Challenge 52 - Week 8

It's been half-term, and an ideal time to de-clutter. Lots of things  have gone to the charity shop, some things have gone to the recycling centre, and now for this weeks challenge, some upcycling.
I've upcycled old clothes before, cutting up woven fabrics, reclaiming buttons, and cutting jersey fabrics into strips for knitting, but i've never purposefully set out to make something from old clothing.
My daughter has this knitted jacket that she loves, but it no longer fits (she's taller than me now).

My solution is to upcycle it into something new, not necessarily clothing, but perhaps a soft toy for the end of her bed, or a make-up bag, so watch this space to find out what I decided to do with my upcycle challenge.

Spring Sketchbook

My Challenge 52 task this week has been to start some work in my sketchbook on the theme of Spring. I started by looking through old magazines for images of flowers, fabrics and anything else that made me think of spring.

I used these images as a starting point for some drawing and painting ...

Grape Hyacinth (Artist Pen over watercolour)



Spring Leaf Pattern (Watercolour and spirit markers)



Tulip Pattern (Created with acrylic paint and Indian ink)

These in turn have given me some ideas for printed fabrics and some knitting, so i'm busy jotting down notes on how i'm going to turn these ideas into a reality ... first stop is to get some lovely Spring coloured knitting yarns and then I can start making  some samples.

Inchies

At last, not the best photos in the world (but we could be waiting until July at this rate), the Inchies I made for last week's challenge.

Sixteen little one inch squares made from felt. I needle felted different layers together, using my spots and stripes sketches as a starting point. I then added bits of embroidery using cotton embroidery thread and some tiny shirt buttons.

I'm pleased with results, sewing the edging (by hand) was quite labour intensive, but I want to make some more using the Spring theme i'm using for my Challenge 52 this week. I'm also thinking that it may be nice to make a tiny patchwork where all the squares are joined together ... watch this space ...

Tuesday Treasury - Giraffes

After yesterday's blog post, what else could today's treasury be? My daughter is giraffe mad, and i'm sure she will be clicking on the links as soon as she sees this post ...

Giraffe Amigurumi Pattern, so lovely I clicked the 'add to cart' button when I saw it -
http://www.folksy.com/shops/ClaireSibley

Cute Giraffe Badge -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/ItBelongsToTurtle

Stitch Your Own Vintage Giraffe, printed on upcycled fabric -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/Loglike

"OFFERING THE GIRAFFE", wooden maple resin tile brooch -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/LITTLEESTELLE

Another mini-treasury next Tuesday.

Giraffe!

I've been drawing out a few different patterns for felties during the past few week, some are tiny little things, some a large. This giraffe is the first of my designs that i've actually made up ...

 

My daughter loves giraffes, and I spotted some giraffe print felt in a shop, so it was decided! I managed to get him stitched up and wrapped for her birthday last week. She thinks he's great! His legs are on the chunky side so that he can stand up, and i've even sewn on his eyes, nostrils and mouth, not a dab of glue in sight!

Challenge 52 - Week 7

Last week was a busy crafting week, I also didn't get in from work early enough on any evening to take some photos in good light, so I hope to do a few 'catch up' blog posts in my week off to put this straight - expect a giant feltie and some 'Inchies', so watch this space ...
So, onto a challenge to keep me busy during my week of rest ...

Yes, just one word. I know some people have had snow today, but i'm going to do some work in my sketchbook, and perhaps some other things inspired by Spring. So i'm off to look for pictures in magazines and find Spring fabrics and yarns in my stash - mood board on it's way ...

Tuesday Treasury - Square

I'm working on some Inchies this week for Challenge 52, so i've been looking at all things square on Folksy ...
Petite Square and Heart Silver Earrings -
http://www.folksy.com/shops/alibalijewellery

Teapot brooch -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/KettleofFish

“Shirty Beer Mat” Recycled hand bound notebook -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/KateBowles

Striped Squares Bag (Knitting Pattern PDF) -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/clairecrompton

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY XXX

Challenge 52 - Week 6

After a slight lack of activity last week on the challenge front, i'm hoping to up my game this week. Although, this week's challenge does lead on nicely from the sketchbook page I blogged about yesterday.

I'd drawn out six squares, filling them with red and black doodles based on spots and stripes. Some of the doodled lines turned into dashed lines of 'stitching' and I thought 'Inchies' ...

Image from WHSmith website

I'd bought the Inchies book by Peggy Donda-Kobert, just before Christmas, thinking that it would be good inspiration for future projects. Inchies are miniature works of art measuring one inch square - 2.5cm x 2.5cm for us metric types! They can be made from fabric, paper, metal, clay or anything else, some artists swap them like ATCs, and you can but lots of them together in a frame to make your own collection.

I'm planning to stick to my simple colour scheme and produce some spots and stripes Inchies. I hope this challenge is a successful one!

Peggy's blog is here ...
http://create-fabric-art-doko.blogspot.com/ 

You will need to translate the page if you do not speak German.

Sketchbook Challenge - A few opposites ...

Just a quick blog post to report on this week's challenge 'Opposites', which is also part of the sketchbook challenge. It's not been a good week, my workload has been immense this week, and so far I have only done one page!

I like what i've done, but i've got so many other ideas I want to try using collage and fabric, so I will persevere and carry on with this challenge for the rest of the month - the sketchbook challenge topic lasts for the whole month, so I will post my other pages here or on Flickr.

I have, however got my idea for next week's challenge ...
... more tomorrow.

Skinny Hearts

I haven't really listed anything in my Folksy shop for a while, i've been busy with the day job, and also lots of things i've been asked to make for people. So, finally last night I managed to list a couple of my heart brooches, in the past they've been 'Folk Heart' shaped, but these are skinny ones ... they're still quite long though!

The felt is made by knitting with pure wool yarn, these are made from Eco-Wool. I'm always knitting wool for felting. I keep it in my Nicsknots owl bag, use tiny 4mm 'Learn to Knit' needles, and it goes with me everywhere!

Sewing on the buttons is great fun, lots of them are vintage ones from the antique market and others have been reclaimed from old school shirts.

I've got lots of new ideas in my sketchbook, so i'm hoping to get making and list a few more things during February.

http://www.folksy.com/shops/GiddyStuff

Tuesday Treasury - Hearts

Less than a week until Valentine's Day, but just enough time to buy a Folksy Valentine Treat ...

Pendant : My Heart Or Yours, so much detail in this design -
http://www.folksy.com/shops/teasemade

Needlefelt Heart, I love the surface embroidery on this heart -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/planetpenny

Porcelain Red Gingham Heart Earrings, I'm a big gingham fan, these are great -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/jillmaguire

Forever Heart Cushion, look in the His for House shop on Folksy for other Forever Heart pieces -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/Hisforhouse



Challenge 52 - Week 5

It's a new month, so a new sketchbook challenge ...

OPPOSITES

This theme is quite open to interpretation, but i'm going to concentrate on positive and negative space, contrast in texture, and complimentary colours.

Detail from sketchbook page exploring spots and stripes.

I'm hoping to use collage and found images to create my 'sketches', so again, this will be a contrast to the sketches that I did last month, where I produced mainly obsevational drawings in pencil and paint.

Hyperbolic Crochet

So, I have completed my challenge for this week, one sample of hyperbolic crochet ... a sort of crimson swirl, made using a 25g ball of acrylic DK yarn that had been free with a knitting magazine. It didn't take long to do, but i've been waiting for some decent light to take a photograph!
I started a chain of 20 stitches, then began the pattern, 5 double crochet and then increase into the fifth one, repeating this pattern along the chain.
I carried on with this for about 6 rows and then started to increase into the fourth stitich to make the ripples a bit more noticeable. I carried on like this until there was no yarn ...

I'm pleased with my sample, I think I maight turn it into a huge corsage! Now I want to try some different hyperbolic crochet combinations and make a sea anemone!I also want to see what happens to the ripples when you start with a very long chain! So, with this in mind I have spent the rest of my challenge week planning and starting to make a "Hyperbolic Skinny Scarf"! I'll post some photos next time the sun decides to come out! If it turns out ok, i'll post the instructions (very basic) on here!

Tuesday Treasury - Chinese New Year

This Thursday is Chinese New Year, so i've found a few Chinese-inspired lovelies on Folksy for this week's mini treasury ...
Lucky Neko Cats Charm Bracelet -
http://www.folksy.com/shops/Fluffsstuffs

Fortune Cookie -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/SweetDeception

Porcelain Rabbit Necklace -

 http://www.folksy.com/shops/onesunnyafternoon

Chinese Lanterns 8 x 8" Print -

http://www.folksy.com/shops/LolasRoom

Another treasury next Tuesday ...