Crochet Galore

Yet another week has rushed by and I don't think I've achieved much at all.

My sewing machine has been packed away for about a month, and I'm starting to think that maybe I should get it out again.

I have an abundance of ideas for things that I want to make on the machine..... I'm in a quandary... do I get the machine out and start more projects, or do I do more work on the ufo's?

During the week I have been crocheting. I seem to 'flit' between projects like a little bird (maybe its that little bird that I drew last week).

This belt is finished and will be going in my Etsy shop later today. 

I love the filigree buckle.

And another crochet project that is a WIP, here is the start of a very free-form Shoulder Wrap or scarf. Mostly in shades of white and cream, with a hint of gold/yellows.

Just for inspiration, the following pic is something my mother made in 2001. 

She signed and dated the back (good job mum).

It is all wool, and stitched in a straight stitch.

The RUG measures 0.62m x 1m (24" x 40")

Does anyone like digital art?

I do.

Later in the week I shall share a couple that I have created recently.

That's all for now.

Happy Stitching

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.

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

Crochet Along - Squares

I'm averaging one crochet square a day at the moment, but that will all change from tomorrow as I am back into 'busy-as-a-bee' mode with finalizing the deal with our new property (solicitor appointments, real estate agents etc.) and we will be taking yet another 6 hour journey to the property for some more site visitor appointments. 

This time next year we will have our dream home (I hope).  Exciting stuff!

Here are the new crochet squares for this week.

Some I have taken from the book - 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton - and some I made up as I went along because I need a challenge every now and then.

Photos are taken while I have them pinned out for blocking.

And two half-squares just to use up the left-over ends.

I may be missing next week while we are away, but I'll be here in spirit.

Happy Stitching

Crazy Mandala Quilt and the Crochet-Along Project

 The Crazy Mandala Quilt 

This week I have returned to stitching a little bit more on my Mandala Quilt to give these guys their black coats.

I only managed to get two of the twelve done, but any progress on it is good progress and closer to finishing it.

 Crochet Along (CAL) 

I am taking part in a Crochet Along with a lovely group of ladies over 

on Tuesday Stitchers blog.

We are all stitching different projects and a couple of us are crocheting squares to make into afghans or something else.

I wanted to do something different from the 3D 'flowers' that I have been making a lot of recently, so I opted for squares with a geometric pattern.

I'm not sure if the final item will be an afghan, a bag, a wrap or jacket yet. I'll decide later on when I have made a few more squares. 

At the moment I am just enjoying the relaxing crocheting without having to 'think' too much about the stitching.

I must admit though..... I'm not sure about how many more squares I can make before my FREE-FORM brain decides its had enough of regular, methodical, formal crochet. 

I have only made 5 squares and 2 half-squares so far, and I'm already feeling the restriction of the project.

I have a sneaking feeling that I am about to 'break free' of my CHAINS........... hahahaha

(pun intended, lol)

Anyway, here are my squares so far.

Bobble Arrows

Cluster Cross

A Battenburg Half-Square

A Battenburg Half-Square Stripe

Pastel Windows

Corner Stone Square 

Geometric - yes

Pastel - yes

Easy - yes

Relaxing - yes

Stash Busting - yes

Happy Stitching