A Wedding Quilt

I somehow seem to have got myself thinking I need to make quilts for people as wedding presents!

It started with my friend Lizzie's wedding 2 years ago, where I decided to make her a library quilt.

It was the first quilt I had ever made (actually to date the only quilt I have ever made!) and for some reason I decided I would just do my own thing and not follow a pattern or anything! It seems to be the way I work best, I enjoy the planning and problem solving stages, often coming up with solutions during my sleep. It is just the actual making bit I struggle to motivate myself with! So this quilt should not have taken me as long as it did but my procrastination definitely dragged it out a lot longer!

This is a picture of the finished quilt top. I don't seem to have actually taken a picture of the thing sandwiched and quilted! It was by no means perfect but I was pretty impressed with it for a first attempt at making a quilt.

My next quilt is for my brother and sister-in-law and again I've decided to do my own thing and make up a pattern! I'm making a double sided quilt in a kind of his and hers style. My brother's side has some blocks made up of his old shirts and logos from school/uni things he did.

I've also found some fabric which represents Paris and Bali where they have been on holiday together.

And cross-stitched a bride and groom with the date of their wedding. 

Now as you can see their wedding was in March and since I haven't included a picture of the finished quilt you might gather that I am behind and haven't finished it yet...and you would be right! I didn't get it finished for the wedding date and then when the pressure for that date had gone other projects took preference. But I am aiming to get it finished and wrapped up for Christmas in the hope that they won't be expecting it then and it will be a nice surprise for them. But Christmas is a busy time of year for crafting so I'm putting in the hours now to hopefully have it finished in plenty of time and I can then crack on with the Christmas crafting! (Plus there has been another wedding since then which I haven't even started a quilt for yet!)

A Handmade Christmas

This year I actually managed to make all my Christmas presents. I of course (as is the true style of crafters!) left it all to the last minute even though I had said to myself I would be more organised about it this time! So after several late nights and early mornings crafting away I produced these presents for my family and friends.

This is a decoration for my friends daughter. I have made her a decoration every year for Christmas and will also make one for her son now as it was his first Christmas (I rushed and ruined my first attempt at his decoration so he hasn't got one yet)

These were some marzipan sweets. I made the marzipan (which is surprisingly easy) and just piped some melted chocolate over the top of them. I made these for my Dad, Grandma and Godmother. I also made Turkish Delight.

I was actually quite organised with the present for my mum and finished it on the 1st December! She decorated her bedroom and it is now plum and Paris themed so when I saw a Paris postcard chart in CrossStitcher I knew I had to stitch it up for her. I changed the colours of the threads to match in with the rooms colour scheme.

This was a top for my cousin. I find males very hard to craft for so decided to just decorate tops for them as it was easy and quick to do! He loves Starbucks and has a collection of mugs from when he goes on his travels around the world.

And this is the one I did for my brother. He is a Philosophy teacher and his favourite 3person is Richard Dawkins, a well know atheist, so when I saw this phrase when searching for sayings to do with him it was perfect!

I stitched this for my Auntie. My Grandma found the material in her house a while ago and it is something that my Great-Grandma has crochet around the edge of but had never got round to putting a design in the middle. I did one for my Grandma a few years ago and have enough to do one for me, Mum and my cousin when I get time so we can all have one. I just need to decide on what to put in the middle for everyone else. My Auntie was easy as she loves poppies!

Staying with the theme for boys of decorating a top. I did one for my friends 5 year old who is obsessed with Doctor Who. I knitted him a tardis for his birthday which I shall show you soon so continued with the theme for Christmas. He recognised what it was when he opened it which was a relief!!

 

And finally a present to the whole family really- a Christmas Cake!! I have never made one before so I used a recipe from Delia and it turned out alright! I don't really like fruit cake anyway but even I could eat this one! I also made a Christmas pudding for my Dad using another Delia recipe- this is yet to be tasted though!

 



 

I just went for simple icing as I have never iced a cake in royal icing before so didn't really know what I was doing but I think it turned out alright! We had a fancy candle to put on it before we cut into it!

I had a good Christmas and hope you all did too? I'm really pleased I managed to make all of my presents this year and am going to say again (as I do every year) that I will start earlier next year with making them!

Work in Progress Wednesday 1st February

Can you believe it is February already?!

This week I have been working on various things but my Work in Progress Wednesday this week goes to some sock monkeys I have been making.

One of my crafty friends has been making these to give as presents to babies and they were just so cute I had to have a go myself! They are so easy to make- all you need is a pair of socks and a sewing machine and for how to make them just google 'sock monkey tutorial' and there are loads of step by step instructions.

I brought a pack of 3 socks and decided to make all 3 at the same time but have only finished the bodies for them so far:

This is what they will look like when they are finished:



Aren't they just too cute?! I really want to make one from knee length socks so it will have really gangley arms and legs that go on forever!

Until next time.....

Happy crafting!

xxx

Hello!

Hello!

Just a general hello and welcome to my new blog!

I haven't really blogged before so I need all the help I can get with what to do! I am hoping to blog about various crafting thoughts and projects I am working on and would love you to join me on my very unorganised journey through the world of crafts.

I need to be more organised in my crafting and am hoping this blog will help to keep me focused on the job in hand and not flit around from project to project never finishing anything!

I want to post something that I am working on every wednesday (work in progress wednesdays) and then a finished project on a friday (finished fridays) but that is all I have come up with so far so feel free to give me any tips and ideas as to other things I can blog about or if you would like a more detailed post on something I post.

I think that is enough waffling for now so until next time...

happy crafting readers

xxx