On the hook: Flowers, flowers and more flowers

The kids are back at school, the days are getting shorter, and the evenings are decidedly cooler. Autumn is arriving.

But there is no sign of flowers fading any time soon at my house...

Look what the postman brought me! I had pre-ordered this book a while back and forgot when it was due to be published, so it was a bit like an early birthday when this parcel arrived the other day.

This is Nicki Trench’s latest book, Cute & Easy Crochet with Flowers. I’m a big fan of her Cute & Easy Crochet book, and this new publication is just as chock-full of sweet crochet items. I won’t do a proper review of it yet, because I want to make one of the projects first – but last night I ordered some yarn to make these:

These are round placemats made with Zpagetti, the recycled T-shirt yarn. It’s high time I tried out this type of yarn, but I’ll never have enough old T-shirts to make my own skeins, so I bought some Zpagetti. It should arrive in a few days, so hopefully within the next week or two I’ll let you know how I’m getting on with the placemats.

I wanted to do a quick make from the book first, but this is what I really fancy making:

pretty, pretty, pretty!!!

But first I must finish my other crochet WIPs! The Blossoming Bag (a gal can never have too many crocheted bags) is *so close* to being complete.

Both sides are done, the handles are there, and I even found a lining fabric that coordinates perfectly – it’s difficult to see, but the teeny tiny dots on this fabric match the dark teal blossoms.

So what has got in the way of me finishing this bag? Grandma’s birthday, that’s what!

My grandma turns 89 this month. So what does an 89-year-old need? An iPad Mini, of course...

The family is all pitching in to get her an iPad Mini and whatever broadband thingy she needs at home to make it work. I’ll be able to Skype and “visit” with her all the time! I’m crocheting an iPad cover based on a pattern from Granny Squares, which I reviewed here.

I’ve adapted the pattern to fit an iPad Mini, meaning I just make fewer squares and edge it in two rows on each side rather than three. Easy! I’m also using just one colour of yarn, because that’s the kind of granny square my granny would prefer. She likes green, so I’m using some of the Sirdar Snuggly I have left over from the baby blanket I finished earlier this summer.

I have one side finished, which I whipped up in two evenings while watching telly. I’m joining the squares as I go AND weaving in the ends, which are two revelations for me! It was a bit slow in the beginning, but I stuck with it, and I am so glad I did. The project comes together so much more quickly – I am not faced with a zillion pesky ends to weave in afterwards, and I don’t have piles of squares to crochet together. It’s suddenly “ta-dah!” and one side is all done! This is the way forward...

I have to send this gift on Monday at the latest, so I’ll have a FO post very soon. Shhh! Don’t tell Grandma!

Chrissie x

Graffiti Party

Just before school begins each year, Bunny has her closest friends over for an end-of-summer party. These are friends she has known since pre-school, and I find that getting them together before the new term starts helps reacquaint everyone and calms the back-to-school jitters they’re all feeling.

This year we had a Graffiti Party. We planned to have the party in Bunny’s playhouse

Here it is before the party, with its pale pink interior (I plan to take over this playhouse when the girls have outgrown it!)

Within minutes of arriving, the girls were out in the garden having a water battle. Water guns, water bottles...even a drinking cup was used as a weapon!

Then five drenched 10-year-olds gathered outside the playhouse, reading the special sign Bunny posted

Welcome to the Graffiti Party!!!

Inside, we had lined the walls with a roll of art paper...

...and put out a little table with five plain white T-shirts, fabric pens, and an assortment of markers, pencils, crayons and stamps.

First, the girls changed into the T-shirts, and I hung out their other tops to dry in the sunshine. They proceeded to giggle and chatter their way through the next few hours scribbling all over the walls and all over each other’s T-shirts!

Ah, do you remember being 10? All the little pictures and words they doodled are in-jokes for this fun gang, and I love to celebrate their friendship. We’ll keep these graffiti walls for a long while, I’m sure!

Then it was time for some snacks. In addition to the usual party munchies, I made some chocolate cut-out cookies with the ‘speech bubble’ cartoon cookie cutters I bought from Lakeland.

I iced them with royal icing, then did my own graffiti of the girls’ silly nicknames for each other.

I used these brilliant food writing pens I found online...

I gave the girls a batch of the cookies to decorate for themselves. Again, more nonsense and fun, this time in the form of edible graffiti...  

It’s nice to find a party theme for this often tricky age group – too cool for princesses or most themes now, but still young enough to giggle and scream during water battles!

And here I give due credit to my mother, who threw me a Graffiti Party when I was a girl. I can still remember the white sheets hung all over the room, and how my friends and I couldn’t believe we were going to be able to draw on the walls without getting in trouble! I carry these memories with me still, and that what inspires me to do the same with my children. Happy times!

Chrissie x

Introducing...Stitching Sundays

We’re all set here for a busy week back to school, back to routines, back to *real life*. But it’s not all gloom – I’m going to kick-start a new season of crafting with a little Stitch-A-Long!

Stitching Sundays, which I’ve initially planned to last about four weeks, will give everyone an opportunity to have a few quiet moments to make a small embroidered project. For new or novice embroiderers, you can try your hand at a small and manageable project, and for those of you with more experience, you can try some new techniques or just get ahead with some holiday makes!

So what’s in store?

Today we’ll talk about choosing a project and the basic tools for embroidery. Next week we’ll look at transferring a design onto fabric and discuss some basic stitches. Future Sundays we can try more stitches, troubleshoot tricky bits, and figure out how to finish your work. The idea is to keep it relaxing and fun, while we all juggle the rest of our lives and our WIPs! I do hope you’ll join in and share your work.

What to Stitch?

Here is where the fun begins! Do you have a craft book or a magazine that has an embroidery pattern you’ve been dying to try out but can never find the time? Here are some of my favourite embroidery books that are ideal for beginners

All of these books have such fun, relaxed attitudes towards embroidery, they have helpful sections on techniques and kit...I know many of you already have one or two of these, so choose a small project from here if you’d like.

But of course you don’t need to buy a book to get started! If you can trace it, you can most likely stitch it...

You could doodle your own design onto fabric:

I did this teeny beehive design freehand for a charity project, which I’ll tell you more about very soon (I’m finishing it tonight!). It is easy to do in backstitch or stem stitch, and can be enlarged to whatever size you fancy. I drew a version of it, which I will upload here, and let’s see if any of you can print it. I'm happy to email a pdf file to anyone as I still need to learn how to embed a pdf file into Blogger (I’m terribly new to all this tech stuff, so please, bear with me!)

I didn’t add grass or flowers, they are stitched freehand.

I plan to embroider this again for my own use – I have an idea to cut out the finished hive into a hexie and start a bee-themed hexie cushion (good grief, am I morphing one WIP into another WIP? I’ve gone over the edge...).

And I am starting the bookends project from The Hand-Stitched Home:

If you’re still stuck for ideas, blog about it or email me and let’s brainstorm!

The Tools

You need just a few items to start your embroidery. I’m not going to endorse any one brand or company here, because honestly, my kit is such a hodge-podge of different items that I haven’t decided on my favourites yet. Buy what you can afford, but don’t feel you have to break the bank!

1. Fabric

I prefer linen in an off-white or taupe shade. I love the texture of linen, and it goes with just about everything. You can mix it with vintage florals or modern brights and it looks fabulous with either. But hey, you can stitch on anything you can get a needle through! I’ve seen beautiful work done on patterned fabric, paper, wood even! – just make sure you choose a material that suits your ability.

2. Hoop

I usually use a wooden hoop, but I have some plastic ones, too. Buy a hoop that you can hold comfortably and that gives you plenty of space for you to stitch your design. Hoops are generally inexpensive – my seated hoop cost a bit more, but I use it a lot and it leaves both hands free. If you’re new to the craft, just buy one simple hoop and see if you enjoy embroidery before you go investing in all the kit!

3. Needles

Look for embroidery needles, which have slightly larger, longer eyes than plain sewing needles. This is so you can thread multiple strands of floss through the eye without screaming in frustration. Keep them safe – I have my magnetic frog and my crochet cookie needle case, for example.

4. Embroidery Floss

I have DMC, Anchor and Sublime Stitching flosses in my kit, and I use them interchangeably with no complaints. Again, buy what you can afford, or what is in your local shop. I know professional embroiderers have their opinions on this, and I’m sure that for the very skilled stitchers one type lays flatter than the other or casts a better sheen, etc...but I’m in it for the fun, and I’ve never been disappointed with any of these flosses for the simple designs I stitch. I envisaged this Stitch-A-Long to have projects that only require two to four colours of floss, so that no one feels they have to invest loads to try out something new.

5. Scissors

I have embroidery scissors, but any scissors that can cut cleanly through floss will do for a beginner – I once used baby nail scissors when I was too lazy to get off the sofa to find my embroidery scissors...

And that’s pretty much all you need to get stitching! You have til next Sunday to get your kit together and choose a design. Check out the local haberdashery, or online sewing and hobby/craft shops...and feel free to email me with any questions or if you get stuck.

Last but not least, please join in the group with the Stitching Sundays button and post your project on your own blog – we’re all in this together, and as we get going I’d love to do a blog hop so we can share experiences, tips and photos! Each week I can list who is involved, along with links to your blogs. As this is my first craft-a-long, I’m sure the project will change and grow as needed.

I’m excited to see what we all get up to! Happy stitching!

Chrissie x