My Crafty Year

As we are heading towards a new year, I took a look at what I had been doing craft wise during 2011.

I seem to have steered more towards embroidery and sewing this year. This is mainly because crocheting and knitting cause my hands to be more painful. I'm just going to have to slow down a bit with hooks and needles I think.

I joined in my first stitchalongs

and made my first tote bag.



I've also been using felt quite a lot this year. I find it nice to work with and inexpensive. Plus easy to find, my mum and sis often bring me a few squares when they have seen some out shopping.

Next year I want to make start on my youngest boy's blanket again. The blanket is a hexagon pattern but as you can see from the photo, I made pentagons. I didn't discover what I had done until I tried to sew them together and they didn't fit. I am such an idiot at times.

Another thing that I want to do next year is to start an ort jar. I only recently heard of them when I found this tutorial about how to make fabric using thread scraps. I think its a great idea to use the scraps which would otherwise end up in the bin.

Best Wishes To All For The New Year

Painted Owl Pictures

I recently came across this tutorial and popped it into my favourites. Although I don't have any spare windows knocking about, I thought that I could maybe make something like this on a smaller scale so when I found some old clip frames lurking in the back of a cupboard I knew what they were destined for.

I used the templates from All Things Thrifty for my pictures but instead of using felt for the owls I used acrylic paint and backed the frames with a small piece of fabric.

I printed out the owl template that I wanted to use then traced the outline on to the glass using a permanent pen.

I then filled in the owl using acrylic paints ( it took about 3 coats to cover it properly )

Using spray adhesive, I glued some fabric onto the back of the frames. When the owl's were completely dry, clipped them in to place with the painted side facing inwards.

The owl pic's now have a home in Little L's room.

Oh Christmas Tree

Yesterday our Christmas tree was put up. The decorating is always done by my husband and children, I play no part in it at all. Our tree doesn't have a theme, it's a multi coloured mish mash of all sorts of decorations. While I knew I would be left alone for some time, I snuck off upstairs to do a bit of pressie wrapping.

My Love Of Cuckoo Clocks

When I saw this cuckoo clock decoration posted on the Wild Olive blog, I had to make it.

I just love cuckoo clocks. My Gran still has one which my Grandad acquired during WW2 from an American soldier based over here at the time. He traded something for it but I have always thought it a bit odd that someone during that time would be carrying around a spare cuckoo clock.

Anyway I always loved that clock when I was little and every time I visited I used to ask them to wind it up as I did when I took Little L to see my Gran not long ago. My Grandparents never had it going all the time as the cuckoo used to drive them bonkers. The clock has now seen better days because at one point it took a tumble from the wall which resulted in a bit of the top snapping off which my gran glued back on and it doesn't keep the correct time any more but the music still works and the cuckoo and people continue to make their appearance. I still love it all the same.
There are more Christmas decoration patterns to choose from on the Wild Olive blog. Thank you for sharing Mollie.

Little L's Party Outfit

Little L will be going to her first Christmas party next week at her pre school so we went shopping for a party outfit. Now I know that there was no chance that she would choose a dress or skirt so that really only left us with top and leggings outfits to choose from. The outfit that she picked is not party-ish at all and no matter how I tried to swerve her towards something with embroidery or sparkle on it there was no changing her mind. Oh well, at least she will get more wear out of it than just once or twice over the holiday season.

The photo first top is more like the true colour as I took that one in the daytime.

The top was far too long for Little L and when she tried it on with boots her legs were not visible at all. Which she didn't like because it looked like a dress so I just cut off the bottom frill and hemmed it. From the fabric that I cut off the top, I made a hat, scarf and mittens for George, Little L's favourite doll which he has been wearing all weekend because apparently he is a bit feeling poorly.