Sewing and crochet

I’m always making things and I’m a pretty good ‘finisher’ but not quite so good at taking photo’s of everything made. Most of the time I’m making for someone and want to give it away as soon as it is finished, hence either no photo or a bit of a snap rather than a beautifully styled web and instagram worthy composition. Ah well, it’s real life in my house. So, in no particular order here is some of my stuff.

Zip Pouch

I made many zip pouches for Christmas, this is the latest quick pouch with my favourite Bernina stitch sampler pouch in the background.

Crochet cushion panel attached to a shop bought cushion. This is the third made in this pattern and is a gift, though I’m quite liking this for myself!

Birthday Banner

I’ve made a couple of these with the names of the grandchildren as a separate banner. There are now 2 more grandchildren so I need to get cracking making some more!

New baby

‘Mini Me’s’ were the family Christmas present of a couple of years ago. New babies in the family have meant the ‘Little people’ families need to increase too. I have to say that this baby was the most fiddly thing ever!

For this family setting I needed to make a new ‘big boy’ so that ‘baby’ could represent the new baby.

Ahhhh so cute!

18 months ago I would never have dreamt that I would be making face masks but I’ve made loads and loads. Something clearly went a bit wrong with this one, so is probably not just covid proof but everything proof haha

I made this pirate outfit for a friend as a joke - who knows why, but it does look good on his grandson. As you can see it comes complete with parrot.

In the interests of actually making a blog post, I’ll stop here. I’ll be back with more later!

Crochet Bride and Groom

Dan the digger married earlier this year. Dan and his trusty (and a bit rusty ) digger have been involved in all the groundwork and landscaping on our barn conversion for the last 4 years so we wanted to give him a memorable present. Hopefully memorable for the right reasons! So, wielding my crochet needles I hooked a happy couple. I had a single photo to work from so had to guess the brides hairstyle but came up with something that looks ‘bridal’ so even if not accurate it will be in keeping with the occasion. Our real bridal couple didn’t actually get married on the beach but the little people were finished off during a very restful seaside holiday.

The basic pattern is from Toft Uk.

This rather colourful crochet giraffe also was not at the wedding but again was a ‘finisher’ job on holiday. Wow what wild holidays I have (lol). This chappy is destined for Santa so has been well hidden.

The pattern is from Cr.ochet Club magazine 44

Batty about bats

I couldn't resist making this little chap when I saw the pattern in 'Edwards Menagerie' by Kerry Lord at Toft Uk.

After all the fuss and bother over the bat survey for the barns it just made me smile to think of someone reporting it to the local planning authority. Obviously, once we have lights he won't be able to perch on the wiring, but I'm sure we'll find somewhere for him to go. I'm now making a second one.........just because.......

Embroidered wall hanging

Anther design from Gail Pan. I love the embroidery, but I'm not too sure about the wall hanging.  I was aiming for a folk art style, but was quite keen to use whatever I could get my hands on without buying anymore fabric, so I'm not sure that I hit the target with my choices. Never, mind, it still looks quite sweet. The copper pipe hanger was also an impromptu discovery (lol).

and we stitched happily ever after

And we stitched happily ever after.....

I can finally reveal some of the embroidery I have been doing. I wanted to make a special birthday present for AC, my sewing buddy. I don't actually have a photo of the birthday present (yet), but I made one for myself, so this is it.

The design is from 'Patchwork Loves Embroidery' by Gail Pan.  The birthday effort has buttons and piping, but mine adorns a bag that was made at speed so is a little more simple! It's now my embroidery project bag. 

Nb I found that the Christmas ferrero rocher box is perfect for my selection of embroidery perle thread no. 8! It stops them getting all muddled up in my new bag. 

Sheep Tea Cosy

I really can't resist a crochet sheep. Inspired by the Shaun the Sheep film which cheered me up immensely when I was feeling under the weather with a horrible cold, I made up a tea cosy pattern. It took a little while to work out the pattern and the size, but once I cracked it I've now started 2 more. I'm not supposed to be making sheep as I've a couple of other unfinished items that are pending completion, but this has kept me amused for the last week so I'm going to keep going until I've fulfilled my current sheep obsession. The first two cosy's were made with chunky wool for which I used a 5.5mm crochet hook, but then I found some super chunky wool which needed an 8mm hook. This one was super fast to make with fewer bobbles and I actually like the lumpier look to it, should one actually analyse these things in any depth at all. As I said - Sheep Obsession. I have other sheep tea cosy ideas using loop stitch or a wensleydale style with ringlets. It really could run and run.........baaaaaaaarmy.

Sheep tea cosy

More tea cosy's underway

Crochet little monster and octopus

Baby Boom

Octopus and monster

There has been a bit of a baby boom in my little circle of friends and colleagues so this has caused a crochet octobaby boom. Here is yet another octopus with a little monster friend for baby's big brother. This has actually been a repeat performance as I made a matching pair for mum's twin sister! 

Crochet Christmas Elf

Christmas Elf

Scandinavian style

The Christmas elf was a two year project. It should have been finished for Christmas 2016 but I ran out of time so before Christmas so it was put away unfinished due to lack of interest. This year however, my Christmas mojo returned and he was finished. I hate to leave things unfinished. I'm really good at starting new things, but  have to make a (sometimes) herculean effort to finish everything.  The weather has been so dim and dismal the lighting on the photo doesn't really do justice to his fluffy sparkly beard. Maybe next year I'll take his photo again. Incidentally, the pattern was from a Simply Crochet magazine in 2016. I've kept the magazine because there were a few other coordinating items that might make an appearance next Christmas.