Autumn wreath: Putting it all together

Hello...........So this is the pre Ta-Dah post for my  Autumn wreath, With this wreath I  have completed all the four seasons in yarny goodness.

Above are all the elements for the wreath laid out together which gives a idea of how much yarniness is needed to cover the wreath, doesn't it look cute all laid out together.

There are little flowers, made using Lucy at 'Attic 24' Teeny Tiny Flower pattern, some of the flowers are from my other wreaths, but the berry coloured and sparkly pink ones were made for this new wreath.

Borrowing flowers from the other seasons sure has sped up this make, I only had to make one additional Rose, which is the Lilac one in the centre of this picture.  The smaller Roses are Attic 24 May Roses and the larger ones are from Nikki Trent's 'Cute and Easy' Crochet books.

Now I know there are a lot of flowers going on to this Autumn wreath, but we have had such a mild September that, all the flowers featured are still blooming in the Summerhouse garden at the moment and it's not unheard of around here to have Roses in bloom in December.

Next up we have Anemones, one of my favourite flowers and I'm pleased to say they are flowering away happily in a pot on our patio at the moment. This is my own pattern which you can find 'here'

Onto what makes Autumn special, the leaves, I'm so pleased I opted for a alternative colour scheme for the Autumn wreath, I'm loving the silver, berry and purple tones.

These leaves were knitted in a selection of yarns from my Stash.

Then there are the felt leaves, which are a new element for my wreaths, but I hope you agree that they really add to the look of the wreath.

Next up we have frost and cobwebs, the crocheted cobwebs I made using Attic 24 's Little Lacy Stars and hopefully when stretched onto the wreath will look a little like cobwebs.

Last but not least, the cute little Blackberries, I also have some little button daisies and some sparkly flower to add the finishing touches.

All ready to be pinned to the polystyrene wreath with it's knitted cover.

 Not long now to the grand Ta-Dah moment, oh go on then, would you like a little peak now?

 So exciting.......

 

See you next time .......

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Autumn Wreath: Blackberries

Hello....... Today I'm going to share with you my first ever attempt at beading, I decided I wanted to make some Blackberries for my Autumn wreath, so I hunted around online and found 'this' wonderful tutorial

So I  gathered together some supplies from the Summerhouse.

 I'd ordered some jewellery making pins online but as they are yet to arrive, I thought maybe I could use the off cuts from where I changed the guitar strings, but no I didn't have the strength to bend them.

Time for plan B

I'd also ordered some lovely Berry coloured beads, 

which are the only things I have bought for this new and thrity wreath

 After the failed attempt with the guitar strings I found some coated wires, that are usually used to make sugar craft flowers, which were just perfect for Berry making.

I made a loop at one end and then folded the other end up wrapping a small piece of felt around

before stitching into place.

Then it was just a matter of stitching on the beads, simple and effective

Just adding the beads until the felt was covered.

Ta-Dah

Cute little Blackberries, well worth ending up with a bed full of wayward beads..

All ready to be pinned onto the wreath.

So that's it, all the items are made and we're ready for some wreath assembling and

  a grand Autumn Wreath Ta-Dah moment.

In fact just between you and me it already done, I assembled it yesterday afternoon and I think it looks really pretty, just need to catch up on the posts but for sure  it'll be up on the blog some point this week I'm so excited to share it with you and see what you make of it.

Linking up with KCCO

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Autumn wreath : Leaves

Hello......... I'm stuck in bed recovering again after a busy couple of days, I wanted to say a huge thank you for all the good wishes for my hospital trip.

It was a very long day, as it's a couple of hours each way to the hospital, I had some more tests done and the Immunologist, say what's been happening is very unusual so I'll just have to wait and see if anything shows up in the tests, he also wants me to see yet another specialist a Endocrinologist this time, so that will be more appointments.

Anyway back to the wreath, where at the moment it's all about the leaves, well I guess it wouldn't be Autumn without them !!! 

As well as the knitted leaves pictured about, I've also been making some Felt ones.

A friend kindly offered to Die Cut some leaves for me, so I decided on purple and

this gorgeous silvery white glittery felt (so pretty, you can never have too much sparkle !!)  the felt came from my stash,  so yay, so far this wreath has been completely made from my craft stash so it turning out a thrifty make.

I then hand stitched some decoration onto the leaves, using Silver sparkle and a Purple floss,

Hopefully the glitter will look like a morning frost on the leaves

As well as the leaves, I have some 'Little Lacy Stars' from Attic24. Lucy's tutorials are great and I have used a lot of her patterns on my Seasonal wreaths in the past, in fact I made these stars for my 'Wintertime Wreath' last year, but the yarn I used just wouldn't block very well.

So they never made it onto the wreath.  I had in mind to make some cobwebs for my wreath as this Autumn seems to have been particularly cobwebby here at the Summerhouse.

Then the other day I found these little stars and wondered if I stretched them right out and pinned them would they look like cobwebs?  I'm hoping from a distance pinned to the wreath amongst the flowers and leaves they will, well that or maybe frost?

Here's hoping anyway.

So with a last bit of knitting all my leaves are made and ready to be pinned onto the wreath. Next time Berries.........

Linking up with Tami's WIP Wednesday

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Lately

Hello.... Lately we have had misty mornings and sunny afternoons and there is a tell, tell nip of Autumn in the air.

 There have been pretty Anemones here at the Summerhouse (my favourites)

Lately as always there has been crochet, despite some seriously painful joints, this time it's chosen wrists, hands, knees and ankles to set up camp in.

There has also been the cheery gift of a cute little Pom Pom Robin from a friend, who I'm planning to hang on my tree lights, I feel the display needs a bit of updating in line with the changing season

Lately there has been a wonderful weekend of music, as the town hosted it's annual 'Folk by the Sea festival'  I managed to go along for a couple of hours both days of the weekend to see a little bit of the festival.  I even performed a few of my songs, there are a couple of photo's of me performing in the Mosaic.

Lately I've also been playing around with layout ideas for my Autumn Time Wreath, here's a little sneak peak picture from earlier last week.

It's changed a lot since this picture and is coming together fairly quickly as I've been borrowing Flowers and Leaves from the other seasons wreaths and other crafts projects.

As for today well I'm spending it resting up in bed, after the busy weekend, my body is really not happy about my adventure, payback it such a pain, literally but at least it was fun.  I'm off to see the Immunologist on Wednesday so here's hoping he might have more of a clue about what's been going on lately.

At least there is this beautiful rose from the garden, on my bedside table to make me smile.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Autumn Time Wreath : Making a start.

Hello......... Although the weather has been gorgeous here lately at the Summerhouse, Autumn is upon us with it's misty mornings and so far warm sunny afternoons

But there are tell tells signs if you look,  the leaves are turning and the conkers are starting to fall from our Horse Chestnut.

 Plus have you noticed there are spider webs everywhere, this morning we awoke to a heavy dew and my it was pretty, so many lacy webs I just had to grab the camera and take some pics. 

With all this Autumn glory, wreath making comes to mind, as Autumn is the only wreath I'm yet to make.  Now with everything that's been going on here lately I had decided on not making my Autumn time wreath this year but the other night inspiration struck and set my brain a whirling with ideas, and I just couldn't get to sleep until I jotted it all down.

So here's the inspiration for my Autumn time wreath, these leaves are part of a very ongoing WIP for a cushion but I just love the colours and think they would be perfect as a alternative colour scheme for Autumn instead of the reds, yellows and oranges.

Yes my wreath is going to be in berry and heather tones, much more the colours for a Summerhouse wreath. Plus all the yarn is coming from my stash and I'm going to pinch I mean borrow, the leaves I've already made for my 'Purple Leaf Cushion' as lets face it I'll not be finishing it any time soon at the speed I knit.

So now it's time for the fun bit playing around with ideas and colour and planning what a Autumn wreath might need, I'm thinking berries and lots of leaves, plus some flowers and some how I'd like to try and make some wispy cobwebs but I'm not quite sure how yet.

As for flowers well I'm thinking Roses, Anemones and Daisies all flowering in the Summerhouse garden at the moment.

I've already made a start knitting some more leaves, yes you heard right I'm knitting eek, don't tell the crochet hooks. I've added lilac and some glittery grey ones to the mix for a bit of Autumn Frost.

So I'm setting myself a bit of a challenge as it's already mid September but hopefully I'll get there, I'm already planning on borrowing some items from my other wreaths, so hopefully that will speed things up a little.

Still not much progress with this read, but I'll get there
Linking up with Tami's WIP Wednesday 
and 'Yarn Along'

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

The Owl and the Pussycat cushion

Hello......... While tidying the spare room the other day I came across this cushion kit, which I'd completely forgotten about. It came along with a 'Rusty the Fox' kit as a free gift with a magazine subscription last year.

So I decided I might as well make up the kit, for the craft club exhibition theme, 'The Owl and the Pussycat'  I started off following the instructions stitching on the buttons and leaves.

But then as always my creativeness got the better of me and I decided I wanted my owl to have larger eyes so I stitched the felt eyes onto the outside of the owl (on left) instead of how the instruction suggested I should (pictured right)

and once I rebelled there was no stopping me (don't look so nervous little owl) so I added some decorative stitching to the beak.

and then stitched the owl onto the felt cushion front.

Ta-Dah

How the completed cushion front should have looked

 To tell you truth I love this folkie design and if it wasn't for the Craft Club theme other than adding a bit of sparkle to it I would have left it as is, but I needed a Pussycat.

So I drew a template of cat onto some paper and then went in search of some black felt........ I couldn't find any so instead I upcycled some black corduroy and cut out my little cat, which I then blanket stitched onto the cushion front.

So there we have it very tatty fraying cat, with green sequin eyes, kinda squished into the corner of the cushion.

All that was left  was to add a moon and cute leaf and flower sequins for a bit of sparkle (as you can never have too much sparkle) then I blanket stitched and stuffed my cushion

and Ta-Dah

  

My Owl and the Pussycat cushion.

As I said I loved the original design with just the Owl so hopefully it's not too OTT now I've crammed in the rest of the theme I'm normally more of a less is more kinda girl, so I'm finding it too busy for my liking but it could have been far worse as 'P' suggested adding some stars by the moon too.

What do you think? Hopefully it's not too much, I guess it's just knowing how the cushion should have looked before my additions.

Happy Crafting 

Clare x