older, so I had to approach virtual friends in my online home at www.iwantmymum.com for a volunteer to try it out & model it. There were plenty of volunteers & Sandra & her lovely little girl Edith are going to be on the receiving end of my experimenting. This is the finished article - which has turned out pretty well. The fabric is some marvellous cotton from Kaffe Fassett's patchwork collection (there's a fantastic range at Cotton Patch). It's fully lined in white cotton too, so hopefully it looks smart & will keep the wearer nice & cool & comfortable. I am concerned at the moment that the crown of the hat is too tall so that it will come down too far over the eyes - it will be interesting to see what my testers make of it. If Sandra & Edith like it I will be stocking up on some more gorgeous Fassett fabrics like Potentilla Pink (on the right) & this Roman Glass Pastel (left). Of course, now the weather had turned rather chilly & showery so I would propably be better off looking for waterproof fabrics to create some groovy rainhats instead.



Craving new fabrics..
Country House Antique Textiles have some great fabrics in stock at the moment especially in their 60s/70s section. I am particularly keen to buy some of this lovely 1960s Geometric Fabric designed by Julia Black. I think it would make a very cool bag, but I wonder if the colours are more autumnal than spring-like. The other piece I am not even going to link too because it is just so marvellous & I don't want anyone else to buy it. I want to measure my windows to see if there's enough fabric there to make some curtains with it, but then again I might get it anyway to make some cushions.

Projects in progress...

Haven't been around for a while... something to do with moving house I guess, but I have been hard at work so thought it was time for a bit of a round up of my work in progress. It was my friend's daughter's 2nd birthday last week (hi Becky, Molly & Keith!) and I wanted to make something that wasn't quite the standard soft toy. I recently managed to pick up some excellent hard-wearing blue suiting fabric on Ebay so thought I would use that as the basis for an Awake/Asleep Bear. I remembered loving this kind of thing when I was a child & as it was something that I hadn't seen in the shops I thought it would make a good pressie for a lovely little girl. The fabric is some great Kaffe Fassett stuff that I got from The Cotton Patch a shop with a really excellent selection of fabric & very efficient customer service. I am pleased with the way it turned out, although I think the bear is a little boyish for his cute green & pink dress! I definitely prefer the way that the sleeping side turned out.

I also picked up some gorgeous stripey Fassett stuff which I intend to use to line a bag that I have crocheted. The pattern is based on one from The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller. This is a fun book an excellent value for money considering the number of pleasing patterns & the very clear introduction to crochet techniques. I am particularly grateful for a tip that I have already picked up about how make edges neat by hooking into the base of the chain rather than the top on the 1st row. I have said goodbye to holey edges!! This picture is a bit out of date now because I have since sewn up the bag & blocked it & it is now all ready for its lining. I have been thinking & thinking about how I will embellish this & think I came up with an answer last night. I have made a flower with some of the lining material & am going to top this with a crochet flower (or possibly a crochet 'button'). I am dead pleased with how the fabric flower worked out so hopefully it is going to look pretty good. It will definitely go on sale in the shop when I open (next week?!) if I can bear to part with it.

I think that will do for now - I've also been working on new hairclip designs & have had a little go of doing some felting (with knitted fabric rather than from yarn) which I am very excited about. But that's for future posts.