Updates

Where do I start?
I have been doing stitching, crochet and making more felt brooches. I forgot to photograph the brooches before I gave them away to my girls on camp - LF8R Winter Teen Camp that my church runs with CYC. I was a leader again this year (my 2nd year) and I gave my 4 girls each a brooch. Most of them ended up using them in their hair for our 80's Prom, the last night of camp. They were gorgeous!

For my crochet rug, I am now back to purple, having finished the next section of blue and the 2 rounds of maroon that go in between. It's getting too big to photograph!

I didn't get 'Hang in There Panda' done in time for my Mum's birthday. I still wrapped it up, along with the picture, and will complete it as I have time. Part of the problem is a lack of thread being supplied. Thankfully the company will send you more thread if you run out. I did have to get some of one colour, however I have now run out of another colour. I don't need as much as they will send, but I can't just go out and match it, because they don't use standard threads. I'm going to do as much as I can, to see if I need more of any other colours before sending my order.

I'm still going with 'African Sunset', but there is no way I'll get it finished by the start of next month. I plan to do the same as I did with Mum, wrap what I've done and include the picture. Hopefully the person I'm giving it to still likes the picture. Not sure what I'll do otherwise.

I finally finished my course, and my new job starts on Monday! I'll be spending several hours everyday looking after primary school aged children in an After School Care Program! Some opportunities for craft will come up there, so that's good. Other than that, I just need to make some more time for stitching. One thing I'm doing is cutting back on my internet time. It's amazing how much time Facebook and other internet things take. It's a battle, but one I'm determined to win.

Puppets and Brooches

One of the requirements for my Children's Services course was to make a puppet that went with a song or nursery rhyme.
I chose 'Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary' as my rhyme, and this is my puppet:


To present her I used a basket which I put in silver bells, cockle shells and some little dolls. The effect is very nice. Today was the day we presented them. So now I just have to wait to see if I passed.

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I've also been making some more felt brooches. Five in all.



A nice thing about these brooches is that I was able to earn a little money for them.

Craft Updates

I thought it was time I updated you on some of my projects. I haven't blogged for so long because I've been a little busy - family emergencies and starting studying again have taken almost all my time. First up, is my progress on 'Hang in There Panda'. I was working on it a bit, but then realised I was running out of one of the threads. Thankfully you can order more thread free of charge from Dimensions. It took about 3 weeks, but I can now get on with it again. I was trying to get it ready by the beginning of May, but I think it might be more reasonable for the middle of June. As you can see, I have a little more of the panda to do and then all the other sections.

Next there is 'African Sunset'. There is absolutely no way I will get this done by August as I planned. However, what I have decided to do it tell the person I'm giving it to how much I've done and that I will finish it as soon as I can.

I'm currently trying to get the top left corner finished, just so I feel like I'm getting somewhere and so that I don't have to constantly change colours all the time.

And then there is my crochet rug. As I do with many projects that I design myself, I have changed the design of this once again. I was planning to use two balls of blue to one ball of purple with two rounds of maroon in between. However, I am almost to the end of the second ball of blue and I would prefer to have more blue before the next purple section. So I'll just do however many blue I feel looks right and then do some more purple. I will stick with the two rounds of maroon in between though.

You couldn't really get the full colour contrast with the photo of the whole rug, so this next photo is a close up of how the three colours work together. I love how they all complement each other and it will be interesting to see how the next part goes. I'm still not sure quite how large the rug will be.

Oh, and can anyone tell me how I can even out the edges? They are a little wonky right now. I have heard something about blocking, but I'm not sure how it will work on a project this size. I'm guessing that it has to be done once the rug is finished.

One of the things I love about this now is that it keeps my legs warm while I crochet - a perfect winter project!

Something Small, Something New and a Little Progress Too

After all the large projects I've been doing, I felt the need to do something small, so that I'd feel I actually accomplished something.
So here they are, a book mark and a Christmas decoration.
The hanger on the Christmas decoration is actually green, but for some reason my scanner picked it up as blue.

So with those finished I was ready to move onto something else. I decided to work on this cute, stamped cross stitch panda.

As a general rule I hate stamped cross stitch. You can't get the stitches even and cover the markings for stitching at the same time. But I didn't realise it was stamped cross stitch when I bought it, and I intend giving it as a gift.

I have done a little more on African Sunset, but not much. I find it very frustrating having to change colours all the time, and the colours are much different that what I usually work with. I really hope the person I plan to give it to still likes it by the time I finish.

Now the question is, can I get African Sunset and Hang in There Panda done by the time I plan to give them to the intended recipients. I'm beginning to have my doubts.

A few more things from 2010

There were a couple of projects I did at the end of last year.
I ended up doing our family Christmas tree decorations again.

This time I went with the felt theme of craft that I've been doing lately.
I used a cookie cutter to make a pattern and then cut out 2 felt pieces for each one. The gold star in the middle is a brad. I had to put a small hole through the felt to get the brad in, but other than that it was easy. I sewed the 2 sides together with a contrasting embroidery thread, stuffing the star before I finished stitching. The hanging loop is red rickrack. I need a contrast for the red stars, but didn't have anything available. I made 8 in all. One was actually blue with a silver star brad - my friend has a blue and silver theme going with her Christmas tree.

The other project was a birthday card. I used Stampin' Up stamps from a couple of different sets. One of the sets was 'Window Dressing'. I love this set. It has so many possibilities!
I did make another card, but I don't have a picture of it. I also used Stampin' Up sets for that one.