First steps in patchwork...

I confess I have made patchwork bits and pieces before - the log cabin needle books for example, but I pretty much made it up as I went along. I've been wanting to do a course to learn how to do it properly for ages, so I was really pleased to find a Beginners Patchwork course at my local college. It started a couple of weeks back now and this is the beginning of my first block. The plan is that we are going to do 9 blocks in all - all of them taking us through the basics of different kids of patchwork. I am hoping that my finished article will look good enough for me to give to someone as a Christmas present. Or maybe I should make it the prize for my 100th post giveaway, which is coming along very soon...! I'm using mostly scraps and fabric from local charity shops, although I have bought a couple of new fat quarters and some background fabric from Abakahn.

I was quite stressed making this up this morning - I was a bit scared that I wouldn't be able to get the corners to match up and that it would all come out too small / too large / too cockeyed, but it worked pretty well (I really concentrated - I am not known for my accuracy!), and everything pretty much matched up, and it measures the right size. The fabric consists of an old pillowcase, a thrifted baby dress from Gap, a bit of vintage Laura Ashley, a thrifted shirt, and 2 bits of new FQs. Can you guess which is which?

The really disappointing thing is that it's possible that our last patchwork class will be tonight, because although there are 8 enthusiastic pupils, the College has a policy that self-funded classes need a class size of 12 to make them viable. We spent a lot of time last week trying to work out how we could keep the class going - so fingers crossed there will be better news tonight. Otherwise I will just try and keep teaching myself - I hope I can motivate myself as well as the class would have done!

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with applique lately. I want to make lots more wallets and needle books to sell, and I think a bit of applique will make a nice change from the ordinary. It's also a great way of jazzing up the plainer upcycled fabrics that I like to use. Here's a couple of examples of what I've been working on. The background fabric for both of them is from an old pair of Boden cords. The bird applique is made using a little bit of Kaffe Fassett fabric (Striped Vase in Lavender), and some yellow felt. The applique stitch is up and down buttonhole stitch, which I think looks good, a bit more showy than standard buttonhole stitch / blanket stitch, and so works better with this rather dramatic fabric. I'm using it for the front of a proper purse / wallet (with a zip and everything!) which will be in my Etsy shop very soon. I just need to take some good photos..

The owl decorates a business card / credit card wallet, which just needs a press stud to finish it off (I am so not a finisher...). I put it together pretty quickly last week - I like it but I'm not sure if the fuzzy fabric isn't a bit too fuzzy, and I'm worried that those bead eyes might make him look a bit too scary. He might well go in the shop at a 'prototype' price!

Finally got a few new things into my Etsy shop

Gosh my Etsy shop was looking sad and dusty. The online equivalent of one of those sad shop windows with displays of kitchen roll and dead flies...! I've finally had a chance to list a few new things, so I hope you'll forgive a little promotional post.

Here are the new things:

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using gorgeous Michael Miller Zoology fabric.

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using funky Kaffe Fassett Fan Flowers fabric.

Some tawashi veg scrubbing / dishwashing cloths.

There's more to come, but that's enough advertising for today!

Actually that's not quite true because I also wanted to write about some brilliant yarn that I'm using for my granny square swap gifts. I am a huge fan of the yarns and the ethos of The Mirasol Project. I've used their Miski baby llama yarn before - it's gorgeously soft and fluffy and comes in a great range of colours. This time I've invested in some of their T'ika 100% cotton. Again, there are some great colours, and it is an absolute joy to crochet with. And great to feel that by buying the yarns I am supporting the textile heritage of Peru. You can read more about the Mirasol Project and their yarns on the project blog. It makes really interesting reading.

Hats, hats, hats...

I've been horribly absent lately, but for a good reason, I promise. I have had an order for lots (well, lots for me!)of sunhats via my Etsy shop. They are off to the Aardvark Tea Room and Craft Gallery in St Leonard's on Sea, here in the UK. It looks like a fabulous place (I wish I lived closer) and I am very excited that they wanted to order from me. It seemed like such a great opportunity that I agreed to come up with half the order before I go camping tomorrow. So I have been working very hard to get 5 hats made (including working out a smaller pattern for a different size hat) in the last week. And here they are! I feel pretty proud of them. They're all made with preloved fabric from a pattern I developed myself. It's a real lesson in not giving up hope - I developed the pattern and did all the work early last year and haven't had any interest until now. I apologise for the rubbish picture by the way... I was rushing to get these into the post this morning and couldn't come up with anywhere tidy or with good light. I had really hoped to get a pic of them all hanging on our washing line - I think it would have looked really cool - but sadly it was chucking it down here this morning!

The other exciting news is that I won Blotted Copy Book's Duelling Crafters competition! It really means a lot that so many people liked what I made with my dad's tie. I've blogged my business card holder before, but I also made a needle book for my sister's birthday. She was so pleased with it that she had to call me from a rehearsal to tell me about it. There's still quite a bit of fabric left (they made ties big back in the olden days!) so I am going to try and come up with something else too. Thanks Vonnie for running such an ace competition - I look forward to the next one. And am now trying to avoid your Bake Swap, which sounds fab, but not good for my diet!

PennyDog's Garden Swap

PennyDog's Garden Swap has been such a great experience - I feel lucky that I got paired with Chrissy - it's been great to get to know her better (she goes dolphin watching! she lives in Aberdeen! she is considerably cooler than me!) and she has been so generous. Her parcel of goodies arrived here yesterday and as you can see I got some fabulous things - a lovely hand-printed tote bag (that I have decided to use for current crochet projects), a fabulous hand made ring and fridge magnets, a very stylish b&w rose picture, a japanese lantern, some chocolate (that didn't last long) and some incredible fabric. I also got a 10% off voucher for her brilliant shop. See, I told you I did well! There's been some other great swap parcels - you can take a look at the Garden Swap Flickr group. A huge THANK YOU to Chrissy for all the lovely thoughtful goodies you sent - can't wait to make something fabulous with that fabric!

While we're on the subject of the swap I thought I'd blog the bag I made to go in to Chrissy's parcel. It's a small bag (about 20cm x 20cm) made with navy cotton twill with a handsewn, wool felt, flower garden applique. I have to say that I am pretty much more proud of this than anything I have ever made, and it was VERY hard to send it off to Aberdeen. Doing the applique was a real challenge (I always like to set myself a bit of a challenge when I'm doing swaps!) but I think it worked well and I got the slightly retro feel I was going for. I'm also very pleased with the colour combination, because I'm never confident about how colours go together. The handles are recycled from an charity shop bag find, and I used that bag as a template for this one. That's my bag making top tip actually... You can find some ace bags in charity shops - I like to use them to make a pattern and reuse all the bits and bobs (handles, zips, buttons, beads, etc), that come with them. I am really hoping Mary Portas' ideas to revamp charity shops don't catch on - I'm worried I wont be able to find bargains any more...

A Fancy Card Wallet

Duelling Crafters' Challenge

The last couple of days, when I haven't been busy in the garden, I've been working hard on my project for Blotted Copy Book's Duelling Crafters' Challenge. I decided to use my dad's old tie to make a wallet to hold my business cards, and the cards I get from other crafters. It will be great to have somewhere to keep the safe and easily findable amongst all the rubbish in my bag! I got it finished four hours before the deadline and managed to upload the photos on to the Duelling Crafters' Flickr Group with a couple of hours to spare.

The wallet has a very simple design with 2 business card-sized pockets inside, made using turquoise cotton fabric, which is also used for the lining. There is a little bit of fusible fleece between the lining and outer fabric, just to give the whole thing a bit of structure.

I was quite pleased with the result and was going to submit the wallet at that stage, entirely unadorned. However, having slept on it, I decided that, much as I love the tweedy wool fabric, it needing prettying up a bit. So I added a tiny crochet flower, complete with some recycled, bright red beads. The final touch is a little bit of red stitching - just because I think red and turquoise go so well together. I still have some of the tie fabric left so I've just cut out another piece so I can make a needle book for my sister's birthday next week. It's going to be really nice to use something every day that brings back such great memories of my dad.

Hedgehog Needle Book

I've been working hard getting various things finished recently so I haven't had much chance to blog - even this is going to be a short one! Never mind - it's the thought that counts...

I've recently decided that one of the things I want to specialise in the shop is needle books. As well as more complicated ones like the owl and cupcake versions I want to make some simple (but pretty!) ones like this.

Isn't this fabric gorgeous? It has cute little hedgehogs all over it, and at the last minute I decided that I'd pick up on that image and embroider a little hedgehog on the inside cover. Really pleased with how it turned out! The needle book itself measures about 8cm by 6cm and is lined with felt so there is plenty of room for storing lots of needles whilst still being small enough to fit into the dinky category! It's turned out so well that although part of me wants to keep it for myself, it will be appearing in the Craft Matters Etsy shop very soon.

Of course, all it's done is make me want to do is write a crochet hedgehog pattern. Hmmm. And I'm supposed to be making needle books. I wonder if I can come up with something whilst I'm on the train to London tomorrow. A weekend of parties and friends ahead of me. Hurrah!

Sweet (but not sugar) mouse

I needed a break from stocking-creating, scarf-knitting & apron-fashioning these last couple of days. I've got lots of ideas for new things to make & it is quite frustrating (sometimes) to be limited to making lots of the same thing. Of course, I shouldn't complain because what it does mean is that business must be going well, but occasionally it does get to me & I need a bit of a change.

Of course, it couldn't be anything too big because I haven't really got the time or energy for anything ambitiously creative & huge so came up with the idea of making a little creature that could make an appearance in my sons' Xmas stockings. I dallied with the idea of a ladybird, then suddenly remembered that little white sugar mice with string tails are a traditional feature of Xmas stockings in my partner's family. So here's my non-tooth threatening version - just some fuzzy white felt, a bit of black embroidery thread and some hemp twine for a tail. He's about 3 inches long & very very cute. And it was so nice to have a break from Christmas stocking furry fluff! I am wondering if I have got time to make a few to put in the shop before Christmas...

And just a final note to say - this is my 49th post - my 50th post giveaway is coming very soon!!

Personalised Christmas stockings

I've so enjoyed making these stockings as a custom order. I was a bit concerned about how the heck I was going to fit the names on to there, because they're not huge things - but it worked out just fine! They are meant as tree decorations rather than to hang up for Father Christmas to fill, but there's certainly space in them for a little tiny gift or two. Please ignore the awful Xmas tree I've used for the photos - we found this tatty number in my dad's attic & we thought it would be good for our product photos. Maybe not!!

The stocking itself is handsewn together and the fur is also sewn on by hand because my sewing machine can't get into such small places! The applique is done with wonderful wonderful bondaweb and finished with hand blanket stitching round the edge. I do love to blanket stitch but I always forget how to start - have to get my book out and look it up every single time... Hopefully I'll get some more custom orders before Christmas and then I can practise a bit more.

I now have another two to make for two more little girls. I've had fun today chosing the coloured felt & floral fabric that I am going to use. I can't remember if I have mentioned where I buy my felt from before. They're called Handmade Presents & they have fantastic stuff - gorgeous colours and 100% wool so it is a dream to work with and doesn't have that sheen that you get with cheaper felt. One of the things they sell at their site are these absolutely gorgeous felt animals. Take a look at their fab stuff!

Hand sewing - I love it!

I'm in the midst of a real frenzy of handsewing at the moment. Perhaps it's because I got my new sewing machine a couple of months back - I had to force myself to switch the thing on this morning! And I haven't done any crochet since we got back from our holidays at the end of September. It's strange how these enthusiams come and go in phases. I've decided to go with them rather than fight against them, even though I would really like to make a few more crochet animals for the shop. I don't see the point of forcing myself to make stuff if I'm not keen. So I've been working on handsewn felt Xmas decorations mostly. I think what started the enthusiasm was a new book...

I was very excited to get a bonus from the people I work for recently. I was clever enough to get 100% in 2 consecutive reviews & as this includes spelling, punctuation and grammar it was a minor miracle! I used the money to get a couple of new craft books & selected The Cute Book from the rather sparse selection in my local Waterstones. It's a fun book of projects to make some really cute little creatures & here's my 1st attempt. I've added to the pattern a little bit because I wanted to make a creature with stuffed arms and legs too (the projects in the book don't generally involve stuffing the limbs) - but it was an awful lot of fiddly cutting out of felt pieces. He is very sweet but I am wondering what to do with him - I have an idea that I would like to do little bag & felt creature sets for the shop. But that will probably have to be after Christmas now.

Speaking of which - I need to get back to my decorations!