Fibre East

My first trip to Fibre East! I was really looking forward to going, and it being my first time, I was not disappointed with the location (having nothing to compare it to!). I agree that it was a little odd having some of the stalls in classrooms/sports halls, but as a teacher it all felt pretty familiar to me!! 
 

Anyway, enough with the location, bring on the yarn!!
 

I feel I should probably admit now, that I did get a bit over excited. I'm not a big lover of wool, it itches :( This is a problem. I can just about tolerate baby alpaca, because it is super, super soft. But I do find that I struggle to find really pretty yarn that I can actually use to make something for myself. So yes, a bit over excited by silk and cotton and linen and lots of other lovely non-itchy stuff!
 

So here it is, my pile of Fibre East goodies!

 I was super prepared for the trip. Like a crazy woman prepared. I went through my ravelry library. I chatted to the lovely Julie about some possible knit-alongs. And I wrote a list. A list of possible projects, descriptions of said projects, and yarn requirements. "If I can find yarn for 1 or 2 of these projects that will be fab." I said to myself. Hahahahaha!!! My list had 5 projects on. I bought yarn for all 5. Plus some 'just because' yarn.

Naughty, naughty me :)

So let me tell you about my purchases.

This is super gorgeous cotton lace weight yarn. Yum. Love the colours sooooo much! I will use it to make Henslowe (knit along with Julie) and possibly Celandine too. 

 This is lovely baby alpaca and Mulberry silk yarn from Drops. I will probably knit Wings and it will be all red and Christmasy and lovely :)

 This.
Now this is insanely soft!
As you can see from the label, silk and baby camel! I have not knitted with baby camel before and I'm quite excited! Did I mention how soft it is? This will be used for another knit along with Julie (we are going to be SO busy!), Cloud Illusions. Crazy, lacy, silky, soft gorgeousness!!

 Ah.
This is my just because yarn.
It was in the sale, which helped! But mostly I bought it because it is made from sugar cane! What?!?! Sugar cane??? So, I've no idea what I will make with it but it is super soft, totally not itchy and very pretty colours :)

 And this lovely cotton blend will become Ridgely. Love the stripes of this pattern so much!

Oh my.
So much yarn.
But it will keep me busy (and happy!) for ages!
And there will be enough left from some to make extra, not yet planned projects.

Hold on, am I trying to justify buying yarn to you???

I really don't need to do I?!!!

What I do need to do though, is decide which to knit first....

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Buttercup ta-dah!

Remember these?

I'm very excited! I finished the hexie quilt!

It has taken me just less than a year, which I'm told is pretty good as the entire quilt is stitched by hand. Hand peiced and hand quilted!

I'm afraid there are going to be a lot of photos now. Not because I love taking photos, it is my least favourite part of blogging. But because I am so pleased with the finished quilt! There have been a few moments over the last year when I wondered if it would ever be finished, if I could bear to stitch one more stitch!

But I did it. So I'm going to show off a bit!

Here it is......

 

Drum roll please!

 

Ta-Dah!!!!!!!!

 Looking pretty with the sunshine streaming through!

Hand stitched quilt label.

The quilt is called Buttercup because of all the yellow hexie flowers. The label was so much fun to stitch, and just in case you were wondering, those little hexies on the back are quarter inch hexagons.

Yes. They are small.

 My garden fence. The only place big enough to be able to see the whole quilt in one go.

Not that it is a massive quilt! It is single bed size. For Miss M.

If I can bring myself to let her have it!!

 I love how old and crinkly it looks already!!

 Mmmmm....

 And the back.

Which I totally love.

You may remember that my fab friend Julie from button-button found me this perfect vintage sheet in a charity shop. You should go and visit Julie, she has just finished a quilt too! We both took our quilts to our weekly crafty meeting last night to admire!!

So that's it.

My Miss M's Buttercup quilt finished.

I'm so pleased with it. So, so pleased!

And now to plan my next quilt...

 

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Florence

More finished projects today!

I am steaming through my unfinished projects at the moment!

 

I have made 2 of these scarves recently.

The first got a quick mention in my June post, but never a proper 'reveal'!

They were both beautiful to knit, easy-peasy, relaxing, squeeze-some-in-during-your-lunchbreak kind of knitting.

  The first in this beautiful teal colour.

 

 The second in very pretty almost white.

I will miss having these to pick up in spare minutes.

The pattern, if you want your own Florence can be found here, each scarf is knitted with just one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

 

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Finished - place mat

I'm not happy that this is called a place mat.

But I can't think of a better name for it!

Anyway - it is finished, and I'm very happy with it!!

Crocheted in 4 ply cotton yarn, pattern can be found here

 

It has been a very busy, very crafty day today :) photos and ta-dah moments soon!!

 

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Hexie quilt update

Or, I could have called this post 'Last one, last one, LAST ONE!'

I have been working hard on this quilt, my poor, sore fingers will tell you how hard I have worked.

Even though it has been stupidly hot, I have still had a big pile of quilt on my lap in any free moments I could find.

And today I will quilt the last hexie flower.

'Last one, last one, LAST ONE!'

There it is, with a pin in the middle still, waiting to be quilted, looking all pretty!

A bit of a close-up for you.

Oh, I love this quilt sooooo much! It has already gone all crinkly, just from the hand quilting.

I can't wait to get it washed and see how it turns out!

Did I mention that that lovely paisley hexie flower is the LAST ONE I have to quilt?!

I fear I may be becoming slightly hysterical about it all!

Um, one more photo?

Just because it's sooo pretty!

Urgh, don't look at the messy garden in this one, clearly I have NOT been spending my time gardening this week!!!

Right, I'm off to quilt my LAST hexie flower now :)

Then I'll make a start on quilting the edge - haha, didn't mention that did I? Bet you all thought I was almost finished!

 

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June

I'm a bit ashamed to be writing my 'what-I-made-in-June' post on 13th July!!

I will try to do better next month!

To be honest, there is not much to show for June, in terms of crafting.

But here it is, a little collection of photos to show what I was up to in June...

 

1. Miss M's hexagon quilt - still being hand quilted...

2. Wine jacket Father's Day gift :)

3. Florence scarf - another gift

4. The beginnings of a new ripple blanket - for a friend expecting a baby boy in November

5. Saturday sampler quilt blocks

6. A crochet mat, started.

7. Florence again!

8. Still quilting...

9. Ripple is growing nicely!

 

An awful lot of my time has been spent under that quilt, slowly quilting away. I swing from being totally in love with it to hating it with a passion! My aim is to finish it before I go to the Festival of Quilts in August. That is where I bought the fabrics for it last year and I would really like to be able to say I finished it in under a year!!

 

So if you don't hear from me again for a while - you know what I'm doing!!

 

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Saturday Sampler - June blocks

Ooh it has been a while since I blogged!

Things have been a bit crazy busy round here, and to be honest, I'm just hanging on til the end of term, not much is getting done, the house is a tip, but there are only 2 more weeks to go! :)

There has been a little stitching, knitting and crochet, but not loads.

I will try to put together some 'June' photos of what I did manage to achieve, but for now I have a couple of photos of my June sampler blocks. They were finished in June, on time, I just didn't photograph them!

 

So that is it from me today - short and sweet!

Will be back soon with more June photos - hopefully!

 

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