New Skills

I sent for some nice pieces of material off the Internet and when they arrived I was disappointed as they were only small  squares so much for my knowledge of measurement what am I going to do with theses.

Looking through my new cath kidston sewing book for insertion i couldn't decide so I just have a play and see if I can work out how to do patchwork .

How to arrange the squares can be tricky so they look random but in order if you know what I mean 

 I found it easier to sew three together and then create coloums and then sew those together in stripes each seam pressing with a hot iron as I went it can be time consuming but worth it

Now I have this lovely patchwork pannel what shal I do with it .......

Well it looks like another tote I think 

I had some nice cream material that would complement the patchwork lovely. Cutting out the parts and pressing them into place is half the battle.

This time I had a go at turning the corners like it shows you in my book and it makes the bag have a sturdy bottom.

I decided to sew the handle on the frount of the bag and finish of with wooden buttons to give it that rustic feel  I'm rather proud of this little project and I actually followed a pattern and it worked lol thanks to my Cath Kidson sewing book 

Pomagramit project bag

Well this was just a bit of a quick on whilst martyn was making my tea ........

After a lovely afternoon with the mad nuttie knitters at Mrs Ts wool we were putting the worlds to rights as we do every time we meet it was time to pack up and go home.

There we all are trying to stuff all out wonderful creations back in there bags and cases I noticed Sarah our talented seams mistress ( she's the curtin ladie that gives us the off cuts) was shoving her lovely crochet blanket in to an "Asda" carrer bag ......... No no no we can't have this I thought so as soon as I got in and checked that Marty was in the kitchen making my tea ... After a long hard afternoon of knitting,chatting drinking tea and eating biscuits     it's his job on Saturdays , I got straight to it.

I found a nice bright print out (that Sarah had given me lol) and Set to of course you are REALLY putting pressure upon yourself making something for "a true pro" like Sarah but she never gets the time to play as she works and has a proper job but I'm sure  she will over look my handy work and not score me too badly as it was the thort that counts .......... So here gose. 

Ta ta dar........ Hope she likes it 

Well it's got to be better than an ASDA  bag surley .......

"Do you wana build a snowman?"

Well everybody by now must know all about the film frozen even us parents with grown up childeren do, I persanliy thought that the film wasn't as good as the classics Disney movies we watch but hey ho times move on. 

As it was on over Christmas my 17 yr old must have watched it 6 times at least. Holly I said how come your watching it again my love and she replied "mum do you want to biuld a snow man ?" 

Ha ha I said funny no I don't. Oh but pleases mum I would really love an Olaf for my birthday I thought she was joking but no she wasn't.

So at 11.30 on Tuesday night I got set too hum mmm her birthday is on the Friday loads of time not.

I looked at images on line at the charatures and got my creative juices flowing. 

Using Aran weight yarn but on 3.75 ml pins I made balls stuffed and shaped ,pip cleaners crochet over for arms and goolle eyes he turned out well don't you think?

 I then set too how can I make an elsa I found a cheep barbie doll with long blonde hair and set too the yarn I used wasn't quiet the blue green colur or her dress in the film but not bad match 

I used no 12 pins old size very thin but DK wool to make it look neat and sort of worked the pattern out as I went along.

The cloack was a little bit harder as The chevron stitch became a pain as I tryed to decrease but I got there in the end with a few DIMANTIES and sparkly bits of lace she thort it was the tops and is now displaying them in here bedroom (along with the urban decay make up and Mac lipstick see it shower your never too old for Disney 

A stitch in time

I have been a very lucky lady this Christmas as Santa did listen to me and got me what I asked for.

I have always wanted a place of my own to knitt and sew, all the times I have dreamed that when the kids grow up and move out I can utilise there bedrooms but I will have to wait forever........

But them Marty came up with a goodidea  ( Mr smarty pants) that if we got rid of our big computer desk and monitor moved everything around a bit in the den, I could have a corner in there hmmmm I thort this might work so after a few days of pushing and shoving moving wires around and sorting out xbox leads and PCs towers  chucking out old sofas and replacing it with two single chairs I now have a small craft courner of my own yippi (just need to decorated it now but got to give Marty time to breath first) 

I still need to get myself a fold up chair of some sort but for now I just used a dinning chair from the kitchen but I don't mind it just means that now I can sew in peace and in the middle of something I don't have to put it all away just so we can eat off the kitchen table that was always so frustrating.

So now my creative juices have been working overtime a fellow knitter from our Mrs T's group is a "proffesinal" seams mistress and has give me all theses beautiful pices of fabric from the spare basket at her curtain factory  and I've been sewing like the clappers to make things to make my corner cosy so a BIG BIG thank you to Miss Sarah for your help 

This is what I've been up to 

I made a nice cover for my machine as the one I had was an old plastic thing was ok whilst it was housed in the cuboard but now it's on show it's got to look posh don't you think 

I made a few bits for my knitty friend Vicki in the same material and I kept some for me too I have so many ideas running around in my head and not enough hours in the day to star them all.

When we threw away the old sofa I bought two nice chairs from ikea they were more practical and took up les space but the covers on them are cream arrrr! I know not a very practical colour however they are washable but I always intended to cover them or drap lovely knitted crochet throws over them but then I decided to make some quilted material runners instead and they came out a treat 

I backed the matrial with blue lining so to stop it slipping on the chair and make them a bit more robust for the "xbox King" when he's killing all his American friends at 2am in the morning whilst I'm in bed dreaming ..........of the next project arrr you see that is the secret of a happily 20 yr maraige ,xbox for him craft rooms for me bingo 

Here are some of my new bits I also got for Christmas 

So now I can knit sew to my hearts content and Marty can play ..... Smile Marty your on camera oh I forgot to mention that he also got a pair of head phones that DROWN OUT ALL THE SOUND TOO so I can listen to my books n music while I play bonus .

Look back at 2014

Last year was a good year I made lots of new knitting friends, learnt new skills and created lots of lovely things 

Here's a few that I will share with you all 

I had lots of fun with my VR cushions  thanks to Mandy for the lovely pattern they came out fab. 

The first one I made in super chunk and it makes a normal size cushion the second two I made in just normal chunky and so they came out smaller but so cute 

Learning to crochet was a big task last year and I now enjoy it just as much as knitting I'm still learning how to read a pattern but I'm getting there slowly and have even managed to make a few things to sell as comitions 

       

 

 

 

Back to the knitting we seamed to have a lot of baby's expected so I have completed a few sets of theses to 

  

A couple of novelty knits and there's still more to come 

A cardigan for grandma 

And a daft hat for trudy 

There were so many creations that I didn't have time to photo them all let's hope 2015 will bring many more hours of creativity for is all enjoy...........

Friendship

Tonight I came home from the knitting nutters laughing so much that I nearly wet myself! I just had to share with you all my joy.

We all get down in the dumps and life sometimes is not good to us but we have to get on with it and what helps me through is the mad nutters 

Since joining Mrs T's Wool shop knitting group I have learned so much that can't even begin to list it all ( and that's not even things to do with knitting lol) I have made new freinds old and young . We meet every Wednesday night for two hours or more and the fun and frolics we get up to is no joke from pink pj party's eating chips and curry to raise money for poorly kiddies to looking after are elderly ladies with there cataract ops we just all one big family really .

        The sense of belonging to a group of women that all share the same passion for crafting and helping one another is so overwhelming that I can honestly say I have some of the most valued friends that you could wish for , and I look forward to my Wednesday night as my therapy that keeps me sain .

            

We drink tea,coffee eat cake biscuits cheese n crackers and put the world to rights slag of hubby's praise the boyfriends moan at the kids and all share in the revelations of day to day family life that lets face it is getting harder and harder for us all as the years go bye but for that short few hours that we meet we all help each other through chatting laughing and sometimes even crying .

     I consider myself a very lucky lady to have such good friends and here's to many more nutter knitting nights at Mrs T's 

   

 

                   Love to you all xxxxx