I knitted!

Towards the end of last year I started going to the local library on a Thursday afternoon for a craft group.  Most of them are knitters but I take along my beading however early in Jan we had a visitor from a localish charity (whose name escapes me) that makes tweedle muffs, bags etc for dementia patients.   They had recently come up with an idea for a canula sleeve to help stop those with dementia pulling them out all the time and where asking for people to knit them.

So me with my limited knitting skills decided that even I could manage one so I did with the aid of a book for more than the basic stitches.

The inside of it is done in plain stocking or garter stitch in whatever colour you like I used a white and a mutli colour and did garter stitch

Then came the outside and apart from moss stitch, rib and basic stitches I can't remember what I did! 

I hate stitching knitting together with a passion (one reason I don't really do anything other than socks) so one of the other group members is going to do that bit for me on this one and any others I manage to produce.

I did however make a slight boo boo with it in that it's supposed to be in one long piece not 2 like mine is but that can be fixed :)

Christmas cakes

Over the last few months at WI craft group we've been working on our Christmas cakes step by step.

In October we put the marzipan on (well apart from me, I have double icing because I'm not a fan of marzipan!)

In November we put the icing on

And in December we decorated them, me being different did 2 of them but one is a gift.

This first one is mine and I have to admit I didn't do the bow, I was getting short of time to get mine done because I did the gift one first so the fellow member that was showing us what to do did that for me.

And the gift one, the person receiving loves marzipan so the decorations are made from it.

For someone that has never decorated a cake before I'm really pleased with how they turned out and there is every chance that we'll be doing them again next year :)

Painted box

I've had Teejay with me for the last week and one of the things we've been doing is painting a box to put his Mum's birthday present in off me (that's a post another day).

Teejay helped to decide on the box and picked the wooden hearts as well.

He's also decided on what colour went where and each day we've done a side of it.

From the front, the 3 hearts on the front are painted in copper but it doesn't show up very well

The back view

The bottom, it was Teejay's idea to put his hand print on there and he giggled the entire time I painted his hand because it tickled :)

and lastly the inside

Cake decorating

Today was WI craft group and we had one of our members who is a very skilled cake decorator showed us a few basic techniques some of which you may remember from last year

First a basic swirl in buttercream

And then a buttercream rose

Then it was time to play with the sugar paste

First we did a plain base then added flowers from a mould mine's a petunia

Next was a rose and rose bud on a textured background

Then a stencil and dusting powder

Lastly a different type of mould using the left over white from the stencil one above that had been slightly coloured from the dusting powder, I picked a dahlia

And here they are all together

There were cakes left over so I brought a few home along with a piping bag full of buttercream so I can practice a little bit more

Cup Cakes

On Thursday at WI craft club we had a go at decorating cup cakes which is something I've never done before and loved it!  It's a shame I have no one to bake for these days because I'd love to do more.

My efforts all together

First thing we did was a very simple, basic buttercream swirl

Next came a buttercream rose

Then we got to play with sugar paste :)

First of all we learnt how to put a plain circle of it on top, these were put aside for a while while we did something else and then we came back to them and used a stencil.

This is my favourite one

While our plain cakes were set aside we did another circle only this time we used a texture board 

Next came making a rose, cutting out leaves and using edible glue

We were also let loose with the glitter so everything got some :)

Then we played with a mould and I did a Hydrangea.

With this one we also learnt how to paint the centre's using the same powder as the stencil one above

And we had a little time left over so we got to play with other little moulds so I added the butterfly and little square to my buttercream ones and the brooch to the bubbles but it looks more like a sun to me

Crafty gifts

Dec 23 my nephew got married and as they are expecting a baby in the new year they asked for things for the baby as wedding presents so I made a taggie blanket, it's far from perfect but for a first try I'm happy with it and the baby won't care :)

I gave my SIL a carrier bag holder for Christmas while we were there for the wedding

My Mum's Christmas present (I did frame it) 

And this was a joint gift to Clare from Julie, Angie, Gill and myself, I also included a Christmas pud which you can see a pic of on Clare's tree if you follow the link

I also made a bookmark for fella but the picture I took was awful so I'll have to try again at som epoint

A first for me

I've been thinking for a while now that it was time I tried something new so several weeks ago I bought a zip with the idea that I really should learn how to put one in..

It took me a few more weeks to pluck up the courage and find a tutorial on youtube that I could follow and I finally took the plunge.

I dug out some furnishing fabric I was given thinking that I didn't want to ruin any of my lovely cotton and that it would be a little easier to work with and got to work.

It's far from perfect but I learnt a lot and the zip works :)

I even managed to pattern match the outside although I will admit that it was more by luck than judgement or planning.

Sewing finish

Several weeks ago during a conversation over lunch with my Mother in Law we somehow ended up talking about carrier bags and said in passing that I could make her one of those holders for them.

The following week she asked me if I would make her one so as we were in town that week I took her to the sewing shop (that's it's actual name) so she could pick herself a fat quarter of fabric.

Then I sprained my knee and found it difficult to climb the stairs and/or sit with my knee bent for any length of time so it was put on hold then when I did get it made I forgot to take it to her!

I finally remembered last Friday and here it is :)

It's far from perfect but MIL is happy with it and it does what it's designed to do :)

IHSW, progress and a finish

This last weekend was IHSW and so I sat on my butt and did just that :)

My starting point

And my finishing point

You can't tell from the pic but I've also back stitched the leaves so the bottom is now complete :)

Last week I worked on Halloween Moon but not much progress was made because I didn't pick it up until Wednesday and you'll see the reason why next.

I should get loads done this week tho because I've sprained my left knee and can barely put weight on it so I'll be spending most of the week with it up although I do have to keep it moving as well which is easy enough to do really when you live alone, no one else is going to feed you or put the kettle on for a brew so I'm up about every hour anyway.

This is the reason Halloween moon wasn't picked up till Wednesday.

I took this with me in the caravan for the 3 Lancs and once again decided to finish it off.

The colours are all as charted but I did make a change.    The centre and corners were designed to have gold leather but I've never been keen on that part of the design so I did Norwich (aka Waffle) stitches instead and I'm much happier with the result

Couple of finishes

Yesterday it was my fella's birthday so I stitched him a card.   It's an old Cross Stitcher cover kit that I discovered lurking in my stash when I looked through it last week for my birthday start.

And I made him a set of pillowcases as well.

I had to unpick part of the first one because I made a mistake but I'd never made them before so it's allowed :)

Fella was very happy with both items :)

Shopping Bag

A few weeks back when I went to the fabric shop to pick up more fabric for frame covers they had a bag out on display with a little sign saying make me for £5.75.  While I liked the bag and was tempted to have a go I didn't like that it was made in oil cloth which meant I couldn't fold it up and put it in my bag :(  so I decided to make it out of normal every day cotton fabric.

Today I got round to it and while it's far from perfect I'm really happy with how it turned out and as my Mum said when she saw it this evening that won't matter because folks will be far to busy looking at the fabric!

Orchid Tassel finish

Recently a bag of stuff made it's way down here from ExH and in it was a Mill Hill tassel kit that must of been bought 10 years ago.

Monday I decided that I was going to make it up so I got to work, I did mean to take a pic of just the stitching but I forgot :(

So you'll have to make do with these.

This is with all the stitching and beading done

Whip stitch the edges to hide the perforated paper

Then you fold the paper and whip stitch the edges together.

I did take pics of that but they all turned out fuzzy so here's the finished tassel instead

And a couple of closer ones

An old finish finished

Way back in 2009 I finished LHN's Traveling Stitcher but wasn't able or fortunate enough to get the pouch to attach it to so I asked a friend if she could make me one.

While at Dove Farm a few weeks ago she gave it me back and I'm in love with it.

Ally you did a fantastic job, Thank you so much

I have 2 pockets in it, please excuse my bad attempt at showing them!

I've not decided what project I'll use it for if indeed I'll use it at all

Lastly here's my start on the Buttons and Beads kit I picked up on Saturday

Bit of an allsorts post

I've not had internet since Friday until today so this is going to be a bit of catch up post

First up is the TUSAL jar at DBF's modelled by the very lovely Scruffy who always keeps my lap warm when I'm there

Since I remembered to take my camera for the TUSAL pic I thought I'd take one of my current project, Peony in close up

I went to one of my beading groups last week and we had a quick demo on how to make a box, sorry for the glare

I've finished 2 bracelets.  The top one is a Russian Spiral (I learnt this stitch years ago as netted rope and didn't realise it was the same one till I started!) the bottom one is a Chevron bracelet 

I've made some decent progress on my beaded CdC

And of course on Scary Book

I'm pretty sure I've forgotten something so I'll come back when I remember