Wool Flower

Remember these?

Every time I buy something in one of the shops in Reading I see these next to the till. I’ve been thinking I’ll treat my friends eldest daughter to one next time I see them, but the other day I decided to get one for myself! I had an idea of how I could use one with my crochet squares, but more of that when that project is finished.

It doesn’t take long to get a tube of wool once you’ve got going (although it took a while to get the knack of it as it had been a long time!). Once you have a reasonable length ( I used just over 50cm ) you can turned this into a flower using just the ends of the wool and a wool needle. I turned mine into a brooch with just a button (I seem to use buttons a lot atm) and a brooch finding.

Big Button Mad!

Mr M is away on a stag do all weekend so I’ve having lots of me time. I went into town to pick up a few bits for a future project and my WIP and tried to be good and only buy things that I need. Well, after spending way longer than I’m usually allowed in Fabric Land I did manage to avoid going too mad. I couldn’t resist the big plastic flower buttons however, but as they are huge (6cm diameter) yet only 39p each I decided it wouldn’t break the bank!

I might have also bought a few buttons the day before. Don’t tell Mr M. The wooden dark purple flower (3.5cm diameter) was meant for my WIP, but I bought a toggle today instead which I think will be better.

Crochet Squares – At home!

Following my class last week I was determined to try to make some crochet squares.
As blogged previously I didn’t actually complete a square in my lesson, but I did get how to do it in the end. This is what I made:

It’s actually two rounds (out of four) and as you can see the tension is all over the place!

After finishing another project I treated myself to some very reasonable priced wool and as I had a needle thanks to my workshop I had all I needed.

The first full square I did had much looser tension in the middle, but I’d made a whole square!

My tension was a lot more even on my second whole square. This square was quite a bit smaller, but I was a lot happier with this one.

I now need to figure out how to tidy up the ends of wool (darning? how?). I’m not going to make a blanket, but I do have an idea of something I want to make. I now need to make more!

Love card – a quick stitch

Whilst packaging up a wedding present (to be revealed on their wedding day or soon after) I realised I didn’t have a card. Whilst the wedding is currently 32 days away (the bride is counting down) we are unable to attend so Mr M is due to take the present to the stag do this weekend. My focus had been on the present, and getting that finished in time. It makes sense to send the card at the same time so I looked for something to stitch / make relatively quickly.

I’m presuming the colour scheme for the wedding is purple as that was the colour used on the invites and it is the brides favourite colour. The present has a bride and groom on (although not incredibly traditional) so I wanted something different. The design I stitched used only two colours – purple and pink and used whole stitches and back stitch only. It took two/three hours to sew.

As you can see the design is virtually square. In my card making box I have biggish white square cards, small rectangle white cards (used on our wedding cards) and long thin rectangle coloured cards. The square cards were too big and whilst I could mount the design on fabric as I did for the new home card I wanted to do something slightly different. The small white rectangle cards were the right size, but it didn’t look quite right on white. The pink cards in my collection were quite good colourwise but were too long. As a teacher I own a guillotine, so I trimmed the pink card to the size of the smaller rectangular ones and that meant I had envelopes to fit!

I trimmed the stitching, frayed the edge, stuck it to the card and wahey, one LOVE card. I just hope it is the right colours now!

Keep Calm and…

I have a friend who is a fan of the Keep Calm and Carry on logo so when I saw patterns for some I just had to stitch them for her.

Each one took almost two weeks do do during weekends and evenings. As you can see in the pictures below each one only had three colours – the background colour, white for the writing and some back stitch and grey for the rest of the back stitching. Unusually every bit of fabric has some stitching on. This was my big March project.

My favourite is the Keep Calm and Have A Cupcake!

I bought a three photo frame from Marks and Spencer. I did investigate getting a frame custom made, but that would have cost a small fortune! The frame I bought came with a border with three four inch by six inch aperatures and as each piece of stitching was roughly four inches by five inches it didn’t look great. I took the frame and the stitching to the framers and got him to custom cut a mount for it all. Dare I say assembling it all together was quite difficult and I didn’t quite line everything up perfectly, but I’m still quite pleased with the results.

Crochet Squares at Make and Do

I treated myself to an evening at Make and Do in Caversham to try to learn how to make a crochet square and what fun I had!

The group at my workshop consisted of six ladies with a range of experience from tried using YouTube and never tried like me! We were in for a treat. Our tutor Natalie was friendly, very helpful, encouraging and full of praise. Luckily for me she also has the patience of a saint!

I found crochet quite hard to start with. I kept forgetting instructions including how to do the stitches! Oops! I don’t usually like finding things difficult, and I don’t often get challenged that much. It was a refreshing change! The knitters learning crochet seemed to find crochet easier than us non knitters, but it didn’t stop us. I was laughing so much at times! Natalie was always very helpful and full of praise. Dare I say I got quite excited when I managed to make a corner by myself. Poor Natalie put up with me asking a lot of questions as was always full of praise. She was so patient! I managed to get there in the end and didn’t want to stop when it came to the end of the session. It’s actually quite relaxing.  Ok, I didn’t finish a blanket square, but I almost feel I could.

So, what’s next?

Well I own a crochet hook and instructions thanks to Make and Do and Natalie. I’m off to buy some wool before the weekend (although my focus should be on my sewing WIP which needs to be finished soon for a wedding next month). I want to make some squares!

I may also now be booked on another crochet workshop at Make and Do – I’ll attempt to make a brooch next!

Blue / Black Matching Necklace and Earrings

Anyone who knows me knows that I always wear matching necklaces and earrings. They can be hard to find, so occasionally I make my own!

The beads caught my eye during my brief time in the bead shop in Cardiff. With the addition of a few findings from home I turned 3 beads from Cardiff into a matching set.