Make and Craft Swap

A very chilly and frosty day down here in Devon as no doubt it is in many other parts of the country too!

I have had a lovely start to the week, receiving a gift from my Make and Craft swap partner, Wendy of  Alice and Florence Blog.

I can't wait to start my little cross stitch Christmas Tree!  Wendy chose one of my favourite colour combinations, pink and green.  Thank you Wendy for such a thoughtful gift.

Here is what I made for Wendy

The bought gift was a little tea-light holder with Wendy's name on, but I forgot to take a photo of this.  Oops! If you would like to see what it looked like and what Wendy thought of her gift, why not pop over and take a look at her blog.  I'm sure she would love to meet you.

All that's left now is to say Happy Christmas to you all and I'll see you over at Handmade Monday and don't forget ......

Make and Craft Magazine

I'm sorry but I am bursting with excitement!  There is a write-up about Chester and I in the second issue of Make and Craft Magazine.  It's my first time ever in a magazine and I am over the moon.

If you'd like to read the posts referred to in the write up

Chester goes Topless

Hello Chester

Chester and Taffy help with the hedge trimming

.... just click on these links and they should take you straight to them.  Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to, I'll post a reply as soon as I can.

You can see how Chester was made by clicking on the tab 'Chester the Extreme Crochet Cat' at the top of the page and to see pictures of Chester click on 'Chester's Gallery'.  There is also a tab marked 'workshops' where you can find out what workshops are coming up soon.

Finally, I would just like to thank Katharine of Make and Craft for creating such a fantastic magazine.

While I'm at it, I'd also like to thank Wendy over at Handmade Harbour for hosting Handmade Monday.  She has been very busy recently but still manages to keep up with us all.

Have a good week and I'll see you over there!

Extreme Crochet Fruity Basket

Hello Everyone

No post last week I'm afraid as we were away for the weekend up in North Devon.  No photos either this time as it is somewhere we have been before and I forgot to take the camera on the walk we did! But you'll be glad to know we had a lovely time and were quite lucky with the weather.

We did however pop into Ilfracombe, on our way up, to have a look at their new sculpture, Verity by Damien Hirst. Just click on this link to find out more about her.

What do you think?  I absolutely love it!  In my mind it sparks conversation and discussion.

Are you all enjoying the sunshine this weekend? There are some wonderful Autumn colours around as I'm sure you will all have noticed.

I have had a couple of interesting 'meetings' this week, one with a local yarn shop Spin A Yarn in the lovely village (or maybe small town!) of Bovey Tracey.  It is a gorgeous shop with every possible type of yarn you can imagine, so inspirational and extremely difficult to walk out of there without buying anything.

I am very pleased to say I will be tutoring a Jumbo Crochet Basket Workshop here after Christmas.  More details will follow when they are released.  In the meantime I am experimenting with just one or two of the yarns in the shop.

A ball of King Cole Gypsy, a skein of Colinette Zero and some Big Fab in black that I had in my stash.

And here is the finished article, complete with bananas to give it some scale.

4 strands of super chunky yarns and a 20mm hook.  Not quite as large scale as my usual but I am pleased with the way it has turned out, not to mention how quickly it crochets up!

I shall try another one with more muted tones next time.

My other meeting was with the organiser of the Contemporary Craft Festival  held annually at Bovey Tracey.  We discussed a large crochet/knitted creation for a display to herald their 10th Anniversary.  Watch this space for more details!  As soon as I know more I will let you know :)

Well, that's all for this week folks, I will try and visit as many of you as I can over at Handmade Monday on Handmade Harbour.  My apologies for not having done so for a couple of weeks, life just got in the way, you know what it's like, although I will try and remedy this over the next couple of days.

Have a good week! 

Bye for now 

x

Wet Felted Pot

Hello peeps!

Saw our daughter and boyfriend off on their 'Round the World' trip on Thursday.  They have started off in Singapore, where they said it was soooo hot they didn't want to leave their air conditioned bedroom.  I can't even begin to imagine how that feels!! Especially with the chilly weather we have had this weekend.  They are off to Australia tomorrow morning so maybe it will be a little cooler for them!

We have been busy tidying up the garden this weekend.

I pressure washed the patios and OH repaired the leaky shed.  The smiley face is the clean bit! You can see how grubby the patio was! Thankfully it all looks a lot better now.  After all that hard work, we treated ourselves to a glass of wine (or two) whilst watching 'Strictly'!

Did a bit more gardening this morning but now am snuggled indoors with both the heating and the fire on .......

....... enjoying writing my blog and then a bit more crafting and over to Handmade Monday to find out what all the other talented crafters have been up to.

Wet felted pot

I am really enjoying my felting course.  We have just completed week 5 and have just 3 more left.  Last week I made a pot.  You can see in the photos below the process I went through to achieve my pot.

Below is the finished pot.  It is felted in a grey Gotland fleece, ideal as it holds it's shape well.

I needle felted the wavy lines on afterwards and crocheted the pom pom trim and needle felted that on too.

Next week (after half term) we will be starting on our final project.  I have decided to make something useful - a crochet hook holder.  I shall line the inside in fabric so it's not too bulky and as I have just purchased my new embroidery book, thought I would decorate this with a bit of embroidery/cross stitch.  Here's a sneak preview ....

...... bet you can't guess what word I'm stitching. Lol!

Hopefully I'll have a bit more to show you next time.  Have a great week everyone.  Happy Crafting x

I'm back!

Hello, hello, hello!

Long time no see!  I have had a combination of a couple of really busy weeks leaving me no real time to write a post, followed by a rather quiet time with nothing much to write about!

Bit of disappointment on the Hobbycraft front.  The project I was going to do for them was for Children in Need but unfortunately timescales were against us so we have agreed to postpone this until next year.

I have had another couple of workshops over the last month ..........

... this one at Countess Wear Village Hall (above)

.... and this one at the Courtenay Centre!

I'm very pleased to say that a great time and lots of fun was had by all - oh! and the girls all learnt to crochet!

Felting

I have started a wet felting course and am about half way through now.  Wet felting is something I didn't think I would ever get into, but I am really enjoying this so far.

Here are my finished pieces over the last few weeks

I have been waiting for my last piece, the grey pot, to dry out thoroughly and now I think I may embellish it with a bit of needle felting and maybe a crochet edging.  Next week we are making a small 3d  purse and then we start working on our final piece.  Not sure what to choose yet but think I may make a bag.

Embroidery

I bought a new book recently, just because I fancied it!  Here it is A Rainbow of Stitches

It is full of embroidery templates which I am sure will come in very handy one day.  Here is the first one I tried - a very simple 'puddy tat'

Off to join in Handmade Monday this evening, the first time in a good few weeks, so why not make yourself a cup of tea and take a bit of 'me' time to follow me over there to see what all the wonderful crafters have been up to.

Thank you for reading and I'll try and finish my pot for next week, hopefully I'll be back on track from now on.

Chester the crochet cat and Taffy the crochet bear help with Hedge Trimming!

Hello

It's that time of the week again! I shall be visiting Handmade Harbour for the fantastic Handmade Monday Link Party later but first I must start by thanking you for your comments from last week, I read them all but didn't get the opportunity to reply to them this week.  I love receiving them though, so please don't stop!!

Unfortunately no makes this week so I thought you may like to see what Chester and Taffy have been up to.  I'll just give you a quick update on the WIP first.

Hobbycraft
This project is still progressing slowly!  I have a lot of measuring to do in a moment which probably will involve maths too.  Ugh! not my favourite bit of the project, but very necessary.  I am hoping to go and collect the yarn tomorrow, providing the supplier has the correct colour in stock (no I can't tell you what colour it is yet!!!).

Kidsilk Haze Stripe Cardigan
Also progressing slowly!  I'm half way up both fronts now but I think it may have to be put on hold if I get the yarn for the Hobbycraft project tomorrow!!

Chester and Taffy
And now to see what these two characters have been up to.  For those of you not yet familiar with Chester and Taffy click on their individual links below and all will be revealed!

We had some major hedge trimming to do this weekend so enlisted the help of Chester and Taffy!  Or should that read hindrance!  Chester was quite useful as he is rather tall and could reach the high bits but as usual Taffy was up to mischief and no Uncle Martin in sight!

Onto the BIG machine now - just need to fill it up with petrol!

Uh Oh!  Look who's on the scene now!

What have you got in your hand Taffy?

No Taffy!  This is not helpful at all!

(There is no real petrol anywhere near this picture.  

NEVER put matches anywhere near petrol)

OMG what was Taffy thinking of!

That's far more helpful Taffy!  

Thank you for clearing up the mess!

Now what are you up to? You'll get stuck!!!

What did I tell you Taffy?  How do you think you're going to get down now then?

Perhaps best to leave him up there, he can't get into any more mischief up there can he?

Well somehow he got down!!!!  I tell you it's worse than having children!

You need eyes in the back of your head!!

I hope you have enjoyed Chester and Taffy's antics.

It made us chuckle and we knew what was coming next!

Hopefully this little picture gallery has helped brighten up your week or maybe

it will put a smile on your face for the week to come!

Have a good one, whatever you are doing!

Bye for now, see you next week :)