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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#Crafting365 Days 36-48: The Joys of Embroidery, and of Orange

Time for another #Crafting365 catch up! Time flies when you're having lots of crafty fun...

On day 36, I cut my hair. I'm not sure if DIY haircuts really count as a creative task, but I am counting this one anyway! A bit messy, but not too bad and my hair has been looooooong for ages, it's a nice change to have it shorter again.

Day 37 was all about embroidery. You know that feeling when all of a sudden you just have to work on a particular project RIGHT NOW? I just could not resist the urge to work on some embroidery... so I sketched a whole bunch of new patterns and started stitching up this one which has been on my To Stitch list for, like, ever.

On day 38 I dug some pretty fabric out of my stash to plan something new. I adore these colours together.

The embroidery obsession continued on day 39. I thought I didn't have the right sized hoop to stitch up the patterns I'd sketched earlier (I think I used to own the size I needed but used the hoop to make a mobile? and then forgot to buy a new hoop to replace the one I'd cannibalized for my project? That seems like something I would do, anyway) ... but it turned out I had a bigger hoop that worked okay, hurrah hurrah.

On day 40 I started a new shade of yarn for my happy rainbow blanket: a lovely zingy orange. I am loving orange at the moment, and was actually wearing my orange cardigan (pictured at the top of the post) while knitting these squares :)

The orange-square-knitting continued slowly over the next few days, but I squeezed in some other crafty things too. I spent the afternoon of day 41 sticking lots of things into my "things that are too beautiful or interesting to throw away" scrapbooks. It's been such an age since I've added to my scrapbooks, I used up a whole glue stick adding all the new clippings!

Then on day 42 I was doing some filing and rediscovered a vintage pattern that had been "lost" for ages (because I'd put it in my filing pile along with accounts paperwork, etc, instead of a place where you'd think to look for an embroidery pattern - oops!). I'm delighted to have found this again and am really looking forward to stitching it. The pattern is designed for tapestry wools, but I'm probably just going to stitch it up with standard embroidery thread/floss. I'm also quite tempted to adapt the pattern to make a felt applique of some kind? Decisions, decisions.

By day 43, I was building up a nice pile of the orange blanket squares...

... and was finishing up the orange yarn on day 44. I'm knitting large garter stitch squares from each ball of yarn, and using the leftovers to knit mini moss stitch squares for my random patchwork blanket. Sticking with my orange obsession, my next chosen colour = a bright satsuma orange. So cheerful!

Day 45 saw more blanket square knitting, and more embroidery. My handwriting can be a little illegible at times, even when I write "neatly". My mum thought this pattern said "Poe the PEST..." and, well, she has a point, doesn't she? (It actually reads Be the BEST version of YOU). Terrible handwriting aside, I do love stitching handwritten text - though it does involve lots of teeny stitches to get round all those curves.

I finished my trio of embroidered designs on day 46 (I'll blog about the finished pieces soon, I promise!). The fabric I'm stitching on is so pale, I've taken care to keep the back of my work neat and to not carry any threads between sections.

 

I was feeling a bit sleepy on day 47 so I opted for something super simple: adding some more blocks of stitching to my scrappy cross stitch project.

When I do some cross stitch or embroidery and end up with a bit of thread/floss left over that's too short to really be worth keeping but long enough that it could be used to stitch a few stitches, I set it aside. Then when I've collected a few threads I use them to add some more blocks of colour to my patchwork project. I am so pleased with how this is turning out, and I adore how it's growing organically over time depending on the other makes I've been working on and what threads happened to be left over.

Then yesterday (day 48) I was gripped by the sudden urge to make something leafy and autumnal, so I grabbed some felt and got snipping! Fingers crossed this turns out how I'm picturing it in my head...

DIY Haircut

Today has mostly been about deadlines and housework. Double yawn.

I did tackle one creative project though: giving myself a new haircut :)


My hair has been long for ages - I was getting bored with it, so it was time for a change. I'm a great believer in DIY haircuts, despite many self-inflicted disasters in the past, but I think this one turned out okay (it does need a bit of levelling out at the back though!)