Crochet a Rainbow

Please help a great cause. Sarah London has a Crochet a Rainbow started where you make 5 row granny squares and send them to her. She will be making them into blankets for all the victims of the Floods in Brisbane. Please help if you can. To find out more about this please visit this website.

Sarah London Textiles

Wip Update

Okay I have been so busy crafting that I have forgotten to update my blog. So sorry about that. I have been trying to get a few things finished for January and I cant believe the month is nearly over. Here are a few pics of my finishes.

First is a finish for the crazy challenge. This is a Christmas card and one of many I hope to do over the year. I have a few photo insert cards that Im using for this purpose, just need to decide what finishing touches I might add to the card or maybe leave it at that.


Another crazy challenge finish, here is a pic of the first block for the Ackworth Friendship book. Im using 28ct linen and dmc floss 4140. My friends Sherri and Donna are doing this project with me so Im putting their initials on the blocks.

Finally here is a square I crocheted for my friend in the states, she is making a comfortghan for her nieces children and I thought I would help with a square or two. Going to make another one tonight I hope.

Arnotts update

No not about biscuits but the cross stitch Im doing...LOL... I am loving this one. I hadnt worked on it since before the crazy challenge so it was time I did a bit more on it. I finished up all the red in the sign on the bottom, just about drove me mad but its all done now. Here is a before and after shot.







Now that I have done a bit more on Arnotts its time to revisit all those new wips I have and get a bit more done on them.

Day 14 and 15 Crazy Challenge

Day 14 and I got to start a floss tag. Easy peasy project I say.. lol I couldnt find a pattern that would fit the tag but I went to my friends site http://www.happyyellowhouse.com/htm/atw.html and decided on the ATW as a cross stitch pattern. I have done this pattern in crochet squares that we call saltines and I just love it so deciding to do it in cross stitch was just fantastic. Im nearly done with it just have to finish the ATW and do the borders so I can sew it together, wow I might get a finish. I wonder what that is LOL....

Day 15 wow the last day, can you believe that, I cant. I dont want it to end LOL. Hey lets do this again soon, what do you all say to that. ITs a yes thats fantastic. Any way my final project is a Easter banner, I have this idea to have table that reflects the months we are in so say Valentines day, Easter, Halloween, Xmas to name a few so I thought a Easter Banner would look great wrapped around a basket full of easter eggs. My friend Sherri found a great bunnies cross stitch for me to use and I have started this with the words Happy Easter. I hear ya its only January hello Easter is months away but you know it will be here before you can say Hot Cross Bun... So here is my pic of the banner Im afraid it doesnt show much at the moment.

So now what to do. Its all over rover, I guess its time to revisit all those wips and do some more work. I will continue with the floss tag I think as thats pretty close to finishing.

I hope everyone else that went in the Crazy January Challenge completed it and had as much fun as I did. I look forward to seeing all your projects develop into a finish.

Day 12 and 13 January Challenge

Day 12, I started the floral sampler, this is really the only flower one I have and it was a nice change from cats. I spent the night working on it while watching double episode of Law and Order SVU. Its nice to have something in the background to keep you entertained while you XS dont you think. Here is the photo of my progress.


Day 13 and it was supposed to be the Cats stamped cross stitch kit but boy I dont like the stamped part at all. I couldnt get my stitches to look the same and it just didnt flow quickly if that makes sense. So I decided to not go ahead with it, I knew I would never finish it. Best to either do the kit another way or gift it to someone that likes this sort of thing. So i had to scramble for another project and of course I dont have a lot of new kits and charts laying around but I did buy the Baby Galah kit last week which is so cute so I have started that one. Alas I have only done a few stitches so I might do a bit more on it today and then add a photo in here and thats if I remember how to add a photo after the post has been done.

Day 11 January Challenge

It was back to work today, what a bummer. I guess I only work Wednesday to Friday so I cant really complain but I just wanted to keep crafting you know.

Day 11 and I got to start the Cats Cats Cats kit by Janlynn. By now you must realise Im into cats and I have a few cross stitches going at the moment involving cats. Here is a pic of my progress so far.

Day 9 and 10 January Challenge

Sorry Im getting a bit behind with blogging my crazy challenges.

Day 9 was Cats in the Kitchen kit by Janlynn. Although I spent a bit of time on it it doesnt look like I did much, probably because I put in 30 stitches of a color only to find I had used the wrong color. Dont ask me how I did that. LOL.... Here is the pic, see I told ya its not much of a start. I cant wait to get back to this one though.

Day 10 and it was Christmas stocking time. This kit was a Jan Lynn one called Crafters Corner. Here is my pic showing a near finished Santa.

Sunday at Mum and Dads Place

I went to Mum and Dad's place today, we always do lots of chatting and sometimes we do some crafting. Mum is into Latch hook at the moment and found some nice kits on ebay to buy. My Mum has made the Macaw and the Lion and they are just gorgeous. Then I had an idea, how cool would they look as a cross stitch. I can just see the Lion on black aida and the Macaw well that would be just awesome to do. I got the graph and the code sheet from Mum and I will be going to get my dmc floss and then I will have two more projects to do.

Here are the pics of Mum's latch hooks.





Oh and I also had some canvas and Dad has plenty of rug yarn and so Im now going to do a Quaker January Cross stitch as a latch hook.

So stay tuned for the Cross stitch that becomes a latch hook and two latch hooks that become a cross stitch, confused. LOL

Day 7 and 8 January Challenge

Day 7 and I started the Australiana Wombat kit, so cute and the kit comes with a frame so I cant wait to show this one off once I have it done. Here is a pic of what I have done so far.

Day 8 was the chance to start the other Mouse pad kit I had called Put on your Big Girl Panties and deal with it.

Day 5 and 6 January Challenge

Day 5 of the January and I got to start a Christmas Cross stitch card. I had all these photo insert cards which I thought would be just fantastic to put cross stitches inside instead. I bought a Christmas book of charts for ornaments and for the cards. So for my project this time round I did a 2011 card. I quite like the bow in the number 2 and cant wait to finish this one up.

Day 6 and I started the October Quaker pattern. Im doing all 12 of these and so far I have done September and November with December already started as well. I love these as they are just one color and using a varigated yarn you can get some really nice effects from the changes in the colors.

TUSAL

I have joined the totally useless stitch along cal. You can find Daffycats website here. http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2010/12/totally-useless-stitch-long.html I have found my glass jug with a pretty birdy on it and now to do some stitching so I can fill the jar up. Pity I got rid of what I had discarded yesterday it would have been a great start.

Day 4 January Challenge

Day 4 and I got to start my favorite on the list, the Sleigh Ride in the dusk Christmas stocking. It started out really well, I got all the floss out and inspected the chart and then worked out where I needed to start on the fabric so I could start at the bottom. Well no one told me that Dimension kits are hard. The chart is in color and hard to read and you have to do lots of half stitches and most of the time with 3 to 4 threads of different colors. Im deflated I tell you. I had started it and done a bit, not worth a photo yet though. Im wondering whether to redo it and just use two threads and do whole cross stitches but that might change the look of it. What I will do is go to the stationery shop and photocopy the chart 3 times bigger so I can see where Im supposed to be going. Sitting there with a magnifying glass like sherlock holmes just to read the symbols is just plain stupid.

Im now dreading the Majestic Peacock which is on the list as well as its also a Dimensions kit. Although this one was gifted to me, please remind me never to buy a Dimensions kit again.

Day 2 and 3 January Challenge

Day 2 was the start of Friendship book, I am using 28 ct linen and dmc floss 4030 and I just love this varigated color. This is the first of ten blocks and I am going to do one each month leaving the last two months of the year to put it all together into a book. Im hoping that part wont be too hard to do.Day 3 of the January saw me dive into a Mouse Pad Kit called Busy Cat. Oh this one was a joy to do and I got quite a bit done on it. Its done on vinyl canvas, never used it before but I find it easy to roll the sides up so I can get to the middle. I didnt want to use a frame on this as I dont know how bad the marks would be and if you could even iron them out later on.

So far so good with the new starts, today I had to work so haven't started day 4 yet but after I have my coffee I plan to get the next kit out and get it started. At least I only have to work tomorrow and then I am off till the 12th...woohoo

Day 1 Crazy January 15 Cross Stitch Challenge

Day 1 of the Crazy Challenge is over and I had fun starting the first of 12 sections of the 12 Days of Christmas. Here is a photo of my progress so far. The pattern calls for beads to be worked in with it, not sure if I will go with this or just replace the beads with the same color thread. I do have the seed beads in the colors that are needed so we will see. I will need to iron the fabric once done as those frames sure leave marks in the fabric don't they.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2011 will be a fantastic year.

So now that its January 1st I get to start the Crazy January 15 Cross stitch Challenge. Im so excited, I have been waiting for ages for this to start. Am I mad wanting so many projects at once...nahhhhh course not, I love a challenge and finishing them all by the end of the year will be a piece of cake. Ok so according to my list I can now start the 12 days of christmas project.