Right ... Enough is Enough!!

I have stupidly gotten out of the way of doing craft projects which I must put an end to. I have too many projects on the go and they are all just taking too long ...

There is my Kate Davie's Puffin knitted Jumper;

A neon Aztec quilted blanket (my own design);

And my Parisian cross stitch designed by Satsuma Street.

So today I am taking advantage of the horrible wintry Sunday and picking up my cross stitch.

Here is what I achieved today!

47 Days of Summer - Week 1

Wednesday - First stop catch up wi this little munchkin, her big brother and their Mam

Thursday - Went for a blustery walk wi the four collies (dey wir rather excited)

Friday - First run of the holiday and the high winds nearly ended me

Saturday - Great road trip to Sumburgh Head Visitors Centre it's brilliant

Sunday - Me and EB went to Mareel to see The Fault in Our Stars then back to hers for bubbles and Scrabble 'Rock & Roll'

Monday - Little taste of my Second Home

Tuesday - Tried oot the Film Quiz at Mareel ... It's really hard!!!!

Home for Christmas 2013

In the first 24 hours I was home, I was kidnapped by my sister. She is in Edinburgh/Lincolnshire for Christmas with her boyfriends family.

SOOOOOOOOOO excited to watch Frozen with a gingerbread latte and brownie

She planned an early Christmas meal on the Sunday so we did it together...

This chappy had a nice brisk walk in the cold... We tired him oot wi all the hoose work

Nigel Slater's Christmas Trifle made by moi

One of my tasks was to draw up some novelty table decorations, was fun drawing again and considering it's from scratch it's no too bad if I do say so myself

She flew away on Monday so I was released back into the care of my parents where we cleaned the hoose, did a booze run to Mainland Stores, iced my Christmas cake, wrapped gifts etc.

My first ever Christmas cake, made by me (subtle ombré effect)

Once we wir finished we lit the fire and curled up in front of Scrooged with a dram. It's meant to be a rubbish day today (Christmas Eve) brally windy and rainy so I am hoping to get some serious knitting done even if I have to do it by candle light.

Molly trying very hard to get up on the new couch

What are you doing to keep warm this festive season?

Lead Up to Christmas

You might be able to guess from the absolute lack of posts that I haven't had much time for creative things. At the start of the school year I had surgery on my lower back so sitting up right was difficult then the new National Curriculum hit wis with a bang (I am a Maths teacher) and every spare minute was spend developing the course, materials and assessments.

It is now time to try me and dad's cider and it is very nice, dry but I like that.

I have managed to potter with peerie things over the year but disappointed that I still haven't finished my Aztec blanket (goal to finish that by end of January).

I have done another 4 rows but must finish it soon

 

For a few weeks me and the lasses would meet up on a Sunday morning and knit, I made a tea cosy from Smith & Jamieson's book... All that's left is to add a pom pom to the top.

As you may have guessed by now I feel strongly about homemade christmas gifts. I feel that now days people just give gifts because they feel they ought to but I like popping past a friend hoose with a peerie something and knowing that they'll get some joy oot of something I have spent time making. I definately do not do it just to get something back. When I wis a teenager whenever my mam and dad asked me what I wanted for christmas I would say a book, perfume or Lego... And I still do.

Festive fireplace, West End Hotel in Kirkwall

This year I had big plans for the peerie boys gifts (there are 4 of them now this year - congratulations to Gina & Robert on peerie Josie) but time ran away with me and then will be next years plan. Instead I made them some sock toys to keep their zebra's company.

Josie's first christmas gift from me ... A peerie sock teddy

 

Oliver's dad has a farm and on that farm they have a collie, so I made him a sock puppy

I also made Lucas a puppy as they have a beagle called Spencer and thought he'd like another.

Last time at was at Ryan's hoose there cat had gone missing so I made them a sock kitten

I made some christmas vodka for the man who started this craze in my flat, Murray my old flatmate, he would always make raspberry gin and something equally as tasty in the festive season so I thought he would appreciate this.

Making Christmas Pudding Vodka at the same time I made a pumpkin pie

Playing on Pinterest I found instructions for making candles which sounded straight forward and original so I made the lasses cinnamon candles in some beautiful glass tumbler I found. [In my excitement I forgot to take a photo of these so plan to beg one of the girls after Christmas Day]

What do you do in the lead up to Christmas?

51 Days of Summer: WEEK 1

I have set myself a challenge to take a picture each day of my holiday - to encourage me to do something exciting and help me remember what I've been up to.

Day 1

Listening to the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury while waiting for the boat North

Day 2

 

Making baileys panna cottas with strawberries

Day 3

 

First walk of the summer with the pack... This is Meg in motion

Day 4

 

Working on the Aztec quilt and its starting to take shape

Day 5

 

Molly decided she was more important and escaped from the boot

Day 6

 

Working my way through my Summer reading here is book #1

Day 7

 

Pimms, Wimbledon and the new Simple Things magazine ... Enough said :0)

Aztec Blanket ..... Pour Moi

I have been fascinated by the current Aztec trends, I love how simple the shapes are and they are super pretty. I also like the neon trend, i.e. lime green and pink, but I am not confident enough to wear them so I am channeling my enthusiasm into my next sewing project.

I have chosen to make this quilt using cotton (white, grey and pink)

I started by coming up with a pattern taking inspiration from Aztec designs on Pinterest. Then I sketched it out onto square paper, this made it easier for me to choose colours and the quantity of fabric

I was struggling to find suitable fabric that was affordable, but I got some good tips from twitter and found Seam Star, who had the colours I wanted and it was cheap enough that it wouldn't cost me more than £40.

Seam Star delivered super fast!!

 

Sunday 26th May

Today I finally switched on the sewing machine and finalised my plans for the quilt, I ended up using Micrisoft Word to make a colour version of my quilt, I made a little modifications to ensure that my quilt would pack a punch.

Here is a mock up using word

Day 1                                                Day 2                            

The finished quilt is going to be massive but I still envisage myself carrying it around like the guy on Snoopy

Thursday 3rd July 2014

Getting there ...

...to be continued!!

Emma's Random Blanket

I have started to pay more attention to other people's quilts on twitter and Pinterest and idea was starting to build, web I started to gather fabric for it I decided it was going to be a gift for my sister, as her and her boyfriend are planning to buy their first home and I thought it would be right up her street.

 

Fabric wise I went for a mixture plain, striped, novelty and floral. I also included camouflage as Emma like camouflage.

 

I cut the fabrics into right angle isosceles triangles with the identical sides being 13 cm. then I randomly paired up 2 prices of fabric to make a square then used 4 of them to make a bigger square. I used 5 of these to determine the width then continued like this until I have the required length. I used the fleece backing to determine these measurements, since it was a random pattern this was easy to do.

Once I have the cover sewn together I put it on top of the fleece, right sides together then put the wadding on the back of the sewn fabric.

 

After pinning the materials together i sewed (1.5 cm from the edge) around them leaving a 4 inch gap so that I could turn the fabric inside out, I then turned in a edges where I had not seen and I sewed around the fabric (1 cm from the edge) securing the hem.

Christmas 2012

Christmas Vodka, looked super festive from day dot

 

Christmas this year seemed to appear from no where. I started to panic when I realised I had very little time to make the gifts that I wanted to give folks but I am happy with what I finally produced.

I first started knitting these gloves for my friend Gemma

 as she had said how much she had liked mine the year before

Then I found a recipe for a Spiced Aarancello (Christmas Spiced Vodka) from BBC Good Food App and thought that it would make a nice gift for some of my friends

- My flatmate makes amazing fruit liquors so it was nice to try my hand at something similar

 

As I mentioned back in October, I got a kindle pattern from a craft fair during Wool Week and was keen to make one for my Mam, Ii am really chuffed with the colours etc.

although it is a little on the large side

After the success of last years Christmas Jam I thought I would try my hand at my own recipe, Mulled Pear Jam, I liked how subtle all the flavours were although I would maybe put a little less

 sugar in it next time as it was super sweet.

I know that some people make/sell Christmas Pudding Hats but I thought I would try my own version. My own pattern so, again, proud of the outcome (would also make awesome tea cosies) can't wait to see pictures of the boys in them.

Ii also followed a Kate Davis pattern and knitted this hat for my Dad, thinking to make a girlie one for myself, once I have tackled the socks and jumper.

 

I really recommend homemade gifts, I got one this year (Blackberry Gin from Lynn) and I really appreciated that she has put time and effort into a gift that was for me.

 

Happy Holiday xxx