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

Festival Bunting

Hello........ Sorry I've not been around I've been struggling with my health and trying to rest up for, then recover from a appointment I had on Wednesday.

So onto the bunting, at the beginning of April a musician friend of mine had a birthday, so I decided to make some festival bunting as gift, so they can decorate there massive bell tent when they go to festivals. The idea for this came when I spotted this musical fabric when I went for my Sewing machine lesson back in February.

So I cut out some bunting pennants using pinking shears

and used Bondaweb to fuses two pieces together to make my flags, as well as the musical fabric I also added some orange 

and golden gingham to the mix to help balance up the colours.

Now you see I'm a bit rubbish at maths but knew I needed quite a lot of bunting, so in the end I just used all that was left on this reel bias binding, I previously used this binding to make some seaside bunting .here

Cutting the binding into two equal strips I ended up with about a nine metres length for my bunting.

9 metres!!! 

now that's a lot of pinning and sewing, I pinned the pennants in place under the binding in groups of about six before

getting busy with the sewing machine, then pinning the next lot and so on......

It took a while (we're talking days, with my limited crafting time) to sew it all together, after the flags were all stitched to the bias binding I then put another piece over the top and stitched back along lenght until....

Ta-Dah

I had bunting that looked like this.

The next problem was how take you photograph of bunting that is this long, well in the end  'P' kindly hung it in the tree for a bit of a photo shoot.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Butterfly Birthdays

Hello........... Just a quick card making post for today, more butterflies they do seem to be a bit of a theme for me this year.

These were a couple of cards I made for friends birthdays recently, using some pretty butterfly attachments I received for Christmas. Using cream and blue card blanks I added the butterflies and a  paper border

some pretty ribbon,

not forgetting a bit of added sparkle

Ta-Dah

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork March

Hello............. Here's my March round up.

Lots of Yarny goodness and some new crafts too, eating clean and some music, I've been trying to learn a old time fiddle tune each week on the mandolin, with my brain fog and playing just a few minutes a day it's hard to get them to stick, so one a weeks about my limit at the moment.

Spring time out in the garden is so very pretty I love this time a year, the Easter bunny very kindly left me some lovely Viola's I just love how they look like they are painted with watercolour, lots else going on too with Polyanthus and lots of spring bulbs.

Here are  a couple of patchworks I shared to sum up the month of March over on Instagram

Well that's about it for March, sorry I've not been about too much lately I've been struggling a lot with dizziness I'm like a human weeble, (except sometimes I do fall down).  Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last few posts, I read them all, sorry I'm just not well enough to respond to them at the moment.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Cosy Catch up

Hello............ It's been quite a while since I last did a post about my 'Seaside Pebble' Cosy blanket, in fact the last one was here way back in September eek.

Well progress since then has been kind of slow, what with a relapse of my chronic illness, plus Christmas and then crafting for the local exhibition.

I've picked it up on and off thoughout the winter, adding a row here and there. 

The pattern if anyone's wondering is Lucy over at Attic24's Cosy Stripe, I started this make in the Autumn of 2014 joining in with Lucy Crochet Along, but due to my limited crochet time and poor energy levels, where most people finished there blankets well over a year ago mines turned into more of a endurance event..... 

but I'm still loving the soothing colours and sparkle of my seaside theme

As you can see I've been a bit naughty with the ends, not sewing them in as I go, but now I'm kinda loving them as they remind me so much of the sea, so I'm wondering if tassel's might be the way to go when I'm finished.

I'm a way off  that yet though, as I want my blanket to fit a double bed.

 Here's a update on the colours if you are following along

silver 111-112

cream 113-114

brown sparkle 115-116

white  117-118

blue sparkle 119-120

parchment 121-122

silver 123-124

white sparkle 125-126

cream 127-128

Happy Crafting

Linking up with Jennifers
Winter link party

Clare xx

This week

Hello..........

This week I enjoyed joining in with the World Wildlife Funds 'Earth hour' on Saturday evening it was lovely to turn off the lights and electrical appliances and spend a hour without, great to step away from the screens, this year I played my mandolin for a bit,

Then spent the rest of the hour relaxing, in the soothing darkness, with just a few candles burning.

It was lovely to watch the patterns cast by my butterfly candle.

For the last few weeks I have been trying to follow Dr Walhs diet, of eating 9 cups of fruit and veg a day, it's surprisingly hard to fit it all in, three cups of greens, three cups of colourful and three cups sulphurous veg.

In the hope it might improve some of my symptoms, my blood sugar levels seem to be happier for it, although so far I'm not feeling any better with my energy levels and pain.

This week I was skippy happy to discover this beauty in the summerhouse border, super frilly double daffodils

I also spent time earlier in the week re pinning my Springtime wreath ready for the Equinox last Sunday.  I love how ever year I add something new to the wreath so it's always slightly different.

It's been up all week waiting for the Easter decorations to join in.

Talking of which I finished putting them up today, a bit of a dizzy making job for me as standing with my arms above my head tends to make my POTS so much worse, so it took a while to hang up the eggs.

Here's a closer look at some of the decorations, the tiny crocheted pieces were a Easter gift from a friend, who got them from a very talented crafter me thinks. It was also good to see my Attic24 chicks again.

Happy Hoppy Easter

Clare xx

Bunny Bunting

Hello...... Just lately we've found ourselves over run with bunnies here at the summerhouse.........

First there was some cotton in cute Easter colours and a pattern from Mollie Makes ( sorry a Subscriber only one)

Then a yellow bunny appeared,  now this bunny made on a 5mm hook turned out to be a bit flopsy and a little too bunny holie for my liking.

So after dropping down to a 4mm hook, I was much happier with how my bunny looked

 and in the shake of a lambs    bunnies tail, bunny productions began.

As for those cute little Cotton tails I used some white pom poms

and before long they were breeding like, well rabbits !!!

Three pink bunnies.

Were joined by four more bunnies, now it turns out as in life no two bunnies are the same, and all cotton yarns are not created equal,  I used a few different brands of cotton from my stash,  the pink bunnies turned out a little larger and well the little green bunny was on the teeny side of tiny so much so I added a extra round to his body, to make him a little bigger, and in the process made him look a bit like a Space Hopper !!!

So now we have five little bunnies sitting in a row

Then six

Until finally there were seven little bunnies all present and correct and all that was left to do was to thread them onto some yarn

Ta-Dah

All ready to join in with our other Easter Decorations

Happy Hoppy Easter 

Clare xx