Sophie Update and a Crochet Cushion

Back last Spring I started the Sophie's Universe CAL 2015 and wrote about it here.

I was getting on quite well but got distracted and stopped for about 4 months! 

The problem with this project is that you really need to give it your full concentration (rather than what my sister calls 'mindless' crochet, where you can just switch off and watch the telly while crocheting!). Each round is a different pattern which usually takes around half the round to master, and with the rounds now so big that takes a while.

So over the Christmas break I really gave it my attention and pushed on. I am up to part 11 and it has just squared back up to four sides (and the edges will stop curling soon, apparently, though I haven't been doing any of the recommended 'blocking' - naughty!).

But then during my recent Sewing Room clear-out I found this stack of African Flowers. Yes they are lovely, but I was a little annoyed having already made a huge blanket and two bags of African Flowers and didn't need any more crochet projects to work on!

They clearly were made for my blanket but got 'lost' at some point and missed being included in the finished piece (which I have never shown here as I have not threaded my ends in yet - a source of deep shame!).

Aaargh! What could I do? I had to use them up, and as quickly as possible! So I started crocheting them together with a nice cream border.

I thought there was just enough for a cushion, but it the end I was one short. So I made an extra one and finished the cushion front.

And then would you bloomin' Adam and Eve it? The very next day I found ANOTHER lone African Flower during the ongoing Sewing Room clear-out - aaargh!!!

I also found six daisy squares that were hanging round after bring used for class samples. I decided to put these to use for the cushion back and started using up yarn by 'log cabining' around them in an improv style.

I love combining craft techniques and this seemed like a great way to bring a little improv patchwork style to crochet! It was a very free and haphazard project, and also 'mindless'!

Here is the finished cushion front. It is 18 inches.

I added a pink scalloped edging to finish.

And here is the Improv Crochet back. I think it works really well and is certainly unique!

I'm very pleased I got on and used the African Flowers for this cushion, as how lovely does it look on my sewing room sofa?!
It turns out that I do still need MORE cushions!

Unfortunately the Sophie's Universe blanket has had to go back in to hibernation for now. 

But that's OK, I like a slow project :)

January Sale at myBearpaw!

A happy New Year to all my dear readers! While I'm getting myself revved up enough to a write the first blog post of 2016 I thought you might like to hear about our 'just launched' sale...

January Sale now on!! In store and online! 50% off all Christmas fabrics and bundles! Fat Quarters from £1.50! Bundles from £5.50! Selected fabrics 30% off! Rooster Baby and Rooster Lace yarn 30% off!! In store only - bargain prices on Noro yarn, many more fat quarters at £2 each, and all knitting patterns at 50p! Check out our full online Sale category here!

Sophie's Universe CAL 2015

These days I am in the enviable position of making quilts and sewing for a living. I have a wonderful life and every day I count my blessings. But making your living with your hobby does give you one problem - you need a new hobby!

crochet is also part of my working life as I regularly teach it. But I don't write crochet patterns (I have dabbled but it's way harder than quilts!) so it still seems like a pastime rather than a job to me. Therefore crochet is now officially my 'time-off craft'.

And Sophie's Universe CAL 2015 is my new obsession!!!

I mentioned this a couple of months ago in this post when I first started. I have been working steadily during days off from quilting and sharing my progress on Instagram (where you can find 100's of these by searching #sophiesuniversecal2015), but it's nice to round things up on the blog where I have more room to discuss things and share with those of you not using IG.

There are 21 parts to this CAL and I have just finished part 7, which included those adorable pink roses near the edge in the above photo. The actual CAL in real time finished a few weeks back so you can check out what some of the finished blankets looks like in this post on a separate blog.

I encountered this when they were up to around part 14 and it was already looking spectacular, but lots of folk started this off not knowing how it was going to look when it was finished. Also some mad crocheters have made 4 or 5 at the same time!!! I just don't know how their wrists take it, I am such an old crock I have to wear a strap round my left wrist for all hand crafting and even FMQ!

The whole thing is the brain child of crochet genius Deidri of Look What I Made blog. She has done an incredibly thorough job with video tutorials for difficult techniques, translations into different languages plus yarn requirements and samples for 3 different blankets - 4-ply, DK and worsted. I am SO impressed with this CAL! And also it is spot on all the way through, as by now any slight errors have been ironed out by earlier users.

Here is the first Sophie post if you'd like to get started on your own blanket.

I am making mine using Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK. I recently bought a lot of new colours but they sold out in the shop before I got a chance to list them online! I have just ordered more and am planning a 'Sophie Inspiration Pack' very soon.

The whole thing is wonderful colour therapy for me. I love choosing which colour to use next.

And this is what it's going to look like when it's finished (unless I go on to do the optional borders to make it rectangular, and realistically I will probably be unable to resist!). This is Deidri's DK version, stunning isn't it? It's about 1.4M squared.

Unfortunately my OH hates it! I have discovered that he actually doesn't like wool as he doesn't mind it in a photograph just not in real life!

A few wee makes

Do you remember a few months back I showed you a new magazine that featured my African Flower Crochet Bag? The publishers wanted to get pre-orders so had mocked up a cover showing lots of the featured bags.
Well here is that actual magazine, Creative Bagmaking, out just yesterday. And as you can see my bag didn't make the real cover, but my friend and one of our class tutors, Naomi's, zippy make up bags did! (She also bought that vintage ladies fabric from our shop!). The magazine is a special edition one-off magazine and available in all good newsagents of online here.

It's a really great magazine with some fabulous projects, 18 to be accurate, including a really fantastic pattern and tutorial for a beach bag from Katy. I am definitely going to try that one out soon.

But in the meantime I fancied having a go at this Storage Caddy project by Mandy Munroe.

I changed it slightly to use up some strip piecing left overs and then went a little crazy hand quilting it all over with perles, in a similar way to the spool block mini I finished recently. I love this kantha style quilting, and am so happy that I got a place on Lu Summer's Improv Workshop at FQ retreat this summer. She likes to cover her improv pieces with similar stitches and they are just devine.

I thought this caddy would make a fabulous gift filled with some lovely habby. But it has proved so useful for carrying around my perles and scissors while I quilted it that I am going to keep this one for myself and make another.

Here is a gift I did manage to part with. I gave another Cathedral Window workshop the other day and thought I would take the chance to practice my hand sewn pincushion version ready for the class I am giving at the Stitch Gathering.
I decided to try out filling in the 'openings' between the windows with a contrasting fabric. I ran out of time to do the other side (as I was going straight to a birthday dinner after the class and this was going to be my present!) but I did fill the window with a precious piece of AMH Little Folks voile I had been hoarding.

One of the ladies in my class suggested sewing buttons to the intersections. Well, as you all know, I rarely need any encouragement to add buttons to anything! I love the extra dimensions the buttons give. It's such a great idea I know I will use it again.

Yesterday I spent an hour or so making a pompom. I hadn't made one of these for years and it is still surprisingly fun! I used up some of the beautiful Araucania llama wool I used for this pencil case. And the finished pompom is really soft and weighty. It ended up a little misshapen (I'm clearly out of practice!) but still definitely a pompom.

And why am I doing this?
Well a little place near Stirling called Balfron is about to host a pom pom festival!

"As part of the inaugural FABFEST! in Balfron, Stirlingshire in June 2013, the Balfron PomPom Blossom Festival is going to cover the village in hand-crafted pompoms.  The brain child of artist, Gillian Cooper, these pompoms large and small are going to be hung from trees and transform the village into a multi-coloured sensory experience.  Each pompom will have a little tag attached with the maker’s name and website/email and also a single word, supplied by the maker and will be photographed and added to this PomPom Festival blog."

They want the pompoms by the end of May so if you fancy joining in you just have time to get pompoming.
Last night I went to see a friend who had also been making them. We sat in her kitchen and made some tiny ones by wrapping the wool round the tines of a fork, it worked surprisingly well and they only took about 5 minutes each.
I do hope some of you can contribute, and/or visit the pom pom festival in June. I am planning a trip on my birthday! Visit the website for more info on the event and where to send your pompoms.

Busy doing nothing

I seem to be always busy but not getting much done at the moment!
I think it's down to a particularly heavy class schedule in May. I don't really have anything finished to show you and not much prospect of it in the near future!

But I don't want you all to forget about me and I miss our little chats if I'm away from the blog too long, so I thought you might like to see what I call my 'procrastination craft'.
This is another wool-eater blanket, I made one of these before here. It is a pattern by the very talented Sarah London (a trip to her blog is always fantastic colour therapy) which you can download for free here.

I started this off last September as a demonstration piece for a crochet class. I did 7 rows, each in a different shade of Sublime Silk Cashmerino DK, and then stopped and thought about making it in to a cushion. I even chose the backing. But it just sat there. And then, in a moment of distraction, I picked it up, found the wool I had started with and crocheted another row. And then another row. And then another row.
This pattern is just so addictive! So now it's going to be a blanket. I am going to add one more row each of the 7 colours and see if it looks big enough. That's if I can afford to buy that much wool, it's not called wool-eater for nothing!
The sublime wool is just so gorgeous to work with, really bouncy and has this silk sheen that almost glitters. The shades have really evocative names like Carrot, Caterpillar, Pineapple, and Pippin.

As my crafting becomes ever more associated with my business it can sometimes feel like a chore. So when there's something I know I should be doing but I don't really feel like it, I slope off and do some wool-eater instead. Hence 'procrastination craft'.

One more little thing I have managed to produce this week. I've been doing some good old EPP hexies. I have a cunning plan for this flower and I hope to show you something finished very soon!

Small Projects and Special Offers!

Things are slowing down a bit for me as we get close to Easter and I get a break from classes.
So I have been having a little crafting fun with some small makes that I can get done in a few hours.

 Like this patchwork and embroidery frame purse, which came straight out of my scrap box.

And this Applique and EPP large block for this month's Cherish Quilt ( for the Do Good Stitches Bee). Kirsty asked for different sized smaller blocks to make up to bigger blocks with flowers. She is hoping for a version of this incredible quilt from one of my quilt heroes Cathy.

I am really looking forward to Friday and 4 DAYS OFF! I have loads of catch-up crafting planned.
And because I thought there might be quite a lot of Easter crafting going on, what with the awful weather we are having, I decided to put a big fat 20% discount off all Fabrics and Wool on our website from now till midnight Easter Monday!!

We have some amazing new lines to choose from at the moment, including Architexture and Global Bazaar in fabrics and new Rooster, Noro and Araucania in wool.
Just use the code fluffybunny at the checkout and enjoy an extra special Easter present and some lovely stuff arriving on your doorstep very soon!

How I spent my Christmas Break...

 ... I spent it mainly sock knitting! Yes as predicted by many readers, the sock knitting was very addictive and once I started I wanted to get those socks finished!  And I guess I did need a bit of a rest... so despite all my quilt-making plans, I spent a lot of time on the sofa, in front of the telly, with the wood burning stove on, knitting my socks - bliss!
As you can see, I managed the heel on the first sock. It all worked with the pattern and it fits me and feels lovely, but there's something wrong with the heel. It doesn't quite look like the photos. I must have done something wrong with the knit 1, slip 1, bit. I can't work out what though! I will have to ask a grown-up. Anyway it's still a knitted sock, made by me!

I did manage to start a new embroidery too (first one in many months!). Here is a sneak peek. This is probably the most geeky thing I have ever made. I wonder if anyone reading this knows what this design actually depicts?

And I tidied my sewing room!
This was the state of my fabric storage after a few months of frantic activity and no time to tidy (well that's my excuse, in reality I am just very messy!).

And here is the result of a day's sorting and folding. I wonder how long it will stay like this?

I also played around with a new crochet/patchwork mash-up project I have had in mind for a bit. But the results aren't quite working out the way I imagined at the moment. I will keep trying and you might get to see something of this soon.
So lots of new 'starts' but no new 'finishes'. I think it's time for a Finish-a-Long!

This year I'm getting involved in the FAL. Leanne at She Can Quilt is hosting it and I am sponsoring a prize as well as taking part. It all starts on Jan 7th (tomorrow), so expect another post from me then *pant*. I'm packing the posts in at the moment because I go on holiday for a week on Jan 8th!

Meanwhile I did actually finish a Christmas break project...

 Yes the socks are all done and I LOVE them so much! They fit me perfectly!!

Expect a few more socks here in 2013!!

Giant January Fabric and Wool Sale!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

I'm officially back to work tomorrow, but I was in the shop on Monday getting ready for a really big January SALE!

As well as loads of half price homeware and gift items at our Edinburgh Store, we have 40% off selected fabric and wool online and in store!

I thought I would just highlight a few of our great bargains here (but there's lots more on our website!).

Suzy Ultman's Critter Community Panels, Maude Asbury's Crabtastic Lobster and Marie Perkin's Market to Market Pear all now £4.32 per half metre or £1.95 per FQ!

Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Tile Flourish and Dena Design's London Brighton Pink both now £3.96 per half metre or £1.80 per FQ!

Amy Butler Lark charm pack (6" squares) now only £11.39!

Plus we've got Sirdar Recycled Cotton DK for £1.47 a ball, Sublime Tussah Silk DK for £3.02 and Sublime Eqyptian Cotton DK for £2.35 per ball - all 40% off!

I hope you all find some great bargains in the Sales no matter where you shop!