Craft round up

Hi,

I am just quickly doing a catch up of the crafts I have completed since my last blog. I am going to bed after, and I have had a niggle in the back of my head to record it all in my blog space!!

So here it all is. Some old skills and has always some new ones too.

Patchwork crazy 

Ceramics

This lil piggy, money banks.

Winter tile/coaster, custom order.

I painted this and I am quite pleased with it, I am no means an artist!!

Four seasons hand painted tiles/coasters.

Wedding signature platter sample.

              

Hand painted birthday present trinket box. 

Hand painted celebration plate samples.

Hand painted caravan tile. 

This is one of the favourite ceramics I've painted recently.

Crochet 

Mini crochet garland for my kitchen.

Crochet garland in the making. 

Sewing bags

My new bag design. Think I may keep this for myself. Love it!!

Soap Making

I haven't done this for about a year. I didn't get on with it first time round. But, I never give up, I just set it aside and just unconsciously work on it in my mind. 

Here is the results. Lovely pink and white layers. It is so appealing on the eye and lovely to use, but the smell, oh boy the smell. I used rose blend essential oil, which is lush, but I also used surgical spirits to help the layers adhere and get rid of bubbles. The smell is like germolene, hospital smell. The resources say this will disappear. I hope so, or this beautiful soap is wasted. Fingers crossed. 

Well that is what I have been up to. I will be popping over to see all of you I follow sometime this week. 

I will leave you with crafting with the kids yesterday. I had them all to myself whilst the other half went golfing!!! Nice for some!

Loom bands (before they went into the vacuum cleaner!!) and our home made maker!!

Homemade chocolate lollies.

Making lemon drizzle. 

Drawing on t-shirts.

Busy, busy busy. 

All pictures and not much natter. 

Enjoy your week.

kel x 

Patchwork and hand applique - A 'Block a month'.

Hello all,

I have been sooo busy last few days with one thing and another. I have finally finished a couple of projects, the first being the hand applique cushion cover. They were supposed to be two types of flowers, but they look very much like bells and stars!! Oh well, it's not too bad for my first attempt.

I made a simple border using the same fabrics, backed it with the green spotty fabric and added a zip.

Secondly, I finished the ripple cushion. Has I was working the ripples on this project, I quite enjoyed it, but didn't like the colours. I was just using up the unwanted balls in my dwindling stash!!! I need a yarn fix very soon (please)!!!

I now don't mind the colours, now I have finished it. It doesn't really go with my decor at home. It will get thrown from sofa to sofa and then shoved in a cupboard to be forgotten about!! Maybe someone will claim it for their home!!

The next thing I have been working on, is another hand applique cushion cover. 

I bought my first ever patchwork and quilting magazine this week and really got into it and started to drool over the fabrics and the beautiful quilts that can be made and treasured. 

Every month they have a 'Block of the month'. So I dug out some fabrics that I have been saving for such an occassion and began the challenge. . .  The Dresden flower

What a great challenge to use up my scraps and build a beautiful quilt.

I managed to increase the original template for the petals and flower centre by 200% with a photocopier!!! I was well impressed with myself, maths isn't my strongest point!!

Cutting and forming the petals was quite straight forward and easy. 

The pattern suggests machine stitching the petals onto the background, but hey, I decided to not take the easy option and I hand appliques the petals onto the background. I am sooooo pleased with the result!

Next was the circle. I am not sure about the fabric for this. It had the right colours but the pattern just isn't quite right. 

Now I thought I would mess this up, but again it went smoothly and quite well. I around the fabric around a cardbpoard template. I kept the template in place and then pulled away the cardboard before sewing up the last quarter of the circle. 

Ta dah!!!

So far, so good . . . right? Right!!

After putting on the boarder, I decided to attempt the dreaded quilting!!! I chickened this one out and went for 'in-the-ditch' quilting. Probably easiest to do, but found it quite tense. I probably had my tongue hanging out, trying to be really neat!!!

I LOVE IT!!!!!

Now, you may remember me saying it is a 'block a month' to eventually make a beautiful quilt!! But, I just couldn't resist using it right now. I will make another to save for the quilt challenge!!!

I didn't make another dress, things have been stressful enough this past week with unwell grandparents, cars breaking down and business being a bit slow (hence why I have had time to sew so much). So I eneded up buying a dress to take the pressure off!

I will say goodby for now and I hope I haven't bored you too much with my makery!

I will leave you with some lovely sweat williams I purchased and beautiful roses I cut from my garden!!!

Kel xx

New projects

Hi

Well, firstly, I wore the dress and it got great reactions. I still felt very conscious in it, but I had to suck it up and go with it. I got loads of compliments and lots of 'where did you buy it from?' I got a couple on my assets too!!! Everytime I went to the loo, I re wrapped it in a different style and people, said 'have you changed your dress?'. We did giggle about it!!

I have another birthday bash coming up in 2 weeks and I am already thinking I will make another dress. I can't wear this latest one because it is the same people!!

I have started a new project this week. My first attempt at hand applique. I'm not quite sure where the inspiration came from, and why I have started with such a difficult design. I have stitched the green circle into place and a couple of the flowers. The flowers, once stitched on, now look like stars and bells!!! It is also my first time using freezer paper. I found it quite frustrating, because it started to peel away from the fabric after a few stitches. 

I will post my progress later in the week. 

My lil man is really into snails at the moment, which is not surprisingly really, because there seems to be tons in my garden, eating plants n veg. AAGGHH

He managed to get in the garden in his pj's and picked up this little snail. He started shouting 'GOOD MORNING' until it popped out of it's shell, and it did!! He was determined to bring into the house and put it on the fireplace and it crawled into my large tea light lantern. It seemed to enjoy moving in and out of the little holes and 'A' just found it hysterical when it peeped it's head out! 

We made it a little bed in a box with some leaves, but only if he promised to set him free at the childminders (it can eat her plants for a while!!!) 

Hard times with lil man recently. The usual tantrums, anger and sibling jealousy issues. I just need to keep it together and ride it out!

Well, not much going on here. Hopefully, more exciting craftiness next week. 

Kel x 

Posh parties and new frocks

Hello all,

I have a posh birthday party to go to on saturday in York and wanted something special to wear. I thought it would be a great idea to make something. Agggh why do I have these ideas.

I debated over patterns, fabric and notions.

I finally decided on the infinity dress (check it out on pinterest). Now, I am not the slimmest of women, I am quite top heavy you could say!!

I searched patterns and patterns and finally found one, that seemed quite simple here at Sew like my Mom. Love it. But, thought it would be quite revealing, and then realised she made a bandeau for hers, and here is the pattern.

I went to my local fabric store and ummm'd n arrrr'd and found some fabric I like with a good weight.

Here we are all finished.  

I love it but my top half looks so big and i'm not sure whether it suits me.  I am not over weight,  and the rest of my body looks 'ok' (could always make changes!!!) O h what to do?

The issue also is, I made the mistake of trying it on all the time and I started to pick fault with my body and become increasingly self conscious. 

I wasn't going to drink, but I think I may need one for courage before I leave the hotel room!!! 

I will let you know if I wear it, or drag something old out my wardrobe!!! 

Kel xx

Ta dah!!! for the granny stripe blanket

Hi

Just a quick post to say I have finally finished the granny square blanket from the tutorial from Attic24.

It is absolutely huge. To be totally honest i almost gave up on the darn thing. It isn't quite the size I would like but it is big enough. 

The kids call it the rainbow blanket. 

It didn't last long on my bed, it went straight down stairs on the sofa, the floor, the chairs and many more places. I hope it lasts the test of time!!!

I am trying to post a picture of Shrewsbury every time I blog or at least once a week. Just to show you how beautiful it is.

This is the view from the English bridge over the River Severn. In the distance you can just see the spire of St Mary's church and the building in front of that, hiding behind the tree's is The Parade Shopping centre, where my studio is. 

The path along the river is the one I cycle along. I don't cycle this far on, but this path tends to flood quite often when the water level rises. 

This was back in February. This is the English bridge where I took the picture from above, just the other day.

Finally, to make you saw 'aaawwww' . . . 

A little blue tit. I found it on the church wall. We think it fell out of its nest (not so smiley), we could hear its mother chirping for it, and the this little fella was calling back, but we couldn't get it back to its nest. 

Hoping it kept safe and managed to get to its nest. 

Take care

Kel x 

Making the most of it

Hello

I hope you are enjoying the half term break and the weather is good for you all.

I went to Yorkshire on Sunday until Monday and we had a great time. but it wasn't long enough.

When we arrived on Sunday, we wanted to make the most of it, so we went off to tropical world.

We saw tortoises, meerkats and their babies (too cute!!), sea life, crocodiles, boas, pythons and loads of other creatures. 

It was so hot in there and we soon made a quick exit once we had seen the majority of things. 

We then headed off into Roundhay park and jumped onto the land train down to the lovely cafe and back. 

It's such a big and beautiful park, but the kids just had one thing in mind . . . the fun fair. Aggghhh, I am not a fan of them. I think they are over priced, but, the kids are just drawn to the flashing lights, the music and the adrenalin of the rides. I wanted to go into the gardens, but no, no, no, peace and quiet was out of the question!!!

On Monday we took a stroll around the local park and fed the ducks. Unfortunately the ducks were full and over fed!!!

Again, wanted to do a walk around the lovely gardens and nature trail, but oh no, the laughter from the park and the ice cream van was calling the little ones in!!!

I managed a little walk, but for about 5 minutes!!

Post soon, hopefully with some new crochet, or even a W.I.P finished!!

Kel x 

Spring in a pot

Hello, 

Hope your are well.

I just wanted to show you my lovely little jug I painted. I decided that I was going to paint something for my self, for the studio, something to hold small delicate flowers. 

Ta dah! It turned out really well, so sweet. I'm so pleased. I wanted the look of a summer cottage garden or wild flower meadow. I filled it with fresh sweet williams and popped outside the studio on a little table . . . love it. I kept glancing over and feeling rather pleased and springy!!!

The thing with pottery painting is you have an idea when you start out . . . the colours are very pale and absorb into the bisque, you never know how it will turn out once it is glazed and fired. Sometimes you start out with one idea and the paints and brush strokes take you somewhere else. I am always excited to open the kiln at the end of a firing (with fingers crossed that everything has turned out well)!!

I am going to Yorkshire tomorrow for a one night stay, not long enough but looking forward to it.
Take care
Kel x 

(p.s thanks again Joy for the picture collage tips, love it)