London Journey = Crochet Time!

Posted on 26 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Four hours in the car to London and then back again – great opportunity for some cosy crochet time! Shame I had to offer to share the driving but good that OH likes driving so does the main bulk of our journeys!! I started a new beanie which hopefully will be completed tomorrow! I took my wool and hooks away in a lovely little project bag I made to sell but decided I couldn’t part with as it’s so useful! It has 3 compartments so I can keep 2 different coloured wool balls separated and keep the hooks/scissors in the other pocket.

The fabric has old fashioned sewing machines on it so is perfect for sewing related projects. I saw it for sale at Minerva Crafts this week and so have now uploaded a picture of the bag to their Look what I’ve Made project sharing site. It’s a really interesting site and easy to use – you join and upload your projects and can have fun looking at other people’s too!

3 pocket sewing project bag

and here is latest ripply-progress!

Week 4!

Well I am very tired after trip to London so signing off now to go for a stroll round the blogs at Handmade Monday!

Ripple Blanket and Duvet Cover

Posted on 19 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Not much to show this week except for my ripple blanket progress and the start of a duvet cover for our bed! Must start DD’s cushion covers soon though as it’s her birthday next weekend!

I have found that as long as I don’t switch back and forth from acrylic to wool I can manage the acrylic ok as I get used to the feel and rhythm of working. This also has the added advantage of keeping down my WIP pile! It’s quite a wide blanket so each row takes quite a while and every now and then I get carried away and forget to make the increases on the ‘hill tops’ and decreases in the ‘valleys’ and so have to undo a few trebles! Once you’ve got going past row 3 it’s a really easy and relaxing project as there is no need to refer to the pattern (from Attic 24) – each row is the same. It is a good seasonal make too as it keeps me warm whilst I’m working on it – in summer this might be too uncomfortable.

ripple blanket in Stylecraft Premium Acrylic yarn

Ripple Blanket Week 3

My daytime project this week is a duvet cover for our bed. I decided I wanted to finally use up my 200 x 2 inch squares of Liberty Tana Lawn which I bought online last year and was dismayed at the thought of sewing together such small fine fabric pieces. Luckily I came across a good method of working with such small squares in the Very Berry blog but it is actually Elizabeth Hartman’s method found on her Oh Fransson blog I have bought quite a bit of liberty fabric from Ali at Very Berry and all her tutorials are very helpful. Basically I ironed each square onto Vilene first, making a large patchwork square and then sewed the rows together in the normal way, ie right sides together. This way it gives the fine Tana lawn some body and stops it getting chewed up in the machine plate at the start of sewing!

I now have the middle of the duvet completed and am now sewing a surrounding border of triangle -within- a -square using my tri-recs templates. This is a bit fiddly and I am making up my own pattern so will take a while!

patchwork quilt top using Liberty Tana Lawn

Quilt top of 2″ Tana Lawn pieces sewn into 7 inch blocks

So that’s my work this week! Looking forward to seeing what everyone else been up! Linking up with Handmade Monday!

Beanies, Blankets , Cross Stitch and Cushions!

Posted on 12 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Well this was going to be the dreaded ‘week of the tax return’ ! But, when I registered online to start it, I discovered they have to send a code through the post before you can fill it in – and it took all week to arrive! Good job I didn’t leave it till the last week in January to begin the process or it would have been an expensive mistake!! However I wasn’t bored at all because as well as progressing with my Attic 24 style ripple blanket I started another beanie using the lovely Adriafil Knitcol wool.

Second week of Ripple Blanket!

Also, I went to the Abakhan sales and bought fabric to make cushions for my daughter’s new house! I have 2 weeks till her birthday so should manage to get those done in time! I am using some very nice bird patterned fabric for the front, with a plain linen look for the back.

Bird patterned fabric for daughter’s cushions

One interesting thing I found whilst doing my crochet is that real wool is much easier on the hands than acrylic, even though it is premium Stylecraft. The Adriafil Knitcol just slips through my fingers and hook with ease, but the acrylic seems to have a little resistance, and so takes more effort to work with. It’s a shame my ripple blanket is in the acrylic as it’s going to take quite a while to finish. I think I will be looking for any 100% wool bargains I can find in the future though, even if it means waiting a while as the difference it makes as to how much crochet I can do and how tiring it becomes is quite remarkable. I wonder if this is a common difference between wool and acrylic or more down to my arthritis and fibro problems?

Here is my completed Beanie which is going in my Folksy shop. My other one sold in London quite quickly.

beanie in varigated pink, yellow and orange wool

Beanie with wavy edging

I also couldn’t resist buying some more Aida and embroidery hoops from Abakhan. I find cross stitch and crochet such relaxing evening crafts whilst watching TV after doing my sewing in the day time. So tonight it’s Dancing on Ice and a bit of cross stitch and crochet and a mooch round the Handmade Harbour! What are you doing?

New WIPs for 2014!

Posted on 5 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well the holidays are almost over! Son No 2 has returned to London. Son No1 left last week and tomorrow my DH goes back to work. WOOHOO! House to myself again!! (they don’t read this!) . I have been having a good rest this week, mainly because I got a seasonal virus just after Christmas day and am still not completely well. Having Fibromyalgia, amongst other things, seems to mean getting things badly and taking a long time to recover. I think the strain of going to London for the ill fated craft fair didn’t help either 🙁

For anyone who was wondering how Handmade Christmas at the 02 went – well it wasn’t a very good experience and I would not recommend anyone to book with this event in the future before being very sure that things will be different from the December one. We were not the only stall holders unhappy with various things – there is a facebook group of us all trying to get some compensation from the organisers. I have written to the OFT, as have others, and am awaiting a response. You can read more about it my last weeks POST which also has a link to the Folksy blogpost about it.

But to move on to happier things – I have started my first WIPs of 2014! A Ripple Blanket using the Attic 24 pattern and am really enjoying making it whilst resting on the sofa.

Ripple blanket

Remember the crosstitch heart in last month’s craftseller? Well I decided to have a go last night and it’s coming along nicely, just the top half to do now!

Half a crosstitch heart!

So that’s two WIPs already- one good thing from having an xmas fair is that all but one of my other WIPs are finished – and some even got sold!! It’s soooooo good having the opportunity to build up a new stack of WIPs!! 🙂

When not making new things I am spending my time planning them from ideas in these two fantastic books I got for Christmas! GBSB from DH and Vintage book from DS2!

Crafts books for new ideas!

And that’s me sorted for a couple of weeks! Looking forward to reading about other people’s holiday adventures and new year plans over at Handmade Monday Have you got a stack of WIPs Yet? Do tell!!