Mummycat Crafts!

It's been over a year since I last blogged and yet I have been so crafty this year that my modest stash of wool and supplies are starting to be hidden under beds and in drawers. "This huge bag of wool new? No, I've had it for ages/ was given it/ found it in the loft." 

So why no blogging? Well, this year I have been trying to work without patterns and have been working hard to design and make my own patterns. I did not appreciate how long this process could be! It definitely takes lots of concentration- not always easy with a part time job and two growing girls. I even strained my eyes trying to work under a reading lamp at night...

I was pottering around nicely with my notebook of scribbles thinking that maybe, this year, I would design and make some little items for a Christmas stall.  No rush, plenty of time, I'll just spend a couple of days to draw, design.

All of a sudden, it's October darn it!

Well, I've worked my socks off to make some lovely items that should sell at a bazaar.  I will let you know if I sell anything and will work toward my own facebook business page.  So, for the first time, introducing....

  Mummycat Crafts

"I wish I had time to do crafty stuff."

I am sitting here sifting through the camera again and have finally found some missing pictures!  I wanted to share these because, honestly, I just want to show off and take a moment to remember that work doesn't take over every spare minute.  I am always surprised by how many times I hear the phrase, "Where do you find the time?" or "I wish I had time to do crafty stuff." It does sometimes sound a little critical as if I should feel lucky to have sooo much spare time that I can just pootle around indulging a hobby.  The truth is, as all crafters know,  we all get the same time in a day and I choose being active over sitting for hours watching tv every evening.  I think most crafters are noctural as we seem to come alive during those twilight hours!  A friend of mine who whips up the most amazing dresses, always seems to want to start a  new project around about 9pm!  So this post is to remind me that those stolen hours before bed (and even before the family awakes) mounts up those little projects pretty quickly.
So, did  I tell you about the Christmas Bazaar?  This year, instead of making a ton of Christmas presents, I decided to make a bundle of goodies for the Church Bazaar.  I started whilst on the long train journey to my sister's for our Yarndale experience.  I crocheted mini stockings, felty garlands and stockings, pot holders, felty baubles, sweetie cones and loads of hair clips.  I loved it!  I was given a little parcel of cheap fabric and did a bit of a "Mocholate" with it.  If you know your "Friends" you will know that a  small amount of mocholate (chocolate substitute) was mixed with much nicer ingredients.  So I happily took small amounts of the bundle to mix with my own stash of felts, ribbons and trims (ahem).  As is always the case, the small, quick projects sold out and the pot holders- which took forever- didn't move.  Never mind eh!  The only real downer was I wasn't able to man the stall as at the last moments, the face painting lady didn't show up.  So I sat and painted tigers, butterflies (and even one dad as batman) for the entire day.

    

Never mind,, as I got  stuck by these two fabby friends who made me laugh the whole time!
I will  post soon on how I made the bow clips as I have now made so many (with two girls- how could I escape it) 

Santa' s Mince Pies.

This Christmas has been less crafty than I would like but I managed to get a few last minutes done and wrapped just before the big day!  I'm just so out of practice with my little blog that I forgot to take pictures of some of them.  There was a pretty little brooch from a free Mollie makes pattern for my niece, a collection of felt Fa La La decorations, fudge, biscuits and some great wrapping- never mind eh! I make it my New Years promise to be more Bloggy this year!
These tasty morsels stitched up a treat, I especially liked the cardboard base for weight and holding the shape.  These pies were happily received by my two baby nephews to add to their crochet lunch bags made earlier this year.

Christmas Feltie- Trees (in bulk)

Here's to Christmas and making decorations in bulk!  I really must get a wriggle on and create my own Felties designs as I always enjoy working in multiples.  My inspirational sisters encourage me to start my own little business.  And now that I have found a specific taste and a bit of a personal style, I think that 2013 Is the year to get the business ball rolling! So watch this space!

These darlings come from that lovely Fa La La favourite- Definately an all round classic!

It's sewing city over here!

Hello New Year!

It's so nice to have a break from Christmas for a while. I've been having a comfortable January hitting some long awaited projects- several of which I forgot to take pictures for sadly : (

A new hat for me, phone covers for hubbie and sister and lots of over due button-sewing and clothes mending. All these have been made much easier by a long-awaited (and much desired) craft cupboard! It may be small but it's my little space and I love it.

No more hunting for books on the edges of shelves and fishing around under the bed for boxes that never want to come back out unless you lift the darn bed...My buttons are in cute boxes, fat quarters neatly folded and my ribbons are now in a sweet little jar. There is even a bottom cupboard that fits in my sewing machine and larger cloth pieces as I am now getting really good at saving beautiful fabrics from old, worn out and outgrown clothes, buttons and trimmings instead of bundling the lot off to the local charity shop.

These two little Christmas felties are what I made in my spare Christmas holiday minutes. They're both from "Fa La La Felt" (see previous posts) and they have come out so beautifully. This is the kind of thing you can only do when nothing else is pressing as there is a lot of time taken for such a tiny object. They are so worth it now and I am loving how each pattern works up. I will tag my Fa La La projects so you can see how I'm working through this great book.February also sees "Hero Day" at my school. It's my own fault! I've organised a day to celebrate real life heroes past and present and one of the activities is dressing up for the children. I had my costume pretty much sorted until I remembered that Katie was going to need one too! So, I've been pillaging the local charity shops and got loads of cheap fabric and sheets and have been madly cutting and stitching up the costumes. I look forward to sharing these next month- I just hope I can get them finished in time....

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well! I can just breath a sigh of relief and stop the crazy Christmas crochet. No more, nup, nadda, zip, I'm all finished on gifts, wrappings, trimmings and trappings... It's been so long with the work basket out each night that last night's bid for freedom felt sooooo wrong.
Katie's Christmas wrap (the rainbow coloured strip bottom right) was only finished on the 22nd and was causing me so much stress! I could only do it when my little darling was asleep, so, fitting it in with dinner, work and-oh yes- sleep was tricky. But it's done and it's lovely. Thick and warm. Small enough to fit her frame and large enough to use as a small adult wrap will keep it usable for as long as she wishes.
Presents this year seemed to be mainly scarves. This bulky pattern from "Cute and easy crochet" that I talked about last post knocks up so quickly and looks the business.

A last minute gift was this cute pudding. It was a free pattern that came as an email gift from "Inside Crochet" magazine which I was subscribed to. I haven't found many patterns that I would use from this year's magazines, so I haven't renewed my membership. Then this pattern sprung up and it's right up my street. Easy, quick and fun. It's now part of a gift box of handmade decorations for my Mum.
These Christmas projects have now taken my Ravelry page to over 60 projects. Will 2012 see my first 100?? It's a challenge I think I'll go for.

So, Merry Christmas everyone! Have a good holiday and look forward to coming back online after some serious family time!

Christmas is coming...

It's been a whole month since my last post *slap wrist* but I have not been lazy! In fact, it's Christmas Crazy in my work basket at the moment. Where did the year go?? I started so organised with my Christmas Crafty Project in January but had to shelve that due to an overwhelming batch of pregnant friends and family. Now I am in November and my list of jobs seems to be growing instead of shrinking...

Oh well, at least this means that I will have a few posts this month as I frantically pump out projects. This Christmas is turning into a "What can I make with the stash I've got?" kind of year. I've been happily stock-piling lovely wool all year and am trying to work through enough so that I can, once again, close the lid on my huge wool box. This is great for the pennies and means that I am having to read through all my craft books to find projects to match the stuff I've got ( I plan far too many projects in so little time!). I can't wait to take a Crafty Christmas Collection photo of all the completed projects- I may even keep one or two for us this year-Yay!By the way, these patterns (apart from the wrap) came from this gorgeous book. I love, love, love this crochet book! It was one of my birthday presents and may just be one of those books where every pattern is made or planned to be made. I love, love, love this book! I got it as one of my birthday presents this year and just know that it will be one of those rare books where I make all (or plan to make all) of the patterns inside. it's set out into three levels which is great if you want a quicky gift project or something a bit more special.

So, photo explanation is now due, I think. Using left over chunky wool from my earlier baby blankets, I've made a seashell chunky scarf and a lovely shopping bag which will be filled with Christmas sweeties for one of my nieces. I've made a wrap for my Mother-in-law and a delicate scarf for her daughter too! I did take a small Halloween break to stitch this Cat Woman mask for my wonderful minxy daughter (didn't it work up well?) and am now working on another wrap for her too as she has been asking each time I work on one for others!

In between all this is various cards, baby gifts and party presents...I just can't crochet fast enough at the moment. I've also been using crochet and knitting in teaching a Year 5 class about instructions. Quite a few are asking for lessons so I'm sowing some more seeds next week and will keep you posted...A school crochet/ craft group may be on the way!This is why blogging has taken such a back seat as I can't seem to stop long enough to share. I will be good this month and aim for at least 3 posts.

Welcome to a special little lady!

The final baby box is on its way out!

There just wasn't enough time to make all the gifts I wanted to shower on this little darling but I put together a special box with some old, new, borrowed ( a returned book) and even something blue! There's even a cookie for big brother from the wonderful John Lewis.


I love the fabric for this bib and this was the least painful of the 3 that I made. (Left-overs made the phone cover that's in shot). I so wanted to make a big blanket to wrap baby up in but was hinted not to so I snuck in a mini blanket "The Mini Snuggly" which is the same pattern but with soft Sirdar Snuggly wool and a much smaller hook-kind of a comfort blanket that can be replaced if lost!

All other pieces have been dotted around in posts through the year....check them out! It was only when I was unpacking the last box from under the bed that I realised how many bits I've been hoarding. Spreading the cost by over planning definitely works for me. I really must attack the Christmas box now and see what I've got!

Wow. I've been making baby gifts for so long now that Christmas seems just around the corner and I have a list of jobs that keeps getting longer but not really started. Thank the Lord that I started earlier this year with my Christmas Tree project. Even though I ended up dropping my decoration each week idea early due to all the babies, it may well prove my life saver this coming festive season. So, watch out for more Christmas posts on their way.

PS- My typing glitch seems to have resolved itself. Weird?

Camping Madness!

My other half has always been a bit loopy when it comes to camping. So, for those early years of courtship, I had to endure many cold, damp dashes to the toilet block all whilst tripping over invisible guideropes. Don't get me wrong, Ienjoyed those strange trips. Only when camping can you take the entire morning to make an egg and bacon sarnie for breakfast and wash up at a chatty sink area. But the time has past and I happily sit in our tiny warm caravan and beam as the rain pelts down on those poor, mad tenters. My poor husband has been missing it though and is over the moon that our little girl is now happily camping out with him. 4 weekend out of the last 7 have seen my two intrepid explorers grabbing pilows and lanterns to go exploring- it won't be long before she is introduced to the fishing lakes! I have been left with the baby "sigh" and had time in the evenings (Yay!) to do some little crafty jobs. It's been a wonderful time indulging in guilty tv pleasures of X factor and Sci-fi films, late night espresso and having all my craft boxes spread around me in chaos! First on the list was a new school hat for Katie. I wanted a cushy, big, warm, blokey hat that would cover her ears and last a good long time. Well, it does the job ampley as it fits me pretty darn good too!

These two are more gifts. The corsage was for Mum's birthday. I used my leftover bootie wool and some tiny soft grey beads. I accidently stitched the leaves on too far out and, even though it looks beautiful, it ended up HUGE. I mean, my Mum's not tall and she may be in danger of getting lost behind it!

The little felt Humbug is cute idea from a book Mum leant me the other week. It's a very detailed book with wool explored in many intricate forms- not for me though. I liked the humbugs though as you stitch together two squares, going around 3 sides. You stuff the pocket and stitch the final sdie by pushing the corners together to stitch the line that runs across in the oposite direction (does this make sense?)

I'm now working on some more wraps for Christmas as my Step-Mother-in-Law has been admiring my one as well as my litle girl who's been asking for her own since last year. It mean that my birthday money this year was used on wool for other people. I know all crafters will understand this madness- bags of lovely wool! I also got some great craft books which I can't wait to try. So, as the Mad Campers are off again, I will get back to my fun!!

Week 6 Decoration- Tiny Felt Robin

Look at this!! I am so proud of this little guy as it is the first design that I've made that is a perfect match to the pattern.

1. I sketched out a robin from a google photo and traced each different section onto plain paper.


2. I cut out the teeny pieces and used sticky tape to hold them onto the felt. (This was a tip I got from a previous website. It makes it easier to cut very small pieces neatly, the felt piece comes away when the shape is cut out and the tape left on the template strenthens it)


3. I used silver, red and brown thread to embroider the details and then stitched all the pieces together. I added a plain, fine ribbon to keep the focus on the little guy

The whole thing from cutting to finishing took just over 40 minutes which I was surprised by, I must say! I wanted to scan in my pattern but my scanners gone phooey so I hope this picture will do.
FREEBIE ALERT
So, instead of a pattern to offer, I am going to start my first Freebie Giveaway. One condition though. I want to get up to 10 followers. When I have 10, I will put names into a hat and send this little guy out to you. So, if you want him, spread the word and help me complete my dastardly plan "Mwah- ha-ha!"

Just like Mother makes...

I felt I had to include this little tradition started by my Mum. Making gift tags out of Christmas cards always seemed a bit too thrifty for me but, as I get older, there is something very satisfying about reusing these beautiful cards and saving a few bob too. I especially love reusing the handmade cards made by my sister for those extra special gifts.

Like Mum, I use gold thread but I decided not to use my pinking shears as I can't bear to blunt those expensive blades. I picked up a set of eight different edged scissors from Hobbycraft and they did an ok job. Not great at cutting a clean edge, but fun and labelled with patterns for easy use.

By the way, is "OK" a shortening of two words (acronym)? I have no idea!

Let's start as we mean to go on!

Well hello there! I'm a bit of a slow-coach when it comes to technology and have taken my sweet time starting my little blog. But now that my Ravelry page is looking a bit healthier, I decided to have a go at blogging.

Happy New Year to my lovely sister who is my first follower! I hope in time I will get more people peeking at my page so I will try to put lovely pictures on as I go.

For now, here are some pictures of my first sewing machine attempts made a few months ago.

1- For my bunting I used pinking shears to cut the triangles which were then pinned together and stiched together quickly around 2 corners on the sewing machine. Binding tape was folded over and pinned to flags, then run through quickly on machine.

2-I followed the guide for Kirstie Allsops Patchwork Stockings on the BBC website and used my leftover bunting fabric to make these. Not very Christmassy but so cute and I have spare fabric in case I get a surprise addition to the family!