Finished Friday - Crocheted Flower Hair Clips

I've been so busy in the last couple of months that I've neglected my flower hair clips and the Folksy shop is looking a little bare. I've had several single flowers lying around for a while but hadn't gotten around to assembling the layered flower with button centre and then attaching it to a hair clip. But a recent bout of productivity spurred on by some commissions from my neighbour (I wish I had more neighbours like her!) means that I now have a few new crocheted flower hair clips to list.

I particularly like the green and pink. 

Which is your favourite?

Cardiff Craft and Hobby Show

At the end of May I went to the Cardiff Craft and Hobby Show. I think that this is the second or maybe the third one, but it was my first time attending. 

Personally I was a little disappointed. If I had been into jewellery, jewellery-making or papercrafts then I would have had a ball. But although there were a few stands selling finished stitched goods, there was less than a handful of stands selling fabric, yarn and other stitchy supplies, which is what I was really hoping to find.  Having said that I did manage to buy a few things, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise that there wasn't more to tempt me! I think the show has got a lot of potential and I'd probably go again, but I would like to see more textiles and needlecraft stands in 2014.  So if you're a supplier of stitchy goods, then there might be an opportunity for you...

So what did I get? Some lovely May Arts chevron ribbon in three colours from Anna Marie Designs, of course a few new buttons to add to my burgeoning collection (the stripy buttons are my favourite), some plain polycotton fabric in a fabulous shade of blue and a bargain bag of crochet cotton (not pictured), which I hope to turn into as shawl for an upcoming birthday present.

TAST 55 - Buttonholed Herringbone

I decided to use this stitch - Buttonholed Herringbone - as the edging for my appliqued table lamp.

Luck of the Draw

About a month ago I had a small run of good luck when I won a couple of blog giveaways. Woo-hoo! First I won some pretty cards and a letterpressed poster, then I won a gorgeous sheep on Isabelle's blog.  My petit mouton is so cute and my initial has been beautifully embroidered on the back.

I was delighted to get Isabelle's parcel, but then when I realised that she had generously included a couple of extras in the form of ribbons and buttons, I actually squealed a little bit. 

What good luck have you had recently?

Finished Friday

You've probably heard of Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesday. Well, this is Finished Friday - a place to celebrate those finished projects. Yay! There's nothing quite like putting your needle or hook down and sitting back to admire your handiwork.

My first Finished Friday is these adorable crochet baby sneakers (pattern from Mon Petit Violon), which I made for my husband's nephew's new baby boy (is there such a thing as a great-nephew-in-law?).  Aren't they sweet?  What have you finished lately?

Buttoned Up

I've never been a particular fan of buttons. No, scratch that. I've never paid much attention to buttons. They were always just things you put on a shirt - usually plain white and very unremarkable. But then some time last year while in a yarn shop I found some buttons in the most gorgeous shade of pinky-purple. So I bought a few. Just because. Then I got several packs of buttons as free gifts with craft magazines.  Then I saw a blog entry about a shop in Cardiff (that's where I live) called Claire Grove Buttons. So I paid it a visit and was smitten by the incredible array of decorative buttons on display. And I bought a few. Just because they were so pretty. And so on, and so on gradually building up a nice little collection.  My latest button acquisition (pictured second) is from Berry Nice Cushions on Folksy.  I didn't mean to buy any. I was just enjoying having a look. But then they were so cute, and the price was so reasonable, and I succumbed to temptation.

The thing is, now that I've developed a button habit I'm not entirely sure what to do with them! I've used a few in my crochet flower hair clips and bookmarks, and although I've got loads more plain clips to use up (so loads more crochet flower/button combo opportunities) it would be nice to try using them in some other way.  I've had a quick look on Pinterest and have seen some lovely ideas, but I'm on the lookout for more. That way I can use up my button stash and also have an excuse to give in to my newest vice ;). So if you've come across any beautiful button crafts please point me to them.

TAST 53 - Square Herringbone

I was inspired by the concentric square herringbones that I saw on Annet's blog.  I decided to offset the orientation of my squares while keeping them concentric to get a sort of twisting effect.

Go to Pin Tangle for a description of how to work the stitch.

Scrappy Trips Cushion

I'm not much of a trend follower, but when I do decide to join in I generally don't do it in a timely manner!  And so it was with the Scrappy Trips Around The World.  It all began several months ago when one of the blogs that I follow mentioned a craze that was sweeping Instagram - #scrappytripalong. I was intrigued so I had a look and thought it was interesting, but not being a quilter that's as far as it went.

In the meantime I had bought several cushion pads that were going cheap from IKEA, which I then left piled in a corner.  About a month ago I decided it was about time I made some cushion covers for them and the scrappy-trip-along came to mind. It looked so simple and the result looked very pretty so I dived in with gusto. But I soon learned a valuable lesson about precision! Measure accurately, cut accurately and sew accurately, otherwise none of the blocks will line up.  After a lot of unpicking, remeasuring and resewing, my scrappy-trip-along cushion was complete.

And so, ta-dah! I really love it. So much, that I can't bring myself to let it be used as an actual cushion, so it sits on the sofa but doesn't get leant on :)

TAST 54 - Laced Square Herringbone

When I first saw the Laced Square Herringbone I thought it had a star-like quality.  So I stitched a little night scene: laced square herringbone and cross-stitch stars with a crescent moon over lights from a city.  It's not really in proportion, but let's just call that artistic interpretation ;)

As always it's well worth looking at the links in the comments to see all the different interpretations of the stitch.  I was amazed by the sheer number of variations that Chitra demonstrated.

TAST 52 - Triangular Feather Stitch

I bought one of those doodle colouring books for kids from the pound shop. You know the type - it's filled with spirals and geometric patterns to colour in. It looked like it could be a good source for embroidery pattern ideas.  Anyway I found a nice pattern with triangles which I decided to use for the triangular feather stitch.  I thought that the triangles in the pattern would echo the triangles in the stitch, but I think that maybe I should have made the whole thing bigger to accentuate the triangular shapes more.

It was quite nice to stitch and I really like the effect.  For more details about how to work the stitch and to see how other people have interpreted it pay a visit to Pin Tangle.