It cannae just be me who does this....

Surely it cannot?

Today I find myself with my mind birling with ideas.
Creative juices a bubbling and a spiraling.
I have a need to design.

 

So I have all of this out designing a special quilt; my 'Teawagon Quilt' inspired by the lovely Jane of teawagon tales who sells the most lovely vintage fabric (oh and Jane is very cool too, she loves Morrissey, what can I say?).  All of the fabric for this quilt is from her shop so hence the name.  I have been quietly foraging pieces away in my stash for a while now. Once I have enough I'll get going as it will be sewn on my machine and therefore won't take long (I have been sewing the below by hand for months and months so anything by machine seems easy and lightening speed) but...

The ridiculous thing is that I already have three other blankets on the go, two of which are stumbling in the main due to finances. This granny all-square  from The Royal Sisters blog which is shown here as part of the 52mmmc...

  

which, even though I have a hundred plus pile of, I need a lot more wool to complete it and then there's this...

of which the top is pretty much finished but I still need to add some more white hex's to square off.  This involves counting up all the spaces and working out how many half hex's I need too. There's two thousand paper pieced hexagons on this bugger already but  I  need some more calico to make more hex's which means money. Oh and the batting but luckily I have an ancient (well it used to be on my bed when I was wee) candy stripe flannel sheet for the backing.  This 2.3 x 1.1m quilt top has been a real labour of love and I could have carried on and on, I loved it so much!!

I'm thinking of opening a wee Folksy and/or Etsy shop to (hopefully) make a few pennies to help??? Scottie dog/apple brooches anyone??

I have also started a knitted patchwork blanket from my wool stash...

You know, something for the evenings!

It doesn't seem to matter how many WIPs I have on the go (just about to start this too???) I cannot stop the need to be creative about the NEXT project.  I don't always have to start this next project straight away and I like to have a few things on the go; a bit of crochet, a bit of knitting, a bit of sewing, as I like to be able to move around depending on my mood but when a new idea strikes or there are rumblings of an idea taking seed I MUST heed it and sit down, pencil and paper in hand and design.

Hands up who else?

I see you there, get that hand up!

X

'Possibility' is positively my sort of word.

And why not when you can apply it to a glorious sight like this...

"fa la la la laaaaaaaaa!"

*sigh*

Almost more beautiful than what they can become; these colourful balls.

Part of our memories.

Part of our family story. 

They will transform like magic.

From, as Mr Biscuit says, me wrapping wool around a wee wooden stick really fast.

Possibility...

X

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 25-27

and how are you all?  I have a new toy.  A toy to help me enjoy my sewing machine more, a deal I made with myself that I would do this year -  (the above picture is of me having ' a go' with paper - too tight to practise on fabric for the first try).

For a wee bit of fun with freehand embroidery.  Have to have a ponder over what marvellous make I can craft with it.....

Here is another batch of makes, actually from weeks ago but only just got around to organizing myself into posting about it.

Week 25...

sofa cushions

The green crochet one was a previous make (week 15 ) and is now happily together, making friends and offering tea and cake, with four other cushions.  Two made with thrifted tartan fabric and the other two made with a lovely green cotton, covered with cream aran crochet fronts.  Still I am in shock when I sew something that turns out how I had imagined.

Week 26...

crochet front for a floor cushion

For my Biscuits' bedroom.  They are still in 'talks' about which colour fabric they want behind in.  It measures 26" by 26" and I have to say I loves the vibrant colours emboldened by the black borders.  

 Week 27...

Not any old chocolate cake but one from my favourite book - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery!  Quite an involved process including one of my favourite kitchen jobs; separating eggs.  I love doing it and learned at the feet of my Dad many many years ago.  I have, I confess, been a bit fascinated by egg shells since I was small.  Love breaking one handed and love peeling boiled ones too!   For some reason doing anything with eggs makes me feel very proficient and Goddess like in my kitchen.  This cake includes whisking the whites and adding at a later stage and I am always enthralled watching the whites, well become white.  It was a wonderfully moist cake and deserves a place in any Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame.

I've already got another few makes done and cannot believe I'm past the halfway mark.  It really has been fun documenting some of the things I make each week.

X

On a wet, dark and dreary Monday...

...all I need to do to feel content is put this on.

(You can just spot the tiniest green dot in the bottom left corner that reveals this is my television and not the real thing.)

And dive into this.

 and make the all important choice of which to while away some time with.  

The ironing can wait I say!!

X

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Week 8!

Another make finished (isn't sewing up always the worst part?) and I'm pleased to say blogged about in my 100th post.  Mad to believe that almost a year ago I started this malarkey and as of yet have not bored myself into stopping and more importantly seem not to be boring you lot (I hope!?!?).  

May I introduce Penny Pig...

 

Knitted up for a Christmas gift for a dear friends baby, from a pattern from fluff&fuzz (see here for links to all of Amanda shops) and because I love pigs.  I mean look at this...

...adorable no?

I also stuffed my Christmas wreath and completed all the sewing, had lots of fun at Picnik editing the photo and here it is...

Any excuse to indulge in Christmas glee.   

I loves, loves, loves Christmas and feel that something so magnificent, so special requires a decent build up, a lot of planning (who doesn't love to plan?) and even more savouring.  There will be no end of Christmas cheer, be warned!

X

Taking the time!

Yesterday I finally decided it was time I gave a Granny Square a go!   

My knitting mojo has gone on a wee holiday and the time was ripe for a new challenge, not to mention the fact I want blankets for camping so the elusive square was calling me.  Also we are all accosted by such beautiful images in blogland it is hard to resist and I was resisting.  Thought I would stick with knitting and all the possibilities therein, not understanding crochet had the same potential for creativity.  I can crochet a little already and learned many many moons ago from my mum who passed down all she knew (which wasn't much compared to what she taught me about knitting) but all I have done in my crocheting life is rounds and rounds of stitches until the blanket reached the required size and only a few blankets at that.  Here are two I'm working on at the minute for my Biscuits' beds...

The centre of this one was found at the Christmas Fayre at my Biscuits' school but was way too small, I've been working on it for yonks but it's almost finished now.  I do love how they look, especially the top one.

Pretty basic stuff or so I thought until yesterday when I realized I already knew how to do a Slip Knot, Chain and I finally discovered the name of the stitch I can do, a Treble.  Just to discover the name of a stitch I've been doing for years was a revelation.  My first port of call was at Meet me at Mikes as I have the book and realized quite quickly I do NOT learn at all easily from words and drawings so I was in need of live action.  The lessons are amazing and for someone like me who needs to see something over and over again the clips made it so easy.  The internet, in many ways, is like having that mum, aunt or gran when it comes to leaning new skills.  I was amazed at how quickly a square comes together and in particular the instant gratification on completion of one square.  I can see now why in some blog photos you see piles them.  So here it is, drum roll if you please because I'm chuffed I finally made the time to learn, my first (and definitely not my last) Granny Square...

and then I made two more just for a practice...

The tension is not quite right as I am used to working with larger pieces of crochet so found holding the square a little fiddly and I did the learner amount of chains so the gaps are bigger than I'd like too but I am very pleased with how they came out.  I have plans now to use up some of my acrylic wool stash on adding squares to that colourful blanket in the first photo, as I don't mind crocheting with it but hate knitting with it and it's cheap but I'm sure I'll move on to cotton soon enough.  I'm wondering how long it'll be before I'm tackling a pattern and I've heard wonderful things about Lucy's tutorials at Attic24......aah the possibilities!  I didn't think I'd ever say that about crocheting.

I'm off to make some more!

X