Hexies and stitches

 Well its been a fortnight since my last post and I haven't done very much paper crafting or sewing/knitting for that matter. I have been satinwood painting, skirting boards, 5 doors and door frames done. The smell of paint is really strong but thankfully the sun has shone the last couple of days so all the doors and windows have been open and we have actually had lunch outside!

As I try and keep up to date  with the #52tagshannemade , here is wk7 and 8.

Week 7  Hexies. This was very new to me, you take a circle of material, find the centre point then fold in to the centre which gives you a hexagon. Its quite fiddly particularly when you don't have one of those mini craft irons! (more shopping to come) Although I only made one tag I do have spare hexies so will make a second tag at some point.

Week 8 Stitches. Wow this week was a challenge. Having learnt how to do french knots we now had to use that skill to make pistil stitches and bullion stitch. Well out of my comfort zone. Minimum amount of fabric. More about the sewing. One comment on my instagram feed thought the colours were funky! I'm not sure that was the intention but the more I look at it the more I like what I achieved.

Week 9: is here, now for an hour sorting through materials and ribbons. Happy days.

From the knitting needles this week

 The knitting needles have been busy this week, a jumper and a snuggly waistcoat for Jasper. The jumper in double knitting is a lovely pattern, its got drop shoulder sleeves which I always find easier and a round neck option. This pattern also has buttons on the shoulders. Lovely in a plain colour way I will reknit in a pattern wool at some point. 

The little waistcoat is knitted in chunky. The wool on the ball was lovely, soft and warm, when knitted up I thought it was a bit dark for a toddler I also ran out and didn't have enough to complete the armhole edges! So I bought an extra ball in the bright gold. I would have liked a royal blue but couldn't find anything that was quite the right shade. Love this and I'm sure he will look a bobby dazzler in it. 

All wool is from knitting Network

Slow stitching, wk4 Fly Stitch, wk5 Kisses, wk6 A Bevy of Buttons

Gosh time flies even when you are doing nothing. Its been so cold I haven't ventured out now for over a week but have been busy inside. The work to renovate continues a pace. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago -scaffolding -for the stairs. We hired scaffolding a fortnight ago to paint above the stairs. This was a first! The stairs are quite narrow so once we had erected the scaffolding I was stuck at the top and my OH at the bottom, hmmmm. So we returned to limbo days, which were a long time ago. I'm not as flexible as I was but we both surprised ourselves with how we managed. We worked until the painting that had to be done with the scaffolding was finished, which took us most of the day then took the scaffolding down. Taking it down was much easier than putting it up! and happened much quicker than we expected. This week I have sanded down the edge of the stairs and put one coat of Frenchic paint on. Second coat tomorrow. I have finished the handrail which my OH has re attached to the wall, all looks good so far. I still have the edges of the stair treads to do and then the carpet to order but there is always next week.

On the crafting front I missed posting about the sewing tags so I have 3 weeks worth to show you as I start on another one tomorrow. Week 4 was a new stitch to me -Fly Stitch. I created one very simple tag with the stitch which made me think of fronds in the river, my second tag uses a couple of buttons so the stitch looks like petals, a bit like a dandelion. I really enjoyed creating these 2

Week 5 Kisses, wasn't really about a stitch but the stitching was an element in it. I only created one tag for week 5 but may in the future go back and do a second one. The challenge was to create a cross with fabric then stitch crosses or 'kisses' onto the fabric cross or the fabric around it. I did find this one quite challenging. Firstly choosing the fabric and I probably used too many different bits then adding the crosses which needed to be very small. On reflection my stitching did improve as I went on.

Week 6 was A Bevy of Buttons. Loved doing this one I do have a very large stash of buttons. I started simple with shades of blue onto some fleece from a pair of xmas winter pj's they had snowflakes on them. Then I combined my fly-stitching with the colours of the rainbow to create a second tag. Love them both.

Keep well and stay warm. k x

Family art club - Kites

 So this time the family art club is kites. I was really struggling with what to do.

 On the first Saturday of every month I do an online altered book class with Phizzychick This is a new style of work to me. I have done about 1/2 a dozen now.  

So I branched out on my own and created this which I am quite pleased with. Very simple.