By Helen

fabric flower Christmas wreath…

I know, I know, I know: it is only October!  But I have been making a Christmas wreath:  that I just had to share with you.  It is made from fabric flowers: using the loveliest Christmas fabric, from amazing fabric shop and workshop, The Silver Thimble…

Cut into lots and lots and lots of circles…

Which are wired onto a gorgeous, dark, wicker wreath…

I just love the results…

I really hope that this inspires you to start thinking about your Christmas making: it really isn’t that far away - only sixty-one days to go! 

Happy Crafting!

 

Ps – my Christmas cakes (all three of them) have been made and are ready for feeding! 

Pps – sorry about some of the photos, they are quite blurry: I think that my camera battery must have been getting low and I hadn’t noticed.  Oh and the flowers which look black are actually green!

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felt flower…

Really sorry that there hasn’t been a posting this week: I have had a very hectic week at work, parents moving home and on top of that a nasty cold.  Other than doing what I have had to do, I haven’t felt like much else: that has included crafting.  I know it’s not like me at all: normally when the going gets tough: I get crafting.  I know that this is a temporary blip and that in a few more days, of rest; I will be back to feeling like myself and back crafting.  I know this because my head is all-ready beginning to whirl with all the projects that I want/need to do; crochet, braiding, baking, fabric flowers and lots more beside.  One thing I have managed to craft this week is a variation on a fabric flowers.  Normally when I make fabric flowers I use ditsy print, oh how I love ditsy print.  But when your head feels a bit ditsy, you don’t really want to be looking at it!  I needed something a bit chunkier to work with.  I had some felt left over from other projects, so I thought that I’d give that a go.  I am quite pleased with the results, although they need to be made with a little more care (again that will come when I’m feeling better).  I think that they’ll make great brooches or hair clips...

What do you think?

second blogversary…

Wow!  I can't quite believe it, but it is almost two years since I started my little blog.  Two years!  I thought I was doing well to get to one year: but here I am two years on.   I have to say that I love, loVE, LOVE blogging to you all: and a MASSIVE thank you, to you, for calling by and reading what I have to say and looking at all the picis that I share with you (I know sometimes there is a lot), thank you!  I love this world of creating and sharing, that I am part of: and it is only possible because of people like you.  I thought that it would be a good time to look back over the last twelve months, and celebrate some of the highlights.  Here goes...

1. Discovering Mollie Makes I am now a complete and utter convert.  I love this magazine, if you haven't discovered it yet - you REALLY should!

2. Lots of brilliant things happened in May, especially seeing the blossom on the trees (I am witting that pattern up for you and will share it with you next month).  I think my very favourite thing was seeing my friend's little girl I in her crochet festival hat...

3. Crochet hair clips, you would not believe how much wear I have had out of these...

4. Lots of great things happened in July: if I had to choose just one thing then it would be my crochet Sunflowers ( if you want to have a go at crocheting them the pattern for the Sunflower is HERE)...

5.  Discovering the sudden revival of friendship bracelets which I hope will continue this summer: as I have something very exciting to share with you about friendship bracelets very, very soon!

6.  September saw the chaos of the start of remodeling our home, this meant spending lots of time out of the house, so that the builders could get-on-with-it, this meant spending lots of time in my favourite shop Ramshambles. Tis a hard life!

7. The building work chaos continued into October, but I did find a little bit of crochet time ready for Halloween...

8. November saw Christmas come early as I crocheted samples for a course I was running in York.  There will be more classes in , and near, York very soon.  Look out for them!

9. December meant Christmas; where I tried to wish you all the best in all the different languages of people who I know are reading my blog.  Sorry if I missed your language, let me know so I can include you ALL next time.

10. January was a brilliant start, to what is turning out to be a brilliant year!  I loved sharing my crochet Hellebore with you...

11. By February our back room was finally finished after finding the most perfect table. Now I have somewhere to blog from, somewhere for my sewing machine, somewhere to craft, oh, and somewhere to eat! 

12. March another brillaint month: despite of, or because of, the cold.  I loved the way my fabric flower sampler tured out...

13. This brings us full-circle, back to today.  My favourite thing in April?  Well that has to be my wreath made up of crochet Daffodils which reminds us that Spring is REALLY here...

So, there it is, another year on.  Once again a massive thank you to all of you for calling by, please do keep checking-in as I have lots of exciting thing happening this year and I can't wait to share them with you!

Love Helen

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teeny tiny fabric flowers…

I really loved the wreath that I made for Easter; so I thought that I make another, only I would combine two of my favourite crafts; crochet and fabric flowers.  Here’s what I made…

To make it I covered a small polystyrene ring with crochet…

Then set about making the teeny tiny fabric flowers: cutting out lots and lots of teeny tiny circles…

Stitching the teeny tiny circles together to make teeny tiny petals: this, to begin with, looked like teeny tiny bunting…

Making lots of teeny tiny flowers: with lots of teeny tiny buttons to cover, to make the teeny tiny flower centres…

Gluing the teeny tiny flowers on to the wreath…

Each teeny tiny flower is no bigger than a one-penny coin…

I love how the two crafts work together so well; crochet background and teeny tiny flowers.  Perfect!

fabric flower sampler…

Over the past few weeks I have been busy making bouquets of fabric flowers.  Most have ended up with brooch backs on them.  Then inspiration hit: inspired by samplers of the past, where women would show off their stitching skills.  Why not make a sampler, with a contemporary twist: and show off some of my fabric flowers.  I am quite pleased with how it turned out: are you ready for a bit of a ta-dah moment?  Well here we go…

I really like the simplicity of my sampler:  and the naivety of it.  Here’s some of the detail…

I especially like the butterfly…

The butterfly was made in the same way as the flowers: with the petals becoming wings, beads making the body and wire making the spiky bits (sorry I don’t know what that part of a butterfly is called – the part which has the feelers? ears? eyes?) coming out of its head.   

I am so pleased with my sampler: that it is hung on the back of my door…

 

Ps – I’ve decided March is here like a lion.  Roll on Spring…

fabulous fabric fun…

Remember I said that I had been too busy to offer any of my crochet for York’s Yarn Bomb?  It is all because for the last few days, weeks, I have been busy making gorgeous little fabric flowers…

Aren’t they cute?  I love them so much; that I am starting a new blog category just for fabric.   I love the ditsy-print fabric, which I bought at Harrogate back in November.  I think that they’ll be perfect for Spring, when it arrives…

Have a very happy crafting weekend...

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