Patchwork Progress

An update on the patchwork project which I started just over two years ago...

I've been snipping up some more of the hoarded baby clothes...

....to keep my box of fabric covered hexagon papers topped up.

It's almost worth having a box of these just to take a photo of them.

I took them outside for a little photo shoot this morning.

In the white box I have lots of hexagons ready for joining, in the green box I keep my cut fabric pieces and paper hexagons for covering as well as thread (black for tacking so I can see it to remove it later, white for joining), needle and scissors.

A rear view, you can see I've not removed any of my paper yet. I now use this site for for my hexagon templates - they're good symmetrical hexagons unlike some that are available elsewhere.

The fabrics include a favourite jacket of my daughter's, my son's first shirt, and one of my tops which is now too big for me (hurrah!).

At first I wasn't sure if all the different colours and patterns were working together, but as more are added it starts to look better (honest!)

As I said, it's taken two years to get this far. Sometimes I get fed up with it and it is hidden away for a while.

I'm liking it just now though. In fact I'm now off to join a few more hexagons before bed time...

Another Crescent Moon Shawl and Some More Patchwork Progress

Finally, I have finished the crescent moon shawl I have been working on (on and off) since July. It has been posted to my sister-in-law and she says she likes it very much indeed, which is a relief! I do like the finished shawl, but I did find it a little tedious to make. The colours, though great for wearing, didn't help make crocheting it an exciting process - I found making my first one ( link here, which includes information about the pattern, etc) much more enjoyable - I loved seeing the effect of the new bands of colour appearing; I think I need the fun/interest/joy/satisfaction of the colour mix element to keep me focussed on a project.

Some photos...

And if you're finding the tasteful grey and cream a little drab, here is something rather more colourful...

On the spur of the moment I decided to start joining the patchwork hexagons I'd made during 2011. I last mentioned them here, almost exactly a year ago (there's a bigger mention here too, if you're interested). It's going to be a long project!

Changing topic, I had another interview yesterday. Again, a mostly enjoyable experience, but I fear I waffled too much and should have paused and taken more time to formulate my thoughts before launching into an answer. It was at the university I attended in my youth, the campus was remarkably unchanged but I worked out how long ago it was since I first visited, hmmm, quite a long time - long enough that I don't want to say! I have "only" four weeks till I find where or not I've been successful...

The ripple, blooming daises, and a whole lot more...

Grrr, pesky internet access issues have meant that I've been off line from last weekend till this evening (Fri). I'm well behind on blog reading but have been getting quite a lot of crocheting done as spare time normally gobbled up by surfing/browsing/mooching has been spent hooking.

Hmmm, this first photo doesn't look at all crochet related...

...however, whithout meaning to, I seem to have used this fabric as the inspiration for selecting the colours of my rippled "thing". It was originally going to be a cushion cover but I didn't like the way it was looking for a cushion. Instead it has turned out to be a perfect cover for one of my granny's old chests.

Here it is in situ (excuse the washing drying on the radiator!). Not a terribly good photo. It's hard to see but there are two chests - the larger one in the foreground covered by the ripple, and a smaller one in the background with a wooden cat on top. The fabric photo is taken from the lid of the smaller chest. The lid of the larger chest is covered in the same fabric but must have been more exposed to sunlight during its life as the fabric is quite badly deteriorating, to the extent that the red sections have disappeared completely, hence the need for a new cover. I'm still ridiculously sentimental about the old fabric which is why I just wanted a loose cover instead of a complete replacement. I remember these chests as they were in my grandparents house. My granny was an excellent seamstress and also painted china, upholstered, crocheted, and was a fabulous baker. It's over twenty years since she died but I feel lucky to have some lovely memories and mementoes of her.

Moving on...

I'd recently covered a few more hexagons from my patchwork project I started last summer so I thought I'd add them to the box.

Then I sorted them by colour. Since my last lay out away back in August (link here) I decided I didn't like all the lilac and needed more red and green. I need to lay them out again soon and see how it's looking now.

As to when I'll start joining them... well, I knew from the start it would be a long term project.

Right, here's how the daisy blanket was looking towards the end of last week. We had some sunshine then. I did (briefly!) consider just joining the daisies without the hexagon backgrounds. It would make a beautiful blanket, perhaps another time...

Last week I had some luck with the charity shop browsing...

A funky cook book and a chunky pottery dish. I've yet to try the recipes, after a quick browse I would say they look good for cooking/baking at home but on holiday I would be looking for simpler and less time consuming recipes.

A lovely little wooden elephant complete with tusks, and an Elizabeth Gaskell novel.

Last week we had some lovely cold, bright days...

Moon & branches.

Vapour Trail.

Evening Skies.

A leaf suspended in ice (in the sand pit!).

A gorgeous sunrise, A alerted me to this one, so glad she did, it didn't last long and I would have missed it otherwise.

I added this photo to the flickr Sky365 pool.

Meanwhile, the daisies have been multiplying.

Our biggest jigsaw to date. The box said 200 pieces, but A counted them and said there were 204. I initially assumed she'd counted wrong, but it is indeed 17 x 12 = 204. Curious!

Bits of slate from the roof, now finally fixed (thanks to George, our magic roofer!).

Snowdrops. Until I popped some in a little vase I hadn't realised they were so sweetly scented.

More daisy growth.

Lastly some frosty photos from the garden...

Honeysuckle bud.

Spiraea.

Moss.

I've not been for a cycle for weeks, hoping to rectify that tomorrow. The forecast is looking dry but cloudy and misty. Not great but could be worse!

Off now to catch up on some blog reading...

Patchwork Progress, Early Days.

On N's first afternoon at nursery (he still says he doesn't want to go to nursery but is usually fine once there) I'd promised myself I'd check out how my hexagons for the quilt are getting on (for obvious reasons it's not possible to do this with children around!)

I thought I'd maybe done about 200...

...but there are closer to 400 of them, hurrah!

Now I see them laid out I think I need more red and green, so will get fabrics in these colours specially. Other than that the hexagons are all made of baby dresses and shirts and some of my old tops.

Covering the little paper hexagons with fabric is a rather brainless activity - good for when you've not much spare time and don't really need to concentrate.

When I have been able to concentrate I've been making this instead. I finished the last crochet stitches last night. I just need to sew in the ends and it does definitely need blocked. Soo frustrating as I'd like to be able to share it ASAP, I'm rather pleased with it!

Today N was at nursery in the morning. Now while he's there I'm catching up with housework duties (and six years of house neglect!), this morning it was A's room. I finally got it in a tidy enough state I was happy to share photos of it and did a little photoshoot of the African Flower blanket in its new home...

Of course, it's only August so it's not required yet...

...so it's removed till needed, and A's soft toys are all reinstated, somehow she manages to squish herself inbetween them all to sleep.

Now to a little catch-up on last week:-

N and I visited the loch again, but this time we headed in the opposite direction to our last visit and went to...

...the park. It may be old and a little tatty, but this playpark is still very much loved by the children as it has a good selection of climbing/spinning/swinging "things".


We'd taken N's balance bike on holiday and he's now got the hang of speeding along on it. I'd definitely recomend a bike like this for a 3 yr old. It lets children get used to balancing on two wheels so that when they upgrade to a bike with pedals they can pretty much set off straight away - no need for stabilisers.

Loch view heading back along the cyclepath.

We also popped in to the local charity shop to stock up on some more books, there's a Jamie Oliver one at the top for me.

Sunny shadows on the kitchen wall catch my eye.

A recent drawing by A, stuck onto one of the kitchen units along with other favourites.

A robot.

And finally, the field out the front gets its second silage cut of the year, the tractor is just visible in the distance, eagerly watched by N.