Piling Up the Squares

Lately I've been having fun working away on my embroidery squares.  I've stitched another three and I'm really enjoying this project.

The second topic out of the lucky dip jar was 'rainbow'.

I decided to use a blue background to represent the sky and embroidered the colours of the rainbow using a different stitch for each colour.

For the third square, the topic was 'yellow'.

Some yellow flowers for this one on yellow fabric (but I should have pressed the square before I photographed it).

Yesterday, I picked out the topic 'summer'.  I wasn't sure what to do for this one.  I thought about embroidering some seashells but decided in the end to make a mini cross stitch sampler.

Strawberries, butterflies and dainty flowers, I think this is a good combination to represent summer.

So that's a total of four squares completed, only fifty more to go!  But it's such a fun project, I think it will all be done in no time.

Mixed Success

Yesterday I had a pleasant day sewing.  I made a couple of bags; a work-in-progress bag and a smaller purse to store crafting notions.

I love the colours in this draw-string work-in-progress bag.  I'm very happy with it.  It incorporates the patchwork I made using paper piecing.  I made two pieces for both sides of the bag.

I loved making the patchwork.  It's a great alternative to knitting as an evening activity.  I've bought more fabric squares with the intention of making a start on a quilt.  I'm so glad I've tried this new craft.

I also made this zipped purse to hold scissors, pins and other notions.  I used this tutorial but made a shorter version.

This bag wasn't very successful.  The zip is wonky and the corners are untidy.

At least it's still functional, but I think I would be better avoiding zips, they're far too stressful.  I tried but I never felt fully committed to the project.

So mixed success with the sewing, but an enjoyable day all the same.  I've got more plans for sewing projects but I'll save them for another day.  I'm off to make a rhubarb crumble now and then we're off to the pub to watch the football.  Have a good weekend.

Patchwork

One of the main projects I wanted to work on this month, instead of knitting and crocheting, was some patchwork using the English paper piecing technique.

I've done quite a bit of patchwork in the past, using the good old sewing machine and I particularly love the log cabin designs.  But I've never tried the hand stitched EPP technique.  I realised that I had seen this technique before when I was reviewing my Mollie Makes magazines.  There was a tutorial on it in issue 18, but I must have glossed over it the first time I read the magazine.

It was seeing Lorraine's beautiful work that piqued my interest.  I found this helpful online tutorial and set to work.  For my first project, I'm making a small piece of fabric that I will turn into a bag.

I can't believe how much I'm enjoying working on this.  It's a great evening activity and reasonably portable.  Once the paper and fabric had been cut, it all seems to have worked up very quickly.  I can't wait to start sewing all the little hexies together.

I had thought about using squares, but I was fortunate to find in my grandma's sewing box, this plastic template.

I'm feeling so inspired now, that I popped out to the local library and borrowed these books.

Some lovely projects in them.

The future could very well be filled with patchwork quilts.

Mollie Revisited

Thank you all for your comments on my last post, and for sharing your true ages.  It was fun to read the variety of responses.

Today I'd like to show you some bits and pieces that I have made in the last few days.  Whilst considering what to make that doesn't involve knitting or crocheting, I consulted my back issues of Mollie Makes magazine.  I found two projects that were quick and fun to make.

The first is this cute little apple pin cushion from issue 6.

It's hand stitched, with felt for the stalk and leaf.

These would make nice little gifts for crafty friends.

In Mollie Makes, I also saw an idea to use washi tape to decorate a jam jar.

It makes a lovely decorative pencil jar.

I'm continuing to work my way through the magazine's.  I haven't looked at them for a while and it's surprising how new inspirations come from looking at the pages with new eyes.

Whatever you are doing today, I hope you find inspiration and time for a bit of creativity.

Being 27!

I was thinking today, isn't age a funny thing.  There's our temporal age - I'm 54 years old.  There's our physical age - that can be measured by how fit we are.  There's also maturity - some people never seem to grow up and others appear to have been 'old' all their lives.  But what age do you feel you are inside?  I think this is the important one.

My birth certificate may testify to the fact I'm 54, but inside I know I am 27.  I've been 27 for quite a long time now.  I like being 27.  I intend to stay 27 for a whole lot longer.  What age do you feel you are?

Anyway, enough of that silliness, I have a finished object to show you that I had overlooked to share earlier.  It's a crochet project that I finished at the end of last month.

A jolly basket liner.  The basket had it's plastic liner and handle removed.  I used the North Sea Mandala pattern by the lovely and talented Tatsiana, shaping it to fit the sides of the basket.

Pretty picot edging

I'm now using it to hold my embroidery bits and bob's for my 54 squares project.

You can never have enough baskets, as far as I'm concerned.  Pretty and practical, that's what I like.

Embroidery - My First Love

Day four of my "no knitting" month and it's not easy.  Usually I knit or crochet everyday, not just in the evenings but anytime I have a few minutes spare.  So not having that occupation is really hard.  I am getting plenty of jobs done around the house, especially de-cluttering, which is much needed.  However it's the evenings that are the hardest.  I can't watch television without having something in my hands to work on.  I have far too much energy to just sit still, so I need to find something to occupy me - I'll have to sort something out soon or I'll be climbing the walls!  At the moment I'm reduced to frogging old knitted cardigans!

One of the activities I want to spend more time on this month is embroidery.  I love embroidery, it was my passion before knitting took over.  Now my older eyes can't cope with sewing for too long, and then only in very good daylight, but if I can manage little and often I shall be happy.

Last month I completed an embroidered tablecloth.

I bought the cloth in a charity shop in Chester, many many years ago.  As you can see, the previous owner had made a start.

Every year I would promise myself that I would finish it, I'd sew a bit then it would be put away again.

This year, thankfully, I have fulfilled my promise.  And I'm very happy with the finished cloth.  Especially as now I can start a new embroidery project.

I'm very excited about this new project.  Inspiration came from Pinterest (as always).  I'm going to embroider little squares and then join them together to make a wall hanging.  I will make 54 squares in total - one for each year of my life - and I've already decided the subject for each square.

To make it more interesting, I making it into a lucky dip, so that a subject is picked at random.

Some of the subjects are open to any interpretation, so it gives me freedom to play around with ideas.

I don't expect to get this project finished in a hurry - embroidery has a very leisurely pace - I will embroider when the mood takes me.  I have completed my first square.  The subject picked out of the jar was "insect".  So I couldn't resist embroidering some bees.

I'm happy I've made a start and looking forward to the next square.

Today I'm going to start planning some sewing projects, I've set up my sewing machine and I'm itching to get started.  I think this is going to be a very productive month.

Happy New Year!

The trip to London has been made and it was successful.  We postponed going until Monday because of the issues with Petticoat Lane market.  We stayed Sunday night in Northampton with my sister, so only had a relatively short drive into London from there.

Grace and her boyfriend, Rob, joined us at Eve's flat, so there was plenty of help to unload the car and carry everything up the stairs.

Today is her first day in work, so fingers crossed she has an enjoyable time.

Even though we were only away from home a day and a half it feels a lot longer.  So today is going to be a planning and getting organised day.

I must admit that I always regard the first day of September as a sort of New Year.  The academic year has been a major part of the rhythm of our lives for so long. Not only in terms of the girls education, but also because my husband works in a university.  So despite the fact that my daughters are now in full time employment, the academic year is still significant.

I love new beginnings, and as my husband said, now that Eve has moved down to London, this is the start of the rest of our lives.

I have no big plans at the moment, but little plans are just as much fun.  There are lots of crafty things I want to get done as well as new things I want to try.  I don't know about you, but I find that knitting and crocheting are such easy projects to pick up and put down, that I tend to focus on them.  Other crafts like embroidery, patchwork, dressmaking etc, tend to be put on the list of things to do but are never prioritised.

So for the month of September, I have decided that this will be a "no knitting" month.  By that I mean no knitting and no crocheting in any form for the whole month.  No exceptions!  The idea is that I will have time for all the other things I want or need to do.  They will no longer be good intentions, but will finally become a reality.

So I have a new embroidery project in mind (more on that in the next post), I'd like to have a go at spinning, English paper piecing, more dress making and a whole load of other crafty things.  I'd like to enhance my juggling skills - it's great for improving your concentration levels!  I'd also like to devote some time to beautifying the garden, maybe with some drastic landscaping changes for next year.  I have been following Daffy Suburbia's summer diary and I have been so impressed with the way she organises her garden that I feel very inspired to do more than just potter around.

So today I will devote some time to thinking about what I want to achieve this month - I have high hopes but trying to keep it realistic!

I have one finished object to show you before all the baskets of knitting and crocheting projects are put out of sight for the month.  It's my Circles of the Sun cushion cover.

The CAL organised by Tatsiana was such fun.  Here are the nine different blocks we used.

I made two of each, for the front and back, crocheted the two pieces together, then added the border as an edging.

This is the back view

Such good fun.  You can see full details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

The Dancing Bees shawl that I mentioned in my last blog post has been put away, whilst I think about it.  Thank you for all your comments and encouragement.  I think a month away from it will do me good and hopefully I'll return to knitting it in a more positive frame of mind.

Thank you also for all your good wishes for Eve.  I have passed them on to her and she is very appreciative.

So, I seem to have rambled on for long enough.  Now I need to get off and get organised.  Bye for now.