Nearly 2012

2012

I can't believe 2011 is so close to over. I had a great family christmas. All my brothers were together and our parents home for the first time in a long time, ( no one can remember how long !) 

I missed Peanut , It was the first christmas with out her . I know she was only a little dog but she was very important to me  

I spent the christmas break with my three son's as well this year. We had a family BBQ for dinner on christmas eve and exchanged our gifts to each other then.

My fantastic family

Jay our dog

Jay was so sleepy he forgot to remove his hat !

Necklace

I made this necklace to wear christmas day at my parents. All my family are getting together for the first time in ages. I have a new dress to wear but needed a necklace to finish off the look. I made it up as I went along . to  start with it was going to be all st peters burg weave but that was taking to long so made to shot bits of weave and then joined them in the middle with a bit of a dingle dangle. I am quite happy with the finished result . 

Boat

I could not find Wayne (DH) , I found him polishing the boat with car wax. I know he loves fishing but this is too much. Dont you love the chair cleaning in comfort!

Quilt

I have show quilts made by Melva before on this blog. She Has just had her 88th birthday and is nearly finished making a quilt for the second aged carer home here in Port Augusta. Melva made over 40 quilts for the high care home in 2009 -2010 and this years she has made 20 for the low care home . the quilt below is made from hexagons I was given that were stapled onto card and poorly sew A friend removed the staples and I washed the fabric. Which turned out to be very good quality and well worth using. Melva used all but two which were to small to made this quilt as you go.  

Summer Rain

We have not had rain for months , then to day we had a fantastic thunder storm which flooded the roads and filled our rain water tanks. 16 mils in 30 minuets .

More Christmas Pens

Father Christmas is nearly here.

We have three christmas party' in the next week , for one I have made a pen each, I just hope i have made enough. I ran out of the size 8 toho beads so used #11 seed beads instead. The last three on the end are the different beads. The real little one on the end is made from delic beads. I had to add 2 extra beads to the pattern and he is a bit shorter but I think he looks ok.

Tree pen

Father Christmas Pen #11

When I realized that I was running out of beads I tried to make a christmas tree pen topper. I have given both patterns for you to have ago at.  I have made 32 pen toppers in the last few weeks not bad hay! 

Father Christmas Beading

Father Christmas on a pen 

 I have made 20 in the last week and sold them all.I can't believe how popular they are. I am in the process of copying the pattern out in bead4 so I can post it on this blog, They are made using size 8 beads. Its hard to describe the beads off the side of his head and his arms. I can now make him in about 30 minutes.

Extra free pattern

I have posted a extra free pattern , have a look in 2011 free beading patterns, this maybe my last free pattern its up to you .

Christmas Cards

I have not made many cards before. The ladies at craft are into making stitchery ones and these 3d type. I brought four sheets thinking they were stickers , at least I didn't have to cut out all the little bits.

Free pattern December

December Free chart

I know its not a Christmas chart but I liked how this turned out.

Bird

Book Cover

 Patchwork book cover
book cover link

Crochet book cover Link

I made these two book covers for my two craft group Kris Kringle this year. I made them up as I went, I hope the person how gets one likes it. The note book inside is a5 and has 200 pages, I made it so that you can change the book inside when needed.

Scarf

While in Adelaide last week I found this yarn in lincraft, I was happy with a scarf but I found a photo of a bag made out of this yarn so I am planning to unravel it and make a bag with wooden handles. 

Scarf

I was given this yarn form a friend who attended the craft fair in Adelaide,It is a bit strange but knits up very fast . I gave one to Nicole our daughter in law for her to use next winter.  

Crochet Doily

I was given some lovely crochet cotton from Japan. Sharon a friend from quilting visited japan for a 12 day tour . she visited a quilt exhibition and learnt different crafts like Sashiko and indigo dyeing. 

 I am making Sharon a doily out of a ball of the cotton she brought me. I hope she likes it.I like how the variegated blue and white is forming around the doily.

Quirky Bird Designs

A girl friend has started a Facebook page showing off her fantastic bead work. Have a look at

Quirky Bird Designs

I thinks its well worth a look.

Knitted doily

Here is my first attempt at a knitted doily. I have crocheted a lot but I like how the knitting looks. I will be making more of these. Once it was blocked it sat nice an flat.

Free pattern November

Free pattern for November is some thing i have made a few times.

remember I really would like to see your attempt's at my free patterns.

I have given a free pattern ever month this year and so far no one has posted any finished beading. I don't know if I will be doing this next year, maybe the patterns are not like ! 

Draw string Beaded Bag

Crochet Motif

I learnt this motif yesterday from http://www.youtube.com/tjw1963 . Her site is well worth a look , she had videos for left and right handed crocheters. The five piece motif only took about half an hour to make and it was the first time I had made it .

Slippers

here are the fantastic slippers finished. I picked up the stitches around the top to make a cuff so they will stay on feet better. I found this pattern free at school house press but it has since been removed, message me if you would like the pattern.

Crocheted Lamp Shade Cover

I found this pattern in an old crochet book from the 70s. We need a new look in our bed room, The pattern recommended a cotton that is not available now so I used #10 D.M.C crochet cotton in 100gram ball and a 1.50mm crochet hook . I needed to use a small amount of the second ball . I have scanned the pattern and posted in under crochet patterns.  

Free pattern's

I have been a bit lazy lately and have not up dated my free patterns. I have been busy doing not much and forgot. Today I have posted the next few patterns for you all to have a go at.

 Have fun !  

Crochet vest

I found this pattern for a crochet jacket and thought Carly (daughter In law to be ) would like it.I found some lovely gold yarn at spot light for an amazing price of $2.00 a ball. The vest was started at the top of the neck and worked top down to the under arms and then the body is crocheted and the sleeves are finished. once I had it made to the under arm join I tried it on Carly and she decided  that a vest instead of a jacket is what she wanted. That was less work for me. It took only 4 days to crochet this and I hope Carly will be happy with it. I had a friend try it on the take the photos as Carly is over 300 km away. thanks Helen for showing how it looks.

If you to want to crochet this vest/ jacket here it the link to the free pattern. 

http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/zen/zen_3.html#

Slippers

I found this pattern on the school house press site. They are called a footlet I am planning on making a band around the top( ankle ) this will make them stay on my feet better I think. The chart and pattern was very easy to follow. Now that I have made one pair I am planning on using the pattern to make more with my designs on the top of the foot.

Hidden Wells Quilt

I had a great day yesterday, 17 September our guild had a special workshop were we made a quilt top in a day.

The pattern is called Hidden wells.

The interested ladies were told to bring 1 mt of a bold floral or pattern and 4 other fabrics that blend at least a 35cm piece of each. 

Above is my blocks placed out ready to sew together. I have not ironed them, once this was done I was ready to sew them in strips then the strips in to the quilt top. 

This one is Jayne's she moved them to her sewing machine then some how mixed them up and had to sort them again.

This one is Joan's her top looks a bit different because she some how lost a whole strip but it looks fine.

I am holding the finished top, I was amazed how quick this strip method was. Jayne is behind me sorting out her blocks for the second time.

Hats for Dylan

We spent the last week in Port Lincoln. Our youngest son Dylan had an op on his heel. He plays Aussie rules football which causes heel spurs to form . He just needed a bit of company and some help with getting around. I was not able to do much but I did knit several hats for him and his fiance. 

 As you can see the hat fits quite well on Dylan's head, he was very happy with all of them. I now have an order for another one.

The trip home is long and a bit boring but wattle is all out in flower. The parking bays were very pretty because we have had a bit of rain this winter.

Knitting nick nacks

Crochet hook holders

Nostepinde

sewing needle holder

The top two  Wooden tools were brought while at the retreat, every day we had a shop of some sort. I had been looking for the Nostepinde pin for a long time and this one was only $10 from a member of the spinners and weavers guild . he makes al-sorts of wooden tools and pins . the crochet hook tubes were the last of his stock he said he was not making them any more so I garbed the last two and they were only $12 each. The needle case at the bottom was given to me by a lady at mum's quilting group . he husband had made them a few years ago and she found a box of them and gave everyone one each. He died about three years ago so it means even more to me .I am hoping to use it for my beading needles.

More yarn

While I was at the retreat I learnt how to paint yarn. It was so easy that I found some white yarn that I had in my stash that was just waiting for my to learn how to make it fantastic ! the top one is some lace weight that's about 600 meters, I will get a lovely shawl out of it now. The second one is sock yarn that was cram and I just's squirted dye onto and wow what an effect I got. I don't think its repeatable though even with the same colours.   The last one is sock yarn brought at the retreat in white. Kathy had a few hanks left over and I dyed it at mum's. I was aiming for a colour Wayne would like but its a bit pink in places.