D's Bag

Long time since I posted I'm afraid but I have been busy, converting vans, wedding dress making, kayaking and generally enjoying the summer.

I'm still unable to show you anything of the wedding dress and I'm afraid the van is a very slow project!!  This is really why I haven't been posting, nothing really to show yet!

This post is simply because I needed to say too much to fit on Fiddly Fingers fb page!

I wanted to share these pictures with you as they have both been made by a very dear 87 years young friend of mine and I think she has done a wonderful job.

Each week I go over to see her we have great fun talking about what we have been making and I often take over things I've been working on to show her.  This has inspired her to have a go at things she would not normally have thought of.

Here is what she (D from now on) made recently.

This is D's very own bag pattern. 

She put it together and worked it out as she went along.

D wanted the straps to be long enough to put over your shoulder and during the project she came across this pretty little butterfly she fancied cross stitching.  She sewed it under the flap so it is a nice little surprise when you open up the bag.

The bag was made using dk cotton and a 3.5mm hook.  Here you can see the stitches used, basket weave and bobble stitch as well as double crochet.

We decided the bag would keep it's shape better if it was lined.  I made the lining (as D has no sewing machine now) but am leaving the hand sewing for my friend to complete!!

A particular request was for a zipped pocket inside - now this is only the second one I have ever done and whilst easy enough, it's more time consuming than you think and a degree in maths needed for the measurements!!

I took over a pattern for a little bag which I had used a while ago (you can see the one I made on the left of Chester on my fb cover picture above) ...

I think D liked the idea of the frill on this one, so not content making the first bag just had to have a go at another!!  Once again I did the lining (minus a zip pocket this time) and am leaving it for D to finish off.

I hope you like what D has made, she gets so much pleasure out of trying out things that are new to her and always makes a fantastic job of them.  

She says it keeps her going!

If you would like to leave her a comment, we would both be delighted to hear from you and I'll make sure I pass them on as she doesn't have her own computer.

See you again in the "not too distant future" I hope!

Take care everyone,

Happy crafting!

x

A busy time!

We have been rather busy over the last few weeks with one thing and another.  It may well become a little quieter on the blog front during the next few months as last week we bought a minibus to convert into a camper van and also ordered a couple of kayaks too, so lots to do and lots to think about and hopefully lots of fun coming up!

We have spent this weekend removing seats!

If anyone is interested these seats will be for sale very soon and are all in excellent condition.

You will be glad to know that Giraffe No. 2 has now been finished!

And here he is waiting to be packaged up for his journey to his new home.

In the top right hand corner of this picture you can just see a small pile of wedding invitations, another project that has been taking up my time recently!

And finally - wedding dress progress.  It is progressing rather slowly at the moment, just trying to get the skirt bit right.  I think I am on version 3 as we speak :) It's proving a bit of a challenge, but once this is sorted the rest will be a doddle!!!!!

I'm afraid I haven't been doing much blog hopping recently, with so many deadlines to meet I've just been concentrating on the most necessary project before moving on to the next.  This week I'll try to pop over to Handmade Monday and visit a few more of you if I can.

Thanks for reading

Have a good week!

Sophie's Universe CAL and a Spot of Bird Watching

I do hope you have all had a good week, don't they just fly by? I have had a lovely time, a session of reflexology - very enjoyable, coffee and lunch out with friends and a mooch around Totnes - also very enjoyable and sandwiched in between ..... my quilting workshop (more about that next week) and some crochet, a visit by my eldest daughter and her boyfriend and some more meeting up with friends this weekend.

Unfortunately, the crochet workshop I talked about last week didn't go ahead although I was not totally surprised.  Beginners is very popular but not so much the 'Follow On'.  I think maybe I need to create a theme for the day so people have a definite idea of what they are letting themselves in for going to be doing! What would you like to make if you had just learnt crochet and wanted to move on a little further?  All suggestions gratefully received.

As you may have heard me mention in a previous post back in February, I have been joining in with a CAL over at Look At What I Made so I thought I would give you an update on how I've got on so far. I have a small confession though - that is to say I am running about 5 weeks behind!!! It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and taking me much longer to do each round. It's about 4ft square already! I am still enjoying it though and am really pleased with the way it's turning out especially as all the yarn was free so it's not costing me a penny :)

It's been a beautiful sunny day here in Devon but very chilly.  We thought we would pop out for a breath of fresh air and go and watch the birds from the bird hide up in Yarner Woods. Unfortunately not all the close up photos of the birds came out particularly well but I managed to capture a few.

Can you spot anything in the picture below?

If you look closely, you can just pick out a tiny little mouse.

What a cutie! He was busy picking up all the seeds the birds had dropped.

Here is another visitor beneath the bird feeders

He was so alert

and a couple more clearing up the seed crumbs

Just before you return to the car park you come across this lovely pond

on which we saw three of these strange looking ducks

But aren't they beautiful?

He almost looks like he's been carved out of wood and painted!

I do hope you have all had an enjoyable time this week.  I'm popping over to Lucy Blossom Crafts now to join in with Handmade Monday so I can find out what everyone has been up to.  I'm also looking forward to joining in with Happy Friday over on Planet Penny's blog.

Thanks for reading!

Crochet Squares

Just a very short post from me this week I'm afraid.  I started making my daughter's Wedding Dress today but I can't tell you much about it or show you any photos as we don't want her OH to see it before the big day!  I have to make a calico tuille first to get the fit right, which is what I have been doing today.  So far so good :)

We bought a new 'toy' this week!  A replacement pressure washer to clean patios and also clean the rendering.  There was an argument as to who would have a go first - like a couple of kids we were!!! See the difference it makes to the patio.  It is great fun and very satisfying :)

Crochet wise this week I have been working out a few squares for a Follow On Crochet workshop I am running next weekend.  I'm not too hopeful it will go ahead though as of the middle of last week there was only 1 person booked in!!  I know people leave it to the last minute to book but I still don't think we'll get enough by next week for it to run. Have a look at the squares anyway.

I love this fun popcorn square

This shows various ways of doing simple spike stitch

And this square uses a lot of loooong stitches

And a pretty flower square!

Before popping over to Handmade Monday at Lucy Blossom Crafts I'll leave you with a picture of my pretty Mother's Day cards from my daughters. I wanted to remember my Mum also, who passed away 22 years ago, so I lit a candle for her to make sure she was part of the celebrations too. 

 I hope you have all enjoyed your Mother's Day :)

Patchwork, Crochet and Sweet Wrappers!

I have so much on the go at the moment I don't know which to tackle next!

Last week's patchwork and quilting group saw the completion of my first place mat (1st of 6!) below. This is called Japanese Folded patchwork.  Not my favourite!  Too much room for error for my liking because of the bias of the fabric.  It took a bit of keeping square!

I then moved on to Somerset Patchwork.  This I enjoyed and found it very therapeutic albeit time consuming.  Lots of little rectangles, folded into triangles and sewn on by hand.  This is about the same size as one of the squares above (4").  Only another 5 to go to finish place mat number 2! Tumbling blocks for number 3 but no pictures as yet!

I have also been following a CAL over at Look At What I Made called Sophie's Universe.  But first I would like to show you another pattern from Dedri called Sophie's Garden.  I absolutely loved this one and learnt a tremendous amount from completing it. It is about 2ft across.

Now Sophie's Universe starts out life very similarly to Sophie's Garden but it will eventually grow into a blanket about 6ft square.  You can see below how far I've got so far.  This is already measuring 22".  I love them, so colourful and so interesting to do.  As soon as I've finished writing this post I'm off to start on Part 4.  Very excited!! Sad or what?

Another lovely day I had this week was making 'fabric' from sweet wrappers.  A group of like minded friends get together about once every month to play with textiles of some kind.  Last week we had a go at textile art using sheer fabrics, felt and sweet wrappers.  I made one piece of 'fabric' out of which I was able to make a case for my glasses and a needle case.  We had great fun.  I have had a request from an elderly lady, I help out, for a needle case. When I start making it I promise I will write a little tutorial to explain how I did it.  Watch this space!

And to cap it all, I tutored an Introduction to Crochet workshop today!  Loads of concentration, but great fun had by all.

Next week I am travelling up to Manchester for a girlie weekend with my friend.  I shall arrive on Thursday evening which is fantastic timing as it is the start of the Great British Sewing Bee !! yay :)  Fizzy plonk, girlie chats and The Sewing Bee.  Can't think of much better!  We are then going to the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show at Event City in Manchester.  I'll tell you all about it when I get back.  Right now I'm joining in with Handmade Monday and then going to carry on with Part 4 of the crochet along!  

Have a good week everyone!

x

Crochet Spoke Square

I have been playing about with crochet squares this week.  I'll explain why another time but for now I decided I would like to design a few myself so thought I would start with the basics.

I want to work on 4" squares.  Using a dk cotton I started by crocheting a circle of 12 trebles increasing on each round until I got to 4 rounds (48sts).

Now came the tricky bit! Squaring the circle! I divided my 48 stitches into 4 and set about making some corners.  You can see in the picture below how I placed the markers at equal intervals around the circle before I started the squaring.

It's not been blocked yet but after a combination of dc, htr and tr here is my basic square to work from.

It feels a little as though I'm reinventing the wheel here as you can look at numerous sites and easily find a pattern to create this basic square.  Having said that, working it out for yourself gives you a deeper understanding of the construction behind such a simple square and I can now go ahead and deconstruct/reconstruct bits to create my own designs.  In theory that is! We'll see what happens in practice as time goes on!!

Ok, basic square made.  Whilst at Sharpham last weekend I made a quick sketch of some of the plaster work on the ceiling (I had these squares in mind you see!).

When I got home I set about creating!!!! Now the observant amongst you will notice there are 8 'spokes' to this design.  Well let's just say it took me quite a while to work out that it is impossible to make 8 'spokes' in a circle of 48sts!  (If anyone knows of a way, please share it with us!).  I settled on 12 'spokes' eventually and here is the result.

Not the best photo I'm afraid as I am using up yarn from my stash.  It actually looks a lot better in real life but I think you can see the effect and if I used contrasting colours it would be more striking.  I'll show you the scrummy colours I have chosen for my project in another post when I have finished designing my squares.

All that's needed now is to work out how to add the bobbly bits to the design, but I think this could be a simple square design on it's own.  It's not for the feint hearted mind you, it took a bit of working out how to work the two colours in without colour drag and how to carry them along seamlessly behind the work.  Oh did I forget to take a photo of the back!!!! Whatever was I thinking!

I'm off over to Handmade Monday now to see what you have all been up to this week and I'm also linking up with Hookin on Hump Day but I thought I would leave you with this picture of the pretty pink sky from our lounge window late this afternoon.

Yarndale inspired Mandala

I expect those yarn addicted blog followers amongst you can not have failed to notice that Yarndale took place last weekend, up in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

The first ever Yarndale was held in 2013 and from what I have read, was a tremendous success.  It is described as a "creative festival celebrating all things woolly and wonderful" and from pictures I've seen, it certainly lives up to it's claim.  One of the people involved is Lucy over at Attic 24 a wonderfully colourful, yarny blog which I always enjoy visiting.  Recently she posted about the Starflower Mandala made from a free pattern

found over at Zooty Owl's Blog.  It was perfect for a visual display she was organising for this year's Yarndale and a few other friendly bloggers offered to help her out by making one or two themselves.

I came across this event too late this year to be able to get myself up to North Yorkshire, as it is quite a trek from down here in South Devon! But, I have already put it in my diary for next year when I hope to rectify the situation. Anyway, I am telling you all this so you understand where the inspiration for my mandala came from!  I instantly fell in love with the colours and the size so decided I would make myself a bit of Yarndale!!

I have some gorgeous Planet Penny Cotton which is so easy to work with and comes in a range of cheerful, bright colours (Planet Penny - another wonderfully colourful, yarny blog!). There are about 18 rounds to the pattern so I chose just 9 colours, deciding to start with red through to blue and back to red again.

I made a start .... the first 4 rounds

Now up to round 9!

and I'm afraid that is as far as I have got!  So far it is about 10" wide from point to point.  I am aiming to work on this over the next few days but if I had taken time to finish it before I wrote this post I wouldn't have had time to write the post. To finish or to post? Catch 22 I think!!  I should be able to show you the finished article next week. Watch this space.

I would just like to share one more little snippet with you.  I have been thinking of doing a bit of dressmaking for a while now, but it's not easy making things to fit when you have a few lumps and bumps in the wrong places!  Anyway, I thought I would start with something simple and have chosen to make a sleeveless top.  First hurdle - to find a pattern.  I came across this one Sorbetto by Colette Patterns which is free to download.

It prints out onto about 20 sheets of A4 and comes with really easy instructions on how to print it out to the right size and easily matches up using those little black diamonds you can see in the picture below.  Here it is all pieced up and ready to go.

It was easy to work out which size to follow, once I had measured my lumps and bumps, and there were also finished measurements so you could chose the perfect fit.  I'm going to try making it first using calico so I have the opportunity to make final tweaks if necessary before tackling the real thing!
I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Off to finish my Mandala now, thanks for reading :)