The art of quilling

Well hello all, have you missed me?

Today I am turning my attention to the very therapeutic art of quilling. This tale starts not so long ago and in a fairly nearby location with two extraordinarily beautiful women who had decided to get together to do some craft. Being one of those women I'm happy to share with you what was made. 

Our theme was 'rainbow' anything could be made but by the end of it rainbow had to have been incorporated. While on a trip to a seaside resort I frequented a charity shop. Those of you that know me already know that I'm a bit advocate of the charity shop especially for craft items and this trip was no less successful than the many other trips I have made. I found my base. A thin cylinder that I imagine could be used for drinking out of, holding flowers or just storing your dreams. I then got all my quilling papers together and toddled off to the other beautiful lady of this story's house.

With our supplies at the ready: 

We made a start. The day was spent chatting and drinking tea- perfection and pretty soon things started to happen with the receptical: 

More tea and chatting and more than likely at least one wee break lead to: 

But before I knew it the world was put to rights and time had evaporated so my bag of papers and I returned home. Now I'm always at risk of not finishing projects - mostly because I lose motivation but the other beautiful lady of this story wanted results so I pressed on. 

And before I knew it, my project was completed.

Many of you will know that I make things to sell at www.facebook.com/fattycraftertales (shameless plug) but with this I could never sell it. Although the paper and the jar were quite cheap the time it took was phenomenal. 

I'm usually one for perfect lines and symmetry which in this project went straight put of the window so by the end of it I embraces the merging of the colours. I think it looks better for it. What do you think?

An adulterous crafter

My friend is pregnant, five months ago she told me about her expanding family, and belly, and as she is the first in our friendship group to become a mum I didn't really know what the protocol was. Thankfully my other half came to my rescue and congratulated the couple while my socially stunted brain processed the information. I would like to think I redeemed myself when I offered to make the baby a crocheted blanket. I love crochet so it didn't really seem like much of a chore, win win. 

What hadn't occurred to me was that I had been cheating on crochet with craft. I have been so wrapped up with new forms of craft I had completely forgotten about my first love. So when I started the blanket, excited to be reigniting the relationship I was surprised that crochet was not as excited to have me back. 

The first attempt at an advanced level technique failed miserably- hardly surprising- so I undid it and reconsidered my approach. 

The second attempt seemed to be going well until on my 14th round the square was not so much square and more an uneven hexagon. I decided to persevere but after another hours worth of effort it was clear I needed to undo it again.

After three unsuccessful attempts at following a pattern and having to undo hours worth of work I have to admit I did consider buying a blanket for my friend, ripping the label off and messing with it a bit to make it look like I had made it but I'm far too stubborn for my own good. Instead I abandoned the patterns and went back to basics. 

I used half treble crochet for the middle and a granny square type pattern for the border. It finally, worked really well. 

As the parents don't want to know the sex of the baby and my friend and I have always had a running banter about colours, I went a little crazy with my wool choice. Definitely more than three colours there! The outer edge incorporates the colours of the rainbow- I was certainly sick of the song by the time I reached pink! But I smiled as I imagined my friend singing the song - equipped with a visual aid, to her baby. 

I had a lot of suggestions by my very honest grandmother as I made this as to what I should do but I'm glad I stuck to my imagination. I text a picture of the finished outcome to my friend (we have a long distance relationship) and to my relief she really liked it. I'm not exactly sure what I would've done if she had hated it. 

I really enjoyed my time with the 4.0 needle and have already started thinking about my next project, I also have rekindled my relationship with my sewing machine, just in case Its feeling rejected.

I'm not going to stop meeting new crafts and wooing their crafty goodness but I am going to remember to show my loyalty to the crafts that I woo'd a while ago. 

Let this be a lesson to all you adulterers out there, anger the wrong craft and she will pay you back!