I Love Surprises

I have a few times signed up and bought had lucky dip or surprise boxes to do with crafts, my most recent is from Rainbow Stitches, website is HERE she is a small independent trading on line, I got to know her through one of the embroidery groups I belong to.

Each month she runs a different theme the boxes are sent out the first Tuesday of the month and you need only sign up for ones you want for £15 its not a subscription which I like, I had often bought vinyl through her and thought I would give one of the boxes a go, my July one arrived yesterday.

 I was very impressed

 20 pre cut 5 inch squares of a pinstripe felt, all different colours

 2 fat quarters of batik cotton fabric

 25 dotty 4 inch cotton charm squares all different shades

and a half jelly roll 20 strips.

I have already signed up for the August box the theme is denim really looking forward to seeing what is in it.

Its a wonderful way of getting a good selection and of course if there is anything in particular you like you can buy it in larger quantities.

I love it when little independents do things like this it makes them stand out from the big boys.

Finding Lost Treasures

Its been a damp day so after I had finished the chores I thought I would get on with some spinning, I still have a lot of last years Alpaca fleece to get through,

I pulled everything out of my spinning corner to have a sort out before starting.

 I found one of the first skeins I did

 A lovely lucky dip box of fibers

 4 bars of chocolate

A bag of licorice twists

all had been forgotten about.

I did get a bit of spinning done

While listening to and audio book

 

Still have plenty to get done yet, but now I have a few treats to look forward to while spinning :-) 

Crafting Update

An up to date post on some recent sewing makes

I did another lampshade, this one is for my daughter

 She has 8 children

 and 1 dog

 She cant have it just yet as I am using it as a sample to take orders on my stall.

Next up a bit of quilting

 Its called Lavender Magic Quilt, all the blocks are done using a method called quilting on the go, they are worked with wadding and backing all at once

 Here it is all finished with its border.

Next up is a tea towel I did for a swap

One of the embroidery groups I belong to does regular swaps and June was a tea towel swap, not knowing the person at all I played safe and just embroidered a couple of recipes on to a blank tea towel,

The one I got in return was embroidered with this

 Its so cute, she did her homework well, I might have to stitch out some more to go with it.

I have just joined another group

Bag Of The Month

I have put a link button on my side bar, if anyone is interested.

Basically you get a bag pattern each month for your 6 month membership, they do some lovely bag patterns.

That's all my craft news up to date :-) 

Its Been My Week

I am doing a happy happy dance 

the Appliscape embroidered picture I did and entered into a competition

won 1st prize I got a $10 voucher to use for more embroidery designs, 

 

I also entered my lampshade into another competition

I won 1st prize again this time a £5 voucher to use for designs 

I am really chuffed with my wins :-) 

The lampshades are now on lamps in the guest room and the pictures have been framed and hung on the bathroom wall.

Appliscape Picture

As it was raining I was back in the cabin this time making an appliscape.

 An Appliscape is a quilted picture panel

 Using layers of fabric

 And details are enhanced with machine embroidery

 This one is going to be hung in the bathroom, in the meantime its been entered into a competition the theme is summer fun.

The competition is being run by one of the machine embroidery groups I belong to.

A New Craft For Me

The other evening I caught Make Craft Britain on BBC4 its a one off program, shame as it was really good.

It followed two diffrent groups that attended workshops.

One was doing paper art cutting, something I have done before and run workshops on. 

The other group were doing lampshades a craft I have always fancied having a go at.

They did freehand applique on there lampshades but it gave me an idea.

I ordered a kit from Amazon

 

Dug out some shot silk fabric from my stash 

I had an image in mind.

I used the  lampshade liner as template to mark on my fabric were the image was to go.

Stitched it out

Followed the instructions for the assembly of the lamp shade

It was easy to do and took about an hour start to finish.

Really really pleased with it, the lamp base was made for me by my father in law, this shade is a bit small for this lamp, I am going to make another shade the same, put them in the guest room and make another shade for this lamp.

More New Makes

A few new makes 

 A family of button stick people

 Tractor word art

 Ideal for fathers day

 Grandads included

 Something for sporty dads

Sorry about the flash reflecting 

they are available for sale on my for sale page.