1st Birthday planning

Yes, I know I am 'supposed' to be keeping on with my knitting, but in the back of my mind I have been planning little one's 1st birthday party and I decided I would like a picture of him to put on his invites which means getting organised soon. We are going with a Very Hungry Caterpillar Theme - not all that original I realised after trawling Pinterest lol! - but cute and colourful and perfect for our little guy.
Anyway, getting back to what is delaying my knitting ....

Can you guess what it is? Hope to finish it on the weekend and I can share a proper photo next week :)
Other than that, I am having an open house this Saturday for my stamping customers, so I have been busy setting up for that, but I have enjoyed getting to play with new stamps and colours .... if only there were more hours in the day!!!
I have to admit to myself that I am not going to get my cowboy quilt pieced by the end of the month, but it will be top of the list for next month ... and I am getting excited about the July block in the Modern Blocks QAL!!! Lots to do in July, that's for sure!
Back soon! K x

Next one to finish off ...

So, earlier this year, I started putting my UFOs or 'works in progress' into one of those big plastic tubs with the idea that that would make it easier for me to grab them out and finish them ... hmm, not altogether successful so far! lol! However, now that I have finished the crocheted top, I thought I would pull this project out and try to get it done so my little man can wear it.

Confession time ... I actually started this 3 years ago! And I only got half way up the back! Oops! I have written on the post it note that I was doing the 12 month size, but counting the stitches it looks like the 18 month size, so I think it will be a good size for Aaron as he is 1 at the end of winter. I haven't decided yet whether it will be the sweater or the cardigan, I'm leaning towards the cardigan though, I think that will last him a bit better than a sweater and I know I have some buttons that I think would look good on it.
Heading off now to get going on it.

Cute model

The little crochet top is done and here it is being modelled by my little miss ....

I am really happy with how this worked up. It is a little shorter than the pattern suggested I make it, but I was getting a little short on wool and decided it was better to do a couple of rows less than have to try and match wool I bought 2-3 years ago! Plus I was happy with it being a  bit shorter so she won't sit on it quite as much and catch it on things. As you can see, she is pretty happy with it too!

Do you pin?

Are you a pinner? And by that I mean a virtual pinner? I do love Pinterest for lots of ideas and inspiration. It's definitely my go to site for party planning, so great that you can see the pictures before you head to the links.
Anyway, just thought I would share the ModernQAL pinterest board if you want to follow along and check out the blocks all the other talented ladies are creating.
Have fun checking them out!

Close to finished

I am really enjoying crocheting this little top! Being worked in the round means there won't be any seams to sew up at the end, just a few yarn ends and I did some of the top ones earlier. I have about 4 more rounds to go, then sc around the armholes and it will be all done, That will make about a week to create it, not bad. I checked it out and it was a pattern I bought via Ravelry. Definitely worth it!

  

As you can see, I am working on it while tucked up under the quilt my aunt made for our wedding and the remote isn't too far away! I have been catching up on some Downton Abbey while I keep busy :)

Something new ...

With my ripple blanket, I enjoyed the fact I could sit on the lounge and work on it, or if it got cold, or I was wanting to put my feet up at night, I could also work on it in bed. Neither of those things are something I can do while sewing with my machine! lol! So, although my second UFO challenge of this month is to finish piecing the cowboy quilt top, I did want to have a crochet project on the go for when I need something to do on the couch. Now, I do admit, if I looked in the boxes and bags in my craft room, I probably could have found something half finished (please don't judge me!!!) but I decided to start something new! Plenty of time for me to work on the other UFO in the coming months!

Isn't it a cute top? I thought it would be great for my little miss over a long sleeve top during winter and if she doesn't grow too much, maybe as is in summer too. As you can see, she saw it on the table and was telling me she wanted me to make 'this one, mama!'

The yarn is again from my stash (yay!) and I will decided as I get further down whether I add the band of contrasting colour or not. I also probably have enough to make it a dress by continuing further along, but that may not be allowed if 'someone' starts demanding to wear it!

I am pretty sure the pattern came from Ravelry (I had printed it off and stuck it in a 'to do' pile), but I can't remember if I bought it or not. So far, so good though, just about to start down the front and back so that the armholes are created. Hopefully more to show soon!

Ripple Blanket finished!

Yay!!!
Remember way back in February, when Mel over at One Crafty Mumma organised a crochet blanket Ripple along? I know,it's a while ago now! I have been rather slack with keeping up with my blanket, however, I have finally finished it!

The first half went quickly, but the second half did take me a while, however I am so glad I stuck with it. The coziness of it is just lovely and it has been keeping me warm as I have been working on it!

I lay it out to measure it and my model decided to roll all over it, but it measures approx 41" wide by 46" long. A decent sized lap blanket anyway and my yarn calculations worked out really well. A little bit of the lavender left, I had to use a little of a second ball of cream which had a different batch number, but the same dye number, so that wasn't noticeable, and then I decided to add 3 rows of single crochet (with 1ch spaces) around the edge to finish it off, which used up pretty much all of that second ball. So approx 6 balls of 8ply yarn all from my yarn stash using a 5.5mm hook.
The other thing that makes this blanket special is that the yarn was added to my stash from my Nanna's stash. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to her late last year when she passed away and it has been really hard since then to not be able to visit or pickup the phone and just talk to her. Some days I still forget that she isn't here anymore and of course, the last month or so with Mother's Day and her birthday have been a little less happy occasions this year. My grandpa began sorting out the cupboards early this year and knew that she would want me to have her knitting and wool, so I inherited a yarn stash as big as the one I already had, and working on this blanket with the yarn I know my Nanna had chosen at one time or another has helped me feel closer to her, just for that bit longer.

Thanks for the inspiration Mel and I am happy to have it ready and waiting to be gifted to the right person! Have a look here to see Mel's and some other beautiful ripple blankets!

Kids Mother's Day gifts

In the April school holidays I thought I would get a bit organised with the kids (the 2 big ones, at least!) and make a head start on a couple of Mother's Day gifts. I wanted the kids to be able to do something a little crafty, but not something I had to do too much with, more that they were creating themselves.

And then as I was thinking what we could made for Nanna and Grandma for Mother's Day I thought we could make some flowers using cupcake wrappers and pop-sticks. They cut out and coloured in some leaves and stuck them on too.

 Love the concentration here!

Nice and colourful .... but what to do with them .... Aha! Because I have had to formula feed, yet again, I have an abundance of formula tins and this time I really refuse to put them in the recycling bin, so I have been on the hunt for ways to use them and get them out of the house without actually throwing them out! So I cut slits in the plastic lid of the tins and then we poked the pop-sticks through, then we baked some biscuits the day before Mother's Day and the kids decorated them (lots of sprinkles!) and we popped them into the tins.

Nanna and Grandma loved them, including the handwritten label by A1 ..... and I got rid of 2 more tins!

I used several at Christmas time by decorating the outside with scrapbooking paper and a 3D flower on the top, then filled them with my Christmas baking. Everyone commented on them, they couldn't believe that's what they were and several tried to give the tin back to me "for me to use again"! LOL! I also read about using them as a bin-bag dispenser, so out came my scalpel and I cut a cross in the lid to feed the bags through and our roll of bin bags is now easy to find in the cupboard under the sink and doesn't come unrolled through the cupboard all the time!

Block 2 already!

I was very excited about having my first block completed in the Modern Blocks Quilt-a-long that I visited And Sew We Craft early yesterday to see Block 2 and this afternoon got to work cutting and piecing. This block was chosen by Tonya at The Crafty Mummy, head over to her blog for the instructions.
Here is my block ...

I wanted to show off one of these gorgeous flowers on this print, so I made sure it was in the square I cut for the large piece. And I chose the striped fabric for the ends of the 'spool' because I felt they would fit in with that shape. It was also handy to help my sew straighter for those thinner pieces to have the stripes to guide me!

If you look closely, you can see I used the blue floral fabric in the Follow the Leader Block, but the small size of the triangle didn't allow much of the flower to be shown, so it's nice to be able to do that on this one.

I am also starting another block for a Mystery Block of the month quilt that I purchased a kit for. I have blocks 1 and 2 so far and am about halfway through piecing Block 1. It's kind of exciting because when you purchase the kit you get a variety of fabrics (in a colourway that you can select, mine was blues and greens) and then you put it together, so I suspect it will be a lovely scrappy kind of quilt when I am done, and the great part is I won't have to worry about choosing the fabrics, just go with what arrives! Hope to share the finished block soon!

UFO Challenge

As you would know if you read through a few of my posts, I need a bit of motivation (kick in the backside!) to get moving on some projects! I love to get going on projects, but then often find I lack the time needed to finish them off (when it gets to the fiddly bits :/) and so they sit there and sit there, waiting ....
Tonya, over at The Crafty Mummy has started up a 'Finish a UFO Challenge' to inspire those of us that need some help to get these projects finished and out on display/gift them/use them/etc instead of them gathering dust waiting for the final touches.
My first UFO Challenge is 2 part
1. Finish my Ripple-a-long blanket! I have to stitch in all the ends and then I decided to add a border too as there are a few wobbles along the sides that I would like to tidy up and I think a few rows around the edge will make it look nice and 'finished' and it won't be sitting in my basket waiting for me any longer!

2. Finish piecing my cowboy quilt top. I started piecing it a few months ago and got sidetracked and the pieces got dumped in a box! I need to get them out and put them together so I can then start on the quilting. Luckily I took the picture below so I can figure out the layout of the unpieced bits again!

 Okay, so that is my plan for June! Let me know if you are joining in too and what your plans are