Crochet Granny Squares and an Owl!

Posted on 20 October, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Boo it’s raining again!

This is what arrived last week! My lovely new wool – beautiful colours – as I started to use them I thought how will I ever remember which shade is which if want to reorder any of them? How will I know my Wisteria from my lavender? So for now this is my solution –

New balls of Stylecraft Special Double Knit

My new Stylecraft Wool

A little bit of each yarn is tied to the label as I use each colour. Ok for now but not great so I’d love to know what you all do? I haven’t done much so far as I have spent a long time reading blogs for patterns and ideas – I think I’m going to make lots of granny squares and then decide what to do with them as these are something I know how to make very well!

I did however have a go at an owl pattern – it still needs the eyes yet – the pattern is from Bunny Mummy – another blog find after my visit to Yarndale!

Owl shape crochet and a small pink blue and purple granny square

First attempt at an owl shape!

It wasn’t hard to follow the tutorial and I think they look very cute in her picture! I really want to design my own items but for now I am enjoying other people’s as a change from my patchwork! One other thing I would really like help with is — how do you keep your wool from tangling when using lots of colours? I’ve tried in the past to keep it all in a basket but it ends up one big mess. Currently I’ve got each colour in a plastic bag but this is bulky and spoils my enjoyment of the crochet somehow. So over to talented peeps at Handmade Harbour to see if what everyone has been up to and maybe pick up some hints!!

Road trip to Dundee and Vintage Fabric Finds!

Posted on 13 October, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Just home from a road trip to Dundee!

Having read about the antique and collectables place in Abernyte on Highland Monkeys’ blogpost last week I persuaded everyone on the road trip (mum, sister, aunties) to visit there on Friday morning as Penelope had kindly sent me the address! It was wonderful finding the vintage fabric corner – I nearly upended myself trying to reach over a table to get to the bottom shelves! I had hold of some old French linen and a French cotton tablecloth for ages but eventually put them back and bought some vintage linen embroidered napkins which were in better condition.

The tablecloth I nearly bought was red print scenes of French countryside and was so soft I was very tempted, but it was quite badly soiled and worn thin in places and I wondered if it would yield enough good cloth to actually make anything in the end. However, now I am back home so annoyed I didn’t get it !! Typical!

I did get a lovely surprise though as just before we left, my Aunty Audrey who lives in Dundee, gave me a bag of her own vintage table fabrics – some had been given to her as a wedding present over 50 years ago and one set had been a wedding gift to her old employer so they must be around 100 years old! There were also some vintage beads she brought back from South Africa! The fabrics will need cleaning but they are beautiful and I can’t wait to start my ‘vintage patchworkfairy’ line!

Vintage Lace Napkins

Now over to Handmade Harbour for this week’s linky party!

Crocheting Again!

Posted on 6 October, 2013 by patchworkfairy

I have rekindled my love of crochet! My Aunty Pol taught me as a child and many hooky projects have graced our home through the years. As a new stay at home young mum I cut up and hemmed old sheets to make cot and pram sheets, crocheting all the blankets in bright woolly colours and knitting little cardis! Even before the children arrived I made my own maternity clothes and breastfeeding nighties.

All that crochet, sewing and knitting in those days as well as looking after the family – makes me think I had far more energy then than it actually felt like at the time! Of course, in the early 80’s we just didn’t have the range of low price shops which there are today and there was no online shopping so many of us had to make our own things. I made clothes and toys for the children and curtains for our house, I enjoyed it all so it never seemed a chore. I remember one Christmas the boys longing for the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Hero Turtle’ figures were very scarce and so I made both the boys a furry version which they loved and carried around for a long time!

my son with his home made teenage hero ninja turtle!

Anyway after visiting Yarndale, buying the Hooplayarn and reading various blog accounts of the day I have begun crocheting again. Amazingly I had never heard of Lucy and Attic 24 before – her blog is a wonderful find as it has lots of tutorials in very easy to follow style. I now have a set of red bowls from the Hooplayarn and some granny squares destined to become a big throw! Only trouble is – these days I need a rest even after just sitting down crocheting!

Talking of rests – what better than a stroll round the Handmade Monday blogs over at Handmade Harbour!

Anyway I love reading your comments – if my site won’t let you please do let me know on facebook as it was a bit iffy last week. Thank you!

Yarndale!

Posted on 29 September, 2013 by patchworkfairy

We went to Yarndale! Actually we nearly didn’t! Having arrived at the entrance around 1pm we were waved away by police blocking the road! I was horrified and stuttered – ‘but we’ve come to yarndale…’ – this only evoked a shrug and the words ‘it’s full’ !!!! We had driven for 2 hours, been stuck in traffic jams and really wanted a coffee by now, and as I continued to stare at the policewoman in a daze of disbelief, she added we should ‘try again’ in half an hour or park in the town.

Well not being from around there we weren’t quite sure which way to go! OH drove off down a road with me nearly in tears – how could it be full? It was advertised as parking for 1000 cars so I hadn’t thought there would be any problem. But alas no woolly welcome waited for us and so off we went, parked in a layby, looked at the map and decided to head back towards Skipton. The sat nav lady took us past the entrance again and now there was no block! It was only 20 mins later but we were allowed in! There was no queue inside and we found somewhere to park fairly easily so I am still mystified as to why we were kept out beforehand!

So all ended well – we had a half hour wait for the café but the food was good and plenty of room to sit down and eat. Feeling much better I set off to explore the woolly wonders ahead while OH retreated to the car to ‘read’ (sleep), leaving me in peace to wander, sniffing the woolly aroma and stroking the woolly goodies everywhere!

Red Crochet Bowl from Hooplayarn

The place was heaving with serious Yarn addicts and in some cases their bored OHs but I managed to see all I wanted to see and chat to some stallholders as well! I bought quite a bit of woolly rovings for my felting, some ‘not quite fat quarters’ for my quilting, which at £1.95 were very good value, and a big cone of Hooplayarn from The Chunky Hooker! I am now hooked on hooking with Hooplayarn! It’s really easy and very gratifying as it grows very fast. Here is my half finished first attempt at a crochet bowl! I chose the red so that I could make some xmas items for my stall at the 02! Surprisingly (to me) they said the most popular colour was cerise pink!

It would have been lovely to have met up with craft bloggers at the event but I didn’t know anyone else who was going and didn’t have time to linger in the knit and natter area. Maybe next time..? Now though I am going to meet up with some lovely bloggers in the online world of Handmade Harbour! See you there?

Website Shop Page and Round the World Quilt Making!

Posted on 22 September, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Well what a week! My site has been ‘down for maintenance’ since last Sunday whilst I uploaded my products to my website shop page and sorted out the legal text you have to have about Distance Selling Regulations! It’s not that onerous a task but it sort of takes over and it does become tiring and long drawn out as I can’t spend too long on the laptop without too much pain. Anyway it’s now up and running thanks to Jon at Brill Skills!

Whilst uploading images and text for the shop I have also been making things for my stock. I really miss making things if I leave it too long! I have been wanting to do a ‘trip around the world’ quilt for ages after seeing pictures of them on pinterest. So here is my first attempt – it’s not sewn up completely, this is just the 4 panels which form the ’round the world quilt’ pattern. It’s a very easy quilt top to do as long as you are very careful when sewing the strips together! unpicking half a block is no fun at all – how do I know that? 😉

coloured squares in round pattern making a quilt top

Trip Around the World Quilt Top

And here are 4 panels with applique in the lovely red gingham and pink and cream roses fabric left over from my Abakhan project. Fabric was courtesy of Will Abakhan and hopefully you will soon see some of my project work on the Abakhan website!

4 blocks with different patterns

So that’s about it – I did also start on a doorstop using a pattern from a craft magazine but that isn’t quite finished either! Maybe I should just actually complete one thing before starting the next? But where’s the fun in that eh? 🙂

Hope you are all enjoying the amazing mini summer! I’m afraid I’m a killjoy here – I have had enough of it and want to get my leggings, boots and winter dresses out! Anyway I’m off over to Handmade Harbour as usual now – see you over there?

Sewing for the xmas market!

Posted on 8 September, 2013 by patchworkfairy

No more lolling in reflection this week! I am on a countdown to the Handmade Christmas at the 02 and have to increase my stock dramatically! So I’ve tried to get up early and get some morning sewing in before I get too tired. Trouble is I want to try out all my ideas but designing and making prototypes is very time consuming although very interesting!

So here’s what I managed:

Owl pouch

I though this would be a nice little pouch for a child’s reading book or for a kindle?

small fox bag

This one is a small shoulder bag -it has orange spot fabric inside!

And these are healing hearts! – Each is stuffed with soft filling and includes essential oils so they smell lovely. I am going to attach some of the red string I think, but I am not sure. The idea is that they would be a nice gift instead of, or as well as a card for an unwell person. They are all Reiki blessed as well as I am a Reiki Master. What do you think? Are there too many stuffed hearts on the market all ready?

Now over to Handmade Monday for the usual weekly read and see what everyone else is making!

Reflective perspectives

Posted on 1 September, 2013 by patchworkfairy

It’s that time of year again which makes me feel reflective. The smell of overblown summer flowers coupled with the keen edge of autumn always brings on a mixture of sadness and anticipation as I realise that summer is over (or, as has been the case in recent years, never going to happen!), and that prickling sense of excitement that accompanies the ‘new pencils’ feeling at the start of the new term. Not that I am actually starting a new term anymore and the ‘children’ are all way past that too but the feelings I get around this time of year have never left me. Funnily enough after never having those sorts of feelings my OH is now working at a school, a completely different way of earning a living and is embroiled in the terminology that goes with school life! Today having just returned from our last few days away he is sorting out his ‘school bag’, his snacks and his ‘uniform’, all ready for tomorrow.

However for me, now with my arthritis, chronic pain condition in the cervical spine, dodgy knee, fibromyalgia, pernicious anaemia and hashimoto’s thyroiditis there is not even the ‘back to work’ feeling which used to happen after our annual holiday and every Sunday night of the year as well! But at the moment I don’t miss those particular feelings and I am enjoying doing my sewing, knitting, crochet and felting and planning for a future when I can increase my production, sell things more regularly and perhaps make a real living out of these arts. Also I know that at 9 o’clock tomorrow I may still be in bed or I could be in a sunny craft room dreaming and designing with a coffee and a bagel, or I could be sitting in the garden with a cup of tea, so despite all the things which have happened in the last two years, today, and every forthcoming Sunday night I will feel quite lucky! So I leave you with a picture of me yesterday in sunny Shropshire and go over to Handmade Monday to see what other folks have been doing! Cheers!

Drinking coffee in Coalport!

Lazy week with a bit of dry felting!

Posted on 25 August, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Had a very lazy week crafting wise so not much to show! Last week I just couldn’t get my comments to work on lots of blogs so I am really seemed to have ignored blogs who had visited mine. Hopefully this week blogger will have sorted out the error?So this week I tried out two projects I bought at craft fairs and haven’t even opened till now! (this is not an isolated incident I am ashamed to say!) Things look sooo interesting and exciting I want to try them all!!

felted flowers attempt

I tried my dry felting kit and managed to make some felted flowers which will be good for embellishing bags or quilts, when I have perfected them a bit more that is!! However at this rate I will never have enough stock for our stand at the Handmade xmas at 02 fair!! Has anyone else managed to get going on xmas stock yet? checking over at Handmade Monday!!

Liberty Tana Lawn Wedding Bag!

Posted on 18 August, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Have I mentioned that I love Liberty Tana Lawn fabric before? 😉 Yes I thought I had! I realised this week that when writing about the wedding last week I’d omitted to say that I’d also made myself a special little wedding bag for the day from my favourite fabric – Liberty Tana Lawn! I just adore the colours, the ditsy prints and the feel of Tana Lawn and I have been collecting pieces of it for a year or so now. I make mobile fone covers in it to sell on Folksy and every time I buy some I have been squirrelling away bits to make myself a bag. It is a very simple clutch bag with interlining and fusible fleece for support, a magnetic closing and floral buttons just for decoration. It all echoes the lilac colour scheme from the wedding. I loved making this the day before the wedding – it was a special bit of relaxation and ‘me time’ in the midst of all the preparations!

clutch bag in assorted lilac floral Liberty Tana Lawn fabric

My wedding bag in Tana Lawn patchwork

inside of clutch bag showing pretty pink floral fabric lining

pretty pink lining

I’m linking up with Handmade Monday now so I am off for a read around the crafty blogs over there, why not pop over too! UPDATE- I can’t comment on lots of your blogs – I keep getting an error code – I assume this is a google/blogger problem as others are ok.

Bunting and Bouquets!

Posted on 12 August, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Well I am a little late with my post this week as yesterday was my daughter’s BIG DAY! I got carried away enjoying myself at the event and neglected to photograph the wonderful wedding bunting I made for her which I wanted to post a picture of here! I did manage to find this on facebook taken by a guest though!

Wedding Bunting with Mr & Mrs on the flags

Now it’s all over I am delirious with tiredness and looking forward to a couple of days of rest before starting to do anything at all, so pictures will follow!

As well as making the bunting my daughter and I decorated all the table vases with ribbons and then bought the flowers and arranged these too on Saturday, the day before the BIG DAY! After this I went home and made her bouquet and the bridesmaids’ bouquets, put them in water until 7.30am on the BIG DAY when I finished them 0ff with ribbon. I love making things myself and we had a special mother and daughter day choosing, buying and making up the flower vases so much so that we wondered why anyone would pass up the opportunity and pay someone else to do it? But I suppose if you don’t enjoy creating then it’s not fun, it’s a chore.

My mum had been asked to do a reading at the wedding to pass on some ‘words of wisdom’ to the newly weds as part of this she talked about the fashion for initials in today’s ‘textspeak’ – OMG and LOL for example, but pointing out that her generation had done it all before with their ‘SWALK’ and ‘ITLY’ which they would write on the back of envelopes of letters to their boyfriends – (Sealed With A Loving Kiss and I Truly Love You). She concluded by saying she had some of her own to pass to the newly weds – ‘CEO’ – no not chief executive officer! She said it was something to remember for the rest of their lives and also something for all of us in any relationship – ‘Cherish Each Other’ and then she presented them with a small plaque, made by guess who!

Cherish Each Other Plaque

I’ll finish with a pic of the Bride and Groom and that lovely bouquet 😉 then head over to Handmade Monday at Handmade Harbour

Bride and Groom