2021 Week 18

 Some random crafting over the last three weeks:

I've worked on my painting by numbers Christmas present - I cant wait to be on a beach again!

I created this for Star Wars Day (although to be fair I'm not sure she used a lightsaber!)

I actually visited a shop last week - such a strange experience, I'd forgotton what it was like to shop by touching things rather than looking at screen images!

I fell in love with this selection at Hobbycraft

and I bypassed the usual "I shall stroke this while I decide what to do with it" stage and went straight to adding from stash . . . 

 cutting and tacking . . .

 and starting to sew!

The greeny turquoise (teal?) didn't make the cut.  I found enough is stash for the first green round and while I was looking I found a pack of Hobby craft grey which I rtaher liked with the turquoise, so I've cut them and started another flimsey!!!

I have also finished the crochet blanket: apart from a few joins where I'd balled the wool too short I didn't want to sew in any ends so I not only left them but added to them so every colour chnage has rustic (as in no particular length) tassles which I rather like.

What to crochet next???

A few Saturdays ago I had a whole day to myself - I was tidying up when I found a donated duvet cover that made it's way up here as I thought it would make a nice tunic.  I dug out the pattern that I have used many times and made this

 

Looking for the pattern I came across another version that had been cut but then abandoned so I finished that one too - good job they are quick to make!

I finished the Oliver safari bunting and his grandma has posted it off to Canada

2019 Wk 10 & 11 - a bit of a catch up

Just a quick whiz through some photos from the last two weeks, then we'll see what I've been up to!

I've been stitching patches for people who join the Windsor Homeless project sleep out in a few weeks time - and stitched the design straight onto a sweatshirt for myself and other colleagues who are doing the Sleep Out (if you are able to sponsor us the link is https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/bentahickley2019
Many thanks to those who already have!

The pile of EPP plus blocks is growing (another 27 to go!)

And the girls at Crafty Church wanted to make reversible tote bags  . . . so they did - not bad for 10 and 8 year olds!!!

 And I made myself a linen dress!  I love the colour - just need some warm weather to wear it now

Pocket and hem trim in this beautiful print.

Richmond and Kew saw a couple of charity quilts being made.  These blocks were made with some fabric from a FQ bundle and other fabrics added - everyone made a block - some great variations!

 And these are string blocks made using flip and stitch onto a square from an A4 sheet (so paper foundation).  Lovely cheerful blocks

And finally my friend Linda finished a quilt made from blocks we cut from her late Dad's shirts - it's brilliant, well done Linda!

2017 Wk 20 - more than I thought

I didn't think I had much to show, but a few projects have been finished, so maybe I do!
From the felting class a few weeks ago . . . Made into (of course) a zippy pouch (blinking zip went a bit wonky though)

And I made another version of the tunic

Have you had your DNA done through Ancestry DNA? I got the kits for the fires and Brian for Christmas. The girls got 50% Scandinavian (Lisa) and 30% (Niki). And Brian got an unexpected 28%! So they decided to get me one for Mothering Sunday, and the results arrived. I expected 100% Scandinavian, but I'm actually only 68%: family history does not suggest these results, but I'm delighted with the 6% Irish!!!!

Back to creating - I wanted to make the möbius wrap from Pinterest. I learned how to make this holey crochet, but the instructions said to cast on 64 chains, that was much too small - this is 164 chains!!! (I know I'm big, but I'm not THAT Big!!!!!). Anyway, I thought I had finished it, but wanted help from the crafty churchers

Lynne took these pics for me (not as bad as usual!)

And also showed me how to finish it off

Tomorrow I'll show you what else Lynne is responsible for!

Posted with Blogsy

2017 Wk 16- mostly boring

I been embroidering uniforms for what feels like weeks - and I'm about half way through!
However the advantage of having to be in the room while the machine is countering away is just that . . . I have to be in the room so I might as well do *something* between each item

So I've almost made a second tunic dress, this time with a V neck (it will get hemmed soon)
And in case you think I'm exaggerating - here's 65 of the 115 items this time!

Back to work tomorrow for a rest!

Posted with Blogsy

2017 Wk 9 - Mostly Quilting

Friends of ours have had a fairly major life changing experience.  Nearly 17 years ago they had a son, called (names changed) Carl, but this New Year they wrote to friends and family to tell us that

"So, it turns out that nearly 17 years ago, when we announced the arrival of our son, Carl, that we were mistaken.  Instead we are proud to announce our transgender daughter Carla.

It would be very much appreciated if everyone would call her Carla, something we have been doing at home since the summer, and use female pronouns.

Her brother has been brilliant – he said the other day that 2016 has been a good year for our family and we are looking forward to 2017.  Carla plans to start driving mid-March, take her AS levels and visit universities.

We hope you will be as glad as we are that Carla has been able to express her true self and we look forward to seeing you soon."

I cant begin to understand what a difficult time they must have had leading up to this announcement, but I am really proud of the whole family.  Carla's birthday is very soon, so I messaged Mum to ask if it would be OK to make / send a gift, and if so what colours would be appropriate?  It tuns out her room is grey and orange.  I already had a quilt in mind.  The logo used by the LGBT communities is a rainbow, and rainbow is created by rain and sunshine - or tears and happiness?

This quilt, Rainy Day Rainbow, had been put on the 'time out' shelf as I wasn't happy that Orange was really represented, but if I was to make orange a feature - ie as binding, it could be a perfect quilt for Carla

Unusually for me this had been made as a patchwork top, so I spray based . . .  and quilted it!

Not quite matchstick quilting, but 85 quilting lines at about a minute each is plenty of quilting!

I don't have any orange (that'll be why there wasn't any orange in the top!) but I've ordered some spray time and will get it finished and posted as soon as the fabric arrived

As it was an otherwise quiet day at home I also knuckled down to making a dress,.  I had made 5 versions of this, all draft, to make sure the pattern really fits ME!

Number 5 came out ok but was made from curtains that are a bit too stiff.  (Pic for Janine who also recently made a dress from curtains, but hers is much better than mine!) Pls ignore the mess!

And finally I have a linen pocketed dress that I can wear!  (but with leggings so I can hide my knobbly knees!)  Not a bad way to spend 3 hours! (ignoring of course the proceeding 15 plus hours to get this far!)

Departure into Dressmaking

I am most very definitely NOT a dressmaker - leaving aside that fact that my mum IS a dressmaker and any attempts in the past have been swiftly sorted by mum, I have issues with following instructions!

If you've read many posts on this blog you will know that I prefer to look at a finished item and have a go at making it myself rather than read instructions. (A quick look at the SLIK and Quick tab on this blog show 30 odd items, of which at least 3/4 are where I've "re-invested the wheel" rather than follow instructions!)

But, I've been seeing lots of basic tunics on Pinterest, and as well as Nessa who sews a lot, Janine has recently made a tunic, and I finally decided to take the plunge and take a departure into dressmaking.

I remembered Clothkits from childhood, and had heard they were trading again, so asked Mr Google, and found their website.  What I *remembered* were dresses etc printed onto fabric, like this:

What looks like fuzzy lines are the cutting lines for different sizes. 

So that's what I expected when I ordered this

What I got was *real dressmaking* stuff!  fabric, paper pattern, thread and oh good grief, a ZIP!  All included so I had no excuse not to start!

I didn't want to use the lovely linen on my first attempt as I'm not a standard size, so I used some donated fabric and gave it a go (do excuse Niki's bedroom as my backdrop, she has the only even half length mirror in the house)

I need to talk to mum about a few alterations, but I'm rather chuffed that (a) I followed all the instructions - they were really well written, and (b) noticed that the zip was optional (phew) and (c) there was no un-sewing necessary and (d) the pockets and top stitching went fine

Get me - I might be a dressmaker's daughter, but I think I just did some dressmaking!