Freeform Crochet Neck-warmer x 2

Hello again. 

This week has seen the completion of two (yes two) accessories. Two cowls, or neck-warmers, very similarly put together, in slightly different colourways.

The fuchsia edged one ----

And the Purple edged one ---

I have also started on another rug for the mini house, but not enough of it yet for a photo.

We have survived the tornado that whipped through Opunake yesterday morning, The next village to us didn't fare so well in the tornado though, and I think 5 houses lost their roof and 3 more with major damage. The whole community is coming together for those left without homes.

The weather has definitely changed for the worse now, and we actually have the heater on in the lounge for a bit of respite from the unusual cold blast. 

It's good time to stay inside and stitch (as if I needed an excuse).

All for now, see you in the next post.

Happy Stitching

Cyra

Scrumble...Scrumble... & Craft Room Tour

Did you guess that I've been scrumbling, lol.

And a belated Happy St. Paddy's Day to all who celebrate.

This is my own design for a shamrock, which I attached to a hair slide and wore in my hair for the weekend. 

I've had a big sort out in my craft studio to make room for a dedicated 'art-space' as well now.

Loving the natural light that I get from the window.

My drawing board table can be tilted to any angle and also can be adjusted height ways too. Love it.

The black shelves hold the paints, acrylic, guache and water-colours.

The tan shelves hold my oil paints on the bottom shelf, all my containers of soft-pastels are on the 2nd shelf up, my journals and sketch pads next shelf up. All sorts of marker pens and inks on the next shelf, and then on the very top are things like masking fluid, rubbers, glue, and my larger art paper pads.

Under the table are two of my easels (the larger easels are stored in the garage.

The table holds my most frequently used supplies, i.e. china mixing trays, water container, brushes, pencils, and art crayons.

The armchair is where I do crochet and embroidery (or just chill out with a book).

Opposite the armchair is the sewing table which doubles up as a weaving table too.

Behind where I'm standing and to my left is the miniatures work station and my book shelves, plus another ranch slider (windows & door) the same as that one by the art table.

(I've not tidied that area so no photos, lol).

Hope you enjoyed that little tour of my art space.

I'm off to do some drawing now, catch you next next time.

Happy Crafting

Cyra

Bits of this and that ~~~

Little bits are progressing on a few different projects.

That is a spiral scrumble to be added to a few other scrumbles (ok, LOTS of other scrumbles) to create something -- I don't know what it will be until I have few more of them made, then it will tell me what it wants to be -- a bag, a hat, a garment, a wall hanging, whatever.

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Back into drawing again. A quick hand sketch for practice.

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The Pilli Pala Dolls House

I don't know how other people have got on constructing this dolls house themselves. The instructions are terrible. The right hand wall of the kitchen is the first piece they tell you to put together, and nowhere does it tell you that the uprights need to be attached with space bellow floor level, hence the 'gap' on mine. I will have to saw that much off the top now and glue it at the bottom. 

All the kitchen walls are up now, and the entrance hall next to the kitchen is almost done.

The checkered floor is a paper sheet that came with the house. Not sure that I like this look,  so I shall probably create some other flooring (and a better quality) than this. 

I think a wood floor would look better - watch this space, lol.

Auditioning some wood strips for flooring. I will remove the bent pieces from this pile first though.

That's my lot for now.

See you in the next post.

Happy Crafting

Cyra

2018 Goals & update

Happy New Year  

2018 Goals - my year of 4’s

• Spend more time with hubby and put the ‘4-second’ rule into action - Did you know that it only takes 4 seconds to look at a person when they talk to you for them to appreciate and recognize that you are taking notice of them and that they are important to you at that moment.
• Make 4 things for each of my 4 children - I have so many things that my mum and dad made for me, that I treasure, and I want to pass that same love on to my kiddlywinks.
• Complete the crazy patchwork quilt that I started 4 years ago.
• Play some more with freeform bobbin lace and weaving.
• Knitting - I want to learn more than just the basic stitch, and stop being afraid of knitting.
• Make a start on My NZ Dolls House - aka 'Pilli Pala' - and the furnishings within.
• Work on 4 of my embroidery WIP’s. I’ll be happy if I get even one of these 4 finished.

That’s my lot….. apart from all the crochet projects that are a part of my ‘normal’ daily life too.

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Here are some of the projects that I finished in the last couple of months of 2017 and didn't get to post on here about.

Debra the Zebra Firberart- freeform crochet, bobbin lace, & weaving.

I made my Rock Pool bigger and better, and finished it in time for the Regional Embroiderers Guild show, where it won 1st place in the 3D category.... woohoo... go me.

A decorative freeform crochet box.

I've a YouTube video of it HERE where you can see the whole thing better.

A couple of woolly hats for His'n'Hers' Christmas pressies.

The one on the left is a pony tail beanie.

And this is the beginning of a mandala blanket.

Whatever you do in 2018 make sure you have FUN.

Happy Stitching

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.

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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.

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

Embroidery Catch-up

I've been playing catch-up on my Embroidery Sampler.

I've now completed Band 7 

The background looks rather 'washed-out' on these pics, it is a much better green in real life.

And the sampler so far.

And if you are counting only 6 bands... yes you are correct. I missed one out because I just didn't feel like doing it, lol.

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And here is a Finish for my YOP.

The crochet scrumbles from last week turned into a pillbox hat (or is it 'pillar box' hat?).

And I have stitched a few more hexies together, but nothing worth showing that the moment. 

On the non-stitching side of my life - we have added these girls to our paddocks.

Eenee, Meenee, Mynee & Mo

That is the sort of lawn-mower that I like best, hahaha.

So that was my week.

Hope you have a great stitching week ahead.

p.s. if any of you saw my post on Facebook about my a$$ over t!t tumble, this is just to let you know that I survived without damage, and I'm still laughing at how funny it was. Poor Tony didn't know whether to laugh or panic when both my feet were level with his chest and my head was disappearing over the 'A' frame of the trailer.

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).