Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2013 Last Saturday for March and Orange

Happy Easter to you all!   It is the last Saturday for Orange and by the skin of my teeth (do teeth have skin?) I finished my blocks for this challenge.

Here they are:

First up my little orange cross blocks (does anyone know their proper name?)  

Here is how they look together with the last two months’ blocks:  Can you see the mistake I made with the orange cross blocks?

After seeing Linda’s wonderful D4P quilt here which she finished recently I thought I would make extra D4Ps to go with the ones I made last year so I would have a bigger quilt.  So I made a couple more orange ones and a couple of neutral ones.  I need to make extra pink and purple to catch up.

Also looking orangy-ish  is the long wash cloth for my DH who’s birthday it is today.   I was up until 3am last night getting it finished!  It is done with Tunisian crochet and I’ve mixed up the stitches a little.  I had no pattern I just made it up as I went along  played.   It is very stretchy.   DH likes long cloths and usually uses bar towels.  It has orange, yellow and dark red in it and is about 24 x 7 inches.

Lastly, a picture of my bunny Princess Penelope:

I think that’s it for now :)  Pop over to Soscrappy and see what everyone else has done for their last Orange Saturday. 

Have a great weekend!!

Hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday

The colour for this month’s Rainbow Scrappy Challenge is Orange.   I don’t have many orange fabrics that I currently like but I did manage to find just enough to make my orange Boxed In block.   Here it is: And here is how it looks with the first two blocks I haven’t managed a lot of sewing this past few weeks since I’ve been playing hooky…… as in crocheting.   I did complete a cylinder cushion cover, which I started last year for my son.  It is in mix crochet stitches. Here are some photos of it. 
   
 
I had planned to make the stripes going the other way, however, some of the patterns pulled in the sides and it ended up looking hour glass shape :)  So I turned them so they ran across the length of the pillow.  If I ever make another of these type of covers I’ll do it in the round….. famous last words.
It was Mother’s Day here in the UK last Sunday and I got some lovely flowers and chocolates from DD and DS, however, DD also made me a little needle felted wall hanging and also bought my ball jointed doll a new wig.  (She bought me the doll as a surprise for my birthday last year)  I’m not a collector but my DD is and she thought I’d like one :))  I think I’ll need to get around to making her a quilt some day. This was my DD’s first attempt at needle felting and it is her own design.
and a Here is ‘Kiera’ my very own Ball Jointed Doll with her new hair in my favourite colour red.  It suits her skin colouring better than the ash blonde of her first wig.
And lastly, for now, I wanted to show you some little African Flowers and a daffodil  which I crocheted.I made these African flowers using Heidi’s (of Heidi Bears) instructions here .And the Daffy is made using Lucy’s (of Attic 24 )  pattern here.   I’ve yet to make the leaves.
Okay, that’s all for me for now.  I do have a plan to post something else sometime this week though :))
Meanwhile, pop on over to Angela’s blog Soscrappy  and see what everyone else has done with their orange scraps this week.
Happy Stitching!
Ellyx

 

Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday and are ready to face the new year ahead.  I know I am.  

Angela of Soscrappy blog is hosting this fun challenge again this year.

The colour for January is Hot Pink!  What a great start   I love pink.

It took me a few days to make up my mind as to what I was going to be doing this year but the one block that kept coming back to me was the ‘Boxed In’ block by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts.  Her block was in the Quiltmaker’s 100 blocks Vol. 2.  and is #171.

Here is my finished block.  Please excuse photo I’m a little out of practice and the lighting is not good.

I also cut out a heap 2.5inchx1.5inch bricks to make up a pattern I saw in one of my magazines that looked cute.  Here are the bricks. Hopefully, I’ll have some blocks to show you next Saturday.

I also sorted through a small bag of tiny scraps and picked out the following pile to do something with.  Crumb blocks seem the best option for some of these or I could make some little 4 or 9 patches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The little 1.5inch square scrap I found in the pile looked like a good colour inspiration for a small project I thought.  hmmm..

I also have a little yarny finish I’d like to share with you.  It’s a knitted Moebius cowl with an icord.  The free pattern can be found on Craftsy here.   I had a skein left of the Mini Mochi colour #108 Neptune Rainbow from making the crochet shawl for my mum.  

This is a new to me technique and there are a few mistakes but they are not obvious.  The cowl is for myself and is very cosy….. would you believe I still have a little of that yarn left… a doll scarf perhaps??

That’s all from me for now, I’d better get back to some stitching of bindings!  Why don’t you pop over to Angela’s blog to find out what everyone else is doing for their Rainbow Scrappy Challenge this year.

HAPPY STITCHING

Ellyx

Mixed Stripey Crochet Along

I found out through some friends of mine that there is a mixed stitch CAL  at the Little Woolie.   It looks so fabulous that I didn’t take a lot of arm bending by my friends to join in the fun.  In fact I can say they ‘hooked’ me very easily ;))

So here is how mine is looking so far:

I am making a cover for a cylindrical cushion pad for my son, Lewis, who was recently ogling the one I did here.   Taking that as a hint I thought I’d use this opportunity to play and make one for him.  I already have the pad.

And the other 3 instigators  my 3 friends also doing the CAL along with me are:  

Katrin,  of Cattinka

Cyn, of Cyn’s Quilted Travels

and Luann  of Loose Threads

 

Rainbow Scrappy sort of and a day late

We’ve been back from holiday/vacation for a week now and I’ve still got a lot of catching up to do.

This month’s Rainbow Scrappy colour is purple.  Yummy :)  yet I’ve still to play with my purples and I still have a yellow house block to make from last month, not to mention several BOMs to catch up on, LOL…   Anyway, here are a few finishes I managed before I went off.

First up, I finished the crochet edging on DD’s doll’s quilt.  I learned quite a lot during this process and if I try it again I will certainly know better.  If anyone would like to have a go at this, Heidi of Speckless blog shows you here. (part 1, 2 follows on from that)

While visiting mum, I finished off her crochet cover for her foot stool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a “make it up as you go along” project.  First I did a granny square for the top and then using SC (DC UK) I proceeded to turn it into a cube shape.   However, I got a bit fed up with the SC so near the bottom I changed the pattern and did what I thought I remembered from the lacy pattern on the doll quilt. The yarn from this was from a very old poncho that had seen better days.  It was at least 40years old ;)

Another project that bites the dust is an apron made from an old dress which belonged to mum.  Here is a picture of the old dress and the new apron.   Another “make it up as you go along” project for me as I am not a dress maker and hadn’t much of a clue of how to do most of this.  There was a lot of frog stitching in this apron, but, I learned a lot during the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is more of this dress left to use but I don’t think I’ll be doing anything just yet.

Okay, so I’m behind on a number of BOMs and in particular on Kathleen Tracy’s Quilt a Month challenges.  I still have to finish March’s baskets and to start April’s and May’s challenges.   And yet, I’ve made a start on October’s challenge which hasn’t yet begun.   Can you make any sense of that?  But I am enjoying the process.   The challenge for October will be the little hexagon flower quilt in Kathy’s book “The Civil War Sewing Circle”.  The size of the hexagon is .6 of an inch and I did start to make the templates from card stock with the aid of a hexagonal graph paper pdf generator from Incompetech.com  here.   However, as I was cutting out the templates I got to thinking about the fabric and how I was going to cut those.  I thought about printing out the Inklingo .5 hexagon shape onto the fabric and perhaps using those to squeeze around the template.   Then I wondered what on earth I was thinking!

To cut a long story short, I’ve printed out a heap of .5 hexagons with the Inklingo collection and will be hand piecing those, minus the card templates and making the blocks to fit them.  After all what’s in 1/8th of an inch?  Not a lot at the end of the day.  My quilt will be a tad smaller that’s all and the prep time cut in more than half.

Anyway, here is a mock up of the pieces I’ve printed and cut so far, placed over the background fabric I plan to use… unless DD manages to change my mind since she doesn’t like the brown background.  But the quilt is not for her.  There won’t be as much background as it appears here.  Oh and the picture doesn’t show the true colours on my screen but there are a few purples in this ;)

To end my post, here is a picture of Biscuit cuddling up to Penny.  They finally bonded!  I missed the moment Penny gave Biscuit a thorough grooming of his back end (which he can’t manage for himself because of his lameness).

He’s becoming quite frail now but still has a lot of spirit in him and can some how manage to get down 3 steps and up another to go onto the lawn to munch the grass and weeds very quickly.  He’s on pain meds for arthritis.

I hope you are all having a great weekend.  If you’d like to see what all the other Rainbow Scrappers have been up to, go take a look here on Angela of Soscrappy’s blog.

Happy Stitching!

Hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday but not so happy with some sad news.

The good news is that I finished my neutral table runner for one of my Rainbow Scrappy challenges.

I did all by machine, except the mitred corners on the binding which I hand stitched down.  I was brave and did a stipple over the whole quilt and machined down the binding using a decorative stitch.   My DD took this photo with her ‘new’ camera.

I also made a little progress on my poncho CAL from Le Monde de Sucrette’s blog. Pictured here in my garden over a conifer.  It actually looks bigger than it is and more pink than it is.

The sad news is that one of my bunnies, Malachi, past away this past week.  He had become ill last weekend but did not recover :(   Here he is in a picture, taken a few years ago, with his misses Chichi.

Malachi is the black bunny.  R.I.P. bonnie lad you will be greatly missed by all of us but especially by your love Chichi.

Bunny hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday, yarn and a bunny

Good afternoon from sunny north Scotland.   Unusual weather for this time of year but I’m not complaining. 

I’ve not done a lot of stitching this past week as I’ve been called by fabric’s rival yarn to join in with  Sucrette’s Granny Poncho CAL.

It’s taken me all week to figure out colours and positions of them and I’ve had a couple of false starts and pull outs…

Anyhoo!  Here is the one pink thing I sewed up this week… a pink Dear Jane block.

G-3 Four Leaf Clover

BUT!  I do have one pink finished quilt which hasn’t yet been shown as finished.   I finished her way back in January but forgot to post a picture to my blog. 

  Chawton Cottage design by Tilde 

I love this little quilt and she sits on my coffee table so I can see her every day.   Thank you Tilde for the great pattern and the charm pack to make her using Jane Austen collection of Inklingo.  I hand stitched the pieced diamonds while at my mum’s so there is a memory of that time in this quilt.

Now I wonder if you’re wondering about the diversion to yarn?  I have pictures.  Do you want to see?  Well if you do then here they are ;)

My yarn.  King Cole Merino Blend DK 100% wool…. anti tickle ;)

My DD helped me sort out the colour order and I think I’m now happy with it.  Here is a picture of the first few rows:

That’s all for now, however, I can’t leave this post without a picture of Biscuit my oldest bunny who is nearly 11 years old (this July) but has been a little off his food.  He was at the vet yesterday and has medication to hopefully get him eating properly again. However, if this doesn’t work then I’ll have to take him back.  He may need a dental but the vet is reluctant because of his age.  He did look at his teeth but couldn’t see too much that may be bothering bunny though there were a couple of small spurs.  Fingers crossed he’ll start eating.

Biscuit Bun   

Well that’s me for today.  Now should I sew, crochet or go out and do a tiny bit of gardening?  Hmmm…  Maybe I’ll have another coffee while I think about it ;)

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Quilty Hugs

Ellyx

HAPPY MAIL

Don’t you just love getting a happy mail package through in the post?  Well I’ve been very lucky these past couple of weeks :-D

My dear friend and Buddette  Rosa, who lives in Canada, encouraged me and a few others to join in with Michelle of  The Raspberry Rabbits 2012 BOM named after her two beautiful rabbits “Harrington and Hannah”

Being a ‘bunny mum’ to 4bunnies plus bunny abuela to one other(DDs little Mila) how could I resist!

Anyhow, as a ‘carrot’ dangler Rosa sent me and a few other Buddettes a package of Canadian wool felt to make the first block.  Here is a picture of it with the card that came with it.

THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR ROSA!      I’ve yet to decide on my background.

Next my dear friend and Buddette Cyn,who lives in sunny California, sent me the cutest crochet heart and friendship card, she is so thoughtful that she also sent a crochet heart for my DD (the all pink one below). 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren’t they beautiful!  THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR CYN!!

I also received a girlfriend Valentine’s Card from my dear friend Donna in Iowa. (Who also happens to be my very first e-pal of at least 13 years!)   It is beautiful but also funny.  Why can’t we buy these type of cards for our girlfriends here in the UK?   The wording is glittery though that doesn’t show in the photo below.

 

 

 

 

           and inside it reads.

 

 

 

Now, as if I haven’t already received lots of goodies I also won a sponsored give away held last month by Ali of Very Berry Handmade and I won this beautiful bundle of fat quarters of Amy Butler’s New Lark collection from UK quilt shop Fabric with Love.   Aren’t they just GORGEOUS!!  Thank You Ali for organizing the give away I never dreamed I’d win, and Thank You Lorraine of Fabric with Love for the gorgeous fabric!  I LOVE THEM!!

I’m hoping to have something to post tomorrow for Rainbow Scrappy Saturday.  So I’d better go sew! LOL..

Have a great weekend!

hugs

Ellyx

Ripple Along and Wizards

I finally got my ripple cylindrical cushion completed!!! Yeah!!  After 4 false starts!!    I just wasn’t happy with the yarns I was using.  The colours had gone awry and then I discovered half way that it wasn’t going to fit properly…. so I had to pull out my original one.  After a couple more starts and not liking the varying thickness of the yarns I was using I decided to see if I had enough of the yarn left from my Giant Granny Square.  After a bit of sums I realized I could if I just did one row of each colour. 

And here is the finished article:Here is a couple pictures of one of the ends:  

I straightened the two wavy ends first by adapting a pattern in the book shown in the first picture.  There is a square ripple cushion in this book but using a different pattern to Lucy’s Neat Ripple pattern.  It had straightened wavy ends so I just worked out how to apply something similar to mine.  I used a combination of double crochet(UK) half treble and treble (UK)    Then I made up a little ruffly edging and used a cording which I made from yarn to draw up the ends.  I’m quite pleased with the result.

In case anyone is interested the ruffle edging is just  DC(UK, SC US) into every stitch with 3 chains to link them.

The other WIP I finished was a wizard hat for my DS.  He was holding a themed party and asked for this hat.  It’s by designer April Folts and her pattern was purchased from her Etsy shop “AprilDraven”. 

Here’s the hat on DS’ head:I used an Aran yarn as it was the nearest to the US worsted weight.

Well that’s it from me for now :)  One day I will get back to some quilting but for now I’m enjoying playing with yarn :))

Happy Stitching and Crocheting!

hugs Ellyx

Ripple Along and Granny Gone Wild CAL reports :-D

Good Saturday afternoon from not so sunny north Scotland :)
Okay so someone has created a crochet addict… it wasn’t me.. but now I have 2  no 3 crochet WIPs…  Ripple Along, Granny GW, and Mum’s Blue thing (to be undone and started over)… oh and I may be in the middle of a doll scarf for DD’s ball jointed doll Claudia. (I have to wait for her to get home from work to see if she wants more added to it :))
THEN!! as if I don’t have enough diversions from my quilting ;) I have an order from DS to make this Wizard Hat by Avril Draven:-
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67699882/grey-wizard-hat-pattern
I need to get the yarn though and think I just about have it sussed to the equivalent of UK aran weight.  Must start it soon as he wants it for his belated birthday party which he’s holding in November… no pressure there then.
THEN DD not to miss out (like she doesn’t get enough things done for her already) has put an order in for some dressing table doilys for her “new to her” vintage dressing table…. when I get the doilys done I’ll get a photo of them in situ… but don’t hold your breath please ;)))
I have ordered the yarn for those PLUS yarn to make some crocheted earrings that I saw on Crochet Geek’s YT video here:-
http://youtu.be/Ua4BVHtxGCU
I have been subscribing to Teresa’s (Crochet Geek) channel for a long whiley trying to figure out how to crochet.  I just love watching her videos.
Anyway, you don’t want to hear me go on you want to see the update pictures right?   Okay without anymore waffling here they are:-
First up the Ripple Along held by Lucy and Heather .  Here are two photos taken over the cushion that the Ripple is being made for…. I have no idea how I’m going to do the ends of the pillow but I’ll hopefully figure out a solution when I get to that stage.

Next up is my slow progress on LuAnn’s Granny Gone Wild CAL.   I decided to do a multicoloured African Flower motif though I have no idea what it will be or how big. LOL… motifs without a cause.   I did see my friend Katrin’s  motifs (she is making the same ones) and they are gorgeous in different shades of blue ( you can see one of her motifs here: http://flic.kr/p/axsGsq  I may have to do something similar for me Mam.  She wants a cover for her pouffeé (sorry can’t spell that word)  and in blue.  Anyway, I side track ;))  here are my African Flower motifs….  pattern found here   on Heidi Bears Blog

Okay time to go and do some of the work that I’ve been procrastinating over ALL DAY!!   before it gets too late and I end up with it all to do tomorrow…. why am I doing chores at the weekend? We are going to be getting our central heating pipes replaced starting Monday so I want the place to look semi respectable ;))   
Happy Stitching!
Hugs Ellyx