Almost FO Friday

On Ravelry, FO Friday means Finished Off Friday but in my day job it is the last day in the office for many of my colleagues, as Teachers TV is closing down so the title has a slightly different meaning.  As some of you may remember, we are all being made redundant at the end of the month which means my colleagues will no longer have to put up with me diving into my bag to bring out my latest make that I have completed over the weekend intersperced with forcing them to eat my sausage rolls... so for the very last time for them here are a couple of items which will be properly finished on Monday.

This is my own creation - a bag crocheted in Rico CanCan yarn for which I will be writing the pattern and lining the bag itself this weekend.

And last night I went to a great new class on felting... of which I will write more over the weekend, but I did come away with some new skills, I can now make felt flowers and look out for the felt ball bracelet and necklace I have in the pipeline.  The class which was an intro to felting was so good, I am returning next week.

The Giveaway winner is...

Using a tried and tested scientific method, I asked Jason our Frontend Developer to pull a name from the hat and he pulled out from my list of followers -  Senior Crafts, aka Nancy and Sugarbeans on the UK Crafts Forum, when I accosted him in our work kitchen earlier this morning.


Nancy does a lot of crafting with Senior Citizens and has a splendid blog of her own Craft and Activities 4 the Elderly - do take a look.

Nancy, I will be in touch to sort out what sort of bunting you would like and will pop a picture of the finished item up here.


Congratulations and thanks to you all for taking part!

Bunting for beginners

OK team, the sun has been shining this weekend and we only have a couple of weeks before Easter, so now is the time to get into your fabric stash and make some bunting.  If you don't have a stash, I am now going to lead you astray, go to your local fabric shop and ask to look at their fat quarters.  For those of you who have not come across this quilting term before a FQ is a piece of fabric 18 x 22 inches, cost is usually from £2.50 upwards.


And for the third week in a row, I am thrilled to be taking part in Wendy's Handmade Monday - do go and have a look at what the other people from UK Forum are up to... there are some awesome crafters out there.  Go on, take a look (but after you have read the tutorial :) )

What you need:

• Cutting mat and rotary cutters or a pair of dressmaking shears
• 3 fat quarters, sewing cotton
• 4 metres of bias binding, tape or ribbon (this may vary depending on how big a gap you leave between your flags)
• Iron and ironing board
• A chopstick!

1. Fold each of the FQs in half so that the fabric is 9" x 22", cut the fabric along the fold line.

2. Using the diagram cut out five pennants from each piece of fabric.  Save the scraps, as we are going to be making an applique cushion in a couple of weeks time.

3. Place the triangle template on the fabric.

4. Lift the pattern piece away from your ruler, cut the piece with your rotary cutter.  You will notice that the top of the triangle on my flags is blunt... that is because you do not sew right to the tip and this means I can squeeze a little more fabric into my flag.

 

5. Decide which order you want your bunting to follow.

6. Placing right sides together, stitch together the sides using a 1/2 inch seam allowance but leave the bottom open.

7. When you have completed all the triangles, trim the excess fabric away and turn the triangle inside out. 

8. Use the end of the chopstick to ensure that you get a nice pointy end to your pennant.

9. You will see a small excess triangle has appeared on both sides at the bottom, cut it off.  Now press each of the triangles.

10. Fold your tape in half and pin the triangles to the tape - spacing is down to you, some people like to place the pennants side by side but I like to space them out so that there is the space of a triangle between each pennant. 

11. I usually leave about a foot on each end of the bunting so that I am able to tie it round bed posts, trees etc.

12. Sew down your tape - you don't have to use just running stitch you can have a bit of fun and use a contrasting colour and use one of the fancy embroidery stitches on your machine that you have not found a use for yet.

13. Remember you can vary the size of your bunting, I like to use smaller bunting in nurseries and bedrooms, and larger flags outdoors.  

You might want to applique letters onto the bunting - I normally google for a good alphabet font to use but Skip to my Lou has a great alphabet to get you started -  Alphabet font

So there you have it, your bunting.  Get it out there for Easter and the Royal Wedding.

As an added incentive and as I am almost up to 2,000 page views, when I hit this figure I am going to pull a name of one of my followers out of a hat and make that person 10’ of bunting. They will get to choose colour, fabric pattern etc and whether it is for internal or external use. And I promise to try to get it to you in time for the royal wedding.

Good luck everyone!

PS - Would you find it helpful if I said how long the various project take?

Cathedral Windows And Secret Garden Tutorial

Get your thimbles out team, we are going to do some rather pretty handsewing to make Cathedral Windows and a Secret Garden needlework case.  This is going to be a great deal of fun and your constant companion will be your iron... now if you are old like me you will remember the days when you took a travelling iron with you when you went on hols and if you have one of these, now is the time you finally get to use it, after all these years.


Firstly, I thought you would like to see what you could be making which is a full sized quilt.

But we are going to make just two blocks to make our needle case.


You will need: 

• Iron and ironing board
• Mat, cutting ruler and rotary cutter
• Main fabric and contrast
• A small piece of felt
• Needle and thread
• Tape Measure or ruler

Right then we are ready to start - now these are the important bits - you must be as precise as possible with your cutting out and folding - always put the guard on your rotary cutter and finally, measure twice and cut once.

1. Cut two 7 inch squares of your main fabric.

2. With the right side of your fabric facing down, fold 

over 1/4" of fabric all the way round and press it flat.

3. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and press, now do 
the same widthwise, where these lines bisect is your 
centre point.

4. Fold each corner into the centre - we are now 

moving into origami territory.

5. Press the fabric flat, make sure each new corner 
is a sharp point.

6. Fold the new corner points into the middle.

7. Press all the corners into the middle.

8. Catch the opposing corner points with a 

slip stitch, do not got through to the layers 

beneath, just the points.

9. Your square should now look like this.  Now 
repeat the process for your second square.

10. Join together your two squares using a 

mattress stitch which will give you an invisible 

seam.

Knot your thread securely, then bring the thread 

to the right side of your fabric, placing the knot 

on the wrong side, nestled into the fold. Bring 

the thread across the opening and go down 

through the fold. Come up through the fold 

approximately 1/4 inch from the entry point and 

cross the opening. Keep your stitches rather 

loose and open until you finish sewing, then pull taut.

11. If you look at the pic above, you will see that 

the seam is invisible when you pull the thread taut.

12. Cut two contrasting squares, which fit within 

your two squares, these will form your secret 

garden.  Slip these squares under the joined 

triangles... now you know why I told you not to 

stitch all the way through.

13. Now cut a piece of fabric which fits the 
diamond shape between the two joined squares, 
this will become your Cathedral windows.

14. Roll the edges of the square over your cut out 

diamond and slip stitch the rolled edges, at each 

corner, catch the two sides together with a little 

bar stitch.

15. This is your classic cathedral window.  

Now repeat the rolling and slip stitch around 

each of the folded triangles, this will expose your 

other contrasting fabric which forms the petals 

for your secret garden flowers.

16. You now have your cathedral window and 

secret garden blocks.  In order to make it a little 

more interesting, I have added buttons... am 

thinking about adding loop to close the needle 
case.

17.  Now cut out a felt oblong to fit inside the 

needle case, I have used pinking shears to make 

it look more attractive.  Top stitch the felt in 

place with a running stitch being careful not to 

penetrate to the right side.

18. Your case is now ready for the needles.

17. And there you have it... you can now 

do two sorts of hand quilted blocks.

I also have a method for doing this by machine... would anyone like to see it?

The Monday Make

Do you know, for a couple of days after a show, I never want to see a sewing machine or a pair of needles ever again but then my fingers start to twitch and I need to get cracking again.  I had planned to do a tutorial on Cathedral Windows and have even got as far as cutting out and folding the fabric but then I went to the woolshop Bodkins of Thundersley.  


Well, I was well and truly scuppered and ended up buying a few balls of Can Can to create a handbag... which is progressing slowly but steadily as I work out a pattern for it.  However I also came across another new wool from Katia - Triana.  Now this yarn is almost like a mesh when you open it out and you literally knit into the holes a bit like just using the thread between pompoms on PomPom wool.  It was an extremely quick knit and I finished it in a couple of hours on Saturday night.  I admit to being a bit sniffy about the yarn when I saw it in the shop but I think I may be going back for more...


So here is my piece for Wendy's  Handmade Monday but there is a problem... if you are the one from the UK Craftsforum whose Easter bunny I am... please look away from the screen now... cos this little Summer scarf is going into the post for you this afternoon.

I promise to have the Cathedral Windows tutorial completed later this week... just the hand sewing to complete, so we might just make it.

The vintage & craft show - Leigh-on-sea

Yesterday my sister did her first craft show with me at the Community centre - she made some amazing tea cosies and her bunny egg cosies proved very popular - I wonder if that had anything to do with the free Easter egg that came with them?  Am delighted that I sold some of the Rufty Tufty Boys Beanie hats, especially as one was to a lady who had told her mum that she did not up until then want her to knit for the baby, I have a feeling her mum is going to really busy knitting up new clothes!

Just set up the stall and waiting for a coffee!

Some of Annette's work - am loving the doll with the stripey stockings

Lots of friends stopped by, but even better Monica from http://www.craftsforum.co.uk/ stopped by, it was super to put a name to virtual friend!

It was a really busy fair, with  loads of really great stalls... my fave was a lady upstairs who had the most fabulous cards which she decorated with free hand machine embroidery - am kicking myself for not buying some!  In fact, they really reminded me of the work of Poppy Treffry, whose book I had bought on Friday, a really delicious book, filled with great ideas.

Rufty Tufty Boys Beanie Hat

I have found lots of hats for little girls but hats for little boys are few and far between, so using the classic beanie design which uses multiples of eight stitches and knits in the round, I came up with a little number in cotton, which is both soft, structured and textured.  They are such a quick knit I have made four for my first Spring Craft Show on Saturday, fingers crossed that they sell well!

And I have also submitted this to Wendy's Handmade Monday blog http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/

Pattern for the Rufty Tufty Beanie Hat

1 ball of Gedifra Fiorista Cotton
1 set of size 4 Double Pointed Needles (DPN)

Cast on 64 stitches as follows, 21 on the first needle, 22 on the second needle and 21 on the third needle - 64 stitches. Remember to make sure when you join the circle that your stitches are not twisted.

Knit 13 rows.

Purl1 row

Knit 2 rows

Purl 3 rows

Knit 3 rows

Purl 2 rows

Knit 2 rows

Purl 1 rows

Knit 6 rows

Commence decreasing as follows:

Row 1: Knit 6, Knit 2 tog  (8 times) to the end of the row (56 st)
Row 2: Knit 5, Knit 2 tog (8 times) to the end of the row (48 st)
Row 3: Knit 4, Knit 2 tog (8 times) to the end of the row (40 st)
Row 4: Knit 3, Knit 2 tog (8 times) to the end of the row (32 st)
Row 5: Knit 2, Knit 2 tog (8 times) to the end of the row (24 st)
Row 6: Knit 1, Knit 2 tog (8 times) to the end of the row (16 st)
Row 7: Knit 2 tog (8 times) to the end of the row (8 st)
Row 8: Knit 2, Knit 2 tog twice (6 st)

To make the tail

Place all the stitches on one of the DPN, Knit one row, slide the stitches to the other end of the needle, bring the wool tightly around the back and knit another row, continue until your tail is the length that you need.  You may notice that there looks to be a big gap when you do the first couple of rows - don't worry - this will even out as you continue to knit up your tail.

I tend to knit it up and tie the knot in and see what length looks good against the beanie.

Using a sewing up needle thread the wool through the stitches twice to gather up the end and pull tightly.  Slip the needle inside your tail and sew in your loose end securely.

This hat should fit a 0 - 6 month old.  For larger sizes just add 8 stitches to your casting on but always reduce to 6 stitches for your tail.

I have also made the hat in Sirdar Summer Stripes, which gives a less structured finish.
























And below are the selection which I have made over the last fortnight to take to the show on Saturday.