Sunday 26 July 2015

Joyful Parcel

Morning All,

Well if this is Summer its a wash out! That's all I'm going to say on that subject as it really gets me down....we need some SUNSHINE!

This week I have finished my Hydrangea Blanket....I had decided to put a wide border on each end....so needed to make a separate border for the finishing end as all the pattern would have been the wrong way round if I had just carried on....I just had to stitch it on to the main blanket and I worked perfectly and you cant even see the join :))....(chuffed face)



Then the exciting bit of the week.....my new delivery of wool....you may call me sad...but as all yarn crafters will know...a wonderful, new delivery of woolly gorgeousness makes me very, very happy...I can drift away dreaming of all the new projects that will come out of this cardboard box! :)))


Having split the wool into separate piles....the top left is the new project I'm working on...more about that in a minute....top right is next in line but not sure what that's going to be yet (well I mean 'not sure which pattern blanket it will be' ha ha) and the Drops wool...well that is on sale till the end of July at WOOL WAREHOUSE so I had to try some and I loved these colours...so subtle and vintagey...these I have no idea about....they are just STASH :)))

This is my new blanket....Ive worked out im going to need at least 300 of these gorgeous little squares...and it is such a lovely thing to work on....they build up quite quickly...




I had been looking at some ideas on Pinterest and decided I wanted to do squares again...but different from before...then I remembered when I was shopping the other day I was very tempted by lovely little piles of fat quarter materials....why I don't know....as sewing is not my thing...but I thought I could manage a patchwork quilt...well in my head I thought I could do it...the only sewing I can manage is straight lines, cushions, bunting, I've even made curtains...but did I really want to dig the sewing machine out.....nah....so I decided to do a patchwork blanket with little granny squares and I'm loving it :)



The cushion on the chair in the photo is one of my creations...ha ha....it is some vintage material I bought whilst on holiday last year from a charity shop for £1 I loved it straightaway but as sewing is not my forte I wondered what on earth I would use it for...but I couldn't resist it and stashed it away in my craft cupboard until a couple of months ago...I found out an old cushion for the chair but didn't like the cover....then I remembered my piece of fabric...I have to hold my hands up at this point...I didn't make a cover...I just wrapped it around the cushion to see what it looked like...I liked it...Hubby didn't...in fact he hated it...but I told him I'd leave it there a bit and see if it grew on him and it did....but its still just wrapped around the old cushion...ooops!

As for none crafty things....the flowers from the garden are still performing beautifully...I currently have 3 little vases of sweet peas brightening up the place and this week I have a rose too...its only just coming in the bud but couldn't resist taking one :)


I purchased a little lavender scented candle...for 2 reasons....a) I thought it might help me drop off to sleep...b) the jar was so cute!  I'm happy to report that it has indeed helped me drift off the sleep a lot easier...so happy on both counts...and I needed it on Wednesday night...I looked at the Health Lottery results and we had 3 numbers...happy days a cheeky £20...then I looked at the two other numbers that would have given us a win of £100,000 we have number 7 and 35 and number 6 and 36 were drawn :(.....soooo close I could almost see a new house on the horizon but it wasn't to be...

Well I've rabbled on long enough now...here's this weeks vintage photo...well its a very special one...its of my Mom and Dad back in the day....its their wedding anniversary next week...so its in their honour :)


I just adore my moms skirt :)

This weeks quote.....


Have a lovely week all....enjoy whatever you are doing xxxx





Monday 20 July 2015

Granny Square Heaven :)

Good Morning :) Hope you have all had a great weekend

Our weekend was spent in the garden putting up new fencing...our neighbours are away on holiday so we could make lots of noise....

This week has been a bit quiet on the crafting front...its been a week of catching up with my bestie, I just love going to her home...not only is it absolutely gorgeous she always has lovely food on the go...yummy...she is such an important part of my life...more family than friends...she is my Reiki Master so I always feel so much better after a visit...and she's always got just the right wise words...

I'm still working on my Hydrangea Blanket....but it is nearly finished...in fact I think it may be finished today! Hoorah...as my new order of wool should arrive tomorrow....yippee happy day!  I've ordered lots of stash from Wool Warehouse ...my go to website for lots of woolly loveliness :) they are soooo good, very reasonable prices, good selection and excellent service :) cant wait for my order to arrive...I have sort of decided what I'm going to do...but things my change....

My new book came this week...its fab I love it...so many squares, so little time ha ha


This is a selection of my favourites already....


There's a nice section on blanket designs too....

My inspiration comes from all sorts of places, but mainly from nature...but items, photos, pictures even carpets or wallpaper...for my new order of wool one has been a new notebook! Sometimes it's an idea to use a colour wheel...


It helps you decide on shades....


This shows you which colours compliment each other...but you might like to mix things up a bit...go colour crazy......:)

I use my swatch colours a lot too (there's a picture of that on the side of my blog and in an earlier post)

Sometimes I'll use this website and their colour combo tool.. Granny Square Colors ..you can get an idea of how the colours will look together...but sometimes you just have to go with the feeling you get...just enjoy immersing yourself in a colourful woolly wonderful time :)

Other things that have brightened my days this week....

The gorgeous Sweet Peas from the garden...they just keep giving and giving I have had so many little bunches of gorgeousness over the last few weeks this is yesterdays...


The charity shop finds of bits of glass bottles etc. have been put to good use...

I did do one little crafty make this week, I made some stitch markers...I had ordered some new stitch markers...just plain...then I remembered that I had some vintage charms...too delicate to use in robust projects but perfect for this...


They represent my favourite things...anything seaside and beachy...flowers and nature....old fashioned keys (I have a bit of an obsession with old keys) and crochet of course!

This picture popped up on my Facebook feed and I saved it straightaway...what I forgot to do was save the site is saw it on or who made them...but I was blown away by these...I think they are so beautiful...would love these hanging in window with sunlight catching them...(day dreaming now again now...ahhh)


This weeks vintage (well ish...) photo...
 
Ladies...you know this is so true........  :)))
 
 
I will leave you for now with this weeks little quote....
 
 
Have a lovely week...enjoy whatever you do xxx

Thursday 16 July 2015

Stitch Pattern for Hydrangea Blanket

Morning All,

Quite a few people have been interested in the stitch used for this blanket ~ now I'm sure it has a proper stitch name...but I don't know what it is, as I made it up as I was going along, I knew I wanted stripes and I wanted more texture than the normal treble stitch or granny stitch...so this is what I came up with...now I'm not very good at explaining patterns but I will do my best :)

Here goes....

Firstly do a row of tr stitches on the right side for your work

Turn, and on the wrong side of your work, use the granny tr stitch - three tr stitches into one space, skip 2 stitches, 3 tr into the next stitch (shown by the darning needle) all the way along

This is what the right side of your work will look like

Again your going to tr stitch along the right side of your work but this time you are going to use the top 2 stitches on the 3 tr granny shell (shown by the needle)

Then the next tr stitch goes through the space between the shells, making a slightly longer stitch...continue doing these sequence of stitches all the way along

This what it looks like, again turn and repeat the 3 tr granny shell pattern on the wrong side


This is 2 block rows completed

And that's it really, the next photo is a closer look at the Hydrangea Blanket I'm making at the moment so you can see how the pattern looks using different colours :)



Hope this explains things :)

Bye for now xxx




Sunday 12 July 2015

Colours All Around

This week has flown by...but its been a great week, I have got lots done and added to my crafty stash with a little bit of internet shopping and a sneaky trip to the craft store yesterday :)

Its been a colourful and often fragrant week also...in a bid to feel more balanced and in control I have gone back to my favourite colours for this weeks blanket, and I have been taking my time on this one...I think this will be a WIP (work in progress) for a few weeks.  One of my favourite flowers is the Hydrangea, so I have used photos of these glorious shrubs in full bloom as my inspiration, I just love the colour combo's from the greeny white, creamy, pink, raspberry, blues and purples of these frothy blooms...these are the colours I picked out to use...

The main colours are Denim, Cloud Blue, Raspberry and Meadow, then I'm using Pale Rose, Cream, Storm Blue, Sage, Khaki and Grape as accent colours...the wool is Stylecraft Special DK its my favourite and its beautiful to work with as well as being hard wearing and great to wash.  The texture of the flowers all crammed together is wonderful and I wanted to try and add some of that texture in the blanket.  I have done a wide border using all the colours and different stitches, then using the main colours and adding in the accents, using the basic treble stitch have come up with this pattern which I think adds that texture.  I have no idea what the stitch as a 'whole' is called as I have made it up myself but I cant believe that such a simple stitch has not got a name, if you know what it is I would love to know the correct name....

Now let me show you my crafty purchases for this week :))) (very happy face!)

 Firstly my new yarn cutter, I have had my Clover thread cutter (one on the right top photo) for a number of years now, so decided it was time to get another one, this time I purchased the Clover yarn cutter (Amazon), a bit more substantial...I love these little tools...I don't have to worry about scissors being left anywhere they shouldn't be, these do the job perfectly with no danger, you can also where them on a thread around your neck so they are always to hand.  I made a little case for tape measure this week too...I do have the essential Cath Kidston retractable tape measure but if I'm honest I prefer my old fashioned fabric one, but it was always coming undone in my bag so this little case does the job perfectly :)


Next...my new sets of colour pens they are Letraset Promarkers (if you buy any get them from Amazon, much cheaper than in the shops), they come in sets of 12 different colours, I have Set 1 and Set 2, I have heard so many good reviews of these I had to have some for myself and I shall be using them very soon, I also purchased some box frames from Ikea, I have an idea floating around for some artwork...and my new stylus for using on my IPad, its brilliant, such a economical little piece of kit that has changed my way of using my IPad, no more finger-marks all over the screen...happy days

Lastly...some neat little embroidery rings...not sure what im going to do with these yet but they were so cute...Alphabet Stamps....in the cutest little wooden box...these have already been used for labelling-I LOVE them <3...Butterflies - a snip at £1 I just had to have them and my pretty little pink birds for myself...they sit so lovely on my summer wreath :)

And for a change no wool was purchased!!! But I can feel an order being placed soon with the lovely Wool Warehouse :)

I found this picture on a home magazine site and I just had to share it with you...I love this idea for my own craft room...its a patchwork of wallpaper...isn't it a brilliant idea? a great way to introduce colour and of course its a little bit of craft work!


And for the fragrant bit of the week, my sweet peas have flowered, they just completely cheer me up they are so colourful and their fragrance amazing...
(there's that colour combo again...)
 
And talking of amazing fragrance...whilst we have been out walking this week, all the lime trees, you may call them linden trees have come into bloom...their sent is just intoxicating...its so strong but beautiful...amazing!
 
This weeks vintage photo.......
must be me in another life! Ha Ha
 
Well for my week ahead...much more the same please...I have felt much better this week and long may it continue, I have managed to ground myself again and allowed the Reiki to flow...the added bonus this week is I get to visit one of my besties, she is also my Reiki Master, so being in her home, being in her energy is the most wonderful thing and I cant wait...
 
With that in mind...this is this weeks quote...
 
 
 
its very important for us all to live in the moment and take in every wonderful thing that is around us...so many people miss out and don't really live...they think that having their head down looking at their phone, reading Facebook is the real world, well its not...Nature and the Universe give us beautiful things to make life much better...like it says "Enjoy the Ride"
 
 
Have a fantastic week all...xxx




Sunday 5 July 2015

Summer Heat

Happy Sunday everyone :)

Although the weather has been extremely hot for us die hard crocheters we can still make blankets ~ although I have to admit it was very slow going sitting under a blanket it 40 degree heat wasn't the most pleasurable of times :)

Here is the finished blanket I was telling you about last week, a very much make it up as you go along affair, I wanted to use up some odds and ends of wool so this seemed a perfect project, all I had to buy for this one was the cream wool (it used a surprising amount of that)

 
all of my blankets are for sale in my Etsy Shop FlorrieMayHandmade

I'm pleased with they way it turned out, its very pretty, a different style to what I usually make, I am currently writing a pattern for it (I'm not good at doing this so it takes me while, but I will have it posted soon).

To get back to the weather, here in England, when we do get a spell of sunny weather, after a few days of heat the storms start to brew, but whilst its brewing we get heat of a different kind, and on Wednesday that's what we got, overcast, very little sun and 40 degrees as you can see from the photo it was 31 degrees indoors, with loads of fans on and the air conditioning unit going too

 Luckily we only had one day of this, we English are just not built for this ha ha! I know this is not hot compared to some countries, but as we always say here...."its a different kind of heat abroad"...I have no idea why we say that, and how it can be different ha ha

I did get out in the garden to enjoy the sunshine and the flowers blooming certainly give me that feel good factor, they are blooming lovely!

 
 
 
 
 

The bottom photo is of blooms that have been cut for house, and the fragrance coming from them is beautiful

Its also been Wimbledon time this week, and I love the Tennis so that's been on the TV all day, on the first day Puppy Dog was very interested in it, she couldn't get over how many of her favourite toy there was...Tennis Balls! So much so...she wasn't going to take any chances on losing hers...she even went to sleep hanging on to it!



I did some baking last week as it was Fathers day and I made Dad his fav cake and there was a little bit of the mix left over for Hubby to have cakes too :)

 
 

I just had to share this photo I found with you...I just love it....I can imagine my Aunty Em and my Nan doing this and laughing just the same...I adore vintage photos like this :)


Well after writing this....I realise that not much crafting has taken place this week!  Yesterday I ordered some new painting pens...so I'm eagerly awaiting their delivery next week...I have a few ideas formulating in my over crowded mind....along with lots of other wooly ideas :)

I have started a new blanket and I'm trying to write the pattern as I go, will share this with next week, in the meantime I will leave you with a couple of quotes

 
Do find time do this....its so good



Have a great week all....xxxx