WIP Wednesday everywhere!

My WIP's for this week are all over the house. My photos are totally as they are today, no quick tidy before I snap a shot, just take an instant photo.

Cushions cut out in the spare room.

Boys hat in the kitchen but I had to carry on cooking dinner.

A design as you go along stash busting teapot cozy on the 

lounge floor.

One of my Minerva posts where I sit and watch TV in the evening.

A snoozing and slightly neglected blanket in our bedroom.

Oh cripes! cutting and bagging up sewing projects on the dining room table.

But colonel Mustard did it in the study with a crochet hook!

(..that one is for Cluedo fans!)

Jo xxxx

Check out some other great work.

In the beginning...

In the beginning (of 2014) we dreamed of a place where we could hide out. A place to play. A den for our family. In a location which connected me to my family roots. A place where we could nearly fill the gap of country understanding for our town dwelling girls. Yesterday we went to see how our friend had got on with the foundations....

This is where the cabin will be. The farm is on a hill so we needed to get a friend with a digger to level a piece out for us. Dad had some sheep arrive from a neighbour in the field this week.

It looked bigger than we expected it to. 

The girls did some of this...

I saw some of these...

and big colonies of these...

Big Sis spotted this in the natural water spring...

Little M said "let me see the frogs-born" and we told her how to say it ...

we ducked and dived through lots of this...

we listened to this one bleating for it's mother...

we peeped through the hawthorn blossom to see the view...

At the top of the field I tried to explain to Big Sis that the lamb would find it's mother, but she didn't want to walk away, I could tell, the bleating was pulling at her heart strings. I walked away back to the yard.

Then after five minutes she wondered back to check the numbers written on their fleeces, she asked her dad to pick up the lamb and pair her back up. She was happy to leave then. She can come and play, explore and learn stuff another day.

Easter weekend we are putting up our cabin, rain or shine. 

Sooooo excited. Jo xxxx

Pretty school cardigan

I have been enjoying the challenge of the pattern on this pretty red cardigan, I say enjoy... after trying to get the pattern going for the third time I nearly gave up but once I understood it, I was off.

It is worked in one piece to the armholes so it was a lot to keep unpicking then casting on again but I really like it and Little M does too. It is for her when she starts school in September. She is really tiny so this is aged 2-3 and is big enough in the body, I will have to make the arms longer because she is four.

The pattern is from Sirdar Cosy Haylofter knits book (lovely booklet) and is made with Red Heart Aran Nikki. A very soft 80% acrylic and 20% wool yarn that has knit up like a dream. They come in 50g balls and I used four with a scrap leftover, just how I like it. They were £1.59 a ball from the link site.

Yep! It is safe to say she definitely likes it:)

All set for school in September, all I have to do now is enjoy the last bit of her being at home with me. 

Love Jo xx

Hooray! Elise Shawl

Linking up with Chrissie and Marianne to show you my second Elise shawl in crochet today.

It is made from...I don't know what? It was yarn on a cone, possibly from a machine knitter but it was all in a mixed up bag given to me a good while ago. It looks like pearlised cotton but I think it is probably synthetic.

I did the same border as last time but without the beads because the scarf is quite heavy on it's own.

I did some serious blocking which always makes a shawl I think, I blocked the main triangle and then did the border. Next I blocked out the points. See Kristen's shawl at Cozy things for a full photographic persuasion to block here!

Here is a rough tutorial for the shawl edge if you ever need one:

ROW 1: 1 round of dc into every stitch along the shawl edge.

ROW 2: Chain 5, miss 2dc, 1 tr, *ch2, miss 2dc, 1tr* all along each edge (It looks like a fence)

ROW 3:*Chain 7, 6dc in the second chain from the hook, ss to close the bobble, chain 6, 1dc in the top of the treble* Repeat along the edge. (It should make a triangle with a bobble)

You can thread 100 beads on before you start the border and bring up each one in the bobble. That is how I did the one here.

I simply love this pattern - it is going to be a birthday present for a very special friend of mine.

The colour is so evocative of my Spring garden at the moment.

Happy Crochet. Jo xx

Hooray! Upcycled chair

I saw this in a trailer outside someone's house seven years ago, they were cleaning out their sheds because they were moving house. "What are you doing with the directors chair?" I enquired, "Taking it to the tip, do you want it?" "Yes please!!!"

So this chair has been in bloke's shed for seven years, every time he has a shed clear out he says shall I get rid of that chair. "No!" I gasp, I just haven't got round to it yet.

So here is said chair...

It could do with a paint really but I'm back to that time issue problem again so I eased some life into it with some fabric.

Hooray! A new chair for the cabin. In reality it took 15 mins to cut the fabric and 20 mins to sew lines on it to make it fit. The fabric is from my friend, she gave it to me over 5 years ago, this fabric has earned it's place in my sewing basket I can tell you - it has been two shopping bags, a blind, a notice board, a desk tidy and now a directors chair cover. I still have a little bit left over. 

I love things for free all but a little effort, it just needed a seven year period to get it all done!!! Jo x

Hooray! PJ bottoms

We are on a bit of a go slow at the moment with general illness, but there are still times for making things as always.

Big Sis has made a pair of PJ bottoms from a piece of brushed cotton she found in the fabric drawer. I still need to stand behind her and guide the fabric a bit if we want straight seams but generally she gets a good steady speed going.

It is when we do this sort of activity together that she spontaneously says she loves me! Isn't that nice? Especially on Mothers day here in the UK.

Quite big but I convinced her that when she is in the cabin she needs big warm PJ bottoms. She was pretty proud of these. 

Thanks for looking.

Jo and Big Sis x

Mother and daughter.

Sewing Table Makeover

This month for my Minerva craft post, I have made a few accessories for my sewing table. I don't have a huge space but I have been leaving my machine out all the time of late and it means I can snatch an hour of sewing here and there without the set up and clear up which eats into this precious time.

I saw this fabric and thought it ideal for my sewing table. I made bias binding using the patchwork pack. There is always a moment in my sewing where I need to tell myself to keep calm, what about you?

Ta dah!

The kit includes: 

A fat quarter pack, pattern, thread and the oh 'sew' 

appropriate fabric.

The pattern has a variety of things to try. It is great if you have just got a new machine or want to have a play with one that has been handed down to you. You can make really useful things but nothing that requires anything to actually fit!

I did however have to do a little bit of pattern joining - Look at that, eat your heart out Patrick and May!

Covered Notion pots. Quick and fun to make out of some 

recycled body cream pots.

A pattern box for those pesky vintage patterns I like but 

can't get to fit...

A pin jar for my machine feet, bobbins and unpicker. 

I added a little crochet flower too.

The final sewing table makeover:

I hope you have been inspired to dust off your sewing machine by The Great British Sewing Bee BBC TV series or maybe by my little table of sewing loveliness.

Thanks Minerva. Love Jo x