Five weeks of crafting

Lupin sent me an invitation to join a new flikr group recently, with the challenge to do a little bit of crafting, and document it, every day for a year - Crafting 365. This is the result of the first five weeks. Not quite one photo per day, but then how many pictures of the same crochet blanket can you take?


Five weeks down, only 47 to go!

Another day, another quilt

This quilt has been gestating for a while now, first in my head, and latterly on the floor of my sewing room, which has been covered in piles of fabric for days. Every so often I squint at them and rearrange them slightly, trying to find the perfect combination of colours and prints.


I started hoarding these bright floral fabrics months ago, inspired by this quilt by Jane Brocket, and inevitably ended up with enough to make three quilts. This is the first, and the rest of the material is still scattered around the room in ever changing stacks, awaiting that final flash of inspiration.

When you make a quilt, of course, you also make a large pile of offcuts. For a change I thought I would put some of them to good use, and sewed a couple of little pincushions. They also help to get through that enormous box of old buttons that seems to have crept up on me. How do things like that happen?


All for sale in my Etsy store

Summer holidays

We are heading off for our summer holiday this week, and I realised that I need a project to take with me. Something small, portable, and simple (because, let's face it, I am unlikely to be able to concentrate on anything too complicated!).


These little flower brooches seemed like just the thing. They are crocheted from Debbie Bliss Pure Silk yarn (half price in the sales - putting it in the 'just buy it and see what you are going to do with it later' category) in gorgeous jewel bright colours. They are beautifully soft and covetable. Numbers one and two grab them and run away as fast as I can make them.

Of course, if you are taking a project on holiday, you need a little chuck-it-in-the-suitcase project bag to go with it. Here is mine, sewn from some furnishing fabric that I have had staring at me for months, and a coconut shell button that I am very pleased to have found a use for. It made me buy it - you know how it is!

I will be away from the computer while on holiday, so no more posts for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how I will manage without my laptop - another reason to keep my hands busy.

The doctor prescribes sewing

It is challenge time again over on the Etsy UK team, and this month the theme is medicine. In keeping with last month's transforming pumpkin, I made a capsule shaped sewing kit and contents. I like things that are not what they seem - at least when it comes to crafts, anyway.


See all the great entries here.

Monkeying around

Today I made my first sock monkey. He is a crazy stripey thing, and number one is besotted. I now have to make another two for the others. Luckily the socks came in packs of six pairs!


If you want your own you can buy similar (but infinitely more professional) ones from the amazingly talented Siansbury's. Of course, family members can just ask nicely.

Transformations

I have been wondering about the nature of change lately. Is it possible that we can completely transform ourselves - from pumpkin to carriage - or is it that we simply release a part of our nature that has always been there, hidden under layers of duty, necessity, or embarrassment.

Being part of a community has enabled me to fully realise the creative side of my nature. It is wonderful to be able to share ideas, and have the mental space to create.

What is this community? It is the Etsy UK Street Team, and this is my entry for the June challenge - 'fairytales'. Join in - you never know what you might become.

Crafting for the school fete

I have sore eyes and needle-pricked fingers this week. It is school fete season and I am the proud owner of half a craft stall, with only three weeks to make stuff for it. I am going for a multi pronged approach - hair clips and alice bands for the little girls, and bags and brooches for their mums. I'm afraid to say that the boys don't get a look-in. Equal opportunities it isn't.

Everyone needs co-ordinated shoes

I thought it was quite important that the baby have a pair of bitty booties to match the blanket. You're never too young to learn about accessorising.