WIP: Wonder Woman quilt

Hello! So, recently I decided that I should make a quilt. The ideal quilt maker would probably be someone mathematically minded, precise, meticulous, patient, and good at sticking to a plan ... I am none of those things. Nonetheless I'm giving it a red hot crack!

I've only done part of the quilt top at the moment; I'm planning on adding a border and then, of course, I will need to add a back and squishy middle and binding and then actually quilt it ... yeah, I've got a bit to go! It's currently 77cm by 72cm (about 30.5 inches x 28.5 inch), but hopefully the border will help it more more lap blanket size, rather than it's currently baby quilt size! ^___^

I started off with a jelly roll pack and some Wonder Woman fabric, both that I got from Spotlight. Unfortunately the strips that came in the jelly roll were not all the same size, so I had to cut each of them down >____< I cut all of my strips so that they were 2 inches wide, and about 25 inches long. 

After sewing four differently patterned strips together, I cut the resulting fabric into 7 inch lengths. Now, here is where my maths failed me slightly. I was planning on making 7 inch squares, but actually ended up with 6 inch by 7 inch rectangles. Oops!

But I decided to carry on anyway, and change my original idea for the pattern into a brick repeat instead. To do a brick repeat you slightly offset your pattern, which means that your edges won't line up properly. To fix this, you make four halves of your pattern squares and use them to fill in the gaps.

Then I sewed all the blocks together! And now I have a mostly finished quilt top - yay! The seams don't all line up probably and I have no idea why (probably something to do with the aforementioned lacking skills) but I'm not really concerned about it enough to unpick it all and start again. 

Maybe this can just be my test quilt; I'll make all the mistakes on this one and then my next one will be amazing! ~___^

Of course, this quilt does have Wonder Woman on it, which means it's still at least a little amazing ^____^

- Lisa xx

The Giant Pineapple Cosy KAL begins!

Hello! Well, the Giant Pineapple Cosy KAL is in it's second day! Or first, possibly, if you're in a different country than Australia. Timezones are weird! ~___^ Members in the Ravelry group are absolutely racing through the patterns, so if you haven't signed up yet then there is still plenty of time to join and start knitting or crocheting. Perhaps you could even do both!

I only shared one photo of the crochet cosy in my original post, so I thought I'd show you some more here! ^___^

The knitted pattern says to sew up all corners of the pattern, but I couldn't get the cosy over and under my teapot's handle with it seamed there so I added a button closure instead. I used a big white button which seems to suit it well, but I'm keeping a look out for the perfect pineapple button to replace it ^___^ One can never have too much pineappleyness, right? 

I was a bit worried about the leaves falling over, but they actually have held their shape really well! They are just sewn to the last two rows of the cosy body, and they stand up without any type of support. Except the support they get from each other! ~___^

As you can see, even when pouring, the leaves stay upright! I think that tensioning them tightly has really helped here but if your leaves did end up too floppy, a small length of floral wire inside each one would fix them up nicely.

I'm now working on making up the knitted version, which I think is going to take me much longer than some of the super knitters in the Ravelry group! ^___^ I have finished one side, but I must mention that I totally cheated! Tanya and I were both meant to test out the knitting pattern, but since I am oh so slow, I had only finished about half of one side by the time Tanya had totally finished whipping up her awesome cosy!

 

So I put it away, and only restarted it yesterday when the KAL actually began. I did about six more rows of bobbles and then finished it off. The side I have done is looking a bit wonky, which I hope will improve after blocking. But hopefully now since I've got some practice I'll be able to do the next side a bit quicker and neater! But I do have until June 2nd to get it done, so I'm not going to stress about it ^___^

The bobbles are much easier to see in real life, and I suspect that blocking will also make it much easier to see them. A looser tension would possibly also help, but I'm not going to hold my breath for that! ~___^

I'm working on a couple of sewing projects to show you next week, but my sewing machine is being very uncooporative at the moment. I'm hoping I can work past these technical difficulties, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see! 

Until next time!

- Lisa xx

Flights of Fancy scarf, plus some WIPs

Hello! I have felt vaguely unproductive recently as, although I have been crafting, I haven't actually *finished* much. However, hopefully you will soon see finished versions of these projects! ^___^

Rebecca helped me to adjust completely rehaul a pattern for a cotton top - it fits me much better than the mannequin, I promise! Betty and I really do have completely different shapes (she's not actually that helpful for dressmaking for that reason, but she is very pretty so I forgive her ~___^). This project has halted for the moment as I need to purchase more calico so that I can create the lining; I used up my remaining calico on two toiles, one of which is pictured above >___< I didn't think I'd get to the stage of needing to buy more fabric quite so soon - I have a rather impressive collection of material which, hopefully, will be reduced once I get going on with making more clothes ^___^

 

I've also been working on this embroidery hoop, which is for Rebecca as an extremely late birthday gift. She should receive it sometime before her next birthday. Maybe. ~___^ The stitches on this design are teeny tiny and unfortunately I can't do it for long periods of time or at night time without hurting my back, neck, and/or eyes. Unreasonable body, placing restrictions on my crafting time! ~___^

The pattern is Witchcraft by Urban Threads, and I'm really keen to see it finished! I've got a couple of ideas to add a twist to the pattern, and I really hope that I can make it work ^___^

I've also been adding to my slowly growing pile of granny squares. I now have 126 of them; only 346 to go! >___<

 

This will eventually be a blanket, but I don't think it's going to be finished anytime soon. It takes me about an hour to make one square so if I crafted only this for a year then maybe I'd get it done but I get bored too easily to do that! Plus, I think the blog would really go downhill if it was just photos of grey and black granny squares every week! ~___^

 

Still it's good to see my collection growing .... ^___^

 

But here's something I *have* finished! Yay! ^___^

I made this royal blue scarf using the Flights of Fancy pattern from Lion Brand Yarns; although I used a completely different wool and therefore hook size.

 

It was very easy to do and produced an interesting pattern, like leaning trebles.

 

However, as you can see from my bare arms, it's still the middle of summer here, which makes it highly impractical! At least I'll be ready when winter rolls around again ^___^

What have you been working on? I love hearing from you!

- Lisa xx