WIPS and WIPS to be

I've not been around for a bit because one of my boys and I have been unwell.  Nothing major, just a virus but we have been living in a little bit of a bubble for the past week, cut off from the outside world and watching too much telly.  Consequently, not much has been going on, craftwise.

What this brief hiatus of viral annoyances has done is give me time to think about what I need to be doing with my various WIPS.  At the moment I have my first sewing assingnment to complete for my City and Guilds patchwork course and I also have loads of outstanding samples to do as well.  Not only that but we have a design assigment to do, due in 2 weeks time. The design bit is not my favourite so I am not looking forward to that one - I have never considered myself to be at all arty and the design modules tend take me out of my comfort zone.  I suppose broken down into parts it isn't too bad but until you get started the whole things seems really daunting.  I need to crack on though.

And then added to that I have volunteered to help make some thing for a craft stall at our church fete in 2 months time.  I am not sure what I am going to make or how I am going to fit it in around the course work at the moment.  I have loads of ideas but it seems to me that there is a fine line between not spending too much time and money on projects and not producing something of a decent enough quality that somebody other than your family would be interested in buying it!  People don't go to a  church fete as a big spending day out - they go to play games, win the raffle and pick up a few books at the second hand book stall, not part with £20 for a tea cosy.  On the other hand, you have produce things of a reasonable quality or nobody will want to buy them, whatever they cost.

Anyway, some of the things I have thought about doing are

- cushions
- tea cosies
- coasters
- purses for children
- bags
- mug cosies
- make-up bags
- mobile phone/MP3 pouches
- pencil cases
- bookmarks.

So, mainly small things that don't cost the earth . Mostly I will sew them but I might knit the mug cosies and maybe a cushion. If anybody else has any ideas on what goes down well at fetes could you let me know?! 

And just so that I can add the all important photo to brighten things up, have a look at what I bought a couple of weeks ago.  Isn't it gorgeous - all the colours of the rainbow.

It is solid colours and funnily enough, I found I also have some charm squares in exactly the same fabric selection - Kona Cotton Solids.  At least I am consistent in my tastes even if I have no idea what I have in my stash!.  I am really struggling to know what to do with it though as the colours are so lovely.  Not that I have time to tackle this yet but I'm working on it. 

Thanks for reading. x

Tempting Fate!

Well, another rainy bank holiday Monday (aren't they always) and what do you do on a rainy bank holiday round here?  That's right, you go shopping.  In an attempt to get out of the house the only place we could think of to go was Homebase - how sad is that?!  To be fair, my husband has to go out this evening to rehearse for his choral society's Titanic remembrance performance in Southampton (100 years since she set sail on her maiden and only voyage) so as a result we haven't really got a lot of time today to do anything else.  Anyway, Homebase was predictably busy but we still managed to order ourselves some garden furniture.  We have been looking at it for 3 years but we figured that we can't have yet another bad summer and this year was the year to splash out.  That was the optimistic me.  The pessimistic me says  I can now guarantee it will rain from now to September. <sigh>    Still, we need the rain.  I shouldn't complain really and even if we don't use it this year, the sun has to come out in the summer one day doesn't it?  Well doesn't it?!!!

It would be the ideal afternoon to do some crafting I suppose but I have a lot of cutting out to do and that isn't my favourite bit.  I am a bit of a wimp.  I know the rule is measure twice, cut once but I need to measure 4 or 5 times to be on the safe side.  It seems the harder I try to get it right the more likely it is that I make a mistake.  My course work is mounting up so I have to get on with it soon.

We have been doing a lot of hand sewing on my patchwork and quilting course recently.  The last thing we did, before we started the Easter school holidays was non-traditional hand quilting, a sort of mix between hand quilting and embroidery since a lot of the stitches are embroidery stitches.   It is quite relaxing.  This is my almost finished piece.

Actually I hadn't realised until now that this is not the finished article.  This does not include some additional couching and the extra tassells I put on a few days ago.  Maybe I will add some more photos later.  I had to use as many techniques as possible including filler stitches like these seeding stitches.

And some couching like this ribbon and the edge of the flower shape.  We also had to add some tassells. 





Apart from the fact the fabric is horrible I quite like it.  There was no pattern to follow - it just took on a life of its own.  The fabric was one I dyed for the course by the way.  I would never have bought it.  And in case you were wondering it isn't an accident.  This is the colour it was meant to be.  Yuck.

Apart of this, I have had a little burst of crochet too.  For quite a while I have a granny stripes blanket slowly, slowly growing.  I hadn't touched it for months but I did a few rows the other night.  This is it.

No fancy yarn.  Just Stylecraft Special DK which is very nice to work with I have to say and despite it being left over the back of the sofa for ages, shows no sign of bobbling that some people seem to think is automatic with an acrylic. I like it so much here is another photo!

It is quite big but not big enough yet.  I wonder how long it will take in the end..........?

Right, this post has taken me a few hours to do as I keep being interrupted by life and boys.  It is still raining. We have another week of school holidays left here.  I wonder if it will stop before the boys go back to school?!