Christmas Ornament 2016

Every year since we were married, I've made the husband and I an annual Christmas ornament. It's one of the greatest joys of my crafting year.

Here's a bad phone photo of Christmas Ornament 2016. . . the year we bought our first home (which is, as it happens, red brick).

I know I've been quiet in this space of late. The crafting has continued in spades, just not on the blog. If you're interested in what I'm making, I post fairly regularly photos on Twitter @SarahJLisle.

Here's hoping you have a lovely holiday season.

2016 Finishes (where I have remembered to take photos)

The Details

Pattern: From The World of Cross Stitching "Pretty Springtime Cards" Chartbook

Thread: Provided in kit

Fabric: Provided in kit

Finish: Card, card provided in kit

Added to my "when needed" card box

The Details

Pattern: Sweet Pea Sweater, by Laura Tegg

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK - Greengage

Hook: 4.5mm

Present for H's baby

The Details

Pattern: Combination of Lil' Duck, by Karla Fitch and Neat Ripple, by Attic 24

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK - Citron, Walnut, Aster, Storm Blue

Hook: 3.25mm

Present for H's baby

The Details

Pattern: Ashmead Designs - Holly Black

Materials: Provided in kit

June 2016 Current WIPs? A full-sized neat ripple blanket and Three Wise Men in Xstitch

Cross Stitching: A wedding present

Bad phone photo taken a second before it was wrapped because I realised I hadn't taken any!

The Details

Pattern: French Country - Wedding Bells, JBW Designs

Thread: DMC 550

Fabric: 28 Count Permin Linen - Natural

Finish: Framed by me, no mount. Frame from TK Maxx

Stitched October-November 2015. Wedding present for Matt and Hayley

Craft: Christmas Ornaments 2015

Various Christmas decorations added to our collection in November 2015. Details of kits/tutorials: Fabric pine cone, Felt nativity, Felt deer and fox

Cross Stitch: 2015 Christmas Ornament

The Details

Pattern: Let Us Adore Him, Country Cottage Needleworks

Thread: DMC and Weeks Dye Works as charted

Fabric: 32 ct Permin Lambswool Linen

Finish: Pillow Ornament. Finishing by me, inspiration from The Twisted Stitcher

Stitched December 2015. Finished Jan 2016. 

Crochet: Secret Garden Shrug

The Details

Pattern: Secret Garden Shrug, from Crochet One-Skein Wonders

Size: Medium

Wool: Womens Institute Soft and Silky - Slate

August-September 2015

Cross Stitching: A couple of smalls

Keeping myself busy between larger projects. . .

The Details

Pattern/Thread/Fabric: Free kit from The World of Cross Stitching Magazine

Finish: Card, using supplies in kit. 

Stitched August 2015

No destination yet - goes into my stock of cards!

The Details

Pattern/Thread/Fabric: Free kit in Goody Bag picked up at the NEC sewing/stitching show (originally Cross Stitch Card Shop I think)

Stitched July 2015

No destination yet - goes into my stock of smalls for cards etc.

Cross Stitch/Sewing: Christmas Holly Cushion

The Details

Pattern: Holly-Word Art, from The World of Cross Stitching Magazine (Issue 223)

Thread: DMC as charted.

Fabric: 14 count oatmeal aida

Finish: Envelope cushion, fabric is Poinsettia & Holly by Martha Negley for Rowan.

Stitched July 2015. I'm keeping this one! 

Cross Stitch: Winnie the Pooh

The Details

Pattern: Pooh, from the Designer Stitches 100 Acre Wood Chart Book

Thread: DMC - as charted where available, and substituted by me instead of charted Designer Stitches thread

Fabric: 14 count white aida

Finish: Framed, no mount. Custom frame from Picture Frame Express, framed by me

Stitched June-July 2015. Gift for Tom&Emily (new baby! with a Pooh-themed nursery)

Cross Stitch: Bienvenue a la maison

My latest finish (rubbish photos):

The Details

Pattern:  Bienvenue a la maison, from this book. Slight changes charted by me.

Thread: DMC as charted

Fabric: 28 Count Permin Linen - Natural

Stitched February-June 2015. Gift for S&R's wedding.

Cross Stitch: Mothers day card

The Details

Pattern: Free kit from World of Cross Stitching magazine. Lettering charted by me.

Thread and fabric as supplied in kit.

Card finish.

Card blank from Hobbycraft, ribbon repurposed from magazine kit.

Stitced and finished February 2015

Quilting: Royal Squares

Time for a change of pace around here. I've found myself gradually moving away from blogging - life changes. But this will still be a place to document my crafty life. Expect sporadic posts with little detail! (as if that wasn't the case already).

Today, a quilt!

 

The Details

Pattern: Royal Squares (free here)

Front fabric: Notting Hill, by Joel Dewberry + white

Back fabric: Notting Hill leftovers + Amy Butler + can't remember

Binding: scrappy, Notting Hill leftovers

Quilted: straight line quilting done on home machine by me

Thread: Guterman, variegated blues

Started 2012 or 2013? Finished June 2015.

Crochet: A Weeping Angel

One of my good friends is a total Whovian and I've been thinking for a while that I needed to do some Dr Who themed projects for her. This was started in November with the intention of a Christmas gift but ended up being finished in January, just in time for her February birthday.

I think this is definitely the cutest Weeping Angel I've ever seen! She turned out pretty adorable and it was a surprisingly hard thing to let her go off her mantelpiece! She stands unaided thanks to a well placed disc of cardboard at the base of the body.

I'm chuffed with the success of my second ever amigurumi project, especially the shaping and attaching the pieces together, which I think I'm starting to get better at with practice. I feel like I need more people in my life I can make 'toys' for!

Don't Blink!

The Details

Pattern: Weeping Angel, by Irene McCormick (free on Ravelry), crocheted as charted

Yarn: Paton's Diploma Gold DK in Charcoal

Hook: 3.5mm

The Tiniest Fox in the World

It was the birthday of a friend this weekend. Unfortunately it had been a busy week, which combined with illness meant opportunities for present buying were limited. Good thing I have boxes and boxes of crafty supplies at home right?!

May I introduce, the tiniest fox in the world. . . (or so I'm claiming)

Embroidery scissors for scale

I knew I had some keyring blanks lying around that would make a perfect small gift if I could find a pattern I liked small enough to fit in one. That proved a tougher challenge than I first thought. . .  which may have been a good thing.

There was just nothing small enough! Solution? Stitching over one thread on 28ct fabric. Much better! (and to be honest, easier than I had been led to believe. I was thankful for my daylight lamp though). As for a pattern. Well, for the first time in my cross stitching life I ended up pretty much making it up as I went along. Which went surprisingly well and is definitely something I'll be trying again.

A couple of hours of stitching while watching TV, a scrap of fusible interfacing and some green felt later, this little guy was all done.

The Details

Pattern: I winged it, with inspiration from this photo on Pinterest for the shape and a bit of guidance from this free pattern (unfortunately no longer available, I have the magazine it originally appeared in) as to actual stitching

Fabric: Scrap misc. 28 ct

Thread: Misc kit leftovers in stash

Finishing: Keyring blank with felt backing

Here's hoping he's well received! To be honest I'm very tempted to keep him for myself. Good thing I still have a few keyring blanks to spare!

Currently Monday #13

 

Work charity bakesale this week!

Time and Place // 9.26 pm. Couch in lounge!

Eating and Drinking // Homemade coffee and walnut cake + about to make tea

Reading // Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell, which is the same thing I was reading two weeks ago. I’m about 25% through, but it’s just not grabbing me.

Watching // Covert Affairs!!! I love TV shows that have really well done ‘will they – won’t they – they have to – just kiss already’ relationship tension between the main characters, and this one definitely has that. I’m holding out for Annie and Auggie to become a couple already and we’re not even half way through the first series (of five!). I've already ordered the DVDs of seasons 2 and 3.

Listening // Taylor Swift. Because sometimes I feel like the pop-iest of the pop :-D

Making // Quilt top back! I also started a new cross stitch project next week. That I need to take a photo of quick while it’s still at the stage where you can’t really tell what the finished product is going to look like (it’s a gift)

Hating // Being sick for no apparent reason, as I was this weekend. Bllllaaaa.

Loving // That it feels like Spring may eventually emerge from the darkness. I swear the days are getting lighter.

Anticipating // A friend's birthday celebration and some exciting book events coming up (you can find my book blog here) 

Sarah

A quilt top and owning our mistakes

You learn a lot of life lessons through crafting, I find. Patience, perseverance, being kind to yourself, owning up to your mistakes, the importance of continuing to learn. All things I've learnt.

This week I finished a quilt top. I started it way back in 2012. The pieces have moved country with us, and I can honestly say that my entire life has changed since I started it.

For long lengths of time the pieces of this one sat in 'the naughty cupboard.' I wasn't far into it when I discovered I'd made some pretty unfixable mistakes and I wasn't sure what I should do. Give up? Unpick the whole thing and try and start again (knowing the fabric probably wouldn't survive a second attempt)? Just keep going, hope for the best and not care that at the very least the points wouldn't match and at worst it wouldn't come together at all?

Eventually I decided on the lets-keep-going route. It would be a learning experience. Only my second quilt top after all. I can't tell you how many things went wrong with this top. Every stage of the process felt like a battle. It tested all of the lessons that I mentioned. From those initial mistakes came problems later down the line. A mistake in the maths in the pattern (hubby checked) meant the final top has one block more of one type than it should have, and one less than the other type (I didn't have the fabric to make another block and honestly by that point I didn't even care any more).

But it's finished. And I love it just as much for the mistakes as for the bits I got perfectly right. I'm still not sure how the quilting is going to go - the mistakes mean this thing doesn't lay as flat as I like.

I'm going to finish it though. And when I do, I'm going to use it, with pride. And a happy reflection upon how our mistakes make us who we are just as much as our successes do. Sometimes you just have to own that for what it is.

 And sometimes you have to try and not care when the cat decides to wander over your just completed half-white quilt top.

Currently Monday #12

Winter sunsets from my office window

Time and Place // 9.49 pm, on the sofa in the lounge (a different lounge to last time I did one of these things!)

Eating and Drinking // After Dinner Mint ice cream. Which is tasty, but given the weather may have been a bad decision. I can't feel my fingers. Or my mouth.

Reading // Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Chimes, by Anna Smaill (releasing in the UK on Feb 12th from Spectre)

Watching // We got Netflix! (ages ago, but still). Currently binge rewatching Scrubs.

Listening // The Swedish duo First Aid Kit have been top of my playlist since they were on Graham Norton.

Making // A quilt top is being assembled! I also have a small cross stitch in progress, just a cover kit to keep my hands busy while I wait for supplies for a bigger project to arrive

Hating // When it starts to snow half way through my walk to the train station in the morning. Has happened three times now!

Loving // Watching snow blizzards from my 12th floor office. So pretty (and much nicer than walking to the train station in them).

Anticipating // A London trip planned for March. We're seeing three West End shows in four days!!! :) 

 

Sarah

Cross Stitch: Spring Chicks Finished

I started these Spring Chicks back in April last year! But finishing my Christmas projects has put me into the mood to finish off some other outstanding projects as well.

Sometimes things don't turn out the way you intended. I started these off for a spring-themed pillow, but by the time I finished I realised that the colours I'd chosen didn't look quite right for what I had in mind.

No matter. Things not turning out as one expected has its own rewards. Throw in some card blanks and ribbon and these two chicks have turned into some lovely cards for a few birthdays coming up. Yay for serendipity (and another project off the WIP pile).

In other news the sadness that is winter continues to mean artificial light photos. . . 

The Details

Pattern: Freebie, I think it was from the Coats Craft website, but can't find it there anymore

Fabric: Misc 14ct cream aida from stash

Threads: Assorted DMC of my own choosing

Finishing: Card blanks and ribbon thanks to HobbyCraft

Sewing: Kindle Cover

Just after Christmas my three year old Kindle gave up the ghost. I turned it on one day and there was a large white blot across the screen that just wasn't going to go away (the technologically minded husband confirmed it).

My Kindle has become probably my most beloved piece of electronic equipment and it quickly became clear that I couldn't live without one for long. Enter Kindle 2.0.

The cover I made three years ago had been starting to look more than a little tatty, so Kindle 2.0 also called for Kindle cover 2.0

Cover 2.0 is a little more sophisticated than version one, reflecting my increase in confidence and sewing skills over the last three years. Fewer raw edges, tidier top stitching (though I admit sewing through the six+ layers of fabric and catching them all hasn't got any easier with time, even with the addition of a walking foot).

Look at those lovely corners! The fabric is some gorgeous Amy Butler I had stashed away, Josephine's Bouquet Ink from the Cameo collection. In fact this entire project came from stash, apart from 40p of elastic.

Some brilliant guidance came from this tutorial, which I made a few (minor) adjustments to. Right, next on the agenda is a bag to keep our new Sat Nav in!