update on bag

Made a little bit of progress on my shopping bag. I think this stitch is called fly stitch, which, apart from leaves, could also be used for feathery bird's wings. I have used 3 strands of anchor embroidery floss.

                                                  

                                                 Close up

Nowhere finished yet. But since this photo I have sewn some flowers on in bright blue and orange.
 

We had a lovely few sunny days but overnight it suddenly went cold and windy...so back to normal now :0( Still it was enjoyable whilst it lasted and the birdies were very chirpy and spring like!

progress on bag

Not much happening in the crafting parlour. With the weather so nice you just have to go outside and soak the sun up!
This is how far I've got with the shopping bag. Penned the outline out and cut some circles and hope to do a bit more over the week....depends on the sun of course :0D

 

 

 

 

 

Just added this to handmade monday where there are lots of lovely blogs.

Start of a shopping bag

Here is another first for me....a shopping bag. In fact a "Quirky" shopping bag!!
This photo is showing the front and the row of little houses, trimmed with a bit of lace.

The ginger fabric is felt and the other is a wool check blanket.

A closer view. Instead of putting red roofs on I though the blue looked better as the red disappeared into the ginger. Still got some tweaking to do and also am going to put something on the front of the bag. (don't know what yet tho)

Wish I had a designated craft room instead of a load of bits on the kitchen table. (It is a lot messier in real life) I moved the wooden bits that are for another harbour picture + paints/glues etc.
The Quirky village that I'm working on every now and then is a picture of our nearest town. It's a bit like a jigsaw when a bit slots into place, it's a good feeling. Getting the library to look a little bit like the photo was a hard job, but I hope that I've cracked it. This slides neatly under a sofa out of the way when I'm fed up with it!! Also another first is this is done on a canvas and the houses are stuck down instead of sewn. I did think it was going to be quicker but it's not!

Put on  http://www.iamonly1woman.blogspot.co.uk/ where there are lots of other blogs!
and also oopsey daisy

Little notebook

I had been wanting to try my hand at a book. Don't know why just because!
This is all the bits gathered together.

The cardboard is re-cycled from Amazon, the inside paper is from one of the childrens long ago school books. (see I don't chuck much out!) and the mixed media painted paper that is going to be the cover was from a class that I took a couple of years ago. So no spends.

I sewed the papers together and then cut a narrow piece of calico and stuck it along the inside edge which then was glued to the spine of the book. The ribbon was stuck on and some plain stiff raspberry paper was glued onto the inside cover (I buy a book of large plain coloured paper in the cheapy shop usually in the kiddies section, it is very handy for all sorts of crafts.

The finished book. It looks a lot better in the photo than in real life (have to be honest!) It has got some creases on the back which wouldn't come out. The size isn't all that big and there arn't many pages in it.

I have to admit I didn't really know what I was doing, so I winged it and did loads of things wrong, glued my hands lots of times and generally got quite frustrated with it all....BUT I got it out of my system and maybe if I make another one I might remember where I went wrong (loads of times!) or I could read a book on how to do it properly!! (which sounds like a really good idea to me!) or just get a Tesco notebook and put a different outer cover on.....hmm that sounds like an idea.

I was trying to cram some more goodies into my craft cupboard so had to re-arrange items. Here is a photo of all my glues.

I first started off using the stick type paper glue, progessed to craft glue and then PVA and gradually added the others on bit by bit. I found the wood glue in Llidles and have used it quite a bit for things other than glue as well. The spray tins are very useful for patchwork type of things,the 505 I use to hold the quilt/batting/backing together instead of pins does the job brilliantly.  I havn't used the E6000 yet, I believe its brilliant for gems/jewels. So now you know why my fingers keep getting gummed up!

Pop over to Handmade Monday for more crafty blogs.

                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                          

Stripey Sid bunny

                                                             Sold

Just a real quickie to indroduce Stripey Sid to you. He is, of course, a relative of the dancing ballerinas....but this one does break dancing! Sid is wearing his stripey trousers which matches the heart on his jumper

Had a little wander around the garden/field and it's nice to see things breaking into bud at last. We did lose a baby apple tree tho which was a shame. It got that red fungus spots on it and withered, but all the other ones are doing OK.

A patchwork quilt in progress

I showed you the patchwork fabric in my last post. This is all the fabrics sewn together. I was going to do something fancy in the white squares and then decided to do some free motion embroidery.....from then it all went wrong!I tried a number of times to get the machine to work but it wouldn't catch properly. So thought no 2,3 and 4 was I could do squiggles in a nice red or green cotton thread by hand....didn't work, now I am using quilters white cotton and doing it all by hand in straight lines.

The wadding was too thick, which I didn't realise until I had sprayed it with 505 so carefully took it all apart and then teased some of the wadding away so it was a bit thinner. (that was a job)HH said it would have looked better with a darker green sashing!  Anyways enough of the doom and gloom, I have now hand quilted the first block and this is the way it's staying. So far I'm pretty pleased with that. The colours are a lot brighter in real life.

 This quilt is going to take some time, so can I go off and do other projects as well, think I've earned it?!!

So Sunny if you are reading this, now you know why I will never be a quilt maker, as well as all the other problems, some of the patches dont line up and I'm definately not going to show you a close up :0P haha

added onto Handmade Monday 
and http://bathbombcreations.blogspot.com

Must finish these first!

Hello everyone, lovely and sunny but cold with some hail thrown in so cosy inside chilly out.
I have just bought this book (we well overpaid our electricity so got a refund so what better way to spend :)D )

Actually it wasn't very expensive and free delivery from Amazon, I have to say this book is one gem, I love it. The last time I did any big embroidery was a blackbird on a cherry branch when I was about 16 years (so that was umm, so many years ago I can't work it out!!) In those days there was only a basic pattern without any shading, although  at the time it was very fancy. This book takes you through how to shade with DMC or Anchor in easy terms, progressing to harder things to stitch. Now my fingers are itching to get started on one of the designs.

Now this has been sitting in my cupboard for quite a while and I thought I might be able to combine some of the stitches in the book with this crinoline lady design. I have some calico so would make a lovely cushion, don't you think?

BUT....

You might remember this little pile of delicious fabrics, which have been turned into this....

                                                                       
                                                                        then this.....

                                                    

             So I must finish this quilt before I start on anything else (plus some other little bits that need finishing). At the moment I am cutting out the sashing, which is a re-cycled duvet cover.  That is the part I'm not fond of and, while I was fixing it together, I see that some of the squares are the wrong way around so unpicking this evening....grrr to me!   Another grrr is...... to make the shape that I wanted I needed one more block, but there is no material left so will have to maybe either make it long and thin or make a square. Think the square wins.  Hope to finish it soon  so I can drool over that book some more!!                              

A Harbour and Bunnies

Two completely different crafts on the one page! I have been waiting to get half decent photos as I've got a new camera but havn't mastered it yet! (Might take a year or more)

First up is a Quirky harbour scene. Inspired by a local spot which sports 300 steps down to the bay. Down the bottom is a derelict house. The noise from the waves is something else and just imagine going up and down all those steps carrying barrels of fish or whatever. They must have been as thin as whippets. We've been down there twice in 22 years and that was enough for me!
Anyway I couldn't fit 300 steps on here I would have needed at plank of wood that fit through the front door and out the back, also wasn't about to cut out that many tiddy steps!

I

I dont know if you can see but the three seagulls are proud of the cliff so it looks more like they are flying. Got to have a buoy bobbing up and down as well.

Can you see the washing flapping in the wind? A pair of blue trousers and two red towels. The little fishing boat has port holes and fishing pots hanging on the side.

Not quite 300 steps! HH made the little boat and houses which I then painted and decorated. (he is rather pleased with it) Since this photo, he is going to screw a small ledge on the bottom of the plank so there is no danger of it tipping over, which could be removed if needed, to hang on a wall. It measures just over 12 long by 7 and half inches at it highest point.

Next up are the two bunny ballerinas, Rosseta and Rosebud. They are bigger than the others I have made being approx 11" high

                                                                    Rosetta Rabbit
Her knitted shoes and cardi are a lot brighter pink than the photo. She has a wrap over ballet card which matches her shoes, nice fushia pink and pearl necklace and sticky out double layer net tutu.

                                                                    Rosebud Rabbit
Here is her sister Rosebud. She has a fushia pink cabled jumper which matches her shoes. Her ears have two matching ribbons and a double layer net tutu which has a pink ribbon around the edge. She also is wearing her favourite pink and pearl necklace. Both will be going into my Etsy shop.

I have put this on http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-fresh-sewing-day-and-small-blog.html
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/and http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/So pop along to see lots of other crafters.