Gum Blossoms and Flying Girls

This is a quick, smudgy little sketch I made of some gum blossoms:

Here's another example of my artwork.
I don't draw or paint much these days, but I'd like to get back into the habit.

Speaking of artwork, Flying Girl has some gorgeous, quirky, dream~like drawings and paintings. I've signed up to be part of her guerilla marketing campaign. It looks like fun!

On the crochet front, I don't have anything to show. I've nearly finished a scarf for a dear friend's birthday, but I won't post any pictures until I've given it to her...and my other crochet projects are going slowly because I've been doing loads of paperwork for my job. *sigh* The good news is ~ I finished off a whole heap of reports today so tomorrow I can watch DVDs and crochet! =P

So, seeing as I have no crafty work to share, I'll finish this post off with a picture of the Coolgardie gum that's blossoming in my back garden. This beautiful tree brings me so much joy...

Crafting for Charity

I've been involved, in a small way, in two projects over the past year or so.

One is KrochetKrystal's Daisy Square Afghans for Charity. Krystal has created a gorgeous pattern and will send the pattern to you in exchange for a square. She crochets the squares into blankets and sends them to local children's hospitals. Krystal's blog, with lots of pretty pictures, and contact details for the pattern, can be found here.

This is my humble effort:

I've also been part of the Uthando Doll Project, making dolls for children from the Kwa Zulu Natal Province in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. Here's a clutch of dolls I made with my baby sister. My sister, the Queen of Quick, made the three on the left and I made the one on the right.

If anyone reading this is interested in contributing to the Doll Project please have a look at the details on the link I've included above, or leave me a comment and I'll put you in contact with one of the Project Organisers. Thanks. =]

Easy Daisy Granny Squares

I've been playing around with ideas for a really quick granny blanket. I'm plugging away at the granny square afghan I started at the beginning of June, but I'd really like something relatively effortless, and soothing, to make...so I thought I'd crochet a smallish panel of fancy squares and then border the blanket by adding rows of three dcs, making it a giant granny square. I've found a good square for the job, the Easy Daisy Granny:

It really is easy and it has a granny square background so adding the border shouldn't be a problem. You can find the pattern at the Warming Families site.


Here are three more squares I made this weekend:













I'm going to join them and border them with white yarn. Then I'm going to crochet the border in rows of the colours I've used for the Easy Granny backgrounds...at least that's the idea so far!

Roses in Winter

I have noticed, as I've been writing in this blog, that I use flowers in my work an awful lot ~ I love flowers. I like to create with them ... and I also like to grow them... so here's a picture of an iceberg rose taken in my back garden:

Isn't it glorious? This rose was the first bloom of Spring. It's Winter now in Australia, but it's still flowering and, in the coldness of the mornings, the buds have started to turn the softest, prettiest pink. Watching these roses unfurl is like witnessing a quiet miracle.

Thrifted Teacozy

Look at what I found at the local Save The Children Fund op shop:


Aren't those little crocheted flowers sweet?! It only cost me $2.00 and it's a perfect fit for the teapot I brew my green tea in. =P

Molly in the Morning Sunshine

Meet Molly, my funny, fiesty, much loved cat

...and please note the fabulous crocheted rag rug she's lying on!

I bought the rug, for a song, from an art market last year. It's made out of t~shirts and plastic bread bags, and was crocheted by a good woman who's devoted to recycling and gives all her proceeds to animal welfare. I don't know her name (it was sold to me by a friend of hers) but I'm really grateful to her nonetheless.

Here's a picture of the complete rug:

...and here's a detail:

I'd love to make one of these too:

in pinks,

for my bedroom

...to go with the granny blanket. =]

Chinese Charm Bag

Here are some photos of a bag I knitted from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch book. I made it about a year and a half ago. I haven't knitted since ~ I've sort of been swept away by crocheting...but one of these days, when I have time to focus, I'm going to teach myself to knit well and make something like this.

Anyhow, here are the pictures:

(It's not really wonky on the right hand side. It's just how I photographed it.)

I knitted the body of the bag with a chunky Italian cotton. I made the flowers out of Jo Sharp and Rowan DK cotton using a pattern from Knitty.

Grannying Along

I just posted this at the Granny-Along blogspot.
I'm making a granny square blanket.
This is my inspiration:

It's a lapghan I bought, before I knew how to crochet. It was made, for charity, by a very old lady named Grace, and I love the cheerful daisies she's included, as well as the way she's unified the look of the blanket by using white for the flowers and white for the joins. I just wish it was bigger so I could nap under it, but now I've taught myself to crochet I'm ready to stitch one of my own.

After digging around in my stash I've come up with a colour combination that will go with the colours in my bedroom:

...and last night I crocheted my first square:

It's lacier than the original but I'm happy with it, and really looking forward to making some more.

Felted Market Bag with Flowers

I made a bag using the Country Market Felted Bag pattern from Marlo's Crochet Corner. I crocheted it with two strands of Paton's Jet (an Australian worsted weight, angora and wool blend yarn) and a little bit of variegated Twilley's Freedom wool.

Here it is before felting:



And here it is afterwards:

I stopped the felting process before I lost the stitch definition as I liked the texture made by the hdcs.

Here's a picture that gives a better indication of the finished bag's shape:

Finally, the felted flowers:

It was easy to crochet, fun to felt and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I posted all of this yesterday on Craftster. If you're crafty and haven't been to this site, check it out. I visit just about every day ~ it's a constant source of inspiration.

On The Hooks

These are three crochet projects I'm working on:

First of all, Nouveau lacy squares from Jo Sharp, in Cleckheaton's Country Print. I might make a blanket with this pattern. If you look at the picture in the link you'll see that the petals on the corners form another motif when they've been joined to three other squares ~ so pretty.

Secondly, a lush crocheted lace scarf from SweaterBabe, in Paton's Inca. I've nearly finished this.

And last, a Champage Wrap from elann, in Jo Sharp's DK cotton ...forty or so motifs to go...

Flowers and Shells

Yet more flowers ~ crochet ones this time.

This is a scarf I've just finished:

and a close~up:

I first saw this on Ellen Bloom's blog.
(You'll have to scroll down a bit to find a picture of the original scarf.)
Ellen, a prolific, talented and generous craftster from L.A., kindly emailed me the pattern. I crocheted it with Paton's Jet, a soft alpaca and wool mix that I loved working with, using a 5.50 mm hook. It was easy to make and I'm really happy with the end result.

Thank you Ellen!

Birthday Blooms...

A friend at work is having a birthday, so I've been playing around with Microsoft Photo Editor and some of my pictures to develop an image for her birthday card.
I love the watercolour function.

So far I've come up with this ~



and this, which I think I'll use.



I like the grainy, monochromatic nature of this last image...and daisies are such photogenic flowers.

Daisies and Mosaics

I live in an open plan unit, built in the seventies, that I am slowly redecorating.

When I first bought my place the kitchen was tiled with orange daisy tiles. They were pretty loud but kind of endearing (in a retro, floral sort of way) so I decided to use their motif and colours in décor I made. You can see one of the daisy tiles next to this mosaic pot.



Here’s a daisy throw I painted for my sofa:




a funky flower mosaic table under construction:



and some other mosaics…






I made the bird bath at a weekend workshop at Fremantle Arts Centre. Information about their fabulous courses can be found here.

I’m planning on going to Workshed Mosaics, where they have a great big studio, and making my own splashback for the kitchen. I'd like to incorporate some of the original tiles. I’m also thinking of using a white on white sort of colour~way, sparkly mirror tiles, shapes that reflect the flower in the mosaic table…
It'll be time consuming (and really enjoyable) to make.

Testing, testing...

...one, two, three...