Moving house, learning to crochet, juggling projects

1. Fearne's Funky Trimmings, 2. Picnic Blanket Square 1, 3. Picnic Blanket Square 2, 4. Heart Sampler, 5. Turquoise With Pink Flowers, 6. Fairy Tale Cushion 1, 7. Fairy Tale Cushion 2, 8. Fairy Tale Cushion 3, 9. Thank You Andy Park, 10. Thank You Mr Sandu, 11. Cut Thru' Cottage 1, 12. Cut Thru' Cottage 2, 13. Cut Thru' Cottage 3, 14. Cut Thru' Cottage 4, 15. Tea Towel Wall Hanging Design 1 - 1, 16. Tea Towel Wall Hanging Design 1 - 2, 17. Tea Towel Wall Hanging Design 1 - 3, 18. Tea Towel Wall Hanging Design 2 - 1, 19. Tea Towel Wall Hanging Design 2 - 2, 20. Izzy's Butterfly Birthday Cake 1, 21. Izzy's Butterfly Birthday Cake 2, 22. Izzy's Butterfly Birthday Cake 3, 23. Rich Chocolate Mousse Gateau 1, 24. Rich Chocolate Mousse Gateau 2, 25. Cerise Sparkle, 26. Jay's Fan Case 1, 27. Jay's Fan Case 2, 28. Craftgir's Fan Case 1, 29. Craftgirl's Fan Case 2, 30. Craftgirl's Fan Case 3, 31. Glittery Pink Bag 1, 32. Glittery Pink Bag 2, 33. Glittery Pink Bag 3, 34. Glittery Pink Bag 4, 35. Tie Front Top 1, 36. Tie Front Top 2

I have been really busy since 24th May (I can't believe this is my fist post since then!), and I can only apologise for my tardiness. For those of you who don't already know, two of my husband's children came to live with us in February. We were living in a one bedroom house at the time (fun - not!) and so we have now moved (15th June) to a three bedroom house with a lovely garden. I'm afraid I don't have the space in the mosaic to share photos of the house, but I have posted a few here and here. We are all much happier now we have a house big enough for us all to live in!

During the move I taught myself to crochet (at last!) to keep myself sane. I'm afraid these first squares weren't very good, although they do look like squares. Since moving I have found that I am 25 squares short for the picnic blanket they are to eventually become, and that as my skill has improved, the squares have got a bit smaller. So before I can join them into a blanket, I must unpick and re-crochet each and every square so they are all the same size. Needless to say, it's keeping me busy!

In addition to this, I have also started three more cross stitch projects and completed another three. I have only included progress photos of two of the WIPs, as tI have already shared all progress photos to date of the snowman. The completed projects are photo 1, Fearne's Funky Trimmings, a birthday card for my little sister who turned fifteen in May; photo 9, Thank You Andy Park, a thank you card for our removal firm; and photo 10, Thank You Mr Sandu, a thank you card for our solicitor who was so very helpful to us with the Residence battle in Court. The other WIPs are: photos 11, 12, 13 and 14; Cut Thru Cottage designed by Amanda Loverseed for Bothy Threads. This is a beautiful design and I am really enjoying it, despite its size! Photos 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 are a Zweigart tea towel kit that I won in a competition. I have decided to stitch three of the designs in the enclosed booklet because I couldn't choose between them! I have finished the lemons and am part-way through the oils. The third design is herbs. When it is finished I am going to use some garden cane to turn it into a wall hanging for our kitchen, which has plenty of wall space for such things!

Photo 4 is my entry for the Feeling Stitchy Rainbow of Stitches 2010 competition, which I did not win (nor did I expect to), but greatly enjoyed. It is my own design and is pretty much just a stitch sampler with a twist on my own hand-dyed fabric.

Photo 5 is a piece of fabric I bought to line a bag I knitted a while ago. Unfortunately, this was a complete disaster and you will not find photos of this disaster anywhere, because I didn't take any (it was quite bad!). 

Photos 6, 7 and 8 are of the cushion I cross stitched for my step-daughter's thirteenth birthday. I blogged about the Forever Friends "Fairy Tale" design while I was stitching, but didn't include any photos. I made it into a cushion with a concealed zip and she absolutely adored it! Photos 20, 21 and 22 are the birthday cake I made for her celebration with her friends. One of her friends doesn't like chocolate (can you believe it?!) so I made a strawberry flavoured cake with vanilla butter icing in the middle, then made some sugarpaste icing (from scratch), coloured it purple and covered the cake with that before using royal icing to make swirls on the side and sugar florist paste to make the butterflies, which I coloured with edible purple dye and edible glitter (which we are still finding all around the kitchen!). Photos 23 and 24 are the rich chocolate mousse gateau I made as her birthday cake for our special family meal, which she chose (both the gateau and the dinner). I didn't include the orange liqueur because of my intolerance for alcohol (it aggravates my fibromyalgia), so the gateau was a lot more frozen than it should have been after half an hour in the fridge. Nonetheless, it tasted delicious!

Photo 25 is the fabric I bought to make the tie-front top in photos 35 and 36, the pattern for which is from the Savannah Collection in Sew Magazine. I am pleased with the results, especially as I had to alter the pattern so it would fit me!

Photos 26 and 27 are the fan case I made for Jay. His pocket fan kept getting caught in his pocket, so I made a case for it. I then made a case for my own one, shown in photos 28, 29 and 30. Photos 31-34 are of the bag I made, inspired by the fan case and the need for a slightly larger handbag. As you can see from photo 33, there is an inside pocket and two places to "anchor" things, such as my purse and the fan case, so I don't lose them and they are easier to find in the bag. I have been using a canvas bag from Lush as my handbag for the last couple of years. It's good because it's a bit larger than your average handbag, but there is no closure on it and no inside pockets, so I am constantly having to empty the contents of my bag to find what I am looking for. No more though, now that I have my sparkly pink bag!

One final note before I leave you in peace: the photo mosaics usually link to a Flickr photo set entitled "This week" or "Last week". Unfortunately, these links are only valid for a maximum of two weeks (or longer if I don't blog for longer), however, most of the photos remain in my Flickr photostream for a lot longer. You can find that here or follow the link on the right (Craftgirl on the web; Flickr - cross stitch or Flickr - knitting). These photos are all permenantly available on my Picasa Web Albums, in the relatively-entitled album (eg, knitting in knitting, completed cross stitch in completed cross stitch, sewing in sewing etc). I hope that all makes sense. If not, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do!

Until next time, look after each other and keep crafting!