October, November & December in Pictures

Time to catch up with what I got up to in the final quarter of 2017!

In October...

... I ummed and ahhhed about what colour to use for the quilting thread and binding for my scrappy quilt. I started this project in my teens, finished the quilt top a few years ago and have now promised to (finally) turn it into a quilt as a gift for my mum. But what colour(s) should I use to finish it?? I still can't decide.

... I had a studio clear out, listing a whole bunch of craft supplies and other bits and bobs over on Instagram. I quite enjoy these sales, they remind me of the days when I used to sell craft supplies in my shop and the sometimes-tediuous but often quite soothing process of photographing, measuring, weighing, listing, packing and posting.

... I took a quick trip to Burnham-on-Sea, walked along the esplanade, ate some delicious chips, and fell in love with a wall (isn't it a fabulous wall?).

... I blogged about the dolls clothes I've inherited which were handmade by my grandmother, and October's kitty-themed addition to the A Year of Wreaths tutorial series.  

... and I won a fabulous stationery bundle from Roger La Borde!

In November...

... My first two faux leather craft projects were published on The Village Haberdashery's blog: tutorials for making a star headband and a mini notebook.

... I unpicked a section of my mini squares blanket (that sticky-outy dark red block just didn't look right!) which took ages but was totally worth it.

... I stitched a custom order of snow globe ornaments, which then proceeded to get lost in the post for months (argh) but finally turned up (phew!). (If you want to sew your own snow globes, you'll find the free pattern here).

... I finally found a use for these paper snowflakes which had been in my craft stash for almost a decade (because they were just too nice to throw away after the Christmas I made them), using them to decorate an Advent "calendar" of small gifts for my parents.

... I gave myself a slightly lopsided DIY haircut (all my haircuts are DIY haircuts, some more lopsided than others!)
 

... and I also started blogging about my trip to Liverpool, shared a tutorial for making a novelty Christmas jumper, and finally started a weekly email newsletter after literally years of thinking that I should probably get round to starting a weekly email newsletter.

Then in December...

... I blogged about my Holly Wreath tutorial and lots of DIY Christmas card ideas, and shared a gorgeous tutorial for making leafy paper snowflakes.

... I wrote about the lovely treats I got from the dotcomgiftshop for being a terrible blogger (it's a long story).

... I posted an old behing-the-scenes pic which I don't think I'd posted before, of the "making a mess designing things" stage of making this doll.

... I made lots more mess working on a secret project (there's a desk under there somewhere!).

... and I shared the weirdest thing I achieved in 2017: writing a very silly joke about losing a sewing needle which ended up going slightly viral on Tumblr!

Finally, I ended 2017 working on something very colourful and very relaxing: adding a few more blocks of colour to my ongoing using-up-my-leftover-scrappy-threads cross stitch project.

Quite delightfully, this snap ended up becoming my most popular photo of 2017 (albeit not actually in 2017 itself) as it got shared on January 1st by mega craft blog A Beautiful Mess... which was a very fun and really rather exciting way to start a brand new year.

Here's to another twelve months of colourful, crafty goodness!


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