...a hot water bottle cover

Designed to be extra snugly in response to all the snow we have been having.

If you have been following my makes for a while you might think I make a slightly above average number of hot water bottle covers. You'd be right, I have a thing about them. Most people's hot water bottle covers last for ages but I have 10+ hot water bottles a day to ease the daily pain and stiffness I enjoy due to hypermobility. As I also often have more an one at a time I need quite a lot of them and due to their hard lives they tend to give up the ghost quicker than the average!

In my aforementioned drive to get on top of my making pile hot water bottle covers were near the top of the list as my hot water bottles have been going round in the nuddy for a while now. This is all my own design and I enjoyed crocheting it so much I have already started another one prior to writing up the pattern.

This is the third completed job in my drive to get on top of my making pile hot water bottle covers were near the top of the list as my hot water bottles have been going round in the nuddy for a while now in my pile reduction drive (job number two was repairing Dan's long johns but I decided you didn't want or need to see them, however good the sewing was). Job number three is likely to involve cushion covers or pyjamas, we'll see where my mood takes me when I face up the pile next.

... more Croc liners

So it came to pass that I really really needed to sort out my craft area. My normal method of sorting my space out usually ends up with everything in neat piles but sadly the same amount of stuff is still there (too much stuff bay far). But not this time. This time I have decided to tidy my space up by actually doing the jobs in the various piles not just rearranging them so they look better. Revolutionary I know!

Brace yourself for a raft of upcoming posts that are finishing off projects. I am going to feel GOOD after this little episode is over.

Completed project number 1 is a reworking of the Croc socks that I made a couple of years ago which were a great success. This time I changed the pattern somewhat to meet with feedback received on the first pair which meant there was some fun freeform crochet moments (I.e. I made it up as I went along). But despite the need to bodge them a little they have turned out a treat and just in time for the upcoming snowy conditions.

Right onto the next thing in the pile...

... a monster

I was bought a zombie making kit by some friends for Christmas which was a brilliant present and having had a making break over the festive period this seemed like a good place to start warming up my crafting muscles ready for my new year plans.

So I hunkered down, put on appropriately unchallenging tv (Star Trek) and created a monster zombie. Not quite like the one the pack was designed to make as I employed a large dose of creative licence!

He needs to be handled carefully as his jaw, like my own, can stretch quite a lot. Unlike mine however, his is, at a stretch, capable of eating a small human or dwarf (of which I am one, though which one no one knows).

... lovely ladies in hoops

My new 10" hoops with their first set of lovely ladies all based on the beautiful drawings from vintage sewing patterns

 

 

They are all for sale at the wonderful Johnny Rocks Vintage Emporium in Cheltenham

Go and check out his beautiful dresses at his Facebook page and show him some love.  I would give anything to be able to sew like him!

... a mini chicken house

I love having chickens.  Ever since I got my first chickens when I was four I have loved them because:

1. They lay eggs.  Big organic, yellow yolked lovelies.
2. They are hilarious comical beings.
3. I like having animals around.

But these chickens are vicious.  Truly evil.  not just a bit 'hen pecky' really, really nasty.  For the second time since we got them I have recently had cause to separate them .  One of the hens had been ill and then started to moult and subsequently the other two began two tear her apart. 

Sadly the truth of these lovely birds (or vicious dinosaurs as we refer to them as) is that once they have the site of blood they will keep on going until they have pecked the weak bird to death.  So a temporary home was created out of our old pot store to put the hen pecked lady in to recuperate (the last time one was ill they lived in the greenhouse for a while - never again, it was a nightmare and made me jealous as the greenhouse is firmly my territory).  She started to get better and last weekend we started to reintegrate them with disastorous consequences.

Now I expected a bit of sparring but not the all out blood fuelled assault we witnessed.  Needless to say the hen was removed less than an hour after we started to reintegrate them.

So this time I am trying a different tack to diffuse our ongoing chicken wars.  Some happy time living side by side (but not together) will hopefully pave the way to reconciliation (it had better because on a cold day two lots of water and two lots of food to sort out take the you know what and to add insult to injury only one of the damn hens is laying anyway).

The chicken run has been duly separated which means no one has a lot of space but no one is going to die of being pecked to death either.  Each can stay in their own side and just get used to each other without the killing part.  So to cut a long story short I needed a small, one chicken, studio apartment for the solo hen to stay in.  No good leaving her in the run without a house as the fox would just love that!

To answer my chicken dwelling issues I made the mini house shown above and in situ below.  It is made entirely of found materials.  In fact the wood I used was the shed floor that came with the house when we bought it, was used as a wooden floor in the chicken run last winter and has been living under a forsythia for a while.  Amazing what you can do with a few bit of scrap (but still in good nick) timber, a few screws and a lick of wood preservative (chicken safe of course).  It is not a masterpiece but it is high level bodging and I am very proud of it.

It is also a timely lesson it taking things at your own pace.  I am not in a very good way at the minute with all sorts of joint problems (got to love the cold weather coming on when you have a joint condition!) and consequently in lots of pain.  I am also not very good at taking things slowly.  But I am learning that there is no shame in going at your own pace, even if that might be a bit slower than everyone elses place.  This woodworking marvel was possible (despite the knackered joints) through good planning, doing a bit at a time and most importantly accepting that while others may have made it quicker or better they didn't, you did and therefore you get to be pleased with yourself which is a nice feeling.

And so the face off begins ....

... Debbie made

This is the design for the postcards I am ordering this week to advertise my new crafty venture.

I wish I had her poise when sewing, I think my back would appreciate it!  I am afraid to disappoint my loyal followers by divulging that I sew in more of a 'hunched over in my lounge pants with the tele on' kind of way.  Not in the alert pose this lady employs when crafting.

If only I could live up to my own romantic notions....

... a lady eating cake

This lady likes cake (as opposed to my earlier lady who likes pie). 

One of the things I was a bit worried about when I started to make a lot more craft was that I would get a bit 'bored' of doing it all the time.  I have, what can only be described as a bitch of a cold at the moment, (my partner works at the local uni so it is undoubtedly a bout of freshers flu as the students started back recently - thanks kids) and it has knocked out my ability to do almost anything (this blog post is sponsored by vitamin C, paracetamol and sudafed). 

This means no craft.  And I am missing it - badly.  My fingers are bored stiff.  Can't wait till I can focus my mind and eyes enough to coordinate my fingers again to the required level to sew nicely (also does not seem nice to be sneezing all over things I intend to sell!).

So as I can't make anything at the moment I thought I would show you all something I made a little while ago.  Fingers crossed (if you can coordinate yours) that my hands are able to start doing what they love again very soon.

... Lovely ladies - set 2

So, as promised (ok so maybe a little later than promised) the next 4 ladies in the series  I have been making.

Need to blog faster - my making is outstripping my blogging by some way!

My first pair!

 

10 more pieces for hoops got designed, transfered, applique pieces cut and attatched.  Time to begin the furious sewing!

 

(All the pieces you can see here are available for sale as of the date of the post at my Etsy shop - if they are not they have sold (hooray) and there will be new, exciting things in there.)

... lovely ladies

So, last week I promised I would explain why I, seemingly out of the blue made an embroidery lady holding a pie (not that there's anything wrong with this).

A few weeks ago i had the chance to have some time spend making things.  After getting a few jobs done I had on my sewing pile my thoughts started to turn to things I have long wanted to do.  A big one of these is more embroidery work. I love sewing.  I really love sewing, particularly hand sewing and making beautiful things.

I started to learn to sew long before I could do more mundane things like maths and writing, consequently I have had plenty of time to get the practice in!  My undying thanks go out to my Mum who was solely responsible for this wonderment.  She was a needlework teacher before I pursuaded her (though being born) that she wanted to spend time with me instead.  So I was lucky enough to grow up with my own, incredibly clever and talented needlework teacher.  Lucky me!

Thankfully enough of her enthusiam, skill and love of all things crafty rubbed off on me so I can wield a needle and crochet hook in pursuit of lovely handmade things too (although i will never, to my undying sadness be as good at dressmaking as Mum).

Consequently I spent a glorious amount of time as I grew up in sewing departments and habidashery stores as my Mum was purchasing her sewing paraphernalia.  If you have never been in one you have missed a treat (well i think so anyway).  They are places of wonder full of fabrics, buttons, ribbons, sequins, fastenings and all manner of glorious things.  As a child who loved art my particular favourite were the patterns and pattern books containing all the wonderful designs that we could buy and my Mum could make - for me if I was lucky!  I loved the ladies on those patterns.  They are tall, graceful and beautiful and were wearing the most amazing, luxurious clothes.  Now I promise this is not an envy thing but even when I was young it was obvious I was not going to be model or ballerina material.  I don't think I will ever forget the Dr saying if they got a hundred children I would be the smallest or second smallest.  I have, what we call in our family, flatteringly, a 'low slung bum', - my Dad has one too - basically I have very short legs (and in fairness short everything else.  So all people tall and graceful were wonderful to me.

My love of embroidery, patterned fabric and vintage patterns has collided in a pleasing way to make these lovely ladies.  These were the starting point for my journey to pie lady.  Making sense now?   These 3 are the first set - set 2 tomorrow.

... Embroidery Lady with a Pie

I am not boasting here but I am better at making than I am at blogging.  At least I should be thankful it is that way round I guess.

If I was better at blogging it would be perfectly obvious to you why I have made the lady above as you would have seen all the other things I have made but I am not good at blogging so you have no idea!

I have been embroidering for a while now, making all sorts of images but the main pieces I have been creating are a series of ladies based on images from vintage sewing patterns or, like this one 1950s adverts.

This lady is very happy with the pie she has made and who can blame her a good pie is a wonderful thing.  She was made as a gift for a friend who, like myself loves food and cooking and I have many fond memories of sharing wonderful feasts with her.

In an effort to explain how we got here I am going to blog the other things I have made over the next few days until we are all caught up and know where we are at (as best as is possible).

I am planning on making a few more things in hoops as I bought 135 of them today. Wow that is going to be a lot of hoops when they arrive!!!