Creative Spaces

Well, Craft camp was a success as I managed to finish not one but two projects.

The first being the Cinderberry Stitches "Paris Collection" bag....

And the second, turning this.....

into "Kirsty's Granny Shrug". I never liked the first cardigan that I made so frogged it and made this instead. This shrug was so quick and quite simple, even if I did end up having to do it 1 1/2 times. Some things that I would probably do next time is use a drapier (is that even a word) yarn as I used two strands of 8ply Carnival Acrylic which I feel has come out a little stiff. I would also like to apologise for the photo quality.

Well that's it for this week. To see more creativity, visit Creative Spaces at Kirsty's place.

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My Creative Space - Again

It seems that this is all I am blogging about lately, but at least it keeps me up to date and on track. Although it only seems like yesterday that I last blogged.

I have made more progress on this....

the colours are much more vibrant in real life. It is now at a size where it actually is starting to keep me warm as I am working on it.

I also managed to pick these fabrics out of my stash....

for the "Paris Collection" bag. I am hoping to have them cut out for next week. I am waiting on some Hanky Linen that I ordered from here so that I can do the stitchery part.

Maybe next week I will have something else to share. We will have to wait and see.

You can see some more creativeness over here.

Until next time....

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Today's Creative Space

Isn't it so tidy. I love having a clean slate ready to start some new creating, and some new creating there will be.

I finished off these........

and really love the colour combinations.

I visited Spotlight to get some more Gingham fabric and ended up getting these as well......

and these......

which I am going to use to make this....

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I actually won this pattern from Natalie earlier in the year and was waiting for just the right fabric to use with it, and now I believe I found it.

I have found that Spotlight has a great range of 100% cotton fabrics at the moment and it truly is hard to choose. Fortunately I had a voucher for $40 off if you spend $100, which isn't that difficult to do really. So my stash is well stocked at the moment. I am also thinking of making some more crochet edged pillowcases for selling, as they are really quite quick to make and also display the fabrics quite nicely.

You can view some other great Creative Spaces at Kootoyoo. Till next time...

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My Creative Space...

This week I decided to join the long list of those sharing their creative spaces.

As I have been on holidays from my paying job for the last week and a half, I have had a bit of time to spend in my creative space and a few things have been achieved.

Firstly, I have managed to make 17 of these bags for my "Make It Quick" craft camp project kits

Secondly, I have been continuing to work on the Ripple Blanket.

The sad thing about this is that a day and a half ago this was twice the size, but whenever I looked at it I knew that something wasn't quite right. But silly me kept adding more rows anyway. Then I knew that I just had to rip it back because I hated two of the colours that I had put in there, they just kept jumping out at me. So 28 rows had to be ripped back and hopefully now I will be happy with it and be able to continue on.

Thirdly, I am making up some more "Peg Aprons".

The pink and green number on the top is actually for me, because my current peg apron has a big hole in the back from being well used. The rest will be for sale at the Craft stall at my Craft group in a couple of weeks time.

To be inspired by more creative spaces, hop over to here.

Until next time

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HE IS RISEN...

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He's risen indeed.

Creative Spaces

I have been busy on the crafting front of late.

And this is what my Creative space looked like the other day. I loved the way it looked so had to take a photo.

I have finally finished sewing up my samples for the craft camp that is coming up in May and have finally posted them on the blog.

I decided to do a Sewing accessories set that can be made over a weekend, and this is how it turned out.

As you can see I actually made two of everything with different contrasting fabrics so that there will be a choice of either pink or blue.

I am very excited about the whole thing and eager to see what kind of response I get.

Also in the middle of all of this I joined the "On the Edge - Pillowcase Crochet Along" and ended up with this

I love the colours and the textured edge. This will be coming along with me to craft camp in May with my Hexagon blanket.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next little while brings craft wise, and I wonder what will be posted here next. Maybe now I may have some time to play with that new toy that I posted about last time.

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A New Toy

After much research and price checking I finally took the plunge and bought this.......

A Cuttlebug Die cutting and Embossing Machine.

My boys thought it a frivolous purchase but after receiving it and having a try Son No.2 thinks it is pretty cool and has since given it quite a workout (he really enjoys making cards). I have found it to be a great product and it is so easy to use. I have bought a few of the Spellbinders Nestabilites and some embossing folders to use with it.


The machine, embossing folders and Spellbinders Large Scallop Squares were purchased from Scrapboutique as they had a fabulous sale on a few weeks ago, with the Spellbinders Large Scallop Ovals and Spellbinders Large Scallop Circles purchased from ebay. I am thinking of purchasing a set of Baby Face Alphabets from ebay as well as there are some great extra die cuts in this set.

An update from the last post - I have decided to take up the opportunity to teach at the Autumn Caft Camp. I am going to teach a few small projects and am feeling quite excited about the whole thing. I am now in the process of making up the samples. Although I have actually made all these items before, I don't actually have any as a set that matches so that is what I am planning to do.

And finally a picture of my new hooking project....

A lovely large ripple blanket that is such a pleasure to work on. I am just loving picking this up in the evenings while watching TV. I am using the left over soft wool from my hexagon blanket and just buying new colours as I run out. There is no time frame on this project which makes it quite relaxing to work on. I will just keep adding rows until I feel it is big enough.

I also just realized that I forgot to post a picture of the completed crochet basket that I was working on.


I must admit that it took a while to finish as I wasn't sure what to do about the handles. Originally I was going to crochet them, then I though of making them with fabric and attaching them with clasps. But I then found some really cute 1" wide pink grosgrain ribbon that matched perfectly so used that with the clasps. I also found that it was a bit floppy so I inserted a clear plastic gift box which was the perfect size. It is now my new work basket that is great for just chucking thing into.

Well that's about it for now, so until next time
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Practice

Here is a sneak peak of my practice run for the "Wash the Dishes Tea Towel Swap".

Now that my linen tea towel blanks have finally arrived I can get started on them. I hope that my recipients like them.

My final stitchery of the month project arrived yesterday, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs.

I love the fabrics and stitchery design of this one. I was a bit disappointed however on the overall club, as over half the projects I thought were very similar. There are only so many needle books that a person can use. Even though they were all a little different in design, they are still essentially the same thing.

I don't think I will be joining any more "...of the month" clubs for a while as I now have so many projects to start.

On another note, I have been asked to consider teaching at the next CYC Autumn craft camp. I am a little excited and nervous about the whole thing. My main concern is finding the time for planning as well as choosing what I would offer to teach. I am definitely praying about guidance for this. I need to give an answer in a couple of weeks.

Until next time.....

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Wash The Dishes, Dry The Dishes, Turn the Dishes Over!

I have joined another swap (as mentioned in my previous post). I haven't done one of these for a while. This one is called "Wash the Dishes Tea Towel Swap". I just love tea towels, especially pretty handmade ones. I have decided to do embroidery on them using doodle stitching. I had drawn up a couple of doodles and thought this would be a great place to use them. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures until the swap is over, so you will have to be patient.

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Rearranging Complete

Here are the before and after photos of our creative space.

Before


After

I ended up sorting through my magazines and kept all of my Homespuns but only kept the others that had projects in them that I knew I would use. I actually have a notebook that I had written projects in that I have used or knew that I would use so that made the job a little easier. The plastic crate and green shopping bag that you can see in front of my craft table are FULL of the magazines that I am getting rid of. I am not sure how I am going to move them as they are really heavy.

I am so glad that we finally did this as it feels so much roomier and I can even extend my table out now when I am doing paper crafts.

I put one of my magazines to good use and made some of these fabric buckets. The pattern was in Patchwork and Stitching Vol. 7 No. 3. They were actually called Easter Baskets, but I left off the handles as I thought they may get in the way for what I want to use them for.

The January Stitchery of the month arrived last week and it is by Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly Designs.

I am not sure what I think of this one. I will probably have to admire it for a little while to get used to it.

Finally, I joined a Tea Towel Swap here and am looking forward to creating something for this. I signed up to do 2 towels and am thinking stitching on one and maybe applique or patchwork on the other. I have until the end of March to complete them.

Until next time

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Under Construction

We finally got around to rearranging our Study/Craft room. It is quite difficult when you have to share your creative space with tech geeks, but I think that we have come up with a very good layout that keeps us all happy. I now have the daunting task of culling my craft magazine collection which I started in 2003. Due to the new layout I had to get rid of my bookshelf and downsize to this one (it actually lies across the floor horizontally) so therefore there is not enough room for all of my craft magazines. I have lots of Handmade, Patchwork & Stitching, Australian Country Threads and Homespun. It is so hard working out what to get rid of, even though most of them I don't even look at anymore, I think it is the knowledge of the accumulative cost over the years but I think I need to be ruthless. I will take them along to my craft group when it starts back at the end of January and see if anyone there would like any.

Any way enough procrastinating and more doing. I must say I am looking forward to getting this all sorted and set up how I want it so that I can get to being creative again.

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