embroidery – A box of allsorts

Catching up

Wow, it’s been a long time! I’m not really sure why I ended up having such a long break from my blog but I suppose life just got in the way for a while and the longer the break went on, the harder it seemed to write that first post again. It’s been about 7 months since I last posted and i feel I should catch you up a little on what’s been happening in that time. Nothing major that should have stopped me from posting really but as i look back at the photos I’ve packed quite a lot in to this year, so it’s no wonder if not found the time to post!

If I was to tell you about everything that I’d done in the last 7 months I’d be here all night, so here is the condensed version with pictures.

There has been a lot of gardening. Our garden produced so much for us this Summer, I really am thankful! We had a huge amount of courgettes and green beans. We tried to use them as we went along but there were so many, our freezer is now full of zucchini soup and green beans. We also had plentiful tomatoes, raspberries and so many beautiful sunflowers.

There has been lots of running, including 3 half marathons and of course the all important bling!

There have been plentiful family times including a wonderful caravan holiday in the Summer where we were able to catch up with family and dear friends who we hadn’t seen for a while. Special memories were made and shall be cherished for a long time to come!

Alongside all the other goings on there has, of course been a lot of crafting. Never quite as much as I’d like but when I look back on the last 7 months I do wonder where on earth I’ve fit it all in. Over the Summer months I did a lot of embroidery for gifts as a number of friends sadly moved away. I forgot to take photos of all the finished embroidery but here’s a snapshot of what was made:

I have also done a fair bit of crochet but I haven’t got a lot to show for it as yet as it’s been for a couple of long term projects that still aren’t quite finished. I did however finish 3 children’s poncho’s recently (1 for little miss and 2 ready for Christmas gifts) and earlier in the year I made a baby blanket

I have a few ongoing wipes and lots of projects just waiting to be started.

current wips:

1. A bright squares rainbow 🌈 blanket for Little Miss:

I’m onto joining the rows and hopefully will have it finished in time for her birthday in a couple of weeks.

2. I have a stash of purple grey and white squares just waiting to be joined and made into a blanket. I plan to start joining them as soon as I’ve finished the blanket for Little Miss.

3. As if I needed another big project I felt the need a couple of weeks ago to start making large granny squares out of left over yarn and so a ‘happy scrappy’ blanket is now underway too.

Waiting in the wings to be started I have a bag full of chunky yarn which I just couldn’t resist a few weeks ago. Im pretty sure that’s going to become a blanket in the near future too but hopefully this one won’t take to long to do as it’s super chunky yarn with a 20mm hook!

At the same time I found the chunky wool, I also found a beautiful bright variegated yarn which I also failed to resist (just when streamlining had been going so well!). I quite fancy making some sort of funky shrug with that but we’ll see.

Just in case all those projects weren’t enough I’ve also got 3 more zenbroidery pictures ready to start and the Autumn Box from craftpod which hasn’t yet been touched, plus a hundred more ideas floating around in my brain, waiting to come to the forefront. If only there were more hours in the day…

Hopefully I’ll have some more finished projects to show you soon…watch this space!

Karen x x

Zenbroidery Mandala

I finally finished it…

It has taken me a long, long time to finish, almost a year on and off and has taken a lot of hours but I thoroughly enjoyed it, even the French knots which I’ve never been a huge fan of.

I didn’t start with a colour scheme or particular stitches in mind, I just chose the colours and stitches as I went along but I think both have worked out well. I love how its bright without being too gaudy.

Dark green is one of my least favourite colours (from having to wear it every day at high school!), so I did surprise myself by choosing it but it fits right in.

I have 3 more zenbroidery waiting in the wings, one of which is another mandala and I’m itching to get started on them. I’ll let you know which one gets picked.

Are you working on any embroidery projects at the moment? If so, I’d love to see them.

Karen xx

All the jobs and a bit of crafting

The first week of the Easter holiday was all about getting jobs done, in and around the house. Usually, if you asked me if I enjoyed housework, you’d be met with a very emphatic no! We have a cleaner come once a week as we both work long hours and if it was down to me we’d have a window cleaner too but since Mr O bought a window cleaning gadget (that doesn’t smear…honest!!) we have to do it ourselves! As Mr O has been very busy with the garden and putting up another shed for the garden tools, its down to me this time. I’ve been looking at those dirt smeared, streaky windows for a long time and finally set about tackling the worse windows downstairs. It wasn’t that bad to be honest but it does make me very cross when I cant get them perfectly streak free! I needn’t have worried though because, less than a week later, the hall window has marks on it again at cat level, the kitchen window has splatters from the washing up and the back door is once again full of smeary little handprints. Grrr!

As much as I have moaned about doing the jobs, I might actually have enjoyed them a teensy bit. I think its because I’m usually so busy that giving up any precious free time to do housework is quite frankly hateful. Last week though, because little Miss was still in kindergarten and I had a bit of extra time (admittedly, I could have spent it crafting!) doing the jobs weirdly made me feel a bit more connected to the house, like cleaning, tidying it, showing it a bit of love and tending to the garden somehow brought me closer to it. Does that sound bonkers? The whole house was tidied, hoovered and floors steamed. I tidied and sorted the craft room a bit more and finally got around to moving Little Miss into the bigger bedroom that used to be my craft room / spare room. There are more jobs to follow this week, including recleaning those blasted windows and cleaning the ones I hadn’t yet got to, cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, including all of the kitchen cupboards (I’m not looking forward to this one, I will admit), weeding and cleaning the balcony (another yucky job I keep putting off) and several admin jobs that have been lingering for a few weeks, hovering over me like evil little spiky clawed gremlins!

In amongst all the jobs, there has been a little time for crafting, although not nearly as much as I would have liked.

I finished off this little fella:

I managed to do a little more on the rainbow squares blanket for Little Miss and I love how its taking shape. Joining the squares together is proving to be a labour of love but it will be worth it when its finished. 3 columns down, 10 to go!

I decided to get all the remaining squares off the floor so that I could clean the floor and Mr O suggested putting them onto knitting needles. I love love love the look of them like this, they look like colourful crocheted kebabs. I almost don’t want to use them as they’re adding so much colour to my craft studio lined up like this.

I also managed to snatch a bit of time for some embroidery in the sunshine whilst little Miss played in the garden …

Last week I was a little bit naughty and for the first time this year, I broke my self imposed ban on purchasing any more crafting goodies.

I ummmed and aaahed but they reminded me so much of the tablecloths my grandma used to embroider and nostalgia got the better of me, I had to have them. I know its yet more embroidery bits to add to my stash but they sparked joy and will continue to do so and bring back happy memories as I sew. I don’t think these will linger in my stash for long though as I am just itching to get started on them.

A fair bit more crafting went on over the Easter weekend but I’ll post about that separately in a day or two.

Happy crafting

Karen xx

Streamlining update and a crafty challenge

As I mentioned in my last post I decided that this was going to be the year of streamlining for me, not a new years resolution as such but more of a long term goal to get things in order to make my life easier. The first thing to be streamlined was my clothes. Now, I’m not one to massively hoard things (except maybe craft stuff but we’ll get to that!) and my drawers and wardrobe weren’t over flowing but things were stuffed into drawers and weren’t as organised as I would have liked. The last few days of the holidays before going back to work were spent sorting and arranging and I am sooo pleased with the result.

This is my new and improved t-shirt drawer and I love it! No more rummaging through a pile of t-shirts to find the one I want. All of my clothes drawers have had the same treatment and all of the shelves in my wardrobe too. It makes life so much simpler choosing clothes in the mornings. Little Miss saw me sorting and arranging my drawers and declared that she wanted hers doing too. She helped me to fold and arrange all of her clothes in her drawers and proudly showed her big brother when he came around to visit. Mr O has since followed suit and rearranged all his drawers too. It really does make me happy seeing things so neat and easy to access.

After the clothes came all of the cupboards and drawers,in the living room, kitchen and hallway. In each of these places we had a sh*t drawer, you know the ones, the ‘open up and shove it in there if you’re not sure where it should belong’ drawers. Well, we no longer have such drawers. All drawers are sorted and organised. I do, however, still have a large carrier bag of bits from said drawers that I still haven’t got round to finding homes for but one things for certain, it will not be going back in those drawers.

Next on the agenda was the craft room. As my stepson moved out a little while ago, Mr O kindly suggested that I could move my craft room from the craft/spare room up into the very spacious loft room upstairs! To say I jumped at the chance was an understatement! Mr O spent a couple of his precious holidays days painting the room and assembling furniture for me and I began the dreaded sorting and moving of craft stuff. Now, I knew I had a lot of craft stuff but pulling it all out of its various hidey holes and moving it all up into the attic room did open up my eyes as to just how much stuff I’ve actually got. I underestimated how much storage furniture I would need and so will need to make another trip to Ikea in the next couple of weeks (much to Mr O’s delight!) before I can completely finish and share pictures of it.

Upon realising just how much stuff I do have and locating wips that I’d almost forgotten about, I decided to set myself a crafty challenge to make no craft purchases for the whole of 2019. That means no wool, no material, no card making supplies. The only things I will allow myself to buy are bias binding for any bunting that I make as I don’t keep any of that in, and sewing machine thread. It really shouldn’t be too difficult as I do have a lot of stuff to keep me going:

3 zenbroidery pictures I was given at Christmas

My huge stash of embroidery threads (I kept finding these in various boxes and really didn’t realise how much I had until I put it all together in my new (for Christmas) sewing box.

This isn’t even half of the material I have, which I’ve been intending to make into bags or bunting for such a long time.

These wool kits had been sat in a trunk for a good few years, patiently waiting to be unearthed and used to create something beautiful.

These photos are just the tip of the iceberg. Once the craft room (or should I say studio!) is finished I will show more photos but already my mind is feeling so much clearer from sorting through it all, seeing exactly what I do have and having it all much more easily accessible.

I’m really excited about seeing what beautiful things I can make out of the resources that I already have, not to mention having a dedicated room in which to do it. This year is going to be very a exciting one for me craft wise, I can feel it!

Karen x x

June project goals

Every month I consider whether to write a ‘project goals post’ as its really just a list of what I’d like to achieve and invariably I don’t complete everything on the list and other things not on the list tend to creep in too when they catch my eye. However, I have decided to keep doing it as it does help me to organise my overloaded brain and gives me a chance to organise the zillions of ideas that are tumbling around my head into some sort of order.

so, project goals for this month are…

Finish spring embroidery sampler
Make spring embroidered linen project bag
Finish crocheting ‘mystery project’
Start zenbroidery mandala
continue ‘ripple blanket’ which I just couldn’t resist starting last week…oops! this is for s present so there’ll be no pictures until its finished.
BRING THE SEWING MACHINE OUT OF RETIREMENT. Now I know I have been saying this for such a long time but since my course with Sophie of Huxter kids a couple of weeks ago with I have renewed enthusiasm and confidence. I fully intended to start today on my day off but I had reports to finish off for school 🙁 (I have cleared the desk though and there is now space for her, so it wont be long til she’s back in action …)

She’s an old bird bless her but she still does a good job. I just need to see if I can remember how to thread her up and then we’re off!

7. Sew in ends on the itty bitty squares. I think it’ll be a while before I start joining them but at least if the ends are sewn in they’re ready to go.

Right, I’m off to finish the spring sampler, happy crafting!

Karen x

May project review

Seeing as it was almost half way through May when I actually posted my project goals for the month, it probably comes as no surprise that I didn’t complete everything I had planned to. However, I am happy with what I have achieved.

I did finish the winter berry embroidery and am very pleased with how it has turned out:

I started the spring craft pod box embroidery projects

I started out by tracing over the design on to the fabric with washable pen, changing a few little bits on the way. I just love the fact that with my new washable pens (fully tested on a spare piece of fabric!) I can make tweaks on the design and know that it will just wash off…genius! I have to say I am absolutely loving becoming reacquainted with embroidery and reminding myself of some of the stitches that I used to know quite well. I really cannot wait to get started on the zenbroidery mandala and I keep gazing at it longingly but I am absolutely determined to finish these 2 embroidery projects first.

The itty bitty squares are still sat in my craft room patiently waiting to have their ends sewn in.

My mystery project has grown a little and really shouldn’t take too long to complete but it was a little too bulky to take away with me last week on my trip back to England, so it shall still remain a mystery for a little while longer.

Any ideas what it might be?

Whilst back in England last week I did attend the sew your own jumper workshop with the lovely Sophie of Huxter kids where I made little Miss a jumper. I really think it deserves its own post though so watch this space for that later in the week.

Happy crafting

Karen x