Saturday 10 March 2012

Colourful creative craftiness!

OK, slightly naff title, but I liked the idea of having all 'C's and couldn't think of anything better!
Another week has flown by, which means we're one week closer to hubby going back to sea and leaving us again :(. But on the up side, I've had some lovely chances to indulge myself with some crafting!
I had to complete a crochet project I've been working on - crocheted bunting for a 2nd birthday present for the youngest daughter of a good friend of mine. I had great fun being able to do something really pink and girlie for once - one down-side of having a boy! I was hugely inspired by things I'd found on some other blogs, added a bit of Mummy Lewis magic, and voila, completed bunting!!! And I am so pleased with how it worked out!!!
The colour choice was to match the redecoration plans for her room: I found a fantastic tutorial for the granny triangles from here, made a visit to the wool stall on our local market, and set off on my granny triangle journey. It was sublime - lovely colours, soothingly simple pattern and very pleasing results!!! I then decided to do a border of double crochet in the contrasting colour, and joined the triangles with a foundation chain between the triangles, and double crochet through the top edge to secure each one. I figure anything to go in a child's bedroom has to be as robust as possible, so I thought a few slip stitches was not going to be enough!!
As the bunting was for a little girl's bedroom, flowers were a must, and I found a lovely tutorial written by Lucy at Attic 24 (here). These has plenty of room for variation, and I altered the pattern for the leaves a little to give what I thought was a slightly better leaf shape.
I was originally going to try and do alternate coloured flowers (like the triangles) and attach them between eah flag, but I thought that might be a bit much ... or to be completely honest I ran out of time!!! Then after several different attempts to attach the flowers in different places, and much demanding of opinions from my very bemused and clueless hubby, I decided to keep the flowers to a minimum and attach them in the middle of the flags. And I actually love the effect!!! Simple but pretty, and not too OTT. I feel slightly smug looking at these pics, and I can't wait to see them in her room once the decorating is done!!!
So now I have to decide which of my WIPs to continue with next. I'm awful at finishing things - I start with a blaze of enthusiasm, and then I see something else I'd love to do ... and I get distracted.... Hubby keeps telling me I need to 'focalise' (he often makes up words - I find it quite endearing!), and he's right, I do. But it's not something I'm good at, and that's just part of me!
At the moment my WIPs include a crocheted zipped sleeveless cardigan for Baby J, an amigurumi monkey made from leftover yarn, and my first venture into the wonderful land of crochet ripples with an ambitiously (or perhaps stupidly!) large ripple blanket. (BTW since starting this post I may have discovered that I've still not got the ripple pattern right and need to frog the lot! Oh well, maybe attempt 2 can be a little more sensibly sized!)
Then one evening this week the wonderful Lizzie D (see her blog here) took me to an amazingly wonderful place of unimagined colour and beauty and scrumptious crafty possibilities!!! Lizzie makes beautiful handbags, and had discovered that one of the EBay fabric shops she particularly liked actually belonged to a lady who lives just up the road from us. She went round to collect some fabric and discovered that her house is an Aladdin's cave of the most gorgeous materials - I walked in and my jaw hit the floor! I'd drawn up a very organised list of potential projects and amounts of material needed, and ended up burrowing through mounds of colourful beauty for over two hours - and emerged with enough fabric to do all the projects on my list, and drooling with desire for more of the beautiful colours and prints!!!
And another pic of my gorgeous materials....
So now follow tons of pics of the scrummy fabric - and I can highly recommend her shop!
This one is to do some crayon rolls (in the optimistic hope that my little man may be persuaded to eventually like colouring!)
And these are for a floor cushion for Baby J - another tutorial discovered through Pinterest - I wanted it to fit in with the colours in the lounge, and have the potential to be gender neutral - and the frogs and tortoises were just too cute!!!
Then fabric for a couple of Mummy bags, with the excuse that I will 'try them out' for possible presents...
And some adorably 'boyish' fabrics for a portable highchair/toddler seat
I can't wait to get started!!! Problem is I need time without an inquisitive toddler - hmmm, maybe I'll just have to look longingly at the pile of beautiful material for a while longer...

1 comments:

Jen said...

I so love your bunting Rachel, it is so so beautiful, you are clever!!!!

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