A nice catch up!

I was shocked to see it is almost two months since I last blogged anything. When I think about everything that has been going on I am not really surprised but this does little to relieve the guilt!

So to catch you all up with a quick overview - Since my last post I have:

Made Christmas presents for some of my smaller relatives...

...and one for Darren of course!

Made this gorgeous little doll from a book published by my work. More on this soon - I shall do a review!

Lost over a stone with Weight Watchers - still a long way to go but making good progress!

Made and Decorated my Christmas cake - which I have been very good and only had a couple of slices of!

Got engaged to my darling fiancee Darren...

We visited my Mum in Preston just after Christmas, then went to the Lake District for the day on New Year's Eve for a walk. Part way around we stopped for a brew and a sandwich and he read me a poem he had written all about us, and asked me to marry him. I said yes (of course!) After our walk we drove to a little farm cottage he had booked for us and celebrated New Year in a lovely lazy, laid back style. We tucked in and watched the Godfather in our cozy little room together. He bought this beautiful ring for me - just perfect - and I am desperate to get it back from being resized but I must be patient! Wedding plans abound but we are aiming for next year to give ourselves some breathing (and saving) space.

Wrote a crochet project for a book - so much fun to make as it is in my usual crazy rainbow colours. The book will be published next year I think so I will post more on this soon.

Here's a sneak preview of the finished item. I just love the crazy rainbow colours!

Completed my tax return and filed online with about three days spare! Oh the agony!

Became a master of procrastination and learned to embroider when I should have been completing my tax return! Here is my progress on a little sampler I have been experimenting with. I just sketched out a few elements and started stitching, working out the colours as I went and changing a few things along the way. I am really pleased with how this is looking and aim to frame it within the hoop and maybe use an edging method from hoop-la!

Begun creating crocheted rainbow squares to cover my little old lady chair 'Dorothy' up in the craft room...

It is quite a big project to take on but I know that if I just do a little bit at a time I will eventually have enough to cover her. Then the challenge will be getting all the pieces fixed together and stitched to the chair. I am researching upholstery and looking any images I can find to see how this would be done. So far I have come up with a curved needle and that is about it! I think I need a Pinterest board for this so I will post more when I have more to share.

So...What next then?

Well, I will focus in on completing a few things so you should see a few posts which are concentrated on a particular project. I think I should make sure I detail the chair project and give any advice I can as I have not found much on the subject online and think this would be valuable info for yarny upholsterers!

I desperately want to restock my shop and will try to make things for this at the weekend. I started experimenting with marbles in the week so these might appear soon if I can bear to part with any of them!

The stitchery was something I found really enjoyable so there may be more of this to come too. This year was supposed to be the year I got to grips with my sewing machine and I have not begun that journey yet... I'm scared!

I think that's enough to be getting on with for now isn't it!

I hope you are all having fun so far this year with all of your projects, hooky or otherwise!

Assemble the Minions!

Well look at this! No posts for a month and then two come along at once! I have to say, I enjoyed writing my last piece about Harriet's lovely cushion that I was spurred on to tell you about my minion making adventure over the weekend. I have made a few other things and I will take you through them some time but as making this little guy at the weekend was just so much fun I thought I would bring him to the front of the queue!

After wracking my brains as to what to make my two year old niece for Christmas (she is going through short phases with her toys so I have been struggling to find something which is flavour of the week) I popped round for a visit and found her watching the despicable me film with her mum. Every time a minion appeared on screen she giggled and said 'Minion!' so I thought I should get to work making her one of her very own...

...And here he is! Meet 'Dave' the minion.

I worked on him in between batches of mincemeat and my mince pies at the weekend, and while we watched lots of cheesy Christmas films. It was great just making something up as I went along, referring to the picture and just making each piece to order.

The body was worked as a spiral from the top of the head with about 5 increase rounds, then worked down to where the dungarees start, then I switched to blue to finish off and decrease. I made a flat piece for the front of the dungarees and stitched it to the bottom after stuffing then a smaller rectangular piece for the back, with long rectangles for the straps. tubes for the arms and legs, which I only stuffed at the ends to make it more drapey and cuddly, and simple shapes for the goggles.

 Once you start looking all the bits are easy enough to work out, you just need to keep looking back at the images on the web to make sure the positioning and scaling are correct. Maybe one day I will get my act together write the pattern out but there are lots out there already, I just wanted mine to be more 'Dave'.

I had so much fun making this guy although there was a bit of unraveling, accompanied by a lot of cursing and I am hoping he will be well received on Christmas day!

Hope you are all having fun crafting your Christmas gifts. Remember it should still be fun so don't set yourself impossible tasks and stress yourself out. Take it from a girl who's been there!

Chevron addiction is spreading!

My friend Harriet was quite taken with my chevron cushion pattern and has made five cushions to date using this pattern. I am amazed at how quickly she is turning them out! What a star! And they have all been selflessly donated to various friends and family members as gifts. Maybe she will get around to making one to keep soon!

Harriet has a lovely little blog with details of her crafting endeavours and all sorts of reviews. She has written a lovely little post confessing her chevron addiction and showing off some of her finished items. I love the way she has finished her cushions with machine sewn envelope backs using contrasting and complimentary fabrics. Her friends have all been so happy with their gifts and it is so nice to think that all these people are sitting on their sofas with such a carefully thought out item made by their friend!

I have more things to tell you as there have been no updates for a while. Things have been made, ideas have been thought of, wheels are in motion. But more of that soon when I get my head around it all. In the meantime, take a look at Harriet's post here, it makes for a lovely read.

Happy Hooking,

Anna x