Ragbag Butterfly

Hello ..............  As you have probably guessed health wise things have not been so good around here,  I'm not going to go into it now but I am going to share with you this scrappy butterfly picture I made a few months back for the craft club exhibition.

It was a bit of a last minute job as in a whole year I'd not made very much at all to include in the exhibition so was feeling a bit guilty that, I'd let the other members of the group down and we were going to have a bit of a empty wall.

 So the theme was butterflies.  I was in bed, as I am most of the time and suddenly realised I had the perfect template for my scrappy butterfly right in from of me on the duvet, so I traced one of the butterflies onto some card and then raided the ragbag.

I had a old tunic in there with lots of embellishments and sparkle and set to cutting it up, in search of pretty shapes I could add to my butterfly.

I then found a scrap of fabric left over from a patchwork quilt my sister made, which I used for the main body of my butterfly, adding a contrasting piece for the centre I simply added a little bit of stitching to define the wings.

You know me I just couldn't resist adding a little sparkle too, so I added some sparkly gems, for the antenna and to add a bit more decoration. The camera dosen't really pick it up but they are very sparkly.

Ta-dah

 That was about it, I simply found a backing paper and put the whole lot together in a frame.  One ragbag butterfly to flutter and sparkle on the library walls.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Pixie House Bag

Hello............... Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but this year has not been going so great for me health wise.  Never less I'm here to share a bit of crafty goodness today.  This is another of the items I made for our craft clubs exhibition back in February, I can't believe it's now May and it's taken me so long to get around to sharing this make with you.

For this make I decided to decorate a calico shopping bag, with a cute little toadstool house, the template for the house comes from 'Doodle Stitching' by Aimee Ray, the book comes with a handy CD with all the Motifs on and I just enlarged it until I had the right size house to fit my shopping bag. 

For the main part of the house I decided on felt as it doesn't fray and well mainly as I had this lovely white glitter felt in my stash that just screamed pixie house, I also used some pretty duck egg blue natural felt for the door, then it was just a case of stitching it all together with embroidery floss, I used silver and then decorated the door with a split stitch in black thread to look likes boards before adding a cute little button for the door handle.

Oh how I love how may bag sparkles in the sunshine !!

I then cut a piece of red polka dot fabric for the mushroom top and cut some more glitter felt to make the spots

Stitching them in place, I added in the little window with some more black thread.

I then cut my little house a chimney out of the same duck egg felt and then pinned all the pieces to my shopping bag.

I decorated and stitched in place the chimney with blue metallic floss making sure the chimney was tucked in neatly under the mushroom.

Before stitching the rest of the mushroom to the bag I added a tiny bit of stuffing, not too much !! to make the mushroom a little bit puffy, then after a bit more stitching I was done.

Ta-Dah

 One cute little Pixie house. 

Here's it is on display at the exhibition.

Happy Crafting

Clare xxx

Butterfly hoop

Hello.............. Today I'm going to share with you another make I made for our Craft Club exhibition back in February.  This was a bit of a last minute make to fit the woodland theme.  I had planned on doing a embroidery in the hoop but with my health being so bad I just ran out of time.

So first up I selected some pretty fabric and ribbon from my stash and using bondaweb ironed it onto some linen.

Before popping it into a hoop.

I then found these pretty butterflies in my card making stash and at that point all thought of embroidering some flowers went straight out the window as I so needed a sparkly butterfly hoop in my life.  The butterflies I think are made of acetate and are sooo lovely, they have glitter and delicate sparkles with pretty pearl beads and wire.

 

I then decide to add a little colour behind my butterflies

 Using some felt to make them 3d, the pink butterfly is die cut but for the blue one I decided to wing it with the wings !!!! just cutting out a simple butterfly shape free hand.

I then did some actual sewing !!! to hold the felt butterflies in place before topping them with the sparkly butterflies using glue dots.

Almost done I wrapped some turquoise lace around the outside of the hoop holding it in place with double sided sticky tape, yes this is a very Blue Peter make.

Now as for the back having never made a wall mounted hoop before, I wasn't quite sure what to do,  I'm sure there is a proper way to do this, but I didn't know what it was, so I just tacked around the  fabric to gather it all in before cutting off the excess.

I then cut a paper plate to size to cover the back and glued it in place.

Ta-Dah

I love how my sparkly butterfly hoop turned out and can't wait to hang it on the wall.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

The Fox and the Hare

Hello............ It's been a bit hectic here at the Summerhouse as I'm desperately trying to get some items made for our craft clubs annual exhibition which is due to start next week, yes I've had a whole year to make stuff but lets face it I've just been too poorly to get much completed over the last 12 months.

I had so many plans but hey ho it's all ended up a bit last minute, I'm still really struggling, with a relapse and what the Dr suspects is neuralgia, so far with my other conditions finding a pain medication I can have is proving tricky, it's been eight weeks now and I've just about had enough of it.

Any road today I thought I'd share with you these felt creatures I've been slowly making up, to fit the Woodland theme of the exhibition, they came as part of a kit with Crafts Beautiful magazine, some time ago.

So recently I've spent some time cutting out the felt pieces 

and assembling my little fox

Ta-dah 

I couldn't resist giving him some sparkly eyes.

I then went on to make this little stitchy Hare, I'm hoping to complete this set of woodland hanging decorations with a red squirrel and a deer but I'll just have to see how I go with my energy levels so low at the moment.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

PS If anyone has any alternative/natural remedies for treating neuralgia I'd love to hear them.

Knicker Bunting

Hello............ Today's blog post is going to be a bit pants.  Yes our craft club was asked by the local library to make some knicker bunting, yes you read that right !!!

As part of a event for a childrens book called 'The Queens Knickers' the fact that the event also coincides with the Queen 90th birthday, I will make no comment about. The bunting going to be hanging in the library very soon, so I'm not too sure how well that's going to go down with some of the towns residents.

Any road, knicker bunting as it turns out is a actual thing, oh yes we were given a pattern from the WI by the library which you can find 'here' should you also need some knicker bunting in you're life.

So I set too thinking about what sort of knickers a queen might need, this was a up cycling project for me using some old fabrics,  first up I used a old cushion cover to make some silk with golden thread knickers, for formal state occasions, very royal indeed in purple and gold.

and then well I couldn't resist making some frilly knickers, the fabrics a old top.

In the end I contributed three of each type, to the knicker bunting collective.

Here's are some of the other knickers made by the group.

Then 'B' who runs the craft club, stitched them on to some tape, we ended up with sixteen pairs in all.

Hopefully they are all fit for a Queen.

I'm loving M's pretty felt flower knickers

Not to mention 'B's' black glitter knickers........

Quite a mix, it did make me laugh when 'B' handed them over to me at a local folk music night, saying 'can you hang them on your tree and take a picture!!!' we sure did get some funny looks.

Don't they look fabulous all hanging in a row.

Ta-Dah

  

Knicker bunting soon to be on display in the library, something I thought I never ever have to say.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork April

Hello............. I'm so far behind with everything lately but I'm determined to share my April Patchwork before we hit June tomorrow.

Despite feeling really poorly for a lot of April, I did manage some crafting, mostly granny squares and a little bit of water colour painting, in preparation for my trip to the Ceramics Cafe. I also shared a post about some Festival bunting I made in March, but I had to wait to tell you all about until April as it was a gift for a friend.

Out in the garden, it was pretty darn lovely, I love this time of year, so much colour to be found.

 talking of the festival bunting.........

Well it's been on it's first adventure....

Well that's about it, fingers crossed I'll be a bit quicker with my May Patchwork.  My energy levels have improved a little since re starting some Antivirals, so fingers crossed things are on the up again.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx