Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Tilda Blog Hop - Cabbage Rose and Memory Lane

I was lucky enough to get the chance to play with part of the latest Autumn 2016 range of Tilda fabrics, before they were released!


This was as part of a blog hop organised by Stitch Craft Create.  I was sent a selection of fabrics from both ranges to try out.

Four from Memory Lane...


...and four from Cabbage Rose...


Which fabrics to use first?!  I decided to make a zipped pouch using a couple of the designs, which I thought went together well.


This actually looks better in real life than it looks in this picture - it was hard to capture it well.  It's padded with cotton batting/wadding and has boxed corners to make it nice and roomy inside.  I designed the pattern for the pouch myself, but there are so many tutorials for zipped pouches online, if you want to make your own.  The fabrics I used were:

Outer:
Bottom Section:  Memory Lane - Flowercloud Dark Slate
Top Section:  Cabbage Rose - Tess Red

Lining:
Cabbage Rose - Tess Red


I also used the bottom outer fabric for the tabs at each end of the zip.  You can see one of them a bit clearer here...


But I hadn't finished with that red fabric.  For a couple of years I've had fabric strawberries on my 'craft to-do' list and when I saw that Cabbage Rose Tess fabric in the red colourway, I knew it would be perfect... the time had come!


I thought one of the other Cabbage Rose fabrics would work well too, for a bit of variation.  The fabrics I used were:

Cabbage Rose - Tess Red
Cabbage Rose - Tilly Red


I absolutely love these strawberries!  I used this adorable strawberry pincushion tutorial - but with a few changes.  I made them smaller as I wanted them to be real strawberry sized and to be decorative rather than pincushions.  I think with a keyring loop on, they'd make lovely keyrings.  I also skipped the extra leaves and flower and didn't sew the green felt flat to the strawberry, as I wanted the points to stick out a bit, for a more organic look.  (As organic as a fabric and felt strawberry can look anyway!)


Then I thought I'd give the mustard/olive fabrics a go - not my usual choice of colour, but I have fallen in love with the dinky little fabric tray I've made!

I used this pattern, so lovely!  I think I'll be making more!  The fabrics I used were:

 Memory Lane - Flowercloud Olive
Memory Lane - Solid Fabric Olive

 The trinket tray can be used for jewellery...

Or in the sewing room, for your crafty bits and bobs...

And I'm sure there are a myriad of other uses too!

 As expected, the fabric is fabulous quality, but I'm sure that I don't need to tell any Tilda fans that!  

This has only made a small dent in the fabrics I was sent, and there are three patterns still to cut into, so no doubt there will be more creations using them here on my blog in the future - be sure to check back and see what else I make.

And if you'd like to get stuck in to some sewing with these ranges too, Stitch Craft Create are running a competition to win a fabric quarter bundle of this fabric and one of Tilda's friends (a fabric fox or rabbit).  You can find it over on their facebook page, so good luck!  Alternatively you can buy Memory Lane here and Cabbage Rose here.

Thanks to Nadine of Stitch Craft Create for inviting me to take part - it's been great fun.  Check out my other sewing projects here and follow me on bloglovin to keep up to date with my latest crafting projects!

Below are links to all the other blogs taking part, so go on over to see their lovely makes...

1st August – Stitch Craft Create
2nd August – Stitch Craft Create
3rd August – Vicky Myers Creations
4th August – Strawberry Patch Ramblings
5th August – Charm About You
8th August – Crafting Not Cleaning
9th August – Popular Patchwork
10th August – Dinki Dots
11th August – Little Black Duck
12th August – Tea and a Sewing Machine
15th August – A Saucy Stitch
16th August – Very Berry Handmade

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Sunday, 7 August 2016

Tilda Fabrics

I've been working on some projects using the below Tilda fabrics, from the new Autumn 2016 ranges - Cabbage Rose and Memory Lane...

I was sent 8 fat quarters from Stitch Craft Create.  What do you think of the patterns?  What would you have sewn with them?

 Looking at them arranged like this in my photo, I can picture a pretty quilt.  Check back on Wednesday to find out more and see what creations I came up with!

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Sunday, 31 July 2016

Tissue Paper Pom-Poms

I've spent most of my spare time lately making tissue paper pom-poms for an up-coming party.

The birthday-girl doesn't like balloons, so this was an alternative to bring colour to the hall.  A lot more work than blowing up balloons, though!

 There are plenty of tutorials out there for making these, so I won't go into instructions here, but do let me know if you have any questions.  They are fun to make, in small doses - but I have made 73 of them, so I'm pretty much pom-pommed out now!  55 large ones, and 18 small ones - you can see 5 of each below.

I went for warm fiery colours - tissue paper in burgundy, red, orange, yellow and hot pink.  I was nervous about my colour choices at first, but I'm actually really pleased with the bright colourful look!  Someone on Instagram mentioned that it looks like a fiesta - well, that's ideal!  (Thanks Chrissie!)

 Here are the 55 large pom-poms stacked up in the spare-room (they were taking up most of the living room floor as I made them!)...

I wanted to give you an idea of how big the pile was - but it seems a lot bigger in real life!  The next challenge is transporting them to the venue and stringing them up somehow... eeek!

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Sunday, 24 July 2016

Jenny's Blanket of Hugs

Kate over at Just Pootling has taken on the mammoth task of organising a big crochet-community project as a gesture of love and support for Amanda Bloom (of Little Box of Crochet) and her daughter Jenny, who is fighting a battle against cancer.  You can read more about this here - she puts it all into words far better than I can.

 To sum up, crocheters in this country and around the world are all busily making crochet squares following Kate's gorgeous patterns, which will together make up a big comforting blanket for Jenny, in her favourite colours.

My three squares have been made, as you can see above.  I've never tried bobbles before - and I love them!  I definitely see more bobbles in my crochet future!

 If you would like to take part, the pattern and all the details can be found here.  Kate uses a 3.5mm hook, but I found that to get my squares to the right size I had to go up to a 5mm hook!  I am clearly a very tight crocheter - it makes you wonder how tense I am?!  The stripy and plain squares also came up a little smaller than the bobble square, but they are not too far off.  With so many different crocheters involved, the square sizes are bound to vary slightly, but I'm sure when everything is crocheted together it will all even out.

 I'm glad that I got the chance to contribute to this lovely kind project of Kate's.
Check out my other crochet projects here.
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Sunday, 17 July 2016

Instagram Crochet Hook-Up - Part 2

As I mentioned in Part 1 - I took part in a crochet hook-up on Instagram, organised by Lazy Daisy Jones.  You can find more information in that post.

 I showed you half of my pictures then, so here is the other half...











As I mentioned, I went to Cost Rica on holiday so couldn't finish the month, but I had great fun doing the days I did do!  Thanks to Lazy Daisy Jones for organising it and looking forward to the next one!

 I'm over on Instagram here if you'd like to see more.
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Sunday, 10 July 2016

Tapestry Crochet Chevron Phone Case

I got a new phone at the beginning of the year.  Despite being all excited about making a new phone case for it - it's taken me until now to finally do it!

I used a technique I've never tried before - tapestry crochet.  Using this I was able to create the zig-zag (or chevron, as 'zig-zag' doesn't seem to be a fancy enough name these days!) design.  It was quite fun to try, and there are all sorts of design possibilities.

 It does give a kind of jaggedy edge between colours, but I think that is all just part of the effect.  Although there may be techniques to make a smoother line - I'll have to research this if I do another tapestry crochet project.

I used a pretty mint button to hook a crochet loop around, to secure the phone.

 My previous crochet phone case, I crocheted in a continuous loop, rather than ending each row with a slip stitch and chaining to start the next row.  It creates a very neat fabric.  For this one, I thought that the design might get muddled if I did it that way so I didn't use the continuous method.  You can see in the picture that this has created a diagonal join 'seam' on the back, where each row ended and the next began.  I prefer the look of the continuous crochet, but it's not too bad.
Front
Back
Below you can see the pattern I created in Excel to use when making this...

Each square is a single crochet stitch and a row covers both sides of the case as the whole case was made in one, rather than making each side and sewing together.

 I think I prefer my previous phone case, but I still like it and it was fun to learn a new crochet technique!  What do you think?  Have you tried tapestry crochet?
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Sunday, 3 July 2016

Instagram Crochet Hook-Up - Part 1

It's a little bit delayed, but I wanted to let you know about a 'Crochet Hook-Up' I took part in on Instagram back in April.

 It was organised by Lazy Daisy Jones who blogs here.  I'd not tried anything like this on Instagram before, but I really enjoyed it.  You post a picture a day, following a subject prompt.  It's great as it gets you thinking in different ways and means you take pictures that you might not have thought to take.

 We went on holiday to Costa Rica before the end of the month, so I didn't complete the full month, and there were also a couple of days I missed.  However, I thought I'd show here on the blog the pictures I did take, as it was such good fun!  Half of them are shown in this post, and I'll show the other half another day.
A photo posted by Maria (@dinki_dots) on











I'm over on Instagram here if you'd like to see more.
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Sunday, 26 June 2016

Chunky Knit-Look Crochet Cowl


Well, here I am with a very season-appropriate make... a chunky crochet cowl!  Well, it's meant to be summer at the moment, but when you get hit with inspiration you just have to go with it.

 I was buying yarn for the baby blanket in my last post, and somehow ended up walking away with this gorgeous chunky yarn too...

It's Robin Super Chunky in Candyfloss colourway and I just couldn't resist those colours!

 I used half-double crochet (half-treble UK) but I crocheted only in the back third loop, which I'd never tried before.  It was so easy to do, and is what gives the lovely knitted look...

The two loops that are usually at the top of each row get pushed forward to create this look.  The current/last row you're working on always looks like it has a longer stitch, as it is the crocheting of the next row which pushes the top loops forward.  Therefore, I finished off with a row of single crochet (double crochet UK) in the third back loop, to give a neat finish and keep the rows looking constant.

I crocheted in the round, and I wanted it to go round my neck once - not to be a long cowl that you loop round a few times.  Sometimes I find those a bit bulky and claustrophobic.  This just slips on and doesn't get in the way.

 Excuse the pained expressions!!  I was attempting to take some half-decent photos of myself, with and without the timer, as I think it's always nice to see these things on a person to get a better idea.

Yes... I'm just gazing off into the distance, perfectly naturally...

So, it may not be a very summery make, but at least I'm prepared for the autumn chills when they arrive.  Or the way summer has been going so far, maybe I'll get use for it sooner than I thought!

 What do you think?  And do you find yourself making things completely out of season, just because you have to satisfy the creative itch when it strikes?!

 Check out my crochet tab for other crocheted items I've made.

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Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Stripy Crochet Baby Blanket

Sorry for the silence - I have been away on a lovely holiday in Costa Rica for two weeks, amongst other, less interesting, things!

 My friend's baby was born whilst I was on holiday, so since being back I've been frantically trying to get the baby blanket finished.  She's had a little girl, so I hope that this will be suitable - a take on cheery primary colours!

I made it using Stylecraft Special DK in:

 Sunshine
Turquoise
Lipstick
White

It was all made with half-double (half-treble UK) crochet stitches.  The sunshine and turquoise stripes were 14 rows each, the lipstick stripes were 7 rows each, and the white between them were 2 rows each.

I bordered it with 3 rounds of half-double (half-treble UK) crochet in white, then 2 rows of single (double US) crochet in lipstick.

Quite a simple design, but hopefully quite effective!

I'm hoping my friend likes it.  I will be seeing her, and meeting the new little one, tomorrow - can't wait!



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Tuesday, 5 April 2016

Crochet Baby Blanket - Colour Change

I thought it was about time I showed you the progress on the baby blanket I'm working on, as I had a change of heart on one of the colours!

 My original colours were shown here and, as I mentioned in this post, I wasn't sure about the grey.  I carried on for a bit longer with it - but then decided 'no!' and ripped it back... changing it for a cheery red.

The red I chose is Stylecraft Special DK in Lipstick, and I am loving it!  So bright and cheerful.  With the Turquoise, Sunshine and Lipstick colours, it gives a twist on the classic primary colours vibe - a timeless choice for babies if you ask me!  And gender neutral too, if there is such a thing...

 I'd better get on with finishing it, as my friend's baby is due in a few weeks... and I really should be sewing those ends in as I go!

 What do you think?  Do you prefer the red to the grey, or should I have stuck with my original plan?!




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Tuesday, 22 March 2016

Quick Free Cloakroom Refresh

I haven't shown any home transformations for a while.  You can see my previous posts in my Home Improvements tab.

 This weekend, however, I completed a very quick refresh of my downstairs toilet or cloakroom, if you will!  The emphasis on this project was that it be quick and cost me as little as possible.  Well, I achieved that.

If I'd wanted to spend more time and money on it, I would have made quite a few more changes... but speed and economy were of the essence here!

 Let's see what I started with...

Pretty grim!!  What we have here is mainly magnolia walls, a half-hearted coat of white paint on part of one wall, started during another DIY project at some point, and some haphazard bluey paint using up the end of a roller, for no apparent reason.  And it all needed a good clean too as it had been used for DIY activities or storage at times.  I don't even use this toilet - I don't go in there if I can avoid it!  Any guests get sent upstairs too, as it's too shameful.

 In an ideal world I'd have liked to get all those ugly pipes boxed in and possibly even changed the sink and toilet for something a bit more modern.  I don't like the colour of the tile floor either, so I'd have liked to have changed that too.  I'd have picked a cheery wall colour, and some funkier accessories... but this would all have cost time and money!

 So, instead I did this:

My boyfriend, Rob, and I painted it all in a bright white paint that I already had.  At one point we were both in there - me cutting in and him rollering.  DIYing in a confined space - that's a test for any relationship!  (Luckily we passed!)  Even though I'd rather the pipes were boxed in, they do look better in white I think.  It all looks fresher and cleaner.  (Well, I cleaned it too, so it is cleaner!)

 Then I added some bright accessories that I already had - the lovely colourful hand towel, an empty pink vase and flowerpot (just unceremoniously plonked there to add some colour - probably would be better if they weren't empty and a bit of thought had gone into some semblance of styling!), and an old picture frame with picture cards from Ikea.  I've had this since I rented a little flat 12 years ago.  It's just been floating around with no home since I moved into this house and I've been thinking of getting rid of it.  However, it brightens up the white and makes the room a bit cheery.

 Again, I'd have put a lot more effort into this if I'd wanted to spend time and money on it - but I'm pretty pleased with the quick free makeover.  I won't be ashamed to let people use that toilet now!!





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Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Baby Blanket Progress

I've been making a bit of progress with the baby blanket mentioned in my last post...


I love the turquoise and sunshine colour - but am not convinced on the grey.  I like the combination and think it's quite modern and trendy - but after the bright turquoise and sunshine, I'm thinking a bright red might actually look great for a cheery baby blanket!

I've only done a couple of grey rows, so I'll do a little more to see what I think.  But it might end up being ripped back - watch this space!!

 In other news, I've actually managed to get some amaryllis to flower...

I'm definitely not green-fingered, so this feels like some kind of miracle to me!

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Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Baby Blanket Plans


One of my oldest friends is having a baby at the end of April, so - of course - I had to make her a baby blanket!

 They haven't found out the gender of the baby - so I had the challenge of picking gender-neutral colours.  Whether any colour should be gender specific is a whole other topic of conversation.  Whether is should be blue for a boy, pink for a girl... that's opening a can of worms I don't feel like opening right now!

 Regardless of this, my friend isn't really a pastels and pink kind of girl, so even if she is having a girl and had found that out, I wouldn't have gone for pinks anyway.

Therefore I have picked what I hope to be modern bold colours that would work for a boy or a girl, and that I think would fit my friend's preferences.

I've bought Stylecraft Special DK in Turquoise, Grey, Sunshine and White and am planning a stripy blanket with a border I am yet to decide on.

 I generally take forever to finish anything, and I've started this fairly late... so I'd better get a move on!  I will be sure to show you my progress...

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Sunday, 7 February 2016

V-Stitch and Those Pesky Ends!

I've started work on a colourful new crochet project in a stitch I've never tried before... v-stitch.
Dinki Dots - V-Stitch Crochet

 I love it - so easy but so effective!

 But changing colour EVERY row causes the inevitable plethora of ends to sew in...
Dinki Dots - V-Stitch Crochet

 Two ends for each row... argh.  I have decided to make a start on sewing them in and will not continue crocheting until they're all done.  Then I'll force myself to deal with them after each row.  It's got to be better that way - as hard as it is to resist the urge to add just another row, and another, and another... and leave the ends till later.  Future Maria will thank me for this discipline!

 What's it going to be...?  Well, you'll have to wait and see!

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