By Helen

a real treat…

Every now and then, we all desire a real treat: something extravagant that we don’t actually need, but really, really want.  I’ve been saving up for my treat for quite a few weeks, ever-since I discovered the beautiful artwork by the amazingly talented Mary Spence of Apple and Blossom.  I came across Apple and Blossom, quite by accident browsing on Facebook.  I am soooooo glad I did.  I was immediately drawn to the zinginess and vibrancy of Mary’s designs. Mary’s work is painted wool, with teeny-tiny embroidered stitches.  I knew I wanted to own a piece of her work.  Last week, this arrived at by door…

Carefully I opened the box…

To reveal…

Can you tell what it is yet?  I peeled away another layer…

Oh, how my heart sang: Mary’s photos are amazing, but her work in real-life, what can I say…

The piece is called…

Can you see the birds..?

Just look at the amazing colours…

Look at the French knots…

And all those lazy daisy stitches…

I can’t tell you how much I love this work.  It is just beautiful.  I can’t to get it back from the Framers!  Go and have a look at Mary’s stunning work at…

You can also find Apple and Blossom on Etsy and Folksy.  You are in for a real treat!

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three years on…

Wow!  I can hardly believe it, my little blog is three years old!  Three years: that is 229 (yes two hundred and twenty-nine) posts.  All I can say is thank you so much to sharing this journey of crafting highs and lows with me.  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!  I really do appreciate it.  It was touch and go, as to whether I’d get to three years.  For about five days Typepad has endured to cyber-nasties: taking down all their blogs.  Sorry, if any of you called by over the last few days and got an error message.  The lovely people at Typepad have been working very hard and fingers (and everything else) crossed – all is well!  Back to happier things: I thought (in true blog style) I’d share with you my highlights from the last twelve months.  Enjoy!

Crocheted blossom...

Crocheted rainbows…

Yarnbombing the Park...

Holidaying in Northumberland ...

Finally finishing my jumper...

Making my Christmas wreath: ready for my workshop…

Days out to enjoy the late Autumn colours…

Crocheting snowflakes...

Loving crochet books...

Snuggly crochet blankets...

Teaching workshops...

Combining crochet and embroidery...

And up-cycling...

What a year it has been.  Again, thank you.  I love, loVE, LOVE sharing this with you.  Here’s to the next twelve months…

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Happy Easter…

Happy Easter to you all!  I really hope that you have a lovely long weekend, enjoy the sunshine and see the opportunities for new beginnings.  Do you remember a few weeks ago, when I was preparing my Easter crochet project, and I didn’t quite know what to do?  Well, inspiration hit: and I ended up combining two of my favourite crafts – crochet and embroidery.  I am very new to embroidery; I have dabbled in it a little and been to a couple of classes, but as yet I haven’t really found my way of doing it.  I think that this may be about to change.  I know myself and know there is little point in aiming for fine embroidery, maybe one day…but not yet.  For me it needs to be slightly more instant, that’s way I love crochet – that instant hit.  Somehow combining crochet and embroidery, seemed less daunting and more natural, and I can’t tell you how happy I am with the result.  I hope you know that very special feeling that you get (occasionally) when you are soooo pleased with what you have made – it actually makes you glow?  Glow: without being smug, because you know the amount of projects you are less pleased with greatly out-numbers the ones you love. That is how I feel about my Easter crochet.  Are you ready?  Ta-dah…

They were inspired by the AMAZING chocolate eggs, which Bettys (the famous Bett’s tea-room in York) has in their window each Easter…

I was also inspired by these which I came across on Ravelry.  On each of my crochet egg, I embroidered a different stitch.  I wonder if that makes them contemporary embroidery samplers? 

There is whipped wheel stitch (sometimes known as spider’s wheel stitch)…

Detached chain stitch (also known as lazy daisy stitch)…

French knots…

Running stitch…

And pistil stitch…

I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter…

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Ps – if you feel like crocheting the daffodil (in the foreground of the pictures) the pattern can be found HERE andHERE.

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Happy Valentine's Day…

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I thought I’d share the love with you all, crochet style…

I am so pleased with how my little Valentine's Day wreath turned out, I can’t tell you.  The wreath was meant to have fourteen little flowers on it.  I couldn’t quite squeeze the last one in: so here it is with a true bakers-dozen.  I like the fact that there’re thirteen flowers, it makes the heart a little wonky: just like love is – a little wonky at times!

We don’t celebrate Valentine's Day in my house (not since Si offered to buy me a sack of potatoes – don’t ask): but that is no excuse for not spreading the joy of love, especially when so many people are facing difficulties at the moment. 

So, whatever you do this Valentine's Day, do it with love!

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ps – I’ll write up the little flower pattern, for you very soon, it’s been a very busy month so far! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I hope that 2014 brings you all that you wish for and much, much more.  Here’s to another year of  crocheting, crafting, and creating.  Thank you all for all the support you have given in 2013: I look forward to seeing you again soon…

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merry Christmas, yuletide greetings and seasons greetings…

Merry Christmas, yuletide greetings and seasons greetings…

Boldog Karácsonyt

Joyeux Noël

Gelukkig kerstfeest

مواسم تحيات

Buon Natale

मौसम अभिवादन

Frohe Weihnachten

ברכות עונות

sezone čestitke

Karácsonyi üdvözlet

musim salam

სეზონის ულოცავენ

Wesołych Świąt

节日的祝贺

Καλά Χριστούγεννα

季節挨拶

veselé Vánoce a šťastný Nový Rok

mevsim selam

ทักทายฤดูกาล

Feliz Natal

Nadolig Llawen

сезона поздрав

сезоны приветствия

sezoane salutări

فصول سلام

Glædelig jul

God jul

계절 인사

temporadas, saludos

メリークリスマス

I really hope that I haven’t spelt your languages wrong,  I have had to rely on Google translate for this posting.  Or if I have missed you language – sorry.  I hope that you get the sentiment and have a wonderful time what-ever you do this holiday period…

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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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Happy Easter…

Happy Easter!  I really hope that you are loving the long weekend: plenty of time for crochet and crafting.  Perfect.  I thought that I would share with you my finished Easter / Springtime wreath.  The wreath is both a follow-on from my last post and a recycle from last year's post.  Last year I made my wreath by stitching my crochet Daffodils on to a fabric (stiffened with buckram) circle: while this worked, it did begin to droop.  Something needed to be changed: inspired by Attic24 and a polystyrene ring bought in a craft shop I set about crafting something new.  Hope you like it…

I am chuffed to bits with how it has turned out.  Here’s how I made it.  I started by crocheting a long green panel, to become the background of the wreath.  Using half-treble crochet, I didn’t realise quite how long it needed to be…

I pinned the background crochet to the polystyrene ring, to stop it moving around while to stitched it together…

Once that was finished, to real fun started: pinning the flowers to the wreath…

It took a few attempts, adding extra flowers and moving them around; to get the look I was happy with…

After another move around and adding some crocheted leaves, I was happy…

I wonderful, happy, crochet mix of background, Daffodils, Primroses (I am wiring-up the crochet pattern and will share it with you very soon), and leaves…

Yarn Bomb: York...

Yesterday was an amazing day: there was a Yarn Bomb in York!  It was in celebration of our amazing Art Gallery, which is now closed for a two year renovation and redevelopment project.  I know two years sounds like a very long time, but by the time it is finished they will have increased their display space by a massive sixty (yes sixty) per-cent.  How good it that going to be?  To celebrate all that is to come, yesterday was a community day: where people could drop in a take part in all manner of art related activities.  One of those activities was the Yarn Bomb.  I have to confess that I didn’t take along any of my own work.  I have been sooooo busy of late (with lots of exciting things which I’ll share with you all very soon) and sometimes it is just lovely to look in awe at all the brilliant stuff made by very talented people.  In case you weren’t able to go, I took lots and lots of picis for you…

Isn’t it brilliant?  Brilliant what you can crochet and knit your yarn in to.  Brilliant that there are so many talented people.  Brilliant that we get to share it all with each other. 

 

welcome 2013…

Happy New Year to you all!  I hope that 2013 is an amazing year for you and that all your hopes and wishes come true.  For me, I’d like to raise a glass to a year of crocheting, crafting and making: and I can’t wait to share it all with you…

Happy New Year!

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