I've been bad.

Oh dear, I really have been naughty. I went and bought some more fabric! The trouble is I have such a large stash already! I do have plans for the new fabric. The idea at the moment is to make fleece-backed lapquilts using the fabrics as features.............

I went to Knots and Needles, a local stitching group, on Thursday evening to hear Magie Relph speak about African fabric. I just couldn't resist, so I bought some.

I bought some Shwe-shwe. One of Magie's Mini Adventure Packs - 20 pieces each 10 x 8 and a half inches. Its such beautiful indigo fabric. At present, because I have not yet had the time to wash it, it is as stiff as cardboard. Once the excess dye is washed out, it becomes very soft, I am told........ (I've just placed the different designs on top of each other in the photo.)

The other piece is a lovely brown fabric I found on Magie's store, which she brought along to the meeting. I couldn't resist. Its soft and delicious.

The frog fabric was one I bought to share with a friend some time ago. We finally got around to sharing it out at the same meeting. (I photographed it with the brown fabric shown above, but it made the darker fabric look very very dark indeed.)

Then, oh dear, today I went to Hobbycraft. I needed some extra knitting needles for a Craft Group which I am starting at school. I saw some John Louden fabric bundles on sale. Last time, because they were full price, I managed to leave again without buying. This time, they were reduced......... I couldn't leave them there. Indian cotton. Nice.............................

The nearest I got to any knitting was buying two magazines. There are some beautiful projects to be considered in these pages. I just loved the cushion cover on the front of Piecework. And oh, Debbie Bliss............ Who could resist? I couldn't.

My only excuse is the sunshine. I hadn't seen much for a few days......................... These were taken in the car park close to Hobbycraft in Stockport.

Oh yes, I finished knitting a bag some days ago. This has only been languishing because I have managed to lose the pattern! Why does something always go missing when I have been tidying my workroom?

This has been felted since the photo was taken. It just needs the flower adding and a ruffle round the flap. So frustrating!!!

Busy, busy, busy................

Well, I have been really busy doing a lot of sewing lately. This first image is of a skirt I made. Well, reconstructed out of a pair of trousers that was languishing in my wardrobe. The trousers had really wide legs which was probably why I hadn't worn them in a very long time. It was so easy to turn them into a skirt. I shall use this skirt a lot - some really useful pockets.





A very simple dress, with side pockets. Why do women's dresses and skirts usually not have any pockets? This was made to get myself back into making my own clothes and using up some of my rather large stash. The pattern is Kwik-Sew 2677. A really comfy dress, I added darts to the front to give the design more shape.






The Hospice quilt is finished and the binding is done. I shall be handing this over on Wednesday. It will be fun to see how all the other lapquilts turned out. There are four (or is it five?) in all.





These photos show just how daft I went with the free-machine quilting. I covered the design with flowers and leaves in resonse to the mostly floral patterns used in the fabric choices. There are a few squiggles too for variety. The backing is a gorgeously soft fleece. Warm, cosy and washable.
I can see myself making one of these for myself (unless it gets claimed by someone else) one day.

The last two of my projects recently do not have any photos...... yet. The first of these was a fully lined cloak made without a pattern for my younger daughter. "Mum," she said. "Can you help?" This was a Friday. The Fancy dress party was on the Saturday evening. Bless her, she did most of the sewing, I did the cutting out and working out how to make the thing and how much fabric we needed.
The fact that it was fully lined was my own fault. She was going as "Little Red Riding Hood", but wanted a full cloak and not a cape. (She is 23.) I suggested that since we were going to be making a cloak, wouldn't it be more practical to make something she would wear again? I suggested lining it in black so that it could be fully reversible........... I think my sanity must be in question here.................She loved the idea, and looked magnificent setting out for her party.
Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of her setting out and I have not seen the cloak since. It will be safely stashed somewhere............

Since then, I got involved in helping a neighbour. Her young daughter (aged 15) had just been named as the Rose Queen. A really pretty girl, she had been given a lovely boned strapless and sleeveless evening dress. It was too big around the bodice. I spent a fascinating and nerve-wracking few hours, fitted in around work (school had just started again), working out how to alter the dress. In the end I summoned up the courage to take the side seams apart, deconstruct the boning in that area, take in the seams, recontruct the boning and hand stitch the lining back in place. Sadly, no photos yet, but apparently the dress now fits beautifully. She had her first public engagement as Rose Queen yesterday.

My fingers are now itching to get knitting again, and I have some fabric poised ready to be made into a dress...... I may not have time to cut it out today, since I also have a few items that really ought to be mended............. There is a box of schoolwork to attend to as well. Now what shall I do first?

The bauble completed.

A quick post to show the completed Christmas bauble. The first photo shows the knitted base. The second, the filled bauble hanging from the shelf above my desk.

New work and other silliness.

I woke to a glorious morning today. A real lift to the spirits after all the rain we have been having lately. Sadly, it is just beginning to cloud over again - do not feel down-hearted since this will not dampen my spirits. Not after such an enchanting wake-up call.

The rest of the day will be rather silly, in that my dear husband is working on the plumbing and the water connection to the house has been switched off. No possiblility of housework using the wet stuff. Goody, goody, more time to play in between helping with the D.I.Y! (Do-It-Yourself) We are so fortunate in this household that my husband is extremely good at things D.I.Y. However, I do end up as the maker of cups of tea, general assistant, finder of missing items and first-aider. So if the post today seems a little disjointed, please forgive me.

The next few photos are of a Elizabeth Zimmermann project I started earlier this month. This star design comes from the August chapter of her book, the Knitter's Almanac. I decided to stick with the star shape and turn a number of these into a bauble, sewing these together with a few beads. Everything here has come from my stash, which is a good thing since I am fast running out of space in which to stash my various stashes.

This picture, showing the loop on the top of the bauble shows the true colour of the yellow acrylic yarn I have been using. Each star is 2 inches tall and the bauble is around 3 and a quarter inches tall (not including the loop, which adds an extra inch and a quarter).

Since the sides gape rather a lot, I have knitted three of these four-sided stars based on EZ's pattern for the five-sided star. The whole shape will then be filled by this enchanting stuff seen in the bag below. It came protecting a gift I received at Christmas. The bag I will keep to use again one day.

The next photo shows the pile of filling next to the partially completed bauble.

The delightful little snowflake is attached to one of the long lengths of filling. I shall use it in some way too.

The last picture shows one of the gorgeous flowers in my garden at the moment. I really wish I could share it's exotic scent with you.

New work!

Here are the felt pieces I made yesterday.

The blue/green ones will probably be used for fish pictures. Why fish? Well, I have this fascination with an image of two Koi carp.

The next photos are also to do with feltmaking. I mentioned yesterday that I was going to start making a bag with this pattern:

I've now got to the 90 row stage. There are now markers at each end of this row - probably to help with the construction later.

I think I'll have a go at making the flower, but perhaps add a button or large bead for the centre.

Making felt.

Well, its a wet day here. What better way to spend a morning than making felt?

I bought two 250g mixed colour packs of Merino 64s from Wingham Wool Work earlier this month. The colours above are from the green/blue range I ordered. Below are the colours from the yellow/orange pack.

There was also white and chestnut brown to add to the colours available to me. I haven't made any felt recently, so really enjoyed myself this morning. I made four pieces of felt, but will post the photos of these when they have dried out a little more. Two were on a blue/green theme and the other two used the browns, yellows, white and yellow colours.

On the UFO front, I completed my blanket. This is currently in my younger daughter's bedroom. She snuggled herself up in it watching a film last night and I haven't seen it since. It might have found it's new owner.

The work on the charity quilt for the Hospice is continuing slowly. I made the mistake of enjoying myself with the free-machine-embroidery. Never mind, theres not much left to complete before sorting out the binding.

Whilst all this has been going on, I have started a new piece of knitting. This is the Ribbed Top by Vladimir Teriokhin, from the Spring/Summer 2008 edition of Vogue Knitting.

Its a really interesting pattern to knit.

However, I'm badly tempted to start yet another project. This is to knit a little bag for felting.

This whole idea started because I'm planning to start a Craft Group at school next term. It would be such a nice project to aim for, for those who want to learn to knit. I bought some more colourways in this same yarn to try out too.

I only intend to make samples with these two. I just could not resist the little bag pattern when I saw it. Why pinky/purple? I just loved the colour as soon as I saw it.

Finishing off those UFOs

I've decided to work hard this week on completing things.

The knitted mystery blanket is continuing. In fact I have now completed the border and am steadily filling in those holes. I managed to get rid of the lacey centres I was not happy with - almost without incident. I did manage to drop rather a few stitches ripping out one - but then was able to repair the mess. A bit of a heart-stopping moment.

However, I find myself aided and abetted by a new visitor. Seb belongs to my younger daughter and he has been sharing my workroom for some days now. My dear daughter tells me he is too noisy to share her bedroom, so he is here with me. I seem to have taken over cleaning duties, since I cannot bear to have unpleasant smells around me. Hot iron - yes, smelly rat - no!

Seb's cage after he has rearranged it. He always does this after I have cleaned it for him. He has moved monkey, a small toy, into the box and made a nest.

In return for the daily tidying, Seb keeps me entertained - I keep hiding things in his cage for him to find. He entertains the cats too. Coco, however is unimpressed. She is disgusted - but then she's the effective hunter and sees rats a prey. Felix is fascinated - he seems to be convinced that the cage is a new cat TV!

In case you are wondering, Felix's idea of a good hunt is a visit to a nearby barbecue after everyone has left. He brought back a sausage from his last expedition. I didn't have the heart to remove it from him.

I only found out about this exploit because Felix was so proud of himself. I heard a series of loud cat shouts and went to investigate. I was so relieved that it was just Felix with his "find".

Needless to say, when the cats are around, Seb is confined to his cage. I refuse to deny the cats access to my workroom, since they are used to keeping me company when the mood takes them. However, the door is firmly shut when I am not in here - just in case................

The second UFO I am currently working on is for the local Hospice. This photo shows three of the four strips completed by other members of Hartford Quilters. The pieces of fabric top to the left of the picture were being auditioned for my own addition.

I have completed my section (extreme left) and now just need to sew all the pieces together and quilt it. Each of the strips above will be seperated by a stripe of plain cream. The backing is a cosy cream coloured piece of polyester fleece. I'm intending to use a form of quilt-as-you-go, stitching each piece to the backing fleece and not just to each other. I'll let you know how I get on. The whole piece doesn't need much in the way of quilting.

Only two UFOs? Well, to be honest, there are many more. I felt if I limited myself to just finishing two I might just be able to reward myself by starting something new.