Christmas Trees - Hexies - Baby Blanket

Christmas Trees

I have added the beads decorations to my little Christmas trees on the woven felt hearts, and buttonhole stitched around the hearts.

Just have the hanging ribbons to add before I can call them finished.

Neapolitan Ice Cream Baby Blanket

It's Finished. 

Yay, I have a FO to add to my YOP page.

It's called Neapolitan Ice Cream because it is the Chocolate, Strawberry & Vanilla ice cream colours of the Neapolitan ice cream blocks that I used to buy when my kids were young.

The pattern for this will be in my Ravelry projects soon.

Hexie Quilt

A few bright greens have been added. 

A LOT more bright greens are yet to be added, lol.

And, a large, fiber related, street art project is in the planning stage for Oct/Nov.

I'm starting to gather the necessary 'bits & pieces' for it.

I hope Tony doesn't want to put the car away in our garage before Nov, lol.

Happy Stitching

A few more projects

I have been busy on a few projects lately. Here is a quick run down of them.

An embroidery piece. Two of these made. The pink is crochet, and there will eventually be a bead or two stitched to the middle of it.

The following pic is the beginnings of what I hope will be a dandelion. It's a bit of an experiment.

Celebrating the number 5 for an anniversary in one of the groups on Ravelry. 

Just for fun.

1. 5 colours x 5 stitches wide x 5 rows.

2. 5 colours x 5 different stitches x 5 sides (pentagon).

3. 5 threads x 5 foundation ch. x 5 sc.

4. 5 colours x 5 puffs x 5 bead stitches.

5. Multiple of 5 foundation x increase every 5th st.

Sorting out my mothers bobbins. Three piles like this. This stack is now untangled and sorted into order. I'll show the sorted photo when I have done all of them.

My mini HEX quilt has progressed a little bit with the blue, black, green and purple rounds added.

The ANZAC day dawn service.

We walked to the town hall and followed the pipes and drums band to the cenotaph and monument.

What an emotional event that was.

When the bugle played and then the silence, apart from the crashing waves on the beach below us.

It really brought it all home.

That 'just-after-dawn' moment.

And a stroll along our Opunake beach yesterday.

Quite an eventful and productive couple of weeks.

Happy Stitching 

from

Cyra

A bit of this - A bit of that

'A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That' is a very good title for this weeks work.

A YOP post.

Here we have a bit of freeform crochet that started off as one scrumble, and quickly progressed into three more scrumbles trying to match the first. They are not exact replicas, but near enough for me and this project.

And then I got to stitch some hexies together, which turned out just fine, with 

6 of these:

and 6 of those:

Things will start to get more intense for me on the hexies soon as the numbers for each 'round' increase and it will look like I'm 'stuck' in one place as I work on, and build up the required numbers of a particular colourway.

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Both of the above projects were done early in the week and nothing has 

been done since Thursday, because on Thursday morning I woke up as normal, 

but soon found that I was in severe pain if I moved.

My shoulder injury (from 8 years ago) had reappeared while I slept, probably because I did a fair bit of gardening on Wednesday.

I did not want to believe that my shoulder tendons had snapped again. It was the same extreme pain as the first time. So painful that it made me sick, but of course then I had to move. I just couldn't win.

Luckily for me the pain subsided a little bit through the day, and now, 4 days later, it's eased up enough for me to realize that the tendons are probably not fully snapped, but a bit damaged. 

Since my accident I have been getting recurring pain if the shoulders get any sort of a workout, 

but Thursdays pain was the worst since the original damage. 

Hopefully I will continue to improve, and I'll have to keep reminding myself that I do not have the same strength anymore and take into account my physical limitations.

Ah well, such is life.

And I'll end here with a laugh-out-loud (I must laugh or I'd cry).

Wooohoooo - lots of stitching

 Lots of projects got to spend some quality time with me during the week.

The 'Long on Colour' freeform challenge made an appearance. I think this is going to be a cowl.

Earthy and autumnal colours with a pop of black and white. 

And we had such a lovely day yesterday that I was stitching in the back garden in the shade with my kitty companion.

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My BAMCAL 2017 Blues Blanket has two more 12" blocks made.

Block Four is Kaleidoscope Blossom Square by Chris Simon

Block Five is Marigold Mandala Square by Dorianna Rivelli with slight adjustments in the outer rounds as, once again, I 'do-my-own-thing'.

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The Summer Brights Blanket has four more 6" blocks.

This is Window Box Granny by Lisa Mauser

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The ¾" Hexagon Quilt

The darker blue has been added to the rosettes, and lots of yellows prepared ready for attaching.

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Weaving Project- My Garden, panel 2.

This panel starts with a band of regular weaving at the bottom which is the same yarn as Panel 1, and then gradually incorporates freeform weaving as it progresses. 
Multiple weaving styles and texture will be added to this.

So that was my week. Very productive, and I even got to empty and clean out the fish pond (as the two last fish in there disappeared last weekend, probably to a kingfisher or new stray cat that I've seen hanging around).

The Hexagon Quilt

I have designed a hexagon quilt for a long-term project.

It is going to be humongous (for a super-king sized bed) and will probably take 5 years or more to stitch because I'm using ¾" hexagons --- oh what was I thinking, mad, totally mad, hand stitched English Paper Piecing, oh dear.

Here it is so far, the humble beginnings...

I did not get any photos of my latest crochet block for my blanket, but I did do some stitching on my A Year of Stitches project (not managing to do stitching every day on it, but hey, I'm only human.

Last Thursday was a beautiful sunny day when Tony & I had a trip to Hawera.

We decided to relax a bit and take a leisurely stroll through the park.

It's a beautiful place, full of very well kept gardens, a great kiddies park area, duck ponds, Chinese garden, rose gardens, and lovely nooks, shady areas, and secret gardens. 

It always looks amazing there, and you never know what surprises you'll find as you follow winding paths or peep around the hedgerows.

Whoever created this space did an excellent job of keeping people and children entertained.

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This has been another Year of Projects Post

A bit of fun stitching

I've managed to get quite a bit of stitching done on some fun projects over the week, so here are my current project photos.

Completed Band 1 of the Embroidery Sampler.

The blue and purple are the additions this week.

And a childs cheerful crochet Beanie Beret of my own design.

Also, a little update on the Party At My Place Quilt. Two more 'building blocks' added.

And some progress on a baby blanket that somebody else made, but I am repairing and joining the remaining circles.

So that was my stitchery week.

I have a lovely variety of projects still on the go.

I have a quilt wall hanging to finish off over the next few weeks, and the white circles baby blanket must get finished soon too, as the new baby it is for is due in October.

Hope you all have a great week ahead.

Happy Stitching

This has been another Year Of Projects post.

Three Weeks Worth of Creations

Yes that's right...... here are three weeks worth of creations all in one post, as I haven't posted what I made while I was away (hiding from the world).

 Afghan blanket 

At the moment this is still in three main parts and cannot be seen in full as I have not yet decided which part goes where, lol. But this is the pile of work on the afghan so far. 

 Cot/Crib Blanket 

This is finished.

And, of course, I have done more work on the Building Blocks Quilt, now renamed: 

 "Party At My Place" Quilt 

The hand sewn English Paper Pieced hexagons are a great scrap fabric buster project, great to travel with, and great for working on while in the caravan.

All in all, it was quite a productive vacation.

What a busy little bee I have been.

Building Blocks Quilt Update

Just a few more 'building blocks' put together. More blues but lighter than the last ones.

Love those paisley fabrics.

And here is a sneak preview for you.

This is a photo montage of the crochet project I am working on at the moment. 

I won't show you the whole thing until it is finished, but thought you might like to see the colours I am working with this week. 

No surprise there!

We (Tony & I) are off to our mountain view retreat again in a day or two, and we shall be gone for about 2 weeks. 

I won't be able to post any updates here again until we get back home because there is very poor (mostly none) cell phone reception, and no internet available there, unless I get to spend some time at the library in the closest town about half an hour away. But with all the visits we have made to the retreat so far I have still not found the time (or the inclination) to sit in the library for communication purposes.

I really enjoy being 'off-grid' and in my own little world there. Such peace can be found when you only have yourself and your thoughts to deal with.

I am, of course, taking lots of sewing and crochet projects, and will be working on some writing projects as well (hoping for some 'quiet time' for that one).

I also have to help erect a fence, remove a fallen tree that came down in the last storm, re-roof the concrete shed, and set up a system to collect fresh water from the elevated water holding tank.

Great that Tony repaired and renovated the pump for the bore-water last time we were there and erected the pump shed, so we can now get water direct from the underground reservoir instead of having to fill up our tanks every time we went out to town. 

I wonder if I will actually have time to chill out and enjoy the scenery.

Anyway, I will update you with all my new creations in a couple of weeks.

Take care, be good, and keep stitching.

Cy

Heart Crazy Quilt week 27

Straight From the Heart Crazy Quilt

Week 27

This week I have a Kantha embroidery heart to show you.

Free Form style, drawing free-hand straight onto the fabric, gives this piece a traditional look.

The pale pink heart in the middle is rows of chain stitch.

Other stitches used are: running stitch, back stitch, satin stitch and emphasized couching (where the couching stitches comprise a design).

And a few more blue (and blue-ish) hexagon "bricks" on the Building Blocks quilt.

Now I must get a couple more days of packing done. Just got to get the house on the market, and then once sold, we can enjoy our travelling retirement.