Farnham festival of knitting 2015

Yesterday I had a lovely day out with mummy cotton cake at Unravel, AKA the Farnham festival of knitting. It’s held at the Farnham Maltings in Surrey and is reasonably local so it would be rude not to go!

The first “stall” we came across was The Blue Jumper Project.

The project was founded by a lady called Sarah Filmer after she saw a lady wearing her mothers blue jumper, a jumper that she had donated to a charity shop after her mothers passing. It is an installation that anyone can contribute to, as long as you use blue yarn! So we did! I choose a mega chunky yarn and added a few rows.

and Mummy CottonCake added some fancy lace work.

And then we entered the main hall. It is yarn heaven! There are hundreds of hanks and skeins of the most beautiful, soft scrummy wools, buttons, patterns and knitting equipment. I was very well behaved! I had a small shopping list and I only deviated from it once!

And this was my deviation…

The wool is incredible! I have never felt anything so soft in my life! It is 20% merino and 80% baby alpaca! And although it was a deviation from the list, it was a sensible one, honestly, hear me out! I have wanted to try cable knitting for a while, this is cables. My ears get cold walking the dog, this will keep them warm! And I like soft things, this is the softest thing EVER!!!

I have been very patient all day, but as soon as Cotton Cupcake was in bed I got out one of my new sets of needles and cast on. I’m very pleased with myself! I have always thought cables would be really difficult, but they actually aren’t! You can’t really see them too much yet but I am pleased none the less!

So are my hands, my hands are pleased, they are pleased because it is so darn soft!! I am in love! I can feel my yarn stash getting considerable my expensive!

Quilts, Cupcakes, Dresses and Singers

How are we all? I’ve been very busy over here! I have made great progress on the memory quilt!

I have also managed to sew some of the rows together but haven’t taken a photo!

Last Thursday I managed to whip up 24 cupcakes for the Valentines Charity Bake Sale that they were holding at Mr Cotton Cakes work.

I have also started making a new dress. I have had the pattern and the fabric since last May but I have been putting off making it as it needs a full bust adjustment (FBA) eeeekkkkkk! These scare me! I have done a few in the past but the darts are different in this pattern and it is a button up dress so would be extremely noticeable if too small! But I have finally bitten the bullet! I traced out the pattern and found some scrap fabric and after a few attempts I THINKS it’s ok! I will post photos when it’s finished, but here is a sneak peek at pattern cutting stage.

I had forgotten how much I love the colour of this fabric!

I have also added a new sewing machine to my collection! I say new, it is the oldest sewing machine that I will probably ever touch, let alone own! And oh my, it is a beauty!

It’s an 1874 Singer. It’s in really good condition but needs a good drop of oil! I have found a local company that are able to service it so hopefully I’ll have it up and running soon. For now it can live with my other vintage Singer (1953)

Memory quilt part 1.

Somewhere between watching Sewing Bee 20 times, baking and having lots of family time I have managed to make a start on sewing Cotton Cupcakes memory quilt!

It took me 2 nights just to work out how to place the blocks. This was my first layout…

But then I realised I had enough fabric left over to make another row of blocks. Layout number 2…

The gaps are for some other blocks that I had left at my parents house! It still wasn’t right. It just didn’t feel balanced. Cue layout number 3…

It’s a winner! Much more balanced! I even have enough small squares to make 3×3 square blocks for the corners.

After some very very careful pinning I started sewing some of the pieces together. This scared me! I haven’t really worked with Jersey fabric too much in the past and I know it behaves differently to cotton (which I am most used to) and I just really didn’t want to mess it up!

I have only done these so far, but I am pretty happy with them! I don’t think any have stretched out of shape but I will know for sure when I get the iron out to press them.

Where did January go?

I cannot believe it’s February already! And almost a month since my last post! I do apologise!

I have only started one new project! Go me!! And that is the fair isle jumper I started at the beginning of the month! I have only finished one project though! However, it has been a very busy month:

1. Fair isle jumper
2. Quilt number 1
3. 2x 90th birthday cakes
4. Embroidery on quilts
5. The memory quilt (sort of)

The jumper has had its ups and downs! I was very good and knitted my tension square and measured cotton cupcakes chest to get the size. Two sizes bigger than suggested for his age group! No surprise there! He has a very healthy appetite! The back knitted up very quickly as it was plain stocking stitch with some minor shaping around the arm holes! The front took a little longer! But for my first attempt at knitting fair isle I am really pleased with it!

It seems I didn’t photograph the front when it was finished! Oops! I’m sure you still get the idea, even with one shoulder missing!

I then had to weave in all the ends…

I must say! That wasn’t my favourite job!

After knitting the neckband I slipped it onto my cotton cupcake to check the sizing before sewing up the sides. It’s a really good job I did! A REALLY good job! They didn’t even meet! I was ready to throw my toys out the pram but decided that would not be a good idea and went back to the drawing board! It is quite likely that the little man will only wear this a handful of times so I felt that some side panels may do the trick!

These should add another 3ish inches so fingers crossed! I will try it on him again in the morning now that they are finished!

I have also finished quilt number 1 now! We visited my sister one weekend and it is a reasonably long car journey so I decided slip stitching the binding would be a suitable way to pass the time!

Before leaving I did have to sew the binding onto the quilt though! I attempted mitered corners…

I am really really pleased with how they turned out!

And then there were not one, but TWO 90th birthday cakes! They were for the same person (my incredible granddad-in-law! Is there such a thing as grandad-in-law?!?) the first was for a surprise celebration. I didn’t get a photo but it was a vanilla and whisky cake, simply covered in whiskey buttercream!

The second was for a second surprise celebration! As a family we gave him a set of Waterford Crystal whiskey glasses, (he likes whiskey if you haven’t already worked that one out). So I decided that it would be really nice to combine the 2 some how. Then one morning, whilst feeding cotton cupcake his breakfast the idea struck me. I could make the box the glasses came in out of cake, and place the glasses on coasters in front of it.

I am ultra pleased with how it turned out, as was he! Which is of course the most important thing!

I have also started to embroider a message to each of the boys on the back of the quilts, but after doing the ‘J’ backwards…

I called it a night!

And to kick off February I curled up on the sofa to read this…

I’m sure something from here will feature in a post sooner or later!

Well done if you have made it this far! I’ll try not to leave it so long between posts next time! Xx

New year, new me?

Like many many others I have made a New Years resolution! And like many crafters it is to finish a project before starting the next. So, the same way those who wish to loose weight eat everything in the house before the 1st January (or is this just me?!?) I spent the week after Christmas tying up loose ends trying to finish off some works in progress so I could start my new year with a clean(ish) slate.

I layered my quilt (the first one I started) and done some machine quilting on it. I even managed to pull all the threads through and square it up! But then I needed to get the iron out so put it to the side again!

I cracked on with my Noah’s Arc, and have actually got quite a lot done over the last month or so. All I have left on the arc itself is to knit some windows. Surely I could get this finished by new year?!? Ha ha! Nope! I will get the arc finished in January and then I am going to set myself a goal of knitting one pair of animals a month!

I still have a dress that I need to fix, and I have a crochet blanket that I have been working on for almost a year, which I don’t anticipate it being finished for a long time!

Since my last post I have made Christmas bunting…

And stockings…

Which were too small to fit an orange in 😔 I clearly didn’t think that one through when drawing the pattern out!

And, probably my favourite project of 2014… Cotton Cupcakes tee pee…

I am pleased to say, he loves it! I am going to make a big floor cushion to go in it, but for now he has some cushions from our bed. I love watching him play in there with our dog!

I made a deal with myself! I could make the floor cushion before finishing everything else as technically it is for the tee pee so I can class it as a WIP!

And then I realised that I would have to wait even longer to make the memory quilt from Cotton Cupcakes baby grows if I stuck to my resolution. But what if I started it before?!? Does that count? I decided it would be ok so cut out a few of the pieces.

And then I needed the iron so I put it to the side (common theme with the iron stopping work!).

We rang in the new year, watching the fireworks on the tv and had some bubbly. Our resolutions were made, it’s a new year, a new me, a new me that will not start new projects before completing the old! And then the phone rung at lunch time on the 1st. It was my mum telling me she had found some knitting patterns that we brought last year. My ears pricked up. She told me that there was a “simple” fair isle tank top and do I want to have a go? “No, no, no” I told her, “I must finish old projects first”. “Oh, I thought you wanted to try fair isle?” She replied, “and this is a good beginners one”. Resistance is futile! After putting Cotton Cupcake to bed on the 2nd, I casted on.

I just can’t help myself! I have no will power! Maybe next year?!?

I hope you are all doing better with your resolutions than me!

Happy new year! Xxx

The little man is 1!

I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I disappeared again!! It has been manic here! Lots of crafting, lots of shopping and most importantly lots of playing games with my little cotton cupcake! Who is now one!!!! I seriously do not know where the year has gone!

His birthday was drawing ever nearer and I was desperately running out of time so I had to call on the help of mummy dearest! She is far more practiced at pulling in cotton ends and slip stitching than I am so is far quicker! Luckily she was happy to oblige! This left me time to finish making things for his birthday party! I.e finish the bunting and make the cake. I decided that I was going to put writing on the bunting after all. I printed out the letters and then traced them onto bonda web. And then I traced them again because I forgot to trace them backwards the first time round! I attached them to some calico and then onto the bunting and voila! Birthday bunting!

Onto the cake! I have known since he was born that I wanted to do a woodland cake! His bedroom is woodland themed and lots of his toys are woodland themed and I love woodland themed stuff! The cake changed several times whilst decorating it. In fact the fox literally changed completely 3 times! At one point I was pretty happy with Mr foxy until Mr cotton cake told me it looked like a staffie! Then all I could see was an orange dog where a fox should be! I was really happy with the final result though! I say it every time, but this is one of my favourite cakes! I might actually shortlist my favourite cakes one day… *wonders off pondering favourite cakes.

So the bunting was made, presents were wrapped, cake was decorated, nana was finishing the quilt off, Mr Cotton Cake was recovering from major surgery he had earlier in the week all that was left was to celebrate and cook party food! I was shattered!

But it was completely worth it! His birthday was on the Friday so I borrowed the bunting and put it up in the living room and blew up a few balloons and he had his presents from Mr Cotton Cake and my self. I could not have been happier when he unwrapped his quilt and instantly started snuggling into it and stroking his face with it! I’m pretty sure he likes it!

And then on Saturday we had his birthday party for all our family and friends. I think he really enjoyed himself! I can safely say that he loves being centre of attention! Here are a few pics from the day!

Excuse the hole in the top of the cake, there was a hedgehog there, until I decided I wanted him somewhere else on the cake! I really did change my mind a lot!

Since his birthday I have been trying to prepare for Christmas! Usually I make a lot of Christmas presents and biscuits and cakes ect but I haven’t had time this year! Or the energy! I have made a few decorations and I am making cotton cupcakes main present but that is it really! And that is for another post! Now it is time for sleep!

Happy crafting xx

Burlap bunting and pulling threads…

With Cotton Cupcakes 1st birthday fast approaching the planning and crafting is well underway! And what is a party without a bit of bunting? After making 140meters of it for our wedding you would have thought I’d be fed up of it but now but I still can’t get enough! I love it!!

I grabbed some burlap out of my stash and started cutting triangles.

I worked out roughly how many I was going to need before hand and luckily had enough burlap to cut the exact amount!

I found some bias binding in my box of treasures and sewed the triangles into it.

Half and hour later the bunting was finished!

I am currently undecided if I should put a message on the bunting. I had originally planned too so each string of bunting is calculated for a message. We’ll see! It will probably come down to if I have time or not!

I have also continued pulling threads through my quilt! The top is finished…

But now I have this to contend with!

The quilting continues…

I plan on giving one of the quilts I am making to Cotton Cupcake for his first birthday, which is some how NEXT WEEK!!! I do not know how it has crept up on me! It seems like just yesterday I was moaning that he was well over baked and really needed to come out and play! Anyway, I digress! This means I really need to get a wiggle on and finish it! As soon as he was in bed this evening I set up the sewing machine and sewed on my other two sides of binding.

I then cut away the excess wadding and backing fabric.

I need to press these seams before I can finish the binding but was feeling lazy so I decided to make a start on the very tedious job of pulling the threads through to the back!

It took me approx 20minutes to do one row of squares but continuously threading the needle was making my eyes go funny so I called it a day! Hopefully it won’t take to long if I have better light!

Petticoats and cakes…

It’s been another manic week this week!

I mentioned in my post earlier this week that we had a cake smash photo shoot booked for cotton cupcake. It was awesome!! He loved it! I decided to cover the cake in whipped cream rather than buttercream. He is a very energetic child and does not need any extra sugar! I also wanted something quite simple that would look lovely in the photos, but wouldn’t take too long. I decided on sprinkles! After covering the cake in the cream I left it in the fridge over night.

I didn’t add the sprinkles until the next day, just in case the colour ran.

He had a great time! Here is a little sneak peak, these are my photos, not the professional ones!

On Friday the company that I work for had its annual sales conference and gala dinner. It is a huge event and people go all out in the evening! I had made a dress earlier in the year (sorry, no photos) that I planned to wear but wanted to dress it up a bit more. It has a skater style skirt so I decided that the addition of a petticoat would do the trick! I actually started making the petticoat a few weeks ago but wanted to finish it before blogging about it. I started with some lining fabric, dress net and 50m of black lace ribbon.

I cut a rectangle of lining fabric 155x50cm and gave it a rolled hem at both the top and bottom and then sewed the edges with a French seam.

I folded the top over and sewed a channel that I could later put the elastic through. I then took several strips of my dress net and joined them at the short sides to give me two 3m strips and two 6m strips. I edged the 6m strips with the black lace ribbon.

Using bright orange thread I sewed a basting stitch along the top edges of my dress net. This would help me gather it neatly. I then sewed the gathered 6m strips to the 3m strips. After removing the Orange thread I covered the join with more lace ribbon.

I then sewed these layers to the lining fabric.

Once the elastic was in the channel I had made earlier the petticoat was finished!

At about 10pm the night before the event I decided that I wanted to wear a 50’s style headband! I dug out the left over fabric from my dress and some black fabric and set up the sewing machine. I grabbed one of my other head bands and used it as a template. With wrong sides together I sewed around my headband ensuring I left a gap to turn it the right way. I gave it a quick press and it was done!

I love wearing these headbands so will be making many more I would imagine!

I was really pleased with my finished outfit! Especially as it was entirely home made, well, with the exception of my shoes!

Busy busy bee…

I’ve been very busy this evening! I have:
1. Baked a cake
2. Finished quilting one of the quilts
3. Dried some pine cones (sort of)

The cake is for my cotton cupcakes cake smash on Friday. I could not be more excited about this! It is going to be so much fun! I wanted the cake to be a little bit more exciting to look at than a plain sponge so I decided to have a go at a funfetti cake. It’s really simple, just add a load of sprinkles into your cake mix…

You can see them all dotted through the batter, and when the cake is cooked they will melt to create a multicoloured, spotty effect!

While the cake was in the oven I decided to get the sewing machine out and finish off my quilting.

I finished all the diagonals and even managed to stitch “in the ditch” around the two boarders. I am going to hand quilt the boarders so I wanted to stabilise them first. I love the back of this quilt almost as much as the front…

I am really pleased with the effect the quilting has on the back, it makes it a bit more interesting.

I also decided that as I had the sewing machine out I would attach the binding. Well two sides of it anyway!

I didn’t bother squaring the quilt before attaching the binding for two reasons.
1. I squared the blocks before adding the boarders so I shouldn’t be too “un-square” any way.
2. As I have three inches of quilt between my last stitches and the binding I didn’t want to risk the fabric moving out of place whilst cutting. This way my machine stitching for the binding goes through the quilt top, wadding and backing fabric, holding them all in place so I can cut them all neatly.

I only added the binding to the longer sides of the quilt this evening, I will press it next time I have the iron out and then add the short sides. I felt that for me this would be the neater way rather than trying to sew on one really long strip.

My cake finished baking part way through quilting so I decided as I had the oven on I would dry out some pine cones. I collected the pine cones yesterday what taking the puppy dog for a walk. I set the oven the 200degrees and laid out the pine cones on a baking tree lined with tin foil and popped them in the oven. I left them for 45 mins but they still aren’t as dry as I want them to be. I have plenty to do so I will have a play around and find the best temperature and time! But for now, it’s bed time! Night night!