Time for a catch-up

Sometimes when life throws you lemons you just have to make lovely lemonade.

I've had a 'bit' of a busy couple of months (and the next few will be more of the same, lol), but I have still been stitching away whenever possible.

Here is a catch-up on some of the things I have made since my last post here.

Freeform crochet scrumbles. Getting ready to make a headband or hat.

Wet felting. I attended another workshop and made these two flowers.

Stamen embellishments are yet to be added.

Crochet miniature tablecloth, 6 inches long.

Fiberart Guild Presentation

The International Freeform Fiberart Guild has one of my fiberarts published in the 2017 book.

The theme this year was Pattern In Nature, and my piece is all about the pattern of life of a Leaf 

The Life Cycle of a Leaf

This is the book cover for 2017, and clicking on it will take you the book sale where you can also see all the other fiberarts too.

There is also an online gallery HERE if you prefer to view the fiberart on their website with larger pics.

__________________________________________________

I went to a wet-felting class last weekend, and here are the two flowers I made there.

The orange one is huge, and for The Great Opunake Yarn Bomb project later this year.

The black/purple flower is waiting for beads to be added and for another project.

Well, I think that's it for this week.

Be sure to check out the fiberart online show because you will not be disappointed with the eye-candy there. Some wonderfully talented people all over the world.

White Wrap Scrumbles & "Brock" Needle-felting

White Wrap Scrumbles & "Brock" Needle-felting

 The latest work on my needle felted Woodland character "Brock" has included a tunic change and a new hairstyle.

He is now 'Brock the Wayward Wannabe' and I can just imagine all the fun and mischievous tricks that he will be participating in.

He still needs more work in certain areas, but he's fun to work with and I keep dreaming up new characters to join him in his Woodland abode. 

Here he is now.

Progress on my White Wrap has been happening this week too.

Some scrumbles have been joined, and more scrumbles made to fit the gaps.

Not all joined together yet, but it's coming along nicely I think.

Gardening has taken up a fair amount of my time this week. 

It's Spring here in New Zealand, and everything is starting to bud and flower. 

The first lot of daffs have come and gone, the swallows have returned to the nest under the eaves on the deck (one egg so far), the rosella parakeets are busy chattering away to each other in the orchard, the ducks, pukeko's, plover's and pterodactyls (sorry, I mean herons)  are nesting around the woods and stream.

I love Spring.

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 

Crochet Along Afghan & the NEW Project

Well there goes another week.

The "Invasion of the Packing Boxes" has started. At the moment most of the boxes are still in their flat-pack form, but a couple have been packed and stacked. It will probably be about a year before I see the contents of those boxes again.

Crochet Along Progress

The Pastel Squares Afghan is finished now. 

Quite pleased that it is finished but not too happy with the random squares as they all turned out a slightly different measurement which made the joining of them a little bit awkward. I think I managed to get the middle lines to behave as I joined the squares together, but that outside edge, well, I will have to talk a bit more sternly to that part. It needs blocking to try to get those edges straight. 

I probably will not be doing another 'random squares' afghan. Uniform squares would have a more professional finish.

And..... because my mind was thinking about the baby afghan colours.....

here is something else that just slipped off my crochet hook.

Felting

And now to reveal what I teased you with last week.

WIP

Meet Oscar...... he lives in Hampden Forest with his family and other villagers.

(He's not finished yet though. Needs more work on mouth, arms, hands, boots etc.)

This Oscar character is the start of my NEW project.

When he is finished he will sit on a log in the bush for a photo shoot, and then await the creation of his fellow Hampden Forest inhabitants.

I can see many wonderful hours spent creating this fantasy village, and finding family connections for them all.

Do I have fun, or what!!!

Have a great week.

 Cy 

Crochet - Felting - House Update

Creatively speaking I have had another fun week.

Not too many photos to show you though, sorry about that.

 Crochet Along Squares 

I have 12 squares made now. And that is it. I really don't have the enthusiasm to make any more, so I have started stitching the squares together with a rather textured stitch (or stitches actually). This will hopefully have the effect of blocking the squares and help to keep them 'square' when the baby afghan gets washed.

I had to disregard one of the squares I had made as it was too 'chunky' to match the rest, so I made one more square during the week.

Here are some pics of the sewing together parts, as yet unfinished.

Two rows of coral stitch, two rows of fake knitting (I still haven't learnt how to knit, but I have bought some knitting needles to correct that fact) and four rows of trebles.

I will hopefully have a photo of the finished project next week.

________________________________

 Felting 

A sneak peak at what is on my felting work-table this week.

Sorry for the tease, haha.

There is a reason I do not want to show the whole thing just yet.... 

I'm not sure if it going to be as good as I intended it to be, and I may have to do some rapid alterations to get it right.

This is another project that will hopefully be finished by next weeks blog update.

 House Update 

Phew.... all ok on this now, and we finally OWN the land in Hawkes Bay and can really start planning our dream home build. Celebrations started last night (mwuahahahahaha).

This is one of our fields and is where the house will be built. If we remove a couple of those smaller trees in the middle of the field we will have a great view of the Ruahine Ranges.

This is the next field, and probably where we have the workshop/barn/studio built.

And there are three more fields in addition to these two.

Work is progressing slowly on the caravan restoration that is to be our bedroom there while the build goes ahead, and we are on the lookout for another caravan to be our living and cooking rooms for a couple of months (or maybe more) during the build, and then we can use that caravan for touring when it is all finished.

Exciting times. I shall love even living in a caravan on these blocks. My 'for-ever' holiday home.