Giveaway time!

I'm a little bit excited - today is blog post 100!  Seriously!  100 pages of my rambling on here in cyber space - thank you if you've stayed with me from the off!

In celebration, or should that be commiseration, of this momentous occasion, I'm doing my first ever giveaway!!!!!

Squeal!

The lovely folk at Search Press have kindly said that I can offer a copy of Jelly Roll Scraps by Carolyn Forster which I blogged about a few days ago.

All you have to do is to leave me a comment, between now and Friday 7th March 2014 and then I will enter your names into the draw and pick a winner!  I think that sounds right?!


Good luck, and thank you for entering!

G x

The making of a cushion cover

Morning all!  It's dry and there's a bit of sun in the sky - am wondering how long it will last though! 

I finally finished my first cushion for Enid van this week, though it didn't pan out exactly how it was meant to!

The design is called (I think) a Circle Motif Granny Square from the Granny Squares book by Susan Pinner.

This is the design

Hubby decided to point out that he believed it needed a cream lining between the crochet and the cushion pad, so I envisaged sewing, by hand no less, the crochet piece, onto the cream piece, onto the backing and then finishing it all off with a row of buttons to fasten.

First square completed

It went well until the very end when I realised that I needed to fasten the cream lining onto the crochet piece and then sew it all together else the lining would move and spoil the cushion.

I didnt' do that! I sewed the whole bloomin' thing together and then added the buttons for show.  If it needs washing I'll just have to unpick the last row!

For my first crochet cushion though I think it looks okay - bright and cheery; definitely what's needed in the caravan!

I'm almost finished with the second one only I've run out of the wool that I was finishing off with!  Typical.  I'm hoping that my mum has a spare ball of it as that's where I got it from - fingers crossed!

Ta-Dah!

I don't know if you have noticed but this is my 99th blog post!  Where has the year gone?  As promised, there's a giveaway for the 100th one!  Exciting!


G x

Jelly Roll Scraps

Jelly Roll Scraps by Carolyn Forster

Published by Search Press

27th November 2013

Paperback Edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was very lucky to be asked to review this book from Search Press.  They are the leading art and craft publisher in the UK and have some amazing books in their catalogue.  This book is from their series of  '20 to make' and is very well priced at £4.99 - that's pretty much the same price as buying a magazine at the moment. 

 

 

A 'jelly roll'  is the name given to a roll of pre-cut strips of fabric designed by Moda, an American fabric manufacturer which I hadn't heard before, but any strips of fabric remnants will do perfectly well for any of these tasks.  It's an excellent idea for using up those scraps of fabric we all hold on to - just in case!

 

 

 



I love these Russian dolls

 

 

 



Inside there are tons of ideas, here are just a few of them:

 

Patchwork dog

Tissue Pouch

Mini Bunting

Tabby Cat Cushion

Thread Pot

Needle Book

 

 

The instructions are clear and concise and the photographs are set out so you can see both the finished project, and a close-up of some of the detail.  I think this book would make a great gift, or project book as I think most people would want to make most, if not all, of the things in here, which unfortunately is not always the case with some craft books.

 

 

There will be more from Search Press shortly - and hopefully, if I ask nicely, a giveaway!!!!!

 

 

G x



 

 

 



It's finished (almost)!

Slightly excited - my shawl is almost done!  Yes, less than a month after starting it, I finished the last row this afternoon.  Now there is just the boring task of sewing the ends in.  However, I did get the 7 year old to take a sneaky peak of me holding it against me this afternoon for your viewing!


So... from this

To this

To this!

And I finished it with some shell edging, which I've never tried before.  I used my Mollie Makes Crochet book and it was the easiest thing ever - just took hours to go round the whole thing!  It's almost big enough to be a blanket!

Thanks to the wonderful Pixie for her inspiration and help with getting me started.

Stay safe, and warm, in this awful weather


G x

Happy things

Things that have made me happy this week

A pot of happy daffodils

I love gerbras, especially pink ones!

Look what I found in the charity shop!

Now I just need to find some time to be able to read it!

And also, something that made me very happy was a blog post mention from my pal Daisy Jones about my book blog Miss Chapter's Reviews which had over 100 views yesterday - yay!


What made you happy this week?


G x

This Week

This week I've been working every day again, so not much time for anything else - unfortunately!

The shawl is still growing, I think I'm going for 50 rows in total, and at the moment I'm on about row 36 so the end is in sight!  I also finally wore my handmade frock for the first time this week to school.  I made it from a curtain gifted by a friend - Liberty of London no less!  The pattern is a Simplicity one recommended by Rachelle over at Ted & Agnes.

I'm also trying to finish my blankets for the caravan as we've already booked to go away in it over half-term and they aren't finished! Mind you, they aren't going to be finished by the end of next week so I guess we'll have to go away without them!  I've managed 40 out of 80 squares of my variegated blanket, but then I've got to do the edging and sewing together!

I started some wristwarmers today too.  I found the image on pinterest and found the free pattern here.  I managed the first one during an episode of Father Brown this afternoon!

I've also managed to get a guest blog spot on another crafty blog which I'm really excited about - more when that occurs!

I'll also have lots more craft books to review on here too as Search Press have signed me up as a member of their review team which I'm really pleased about.  Lots of crafty treats coming this way soon I hope, and maybe a giveaway or two?!

My bag from Society 6 arrived this week too.  It's a Dottie Angel design, though I really couldn't decide which one to choose.  In the end, I went for the house design.  Can't wait to use it!

Black Sheep Wool are having a sale at the moment, so I sort-of bought 10 balls of wool and a pattern book for some Connemara wool by Sirdar.  Just got to choose what to make with it now, but it was less than half price per ball so a bargain really!

 

 

Hope you're all okay and not to wet or windswept.  We have had one dry day in the past few weeks - it is truly dismal at the moment.

However, on a positive note, apparently knitting is good for you so pick up those needles!

G x