Socks and blanket

I've relearnt crochet thanks to my new craft group and been inspired by Nicki to tackle my first pair of socks and am pleased with the results of both.

Here are the socks. From a pattern by Cookie A, they are called Monkey. I used a Marathon sock yarn.

The pattern was easy to follow and worked out well. I am still a little amazed how well they came out, turning the heel seems so mysterious.

The crochet blanket started as an experiment to see what would happen if I made crochet squares using sock yarn. I used a crochet square starting with a circle which I found on Ravelry. The pattern is called Flowers in the Snow by Solveig Grimstad. I joined six of these squares as I crocheted and ended up with six patterned rectangles. It wasn't big enough for anything sensible and I had run out of sock yarn so I matched up a deep purple sock yarn to make some plain versions of the flower squares and to add in the final borders. I put a little picot edge on and I'm please with the end result.

12 day swap

I realised that I'd forgotten to post the photos of the items I made for the 12 day swap at Christmas. It is a closely guarded secret until everyone has opened their parcels so as not to spoil the surprise. Of course I then forgot to post the photo.

So I made a little needle case for everyone which I hope will come in handy.

All wrapped up in some tissue paper decorated with spray inks and a little stamped tag.

Quick catch up

I've not posted much on here for a while so thought I'd just have a quick catch up post for those projects that I've missed.

Firstly I made a polymer clay pendant and some buttons and charms using a mokume gane type technique. This involved making thin layers of coloured clay and then pressing a rubber stamp into the stack. I sliced off the top section revealing a pattern of colours underneath. I cut it into shapes and pressed some into a button mould.

I made a couple of pincushions, one for a swap and one which now lives next to my sewing machine to save me rummaging around for pins.

And finally a fabric postcard for the theme lace and buttons

Book with patterned pages

I joined a swap for using Distress Inks and thought I'd try to make a project that used a few techniques with them. I used two colours for most of the project, Mustard Seed and Broken China.

Firstly I made some pages with the wrinkle free technique where you wipe a couple of ink pads over a non stick sheet, spray them with a little water and then dip the paper into it. Dry with a heat gun and dip a few more times to build up the textures. I then used some stencils with some of the two ink colours using  a blending tool to add some more interest to the pages.

I then made some covers with some mount board and using some duct tape as the hinge. I used the blending tool to add some of the two ink colours to make a blended background. I then stamped some images using Weathered Wood and an india ink black inkpad, the only non-distress ink in the project.

I sewed the pages in using a pamphlet stitch.

Christmas

I decided to make a Christmas tree skirt after seeing a friend's one. I searched for inspiration and finally found some in a blog here which is broadly based on a book I have called Scandinavian Stitches .

Here it is all finished

And some pictures of the detail

Bags

I have finally finshed making a couple of bags I've been working on for quite a while. I am happy with the way they both turned out. The beach hut bag was a very simple design with a lining. The spotty bag was a little more complicated but I like the interesting shape.

Notebook

I joined in with a swap where I made some paper following some instructions. I used the paper to make a notebook cover by backing it with felt and sewing around the edges with zigzag stitch. I then used some watercolour pages as the signatures and used a sewn binding with beads. A ribbon attached to the book keeps it closed.

Sweepstake for free online courses

Julie Prichard is running a sweepstake to win free access to all her online courses. I have done quite a few of her courses and have enjoyed them all. The latest set have been taught with Chris Cozen. I find the videos easy to watch and detailed and they are both really responsive to comments and quick with useful feedback.

Here's the little video that Julie has created for this sweepstake

Mixed Media Art Quilt

I have just finished a small (8x8) art quilt for a swap. I used the techniques from Angie Hughes' Inspired Velvet DVD.

The background is velvet that is sprayed and bleached to get the pattern. I used a stencil instead of printing with blocks. I didn't have colourfast silk paint as she uses but I wondered if it would work with other colour sprays. Because the inks weren't colour fast they turned an orange colour from green so I think I'll use the recommended silk paints next time. It looked fine though so I used it to create the art quilt.

I added some metallic foil to create the plant trunks and some chocolate foil for the squares. I added small squares of red fabric. I then covered the whole thing with black organza and free motion stitched on the top. I finished the back off with pelmet vilene and added a gold cord border. I had stitched a hanging pocket onto the backing before attaching so I could just thread a black cord through to hang it on the wall.

Beaded Purse

This is a beaded purse I made for a swap. I needed to make an item using some beads. I have had this quilted purse pattern for a little while and wanted to give it a go. The quilting and free motion stitching went fine but because it is quilted before stitching the purse together the seams were untidy. I used some more of the lining material to bind each of the inside seams which took quite a long time. It was a time consuming project but I'm pleased with the end result. I hope my swap partner likes it. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them and can see more of the details.

Fabric paper

I made some fabric paper using serviettes. I used this sheet of fabric paper to make a book cover and a card.



For the book, I used watercolour cards as signatures and sewed then to the spine of the book cover. The book cover was made from fabric paper back with felt that I oversewed using free motion machine stitching. I added some buttons to the front cover.



I used some of the left over fabric paper to make a card. Again I backed it with felt and oversewed using free motion machine stitching.

Stencils

I joined a swap that required the use of a stencil. I decided to decorate some small canvases I'd got a while ago. They are about 4 inches square. I used acrylic paint to layer up some colours. I then used a plastic stencil from crafter's workshop to add some pattern to the background and then a brass stencil from Dreamweaver for the central image. I am pleased with them and intend to use one for the swap and to put the other one on my own wall.

Nature ATC

Water stamping backgrounds and metal embellishments

Here are three ATCs I made using a water stamping background and some metal embellishments I made from wire.

Mixed Media Art Quilt