Belated birthday goodies for Steph

Hi everyone,

Just a short post to show you what I made for Steph's birthday. Now I did only find out that it was her birthday on the day and Steph being the generous soul she is, I felt it was only right to send her some little goodies. So I made her a little spider biscornu from a Kincavel Krosses design. I altered the colours slightly and used green irridescent beads instead of french knots.

I then made her this little cushion, just in time for Halloween as I know Steph likes things of a spooky nature. The design is from either WOXS or CS from last year and I backed it with some funky purple fabric.

Steph said she had a hard job putting the little robin back into the travelling box so I made her one too and popped in a little bag of whatnots too.

Right I'm off to make the little present for my 500th comment winner, I'm well into the 490's so not long to go now!!!!

Thanks for stopping by. xxx

101 update (about time too)

Hello and warm greetings to you all, and a big welcome to my new follower Katy. I hope you enjoy my blog.

Anyhoo, I sat and realised this morning that I've really been neglecting my 101/1001 challenge so I set about updating the site and writing a catch up post, Nothing overly exciting and a couple of pictures, but here goes.

The Stats:
Days remaining: 922
Things completed: 5
In progress: 23

I've been reading a fair bit, and here are some of the 101 reads, I've included the Roald Dahl books, after all I am reading them even if it's outloud to Thom and they are brilliant stories. I'm currently reading The taming of Annabelle by M.C. Beaton. She is one of my favourite authors and I have about another 10 of her books waiting to be read from the Six Sisters series and also another series that slips my mind as they are all at Mum's waiting for me to pick up. So the 9 books I've read so far make up 6"...only 5 foot to go to reach my height so does that mean another 90 books? eek!

One of the fun challenges is to actually do some stuff from my pintrest board. The snowflake feltie  I made for the Christmas box was one of them. I also have a crayon one to do, so if anyone knows where I can get very cheap silicone cupcake moulds I'd be most grateful. I'm looking for hearts, christmas trees, hearts or something that basically isn't round. I don't want to spend anymore than 2 or 3 quid as they're only for a craft and couldn't be used for food after. The frustrating thing is that I've seen them in my local poundland before, but now I actually want them, do they have them...You've guessed it. No.

Another one of my challenges is to do a craft swap someone I've not done one with before. If anyone would like to do this please can they comment on this post. I'm flexible with the timescale and to a degree with what I can swap. I can't crochet Ami's or knit so that rules those out, but I'd be happy to do a biscornu or another stitched item such as a christmas decoration, ATC's , bookmark, etc or a feltie of some description. Please only do this if you really will commit and come through with this.
Lastly I completed the Hello Kitty biscornu for my daughter. The pattern was from here. It's a french blog and you will have to search to find the pattern, but there are tonnes of patterns on it. This is a 2010 freebie, so that should help you find it easier as I was having trouble linking it properly. I altered the colours slightly to ones I had to hand. Lottie loves it. I've sewn on a couple of HK beads which look like She is wearing earrings and sewed a charm to the back. I'm also using this for my basket of biscornu challenge for the August one as would you believe that's when I started it. Good thing I brought a new bowl to display all my biscornu in. I'll only be 3 months behind then!

Here's the back...

And finally joining the biscornu family in the bowl (I have 24 now with another 6 joining by the end of the year!!!)
For my new followers - not all are made by me, Laura, Steff W, Steph O, and Ivory have all fuelled my addiction :-D

Well thats it for today. Thanks for reading and happy crafting friends. xx

A little bit more of Christmas

Thank you for all the fab-u-lous comments on my craft box makes, I had to show hubby what you all had said as they were such kind words.

Welcome to my new followers Wendy and McKenna, I can't believe that my blog continues to gain followers, I'm thinking a giveaway at 50 followers. Thank you to all my wonderful blogging friends who put links to my blog on their posts. If anyone would like to suggest what I could make I'd love to hear your ideas.

So I've kind of gone into Christmas mode now, so apologies for those who are still in denial about it's looming presence. I had a bit of a find in the garage in one of my many craft draws of a bag of Christmas fabric scraps so just for Steph...here they are...

I started a piece of Christmas patchwork using 1" hexagons, so I will probably incorporate some of the scraps into it. There are some that may make it into my main patchwork too as they aren't overly Christmassy.

I've been asked to make 3 stockings for my friends children so I this week I brought the fabric for them. The plainer blue and burgundy will be backing fabric and probably the top band and the 3 different fabrics will be the fronts, I'm rather apprehensive about making them as I've not made one before, but my local sewing shop The Cotton Reel do lots of patterns and are so helpful.

As you know from my last post the Christmas Travelling box is well on it's way now, It's currently residing at Steph's. It's due back to me the week of my birthday and usually I get very cross if I get Christmas stuff before my birthday (3 weeks today Whoop, Whoop!) But I will forget all about that this year especially when you get awesome things like this coming through the door (or rather when the postie knocks on the door) that you had no idea were coming. No Steph had said she'd send me a little piece of Hello Kitty fabric, but when this arrived, I was gobsmacked to say the least.

Anyhoo my willpower lasted 2 days and here's the contents...

I'm so glad I opened it as I wouldn't have been able to enjoy all the gorgeous decorations. Hubby ate the candy cane, the children had 2 chocolates each and I'm saving the Teddy bear for me. (despite best attempts made by my children to munch it) So the stocking contained two candles - one fragranced with winterflower and the other is Christmas Eve, there is a bag with bells - including an awesone santa shaped one, charms, buttons and ribbon.

Here are the close ups, first the darling little Angel, with sparkly gold wings and halo and a white sparkly gown.

Next is the super cute little penguin, crochetted in a very fine yarn, he has moved in to the ami basket all ready and has made friends with the monsters. (he clearly thought it was a good idea to get in with the tough guys from the start, even though everyone else knows the Giraffes are in charge!)

Lastly is this completely amazing, teeny cross stitched cushion. It measures about 2" square and is so detailed. Steph is a genius! the coloured beads around the edges remind me of fairy lights.

Well I'm off to start one of the dozen biscornu I need to make.
Happy crafting friends. xxx

Travelling Craft box...the Christmas one!

Hi everyone,

So here is what has kept me occupied for a few weeks, It's now arrived with it's first recipient Steph, you can visit her blog here - check out the green men, they are amazing!

The travelling box has been so much fun to do that we decided to do a Christmas version, so I kicked it off and here is what I made for the box. It did feel a little odd crafting for Christmas in September/October but I'm really happy with what I made.

Here's a  little snowman gadget case - It might get cold and the phone get a little chilly! it could be filled with sweets though.

Next up is a bracelet, I love the colours and the little holly leaves were so sweet. You can see the matching earrings in the 'group' photo!

I stitched 4 bits and here is the first and also the first thing I stitched - a little Mouseloft kit - the perfect size for a coaster.

I didn't want it all to be just Christmassy so I made this little kilt pin brooch with a more wintery feel. There are matching earrings too. 

Next up is this snowflake feltie decoration. I found the design on pinterest, with a basic tutorial so I thought I'd give it a go. The good thing about this is that it also falls into one of my 101/1001 challenges which was to make 5 things I'd pinned from pinterest. 1 down 4 to go. I have showed a few friends this and now I have at least 5 more to make now. The original design didnt have sequins on but I was glad I added them.

Ok, we're about half way through now... Christmas Tree feltie with jingly bells, 3 more of these to make too!

This biscornu is a card design from a recent Cross Stitcher. The original chart had 'Neon' colours, so I changed them to give it a modern twist, colour wise. I tried a beaded tassel at the end which I quite like how it looks.

A little french knitted robin, I love this one and it is probably one of my favourites in the box. I'll be making a fair few of these. It's a great thing to sit knitting on the bus using the dolly that my Grandad made me, and out of the 4 I have, my absolute favourite to use along with my funky green crochet hook!

So, probably the trickiest thing to make - the Noel cube from Kincavel Krosses. I wanted to make this last year but didnt get round to it. I was one of the first things on my list to make. I ended up simplifying the border round it and adding beads to it. I think it's my own colour scheme too (although red and green is hardly a scheme!) I've only put on the one view as you can see 2 other sides in the group pics. It was a bit of a fiddle to sew up, more so than the biscofleur I made back in the summer.

So below is most of the box contents including both pairs of earrings I mentioned earlier.

Below is the box all ready to go complete with the last thing I made for the box, the heart wreath sachet. Such a pretty design and it's backed in holly fabric, but not the one I've used as a background above. (I have several different holly fabric designs - who knew there could be so many!) I also put in a little fabric panel decoration for each person and a little bar of chocolate each...well it's Christmas!!!!

Phew! That's the lot! I've had a couple of craft-free days whilst I plan my next move (I am a craft ninja!) I'll keep you posted on the box's travels as it moves round the UK from the South West to the North East and places inbetween.

Time for a cuppa and a biscuit or 3! Thanks for reading. xxx

I'm still here!

Hi Everyone,

Not much to tell as I'm still crafting like mad for the Christmas box. I've completly finished my little bonus bag, where the participants can take a little item from me as a thank you for taking part. I've also managed 6 items for the main box with 3 in progress and a further one to make up. I had planned for Friday to be a sewing machine day as I have two things that need finishing off on the machine, But alas due to the fact boy was redecorating the bathroom last night in a most unpleasant way, I've had to swap my days at work this week. Luckily I have a very good boss, so I'll be working Friday now and squeezing my machining in over the weekend. Here's a little glimpse of a patchwork project I've been working on

I don't normally craft this early for Christmas but I'm enjoying it and it doesn't feel like I am doing Christmas crafts. I will be starting on the family and friends after this as some of the things i've stitched for the box I'd like to stitch for friends too or at least variants of. At least I know if I can make them in a couple of weeks I hopefully can replicate that for the next batch. I have the 3 christmas stocking to make that my friend commissioned me too do too. I hate choosing fabric for other people when you don't know what they like exactly.

I find it hard to craft with Doris Mcfancypants around (AKA my 2 yr old) so Friday I blitzed my craft area and gave it a good sort out. As you can see it was long overdue.

And after...

I even sorted out all my threads as they were scattered here, there and everywhere. Hubby has offered to complete my set for me for my birthday which is 5 weeks today so I gave the list of threads I need (only 150!) I'm not sure I fancy bobbinating all those though! I have about 30 to do in the box already.

I picked up a couple of nice books in The Works last week too. There are a few nice projects using different felt techniques.

Lastly a welcome to my new followers Emmy Lou and Jo. Lovely to have you on board! I'm up to 43 now which is so exciting. I shall have a giveaway at 50 followers. My next post will be an update on my 101/1001 as I'm sure things have happened that I've not blogged about. Don't forget the 500th comment gets a mystery prize too. I'm one 472 now as I needed to take out the comments I've made in reply. I'm thinking in 4 or 5 posts time we'll hit it.

Have a good week and thanks for reading. xxx