Jul 29, 2011

family crochet blanket

It's amazing how when you start talking about things they then appear a lot.  Since talking about crochet and blankets with my friends and family, several never-before-seen and previously forgotten crochet items have emerged from the family closets.


Mum pulled this blankie out the other day that I remembered from my childhood.  I had forgotten about this blanket until Mum brought it out and sent it home with the Little Guy.


It is 10 x 10 Granny squares so I think my little blanket will be around the same size.  Although I'm not fond of the colours I still like having it around.

Jul 28, 2011

the sunshine quilt - quilted, bound and finished!


I actually finished this quilt quite a while ago but hadn't gotten around to blogging about it.  And since it'd become a bit stick and hook heavy around these parts lately I thought it was high time I pulled my finger out and took to the clothes line to photograph the finished product.



I backed it with a light green spot and bound with an offcut piece of bright orange flowers which I just loved. 


The zig zags are Dream On by Urban Chicks and the yellow spots are from Spotlight.  

Speaking of all things hook and stick - you can now also find me on Ravelry - meandmy2guys is the username.

Jul 26, 2011

vintage sheet goodness

My in-laws recently received a surprising package from family in New Zealand - a trunk full of goods from my father-in-law's late parents.  Now bear in mind that the late parents left us over 10 years ago, so it has taken the package a little while to make the journey to Australia.  Inside was an assortment of family crockery and other knick knacks, but most surprisingly of all was a whole heap of sheets.  Not sheets of any particular significance but sheets that my sister- in -law and mother -in -law immediately thought I'd be interested in.


And I certainly was!  Despite the overpowering scent of moth balls I was very happy with my haul of vintage floral bed sheets.  One set in blue and one in purple.  Never used, one actually still in the original packaging!


Mum and I washed the sheets up today and left them to hang for most of the day in the sunshine on the line.  Fortunately when we checked them this afternoon the terribly overpowering moth ball smell had been replaced by the smell of clean linens.  


So now I'm on the hunt for some yellow and some orange as I have a project in mind!

Jul 21, 2011

Granny square blanket progress - 1/3 of the way there


I spent the day on Tuesday with my Mum cause she's got Bronchitis and is lying low.  We watched the Lifestyle channel and she did tapestry and I made Granny squares.  I made about 5 or 6 and took the totaly to 31.  

So basically 1/3 of the way towards my total of 100 squares.


Today I decided to play with them and take lots of photos.

Jul 18, 2011

Granny square blanket progress and the next project

I'm up to 25 Granny squares so far, and I haven't done any today yet, decided it was time to clean my house!  So that's one quarter of the way there.


In celebration I decided to browse the crochet blogs and (accidentally) found my next project.  I think I should have enough yarn left from the Granny squares to do this blanket, I can always add more colours too.

What projects are you keen to start on?  Or are you strictly a one project at a time person?

 

Jul 17, 2011

Where I Sew - with Pink Chalk Studio

I showed you a little look at my sewing space the other day with the top of my stash cabinet and all my inspiration pieces.

Today I thought I'd go warts and all and join in with Pink Chalk Studio's - Where I Sew.  


Here is my sewing table, this was originally my Granny's sewing table so I feel very humble to sew on it, she was a great seamstress.  I have a lovely view out the window over the yard, sometimes I do drift off a bit watching the dogs sun themselves and wandering around.

This is my stash cabinet, chock-a-block full of fabric (wish I could say my hubby doesn't notice but we share this space so he is all too aware of the quantity of fabric heaving off these shelves).

And the warts and all part of the tour - the corner between the sewing table and the stash cabinet - let's just lable this area 'storage'.


Well there you go - my 4 square metres of sewing space - and in a house that's this small I know I'm lucky to have it.

Jul 14, 2011

Granny square blanket progress

I'm making steady progress on my crochet Granny blanket.  I usually average about one square per day.

I think I'll aim for a 10 x 10 square blanket and I've completed 14 squares so far.

Hope your days are crafty :)

Jul 12, 2011

more Melbourne

 
the street art being refreshed
I always find interesting things in Melbourne.  The laneways are a constant source of delight, whether it's funky shops or yummy eats, or even vast stretches of interesting 'street art'.  We found a laneway this time that I'd never seen before with the most wonderful children's bookstore.  All the books I loved as a child in new and interesting formats - Hairy Macleary, Miffy, Tikki Tikki Tembo and Tin Tin.  

a random piece of graffiti - but I just love it!

the cutest florist with a gorgeous window display
And there are so many beautiful buildings everywhere too.

theatre

Federation Square


beautiful ironwork

the station, with a perfect shadow of the Cathedral spire

Jul 11, 2011

weekend in Melbourne


The hubby and I try to escape to Melbourne once a year.  Obviously pre-Little Guy this was much easier, although there were still the fur kids to worry about.  Now it is a little more complicated but thanks to the Grandparents everyone still has a great time - he at home with them being allowed to stay up late and spoilt rotten, and we in luxury in Melbourne.  We always treat ourselves to a really nice hotel and eat at fancy restaurants and do some shopping. 


 We've finally learnt in the last few years to slow down and enjoy our time away, rather than micro-scheduling every minute.  This year we enjoyed plenty of eating and shopping, hubby enjoyed many visits to his favourite coffee place (he is very stealthy given that he knows his way around Melbourne much better than I, we would 'mysteriously' wind up outside the coffee lab several times per day!).  I also got to indulge one of my passions and we took in the Vienna exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.  This exhibition was so inspiring, a great mix of art works by Klimt and others as well as furniture, silverwear, ceramics and lithographs.  You can really see the influence this period of design in the early 20th century still has today - especially in some of our modern quilting fabrics.

I did manage to track down one craft store - Morris and Sons - bought this stunning hank of yarn.  And a new little crochet hook.



Also bought myself another piece of Bison pottery to put my crochet hooks in - can be seen here beside its big brother purchased last year.


And here is the top of my stash cabinet that displays lots of my inspiration pieces and other little bits I love.

Jul 7, 2011

grannies and garden


I've been working on my granny squares since my yarn arrived the other day.  I've completed six squares so far, trying not to push myself too hard as have had a bit of a pain in the neck and don't want to make it worse.


Hopefully these photos I just took out in the beautiful sunshine show the bright colours a bit better than the ones I took inside the other day.

Rosemary flowers, apparently edible and make a nice garnish

And a few garden shots thrown in too.  We've been harvesting away, it's lovely.  Such a great activity and so great to have kids involved in too.

lots of action in the lettuce bed
all this from 2 tomato plants (there is also a capsicum and an eggplant under there somewhere)

Jul 5, 2011

yarn love 2

A lovely package arrived on my doorstep today, it was good timing as I was coming home from the doctor and had just had a big injection in my leg.  Anyway I knew this big squishy bag contained some much anticipated yarn love.



Nine colours from the Luxury range (8 ply) from Bendigo Woollen Mills.


I'm going to make a granny square blanket.  

Can anyone guess for what or whom I will be making this blanket?

Jul 1, 2011

more crochet and another beanie

I finished my second beanie yesterday.  It was the most complex piece of knitting I've done so far.  I had to decrease the number of stitches as I moved upwards to create the shape of the beanie.  I was so excited at how relatively easy it was.
  
blogger flipped all my photos - can you see my knitting error?

 I am still considering adding this little flower and button to the beanie.


I've also been practicing some more crochet.  I was going to make a cushion cover out of these squares but the gaps are too big.  The yarn is quite thin, it's eco sustainable bamboo, on a 4mm hook.

Happy Birthday Mum!

It's my Mum's birthday today - happy birthday Mum!


I've had this idea for a while to make a 'quilt' cake.  I couldn't get the icing as purple as I would have liked, since Mum's hexagon quilt is all in purples but I got pretty close.  And she got the drift.
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