Hearts and Flowers...

I continued to play and made a colour chart from my berry pictures. The problem with this is it encouraged me to put in a yarn order! Like I need more yarn! But my decent yarns are all pastel shades, which was fine throughout spring/summer, but I wanted some deeper hues for the upcoming months.

I started, on another background colour for the next flower cushion (yes I'm well aware I've not completed the last one :-/ ) This is a multi-toned yarn by King Cole, and has some berry tones about it with hints of purple, blue and red.

I came across a lovely flower pattern on once upon a pink moon blog, and it's not taken me long to make a couple of  these.

They work up nice and big, which is what I wanted, to be nice and bold in contrast to the smaller summery ones.

I made the flowers in stylecraft dk yarn, which although is acrylic is lovely and squishy! I did add a couple of extra layers to the flowers to add some more depth and colour highlights.

Once I've attached these to the front and added some stems I will then decide whether it needs a couple of simple bold leaves, or maybe add some smaller flowers.
Although I do have to admit I think the only reason that I'm considering some smaller flowers, is because of this image that I've seen on Facebook, and I really want to have a go, and trying to find somewhere I can incorporate these as an excuse to make some!!

(not my picture, image taken from The Whoot on facebook)

I did have a long train journey during the week, for work,

which enabled me to make some more of my portable squares

Me and hubby celebrated our 4th Wedding anniversary this week, well I say the term 'celebrated' rather loosely, as with his lack of mobility we aren't really venturing out much. 

We have started little walks each day, so we ventured to our local village, and stopped for coffee and cake, just to have a rest of course!

It was such a pleasure to be out of the four walls, and sit outside in the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun

The following day we treated ourselves to a take-out

This weeks mood square....

Ummm not quite accomplished that this week YET, i'll get right on to it...

Watch this space.........

All things bright and beautiful...

This week was a race to get the beanie completed to give to my friend in time, before she ventured overseas. I intended to re-do the edge strip as I knew it had come up too tight, but before re-doing it, I wanted her to try it on to make sure she was happy with the main body of it. She was, but as I was undoing the edge, she requested whether it was possible to add more rows to make it more slouchy. This I did, and I'm very happy with the results, and thankfully so was she. I would definitely be happy to make another, more specifically i'd love to do a rainbow one, it has been a great pattern to follow.

I've also made a start with sewing together my portable squares, 

I have enough squares for the front of the bag, so I need to get cracking on the back.

I have made some progress with the 'summer flowers' cushion, and have added some foliage.

 I'm not too sure about the darker green, it may be too dark against the rest of the lighter colours?

Despite continuing with my summer cushion, there are obvious signs around us that Autumn is well and truely setting in. I can't bare the thought of Winter approaching, but I do love the ever-changing colours that happen in this season. Sadly I've not got any of the pretty trees around me, just leaves that are going straight from green to brown. What I have taken great delight in is the beautiful bright berries, such scrumptious tones.

One package that I had been searching for online, was to be able to come up with my own colour palettes. There is a sight, probably one of many, called design seeds, they have beautiful images, and they've pulled out the main colours. Sadly though, they only they only use their own images so it wasn't what I was looking for. I read plenty of blogs via bloglovin, and I was reading a passage from Moogly, on how she uses PicMonkey to plan layouts with her granny squares. She then went on to mention another post by Stitch 11, who used the same sight to produce colour palettes from her own visuals. I couldn't believe it, just what I was looking for and it was right under my nose, an editorial sight that I use every single week to edit my pictures, or produce picture collages and I was able to do so much more without realising. I followed Corina's tutorial and I'm very happy with the outcome. I can see I will have plenty of fun with this in the future.

It's been a bit of a tough week this week. I managed to break my phone, so was without it for a few days, and I know its ridiculous to be so attached to an electronic gadget, but I really did feel cut off from the world. I stay in touch with people via text, email and Instagram, plus I take a huge amount of photos wherever I go.

 On a positive note, hubby had a trip to the doctors to have his stitches cleaned and checked, all is good and he is healing well after his operation, we just need to start to build up the strength in his muscles again. so whilst many of you may take your dogs, or other pets out for walkies, I'll be taking hubby out instead, though he draws the line at getting a collar and lead, I can't see why!!?

My mood square colours have darkened a bit this week, I'm feeling a bit stressed, run down and I feel constantly tired that I struggle to keep going. I took the pattern from the simply crochet Granny app, this one is Granny Iris.

Guilt free crafting...

I've not got much to show on the craft front this week...

I did sew the flowers on to my second 'summer flowers' cushion, now they are awaiting some foliage to be added. I better get cracking else it'll be winter before I finish it!

Working in retail means I work weekends, and this does clash with crafting as the majority of fairs and meet ups are on a Saturday, so I tend to miss out. However, this week I had found out about a new local crafty meet up, and I made a big effort to be able to go. I have followed the homemakery on instagram for awhile, but as its a visual aid its not always possible to know where people are situated in the world. So it was a very happy surprise for me to find that when Kate announced the dates that it was just down the road from me. It felt like total luxury, to go out and just craft! When crafting at home, guilt tends to creep in, as you can see all the jobs you feel you should be doing!
It was a nice small group, to feel comfortable in,

Kate the host was lovely and bubbly, and after the tea and cookies came out we all settled back to natter and focus on our projects. There was 3 of us crocheting, a lady knitting some handwarmers, whilst two sewers working on quilts. I do hope I get the chance to make a return visit.

What I took with me to work on, has been my 'portable' project for some months.

It goes to work, to be done at lunchtimes, its been on holiday to do in the evenings and also its great to whip out on the train. Nothing taxing, just basic little squares, in drops yarn. At first I didnt know what I would make with these squares, but since I found a plain Calico bag at Hobbycraft, i've decided this is what I will attempt to turn these in to. As I have sewing phobia I wouldn't be able to line a bag neatly, so i'm hoping this will be a solution...

For this weeks mood square i did a slight variation on a basic square, for some of the stitches i stretched them down to the row below. I stuck with summery colours as i'm not ready to face Autumn yet, also hubby has been improving and healing well, and I took an extra day off to take time out to relax....

I can't believe that we've slipped into yet another month

Here is a look back at August

mini squares in the spotlight...

So true to my word, my mini-squares cushion has been completed and getting its moment if glory in the spotlight

With the joining complete, ends sewn in and a coloured trim all that the cushion needed were some colourful mini buttons to complement the mini squares.

The following day we had a brief spell of sunshine, giving me an opportunity to photograph the cushion, to show it off at its best. As our flat doesn't have many bright spots I ventured outside like a mad lady armed with my camera, cushion and mini blanket to protect from the damp and went to the little green spot around the back of our flat. I had my cushion on concrete bricks,

                                                                     grass

and balanced on bushes.

Ideally it would have looked Lovely laid out on a pretty bed of pastel flowers, but hey you can only work with what you've got!

I also started my friends beanie.

Well I say started, I actually mean started and nearly finished!

Now I'll admit to being a very slow crocheter, as I work in a very cack-handed way (the same way as I knitted) but its comfortable for me, just means I get jealous of those who have blankets flying off their hook. But the hat has been quite a delight to make, although working with a dark grey instead of an array of colours did take me out of my comfort zone!

It required a 5mm hook and although its only 1mm bigger than what i'm used to using it felt pretty enormous!  Having done the swatch previously it meant I could just glide through the rounds. I still had to concentrate, as its all to easy to keep going round without noticing where the start of a new row begins. I believe the band has turned out a little tight, but I will wait till she tries it on in case she'd like some extra rows added, seeing as I have plenty of yarn left.

Whilst browsing through images on Pinterest (don't you just love that place, I could get lost for hours on there) I remember seeing quite a few rainbow granny stripes, so I thought I'd do my own for this weeks mood square. Mid week was when hubby was due for his knee operation (a torn muscle to be fixed and excess tissue to be removed) and the day went as smoothly as it possibly could.  He came home that evening and i've been playing nursie since. I'd taken a few days off to be with him and keep the home ticking over but at the weekend was back to work, so juggling work, caring, shopping, cooking and household chores.  I decided on different colour stripes surrounded by a pale grey for this weeks square, as it has been a week of mixed emotions.

Mini squares appearance...

This week I have picked up another wip (work in progress)
Remember my mini squares cushion, well looking back through the archives, it seems I haven't touched this one since March!

So close to finishing the joining I got bored, and it's sat here forlornly next to me, patiently waiting for some love and attention again. Now the time has come, and ive kicked back into action.

The joining is now complete, and all of those pesky ends have been sewn in. I've also made a start with a coloured border.

This now just needs the front and back putting together and the little buttons for fastening, and it will be ready for its very own ta dah moment, and I promise not to abandon it again until it has had it's moment of glory!

Only a little bit of stickyness took place this week.

I moved onto a larger sized heart box, and with new bright spotty napkins I'd  purchased

I worked on the base, although i'm disappointed that I can still see through it, so will have to try another layer

The top of the box is a squishy satin, so I don't really want to cover it in paper and glue.

I'm thinking of trying a piece of openwork crochet to sit over the top. Initially I tried to find a heart pattern, but not really found anything I liked or open enough. So, I might try a mandala, or just go for it freeform? The problem will be how to attatch the piece to the box, and still have the lid fit its base. But that's for playtime in the future...

I took a little trip to Hobbycraft one evening. Hubby was at a hospital appointment (a health check before next weeks knee operation :-/ ) I went specifically for some holly to go on my little heart box. Time flew by as I browsed at leisure and I got lost in my own little crafty world! Hubby wondered where I'd got to in the end, oops! I am good at being quite restrained at these places, just as well really, so I came out with just 3 little packets (well they were 3 for 2) and a plain muslin bag to play with at a later date.
I think these little goodies will be great to decorate future makes...

A friend has asked me to make her a Beanie hat. This will be another new thing for me to try. I've been given a pattern book, with a couple of favourites bookmarked.

Straight away, in my eagerness, I read through the pattern to see if I could understand everything, and I ended up doing a test piece, as it was easier to get to grips with the stitch by having it physically in your hands.

My test piece, has now been turned into this weeks mood square!

I'm loving how much meaning this blanket will hold. Not just multi-coloured, textured pieces of yarn, but summing up how i've felt throughout the year, a memory blanket using my mother-in-laws yarn, and a learning tool, trying out different stitches and patterns.

Sticking with hearts...

So this week I carried on in my happy sticky place!
More cutting tissue into little squares, and glueing them into place round the heart boxes.

I also had a try at using paper napkins. I have read on other blogs of these being used as a medium and I liked this idea. So I popped in to trusty Tiger and found a pretty patterned set, which I initially dismissed as I thought it looked too (whispers) Christmassy, but then I realised that was a good reason to buy it! I liked the way this turned out and by peeling away each layer it gives you plenty to work with. As I am upcycling boxes, I have a pattern I need to cover up, so using the plain white back layer of the tissue this works well. I then started to add the second layer of tissue, which has a fine imprint of the design, and I left it, as I thought this looked like a pretty pastel version.

Once I'd completed the bright version, I thought a tiny sprig of holly, or a festive bow would finish it off nicely, so it looks like a trip to Hobbycraft is in order...

I now can't wait to move onto some bigger projects, they will need much more embellishments, but all my papercraft  resources are buried at the back of the garage!!

With all this paperwork going on it meant I didn't get much crochet done, in fact the only progress I've made on my summer flowers cushion is some sewing! Yes, you did read that correctly, Sewing!!!
The problem I had, was I wanted some smaller, more delicate flowers at the bottom of the cushion, but even the smallest flowers in my crochet book were turning out larger than I hoped. So my solution was to add some embroidery flowers. Firstly I had to look up how to do this. I found a great little video clip on Needle 'n threads website, on how to do the daisy stitch. It's was just what I wanted, and possible for an amateur like me!

I think they will look cute nestled in the leaves and stalks of the bigger flowers, and I added some button centres to help make them stand out more.

I've gone back to basics with this weeks mood square, for the simple fact that @suregal27 declared it to be grannysquareday on Friday and a whole host of crafters posted a close up picture of their granny square,

which enabled us by the end of the day to make a collage of people's squares and end up with a virtual blanket...