Mandala Madness CAL part 2

The next couple rounds are complete now, and I am about to start with Part 3 soon.

Catching up slowly. I don't know how so many of the other CAL crafters are managing to get two or even three of these mandalas done each week.

I expect that things will get even slower when the 'rounds' get larger as it will take an awfully long time to complete just one round.

But for now, we are given a few rounds to complete each week.

Did I mention that this is a mystery CAL too, so we don't know what the finished Mandala will look like.

Here is mine so far -

  Coffee, Cream & White Chocolate

And I made a Ruffled Hexagon before I began on the mandala, and I am thinking about what border I want on it.

It needs blocking yet but I can't find which of the million packing boxes my pins are in 

(I may have to buy more pins)

Here it is -

Crochet UFO's - Coffee & Cream

I have picked up my crochet UFO's again this week.

The Freeform Coffee & Cream Cape-let is progressing nicely.

Here are the updated stitching photos with the piecing together of some of the parts.

I really surprised myself with how much I managed to do on this project.

Still a little way off from completing it though, but with a bit of perseverance (and people leaving me alone) I may be able to get it finished before we go away for on holiday.

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One more fun project - started and finished - this week.

White Crocheted Basket, no reason other than because it was fun.

(Tutorial for this coming soon on my blog)

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I also picked up the Lovers Knot Tunic project.

This would be great to wear over a summer dress, t-shirt or camisole, and I really want it finished to take with me when we go off to our forest/mountain retreat in two weeks.

I shall probably be working on this over Christmas.

This is the back of the tunic. About half way.

I ADORE the yarn. Just look at all those scrumptious pops of colour.

It is the most fabulous yarn I have ever seen ... which is why THIS tunic is for ME.

Sometimes it's just too hard to say 'no'.

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Tony and I had a day out on the Awhitu Penninsular, which is only a ten minute drive from home.

We took a picnic (complete with table and chairs) 

Sea views at every turn, and isn't that a beautiful blue sky and with clouds only forming over the water.

It was a hot day.

The next photo is where we set the table and chairs for our picnic. 

The shade under the trees was welcome, and there was a gentle breeze blowing from the east.

And then we strolled along the beach following this inlet.

You can't actually see our house from here, but it would be about central in the picture and about 2ks inland.

Free Form Crochet Bolero etc.

 Needle-Felting 

This week I have been working some more on my needle-felted Woodland character. I have had to change his name though, as everyone who saw him thought it was Oscar the Grouch as he is green too. I don't want my character to be 'similar' to anything already created, so I think I'll call him Brock. Hopefully that won't bring to mind any character already in existence.

I have given Brock a cheeky Mohawk hairstyle and will post pictures next week as he is feeling a bit 'exposed' at the moment.  

 Free Form Crochet Bolero 

I have been 'playing' with arrangements for the motifs on the bolero.
I'm piecing the back together first as it is the largest area to cover. 
Here are a few motifs on my 'dummy'. The final placement may not be the same as this, and there are smaller 'filler' motifs to add to it too. I'll be making those specifically to fill a space as I need it.

I have started stitching some together in mesh style. This is probably going to be a long job, but it is quite enjoyable to do, rather like 'meander quilting', therapeutic. 

Crochet Along Space Saver and Stash-Buster

Even though I have finished my crochet-along squares baby blanket, I am still doing more crochet things.

This is a plastic bag storage dispenser. It has elastic 'holes' at the top and the bottom. You scrunch and fold each plastic grocery bag up and push it into the hole at the top. When you need a plastic bag you pull one out from the bottom. Simple. 

A hanging cord at the top keeps it off the workbench and out of the way, and within easy reach.

I know this idea has been around for a while but I've only just got around to making one for myself.

It was a good way to use up a couple of small balls of yarns.

All of these plastic bags...........

.....fits into this dispenser......

Arty Stuff

An English blue-tit bird sketch with coloured pencils. 

I wish I had time to perfect my arty muse.

Have a great week.

 Cy 

Creatively Inspired Mixture

I have had a gloriously creative week.

It started with little bits of needle felting ....... like this.......

and this .................

All just for some fun coloured backgrounds that I can use for some other stitching projects later on. Not planned what projects they are yet, but my creative muse is thinking on it.

Then for a couple of days I stitched crochet motifs to add to my collection for the Free Form Coffee & Cream Bolero.

These are fun to do. Mostly just created from my imagination, or from inspiration pics on Pinterest etc. and creating something similar, or from adapting patterns to suit my needs. 

And then...... what bright spark let me loose in the yarn shop?

.......which just so happens to be the fabric shop as well......

which had an inspirational Christmas quilt hanging in the window.

Hence......

And........

And......... I just HAD to have this........

Isn't it beautiful.

I can hear a Rhapsody Quilt .........  Can you?

Happy Stitching

Hexagon Quilt and Crochet Along

Sorry I missed doing a blog last week.

 After visiting our solicitor about the land we are about to purchase he informed us about a possible problem with the land titles. So we put the site visit on hold while we researched and contacted people 'in the know' about it.

It all boils down to one word "interim". 

I'll not bore you with the details, but the outcome is that the original land titles records were lost in the 1930/40's when Napier was hit with an earthquake.

The outcome is good though. All is well with our titles, and we can continue with our land purchase. Phew.....for a moment there I thought I had lost my dream home.

Anyway, back on topic now.

Hexagon Quilt

The week before last I was making more hexagons to add to my hexagon quilt. This seems to be a favourite with one of my boys but it was meant to be for my bed in our new home. We'll have to wait till it's finished and fight it out then, lol.

Here are the hexagons I did last this week

And here they are added to the hexagons I did last month.

I still have rather a lot more hexagons to put together yet. This is the pile waiting to be done.

Crochet Along

I have run out of the pastel coloured yarns for the crochet along squares I was doing. So until I can manage a visit to the yarn shop I have started a new project with the crochet cottons that I have in abundance here. If I were to crochet for 12 hours a day every day I probably wouldn't run out of crochet cotton until about the year 2050.

 You will notice I am back to Free Form mode again with this. It's going to be a freeform bolero/waistcoat type of thing. If you can see inside my head you will see the picture of it. hahaha.

So this is what I have created this week. 

Coffee and Cream Bolero.

That's me done for this week. 

Wayhay...... back to the freeform crocheting and the hexagon quilting. 

Oh, by the way, just thought you might like to see what else I have done this week purely for pleasure.

Picking oranges from our orchard to add thick slices to my glass of Southern Comfort.

(that bottle is now almost empty)

It has been a fantastic week.

Happy Stitching