An Ongoing Crochet Project

I've embarked on a crochet blanket project using Stylecraft Yarns and with instructions being available to download over a period of time.  You can see details HERE - part one was available a week ago with part two following yesterday; next instalment due 4 October.  My local store is featuring the colourful yarns shown on the promotional leaflet but of course this could be made in any number of versions depending on your colour preferences.  In fact there are quite a few variations appearing around the internet already.  I decided to go with the bright Carousel colours and immediately made the central motif which was the first instalment.  I've now started on the second section which is a series of segments which all have to be joined and attached to the central motif - photo shows just the first two sections laid out for the moment because these will take me a while to make  and join all sixteen of them.   I did have a spot of bother with their instructions for joining the sections together and eventually gave up and simply joined them in my own way with double crochet (single crochet for American viewers).

I'm already looking forward to seeing what the next set of  instructions brings!!

Christmas Snippets

It seems to be a case of 'great minds think alike' in the Playground this week because Di was reminding us of how many (or few) sleeps there are to the big day!!  Yesterday I was playing around with some quilling and these two baubles evolved and as the backgrounds were punched from snippets of white card I decided to pop them on here for the challenge this week.  Only the two snippets unless you count the pieces of quilling paper in which case there are more - I'm not counting though.

I punched the bauble shapes before embossing with a snowflake embossing folder.  I then made the holly leaves, berries and little gold bells for one and added a poinsettia for the other - all made using 2mm papers.  These would be handy for gift tags or they might well be incorporated into cards in due course.

There is some nifty paper piecing from Di and a lovely selection of picks from last week's entries so well worth taking a look at the Snippets blog - a great prize on offer too as usual.

Baubles - punch from Stampin' Up
Embossing - Cuttlebug snowflake folder
Quilling Designs - 2mm papers from my stash

Snowflake

It would appear that most crafters are well into thinking about Christmas by now and last weekend I spotted my friend Jill of Jill's Quills at a local show demonstrating some of her quilling.  She had a series of clear plastic baubles containing a variety of snowflakes so of course I had to treat myself to some of the empty baubles so that I could have a go and this is one of the ones I've made.  As you can imagine these are not the easiest things to photograph and I just couldn't get it to hang facing the right direction for the camera.  I resorted to standing it on a small flower pot and even that isn't the best of photos because of the reflections but hopefully you can see the general idea.  I might carefully take it out of the bauble later to get a picture of the actual snowflake to see the detail so watch this space!

EDITED:  I decided against removing this snowflake from its bauble but I've made another one of a different design using silver paper this time.  It is now ready to be inserted into another bauble.

Something Different for Pixie Snippets

I have something a bit different for the Pixie Snippets Playground this week and fortunately the lovely Di welcomes 'makes' which aren't always cards or other paper projects.  I like to have a bit of knitting or crochet on the go to pick up of an evening - mainly to stop me from falling asleep in front of the TV programmes which I must say are often less than riveting!!  I've been using up oddments (or snippets) of coloured yarns to make this small blanket but of course as is always the way I have had to buy an odd ball or two to supplement what I already had, thus making even more left overs - sigh!!!  A friend sends small quilts and crochet blankets/throws to a Children's Hospice so I will be passing this one on to her - the next one is about to be started with the current pile of leftover yarns.  The pattern for this 'wavy' design came from Attic 24 and is quite easy to make.

We've had thunder storms this morning and I think I can hear the odd rumble again so I hope your weather is better than it is here.

The Playground

I've not visited the playground lately - at least not to post a card although I do take a look most days to see what others have been doing.   I've been tempted to enter the Snippets challenge inspired the beautiful card made by Di this week using the great  prize on offer.   My card was made a while ago using up bits and pieces from my left overs boxes.  The background is the last remnant from a session using wax resist and embossing folders; the square white frame was left from a previous project and the flower wreath and cameo lady cut from white snippets and placed on an oval cut from another snippet pattern paper.

Wax resist panel - Sue Wilson Embossing Folder
Square Frame - Tonic nesting scalloped squares dies
Wreath - die given away free with magazine
Cameo - Tonic die
Pattern Paper - Tim Holtz vintage shabby

Large Bow Bag

I've spent my Sunday morning stitching this Bow Bag which is from one of the patterns on Debbie Shore's High Style Handbags CD.  This one has longer shoulder straps and is quite a bit larger than some of the others I've made.  The fabric used is what I had left over from making a mystery quilt a few years ago (only just about completed) - I finished putting the top together at the time using the monthly 'mystery' instalments and then I'm afraid I put it away instead of getting on with the quilting.

 Anyway back to the bag - this one took a bit longer to put together because of having to make the various components for the bow and the handles, all of which are made in such a way that they have contrast fabric showing on their edges.  I quite like the effect this gives and is an idea which could easily be incorporated into other projects.

Still into Bag Production!

Last Thursday I spotted a 'quick and easy' bag on Debbie Shore's sewing programme at Hochanda. It is called a Hippie Hobo Bag and is a soft slouchy style with ties for fastening and also for the handles which means of course that the length can be adjusted easily.  The ties can be either fastened onto metal or plastic rings (as here) or could simply be knotted together.  The fabric used is from a charity shop curtain and luckily I had some plain pink cotton for the lining to match the roses.  The lining is longer than the actual bag so that it forms a border around the top edge and I also added a floral pocket on the inside.