A good day...

I ended yesterday with a sense of achievement and six complete articles! First, I finished off a crocheted beret which I'd started the previous day while on a flight.

Next I got out the cutting board and the sewing machine. Since we got back from a recent camping trip I had intended to replace our plastic sponge bag with a larger one; from an old plastic table cover I cut enough good waterproof material to make two bags - so we're all set for next year's camping... 

I'd recently managed to ruin the tablecloth used on the terrace, by leaving some candles out which melted next day in the heat, and had bought a replacement tablecloth which needed to be cut down to size. I'd also bought a second hand piece of fabric which I thought would be good for patchwork, but it happened to be just the right size for the table. A bit of cutting and hemming, and I now have two tablecloths for the terrace.

Finally, whilst I still had the cutting board and sewing machine out, I decided to have a go at a recent challenge from someone in my French craft group. She had suggested in July that we might all make a "little dress for Africa", and one of the group had already made one when we met in August. I can now add mine - made from stash materials so no purchase necessary!

Started... and finished!

As a bellringer and stitcher, I couldn't resist buying some ringing-related kits when I visited the Taylor bell foundry shop earlier this year. One of them kept me busy when travelling by train, and I since managed to finish it off. Here it is:

I plan to put it somewhere in the belfry where I ring most often... jugs of beer are always welcomed by ringers, but I've yet to see a ringer in spurs!

On the not-so-positive side, I've discovered yet another UFO, which I don't remember at all. It's another counted stitch embroidery, this time in tent stitch rather than cross stitch.

One day project

Not quite all in a day - there was a bit of preparation first - but almost! My French stitchery group had a one-day workshop at which we each made a large tote bag. Five of us took part, plus our tutor for the day, and we had all chosen completely different fabric combinations, so that our bags - all made from the same pattern - are very distinctive. I brought my bag home with the side seams, lining and top binding still to be done, but couldn't bear the thought of this becoming another UFO, so stayed up late until it was finished. I love it!

Final cushion finished

I finally got round to finishing the "Trip Around the World" patchwork cushion which has been waiting since January ... this is the seventh - and last, as I don't have more of these fabrics left. It's also slightly bigger than the first ones - but the fabrics all match.

I've also made another block for my sampler quilt - I now have five done. This was the "Maple Leaf" pattern - hand pieced then machine quilted.

Two complete

Two items finished off this week - one is a lap blanket (which will eventually be a SIBOL gift) - made with the yarn left over from the jacket I finished recently. On the photo it looks like there's a dirty mark on it - a strange trick of the light! The centre is a square from a pattern found on Ravelry (Sweet and Fair Afghan Square), then I just kept adding rounds of (UK) trebles until the yarn ran out! Fortunately this made it about the right size for a lap blanket.

The other piece is the baby blanket which I was making as a practice piece using different stitches of Tunisian crochet. The last time I mentioned it on here was because I couldn't find it! This was because I was looking in London and had actually left it at my French house. As with the lap blanket, I was using up leftover yarn and again ended up with a practical sized blanket when the yarn ran out! A border of white yarn made a neat job of the edges.

I bought a couple of children's playmats - the foam jigsaw ones - to use for blocking the pieces.

My French stitchery group has a one-day workshop next week - we'll each be making a quilted tote bag - so I've started work on that - quilting a couple of pieces ahead of the day. I went shopping with one of the other group members to buy fabric for her bag - and ended up adding three pieces to my stash too.

My sampler quilt progressed to the stage where I now have four blocks complete - but I need at least twelve even to make a quilt for one of the bunk beds - so that won't be done in a hurry. I'm trying to do a bit of work each day on the hand quilting of the group quilt too - and still have a cushion to finish - patchwork done in January, backing added and cushion pad bought a bit later - now needs zip and piping to complete.

One down!

Completely the wrong season for it ... but I have managed to finish the chunky jacket I started in April. However, there's quite a bit of yarn left over...

I'd found this really nice yarn in a discount store and wanted to make something with it. It wasn’t until I started knitting it up that I realised the colour blend wasn’t random - so the result was a striped piece; unfortunately this meant I then had to work it so that the stripes matched up on the seams - which meant lots of cutting and loads of yarn ends to darn in. It was also complicated by the fact that some of the balls of yarn were wound with the colours in the opposite direction to others, so these had to be re-wound by hand so that the colour sequence came out right. I later looked at others’ work on this pattern and saw that some had knitted in one piece so no side seams - would have saved me time but made the stripes quite narrow.

On balance... UFOs increasing

Well, it's been a little while since I posted any progress here. I did finish the Tunisian crochet scarf I was making - and have since added another ripple effect scarf, this time knitting rather than crochet, using up some feather yarn left over from a previous project. I went on to purchase some Tunisian crochet hooks (bamboo with plastic extensions) and started a baby blanket using different stitches. However - since returning from a recent holiday I can't find it!!

However, I've also started several other things too. First I began knitting a chunky jacket - but it was too much to carry with me when I next went travelling. I didn't want to start anything on my travels which would require multiple yarns, so decided to have a go at a Sophie's Universe all in one colour - I had a cone of lovely olive green cotton. This toured round part of the U.S.A. with me, and over three weeks of travelling, this is how far it got. I do like the effect of doing it in a single colour; it brings out the texture really well.

I also took with me the box of hexagons I'd cut ages ago, and re-discovered during my clear-out in January. I got all of the cut hexagons on to paper and have started playing around with them to make a design.