Patchwork October

Hello.............. October was a month of slowly moving forwards here at the Summerhouse.

Thankfully my energy levels have slowly been improving, after a year of full on relapse, there is just the tiny hint of a little more energy.  Restarting my herbal medicine with the addition of some Ginseng and going back on the antibitoics seem to have really helped, it's slow going though and this last relapse has left me so much weaker.  I'm still mostly resting as the slightest thing finds me exhausted. 

Sorry I've not been about too much in blogland these past months, I've really missed catching up on you're lives and crafty antics.

October did see a couple of Ta-dahs and some new crafts I even managed to write a song, new songs have been few and far between this year.

Out in the Summerhouse garden there was still lots of lovely colour to be found.

October saw my complete one of these long term projects, as for November I hoping to get my hand warmers finished asap as it's getting really cold now and my hands are freezing.  I'm also hoping to get on with some blanket making.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork September

Hello............. It's patchwork time again,  sorry I've been a little absent from my blog these past few months, I've been struggling with my health, so there has not really been that much of note to tell plus I have to confess with low energy levels instagram has been distracting me a little, so if you like you can follow the blogs page over on Instagram.

September was a month of crochet, art, crystals music oh and a giant ice cream yes a local farm has opened a ice cream parlour just down the road, so it would have been rude not to go and check it out.  As for the crochet I've been working on some WIP's so hopefully I will have a Ta-Dah post to share soon.

Out in the garden Summer was still going strong, we had such lovely warm sunny days in September such a lovely end to summer.

So for October I'm already behind with this but I hoping to try and post once a week.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork August

Hello....... Here's a quick look back at August...........

A month of holidays, sunshine and star gazing here at the Summerhouse, some crafting too and as always lots of yarn.

Out in the garden the lazy days of summer were just perfect for enjoying the flowers, a mix of summer favourites and a few signs of autumn on the way with the viola's and cyclamen starting to flower again.

Well that's about it, each month I plan to post these patchworks at the beginning of the month but some how it never seems to happen, oh well better late than never.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork June

Hello............. Sorry for disappearing off again, I'm just not sure where the time is going at the moment and as always there is not much spare energy for getting things done around here.

Any road, let's do a little bit of catching up with some patchworks from June, it all seems so long ago now.  Looking back there was a fair amount of crochet in June, granny squares a mandala and some crocheted coasters I made as a little yarny gift, you can read more about these makes over in Junes blog archive if you want too.

There was also some dodgy health stuff, that left me feeling very tired, but I did make it out to visit a local castle gardens and of course the knicker bunting went up in the local library !!!

Out in the garden it was roses galore, how I love it when they all start to bloom, plus the summer bedding, and some new fuchsias for the wall planters, despite it being such a mild winter we lost all but one of the fuchsias we had over the winter, not quite sure why as they have been happily flowering away on the wall for many a year !!!

Well that's about it for now.......... Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

April Catch Up

Hello.......... Long time no speakie, things have been running a bit slower here at the summerhouse, so I thought I'd do a bit of a catch post for April.

Earlier in the month there was some patchwork and I used my whizzy rotary cutter for the first time, 

a friend and I decided to have a attempt at some patchwork more of a quilting line than a circle seeing as it was just the two of us.

Things didn't exactly go to plan as you can see but I guess it's a start.

I've also been having a pretty bad time of it with my health and have been stuck in bed most of the time, just no energy, which is really rubbish, I'm just trying to take things as slow as possible and hope I improve soon.

There has of course been a bit of crochet, I'm working on my Springtime throw again, easy squares for my foggy brain, it's slow going though since Saturday I've manged to make only three as my pain levels are high and my energy so low.

So still a long way to go.........

I've been doing a little gentle colouring too, with water colour pencils,

Sadly I was feeling pretty rubbish for my birthday this year and probably should have cancelled, (judging by how ill I've been over the last week,) but I so wanted to go to a local ceramics cafe with some friends for a afternoon of crafty fun.

I'm glad I went, as you can probably guess mines the yarn bowl, I can wait to see how they turn out after they have been glazed and fired.

Sorry I've not be able to keep up with all you're blogs

Happy Crafting

Clare xxx

Log Cabin Cushion

Hello .......... I'm back with more adventures into the world of machine sewing, after my sewing machine one to one, I thought it was best to try and remember consolidate what I had learnt, I'm still pretty scared of my sewing machine

but playing with the pretty fabrics makes it so much better.  My original plan was to make a mini quilt to cover my craft basket, comprising of four 12 inch squares. I found this 'tutorial' on youtube and decided to go with log cabin squares.

I just love how much crafting knowledge and help this is to be found on youtube and it's usually my first port of call if I need help with something, I find it so much easier to follow a video clip than try and figure out what to do from a book.

Any road back to my square, I cut out the pieces for my log cabin patch as per the tutorial measuring and checking as I went, foggy brains are not the best for this, (so far I'm discovering sewing is much more of a accurate business than crochet.)

Once I had all the pieces cut I played around with the layout, at this point I was skippy happy with how it was looking, all the colours and patterns soooo pretty.  I did have a bit of a issues with getting it to fit, but hoped assumed that this was something to do with seam allowances, ( technical sewing stuff).

So it was time to thread up the machine and get sewing,

building up the block, just look how pretty it is....

It was all going really well until..........

Two of the pieces just didn't fit, I went back and checked the dimensions on the video tutorial and I had cut them as directed but for some reason it just wasn't working, so it's either me (highly likely) or somethings not quite right with measurements on the clip.

So what to do............. After a bit of head scratching and general scary sewing panic,

I opted to just leave them out of the block as the final piece fitted (well if you cut off the excess it did!!) so that's what I did.  The only problem was my block was now too small plus I very much doubted I'd be able to make three more to match for my mini quilt.

So what to do........

It was then that I remembered I had a 11 inch cushion pad, sitting waiting in the cupboard under the stairs, I'd ordered it by mistake when I made my ice cream cushion back in the summer, so now I just needed to figure out how to make a envelope cushion cover.

Which involved a bit of guess work but.....

Ta-Dah

I think it turned out OK.

Not perfect, but not too bad for a first attempt

So all well that ends well in the tale of the log cabin cushion.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx