Monthly Make January 2012

Well, now I'm mobile once again I have been sewing and turned my tapestry into a cushion.

I do love this, I bought the kit on a wonderful day out with my two friends Lynda and Beki, and I spent many hours chilled out over the Christmas period sewing this.  My back pain kicked in just after Christmas so this was a welcome 'sat still' distraction.

In total I think the tapestry took about 50-60 hours and it took about half an hour to turn it into a cushion.

I snaffled up some cotton duck in the Cath Kidston online sale and used that as my backing.

Generally when I make cushions I always add a zip and I have never made an envelope style cushion I thought it was a cop out for people scared of zips, but I'm a convert, it's just fine.

I did try a few variations and it seems a 4" overlap is what works best for me.  So simple to do, this will half the time it takes me to make any future cushions.

I would like to enter this as my Monthly Make for January 2012, I have popped a photo over in the Flickr file.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

Liberty Cushion and WIP's

I bought this fabric a few weeks ago now and I had meant to get cracking and make a cushion with it.  

Each time I got it out I didn't have the heart to cut into it as it was so precious.  It's Liberty and it's so fine and silky I thought it cruel to take scissors to it.

I gave in!

Even the scraps are a delight.

I made this for myself; it will have to live on my bed as I think I would cry if my boisterous kids got jammy hands on it in the lounge.

I'm glad I cut it now...

Have you been over to see Hookin with LaaLaa or Amanda Makes lately?  They have been airing their WIP's for all the world to see.  We all have them some more than others, and I'm also guilty of this.

Here are a few of mine, some almost there, some barely started.

A bit of a hexie theme going on here in three different sizes!

 

Help is at hand!

Lynda has set up a UFO (Unfinished Objects) Support Group.

Lynda said "We can make the last Sunday of each month our UFO show and tell day. If you haven't finished an item, it doesn't matter, you can show your progress. The idea is that it gives us all a kick up the bum to get these lovely items completed."

Pop over and join in if you need a little nudge along.

 

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

My name is Kandi and I am an addict...

I am still in the grip of cushion addiction. There must be some form of treatment for this, but until I find it I will no doubt continue to churn them out.

This little treasure started a few weeks ago when I made my granny squares cushion, I was engrossed in the TV and forgot to stop, so I stopped trying to stop and got started!

And here we go, another bloody cushion! Poor hubby has just started rolling his eyes at me now on the completion of yet another cushion.

Anyhoo, using what was left of the jumper from the last cushion I made another back for this one, et voila:

I am also part way through another crochet cushion this time in Sublime Baby Cashmere wool, which is just a pure pleasure to work with it's as soft as an angels bum :) It's almost there just not quite; here is a sneaky peak...

On another totally unrelated subject I have had a bit of luck with the bargains these last couple of weeks and have scored myself a cake stand for £1 ~ I have been after one for ages, it's in it's original box I imagine it was a wedding present to some couple many moons ago. It has never been used all the bits are still there, don't you just love the packet the handle comes in?

The same day I found this I scored these three beautiful mirrors from the local junk shop. I think I befuddled the man in the shop as he was after £25 for the pink one and I got all of them for £15! I was delighted to pay £5 each as I fell in love with them, I thrust the cash at him and ran from the shop incase he changed his mind.

This one came with a 5 year guarantee (which expired 10 years before I was born)!

And this one is my favourite, I can now see myself in Rose Tint, and I look so much better!

My poor husband is exasperated with me, he wondered how many mirrors one house needs? This last one has some minor blemishes where the silver is peeling off the back, which I think adds to the charachter of it.
Husband wanted to know why I bought a mirror with pixel loss ~he's such a geek!

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~

I seem to have a thing for cushions...

Not sure how that happened, but it's my 'thing' at the minute. I think it's because cusions are relatively easy to make with a small amount of fabric and they can change the look of a room with minimum effort (my favourite amount of effort). Saying that, this one was not exactly quick, I have been dipping in and out of it since December but it's finally finished:

As soon as it was done I raided the button stash and came across these,


I recieved these from the lovely Amanda last year and have been keeping them for the ideal project, well I think this is it ~ thanks Amanda xx

Talking of gifts from lovely ladies I received this on friday from the uber talented Jackie ~ Sew Special Bears, I have had my eyes on one for a while but never got round to buying one, isn't it special and just in time for valentines too.


Besides this was the most precious handcrafted card made by Jackie ~ I adore this!

It it currently sat on my 'messy' shelf (kids words,not mine) with all my favourite bits and bobs on it ~ thanks agan Jackie xx


My hubbie and I don't really 'do' valentines day, I don't like the whole commercial turn it has taken, but we will get loved up and share a movie and a cuddle tomorrow night; so I hope you all have a loving day whether it's with a significant other or just the cat; give some love ~ and (in the words of the Indigo Girls)love will come to you!

~ ♥ With Valentine Love ♥ ~

CK Union Jack Tapestry

I've been miniature knitting again, this time at the request of the lovely Jackie of Sew Special Bears, these little 'knitting in progress' accessories will accompany some of Jackie's future bears ~ how exciting ~ have you seen Jackies bears they are beautiful!

In addition to these I recently started the Union Jack tapestry from the CK Stitch book that I mentioned a little while back. It was years since I had done any tapestry therefore it took me forever. The hours that went into it seem far too many for the small result and I was more grateful that it was finished than overjoyed with it. I gently washed and blocked it and set too straight away.

I have lots of 'half finished' and 'nearly there' projects about the house and I didn't want all these hours to be thrown in the bottom of a drawer.

Despite feeling shattered I got the machine out on Saturday and turned the little tapestry into a Patriotic Recycled Denim and Cath Kidston Cotton Duck Tie Top Cushion ~ quite the mouthful!
As I am not sure what delights this month may bring (work wise) so I am hedging my bets and submitting my cushion as my Monthly Make too :)

Made with recycled denim, from my friend's boyfriend's Jeans (thanks again Ryan!), and backed with Cath Kidston Spray Flowers Cotton Duck.

My slowly growing pile of homemade cushions;


I had a little sliver of tapestry canvas left so I made a couple of badges to add to my shabby old canvas cross body bag:

I'm a little more inclined to use it now.


~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Knitting Again...

I seem to have developed a thing for cable recently, I made 4 cable scarves for Christmas,I've made a start on a big cable cushion for the lounge and I also started making smaller cable squares to sew together to make a different cushion (but this got left by the wayside a few weeks ago).

I will go back to this I promise.

Aside from this lot I had some purple wool left over from that awful knitted purse so I knitted myself a little phone sock. I’m quite proud of this beauty as I made the pattern up as I went along, it’s just moss stitch with a cable in the middle and a wide rib at the top, but to me it was a small triumph!

Oh and whilst knitting in the kitchen I got my hands on some cocktail sticks and made some miniature knitting. I added some beads to the end of the cut off sticks and ran up a few little rows.

I once made a smaller set but I can’t find it, I used to have a 12th scale dolls house and the poor house was damaged beyond repair but I did salvage all of the interiors and bits and bobs I had and bits I had made, however the tiny knitting must not have made it! I will have to show you some of my miniature bits and bobs sometime.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~