White, blue & turquiose

Over the years I've built up an impressive stash of different yarns (mostly acrylic as it's so good for making amigurumi) and because I am fast running out of places to hide it all I've been attempting to do a few 'stash busting' projects to use some of it up.

This cushion for instance is made from the beautiful 'Blooming Flowers cushion' pattern by Lucy of Attic24 and it's a great way to use up some stash. The pattern is simple but works up quickly and is so satisfying to do. I loved seeing this work up and would have kept making it bigger and bigger apart from having a strict time limit that I was working to.

This baby blanket was another stash buster - using the same colours again but this time I chose a pretty circle granny square (another free pattern - this time from Wisecraft) to which I added another row of crochet and did the join as you go method for putting it all together.

Lastly there is this quick baby ball - this time the pattern was in my head - it was worked up in varying sized stripes and I used invisible decreasing to finish it off so there are no noticable holes for the stuffing to peep through.

Ahhh - now I just need to go out and buy some more white and blue yarn :-)

Special cushion - by JanJan Designs

My mum is having a very special Birthday today - happy 70th mum!

Because I wanted to give her something extra special to help mark the event I got in touch with Janet from JanJan Designs.

Janet makes the most beautiful cushions and by scanning in a photo which she prints on to special printable fabric she then creates one of a kind cushions. I managed to get hold of a photo of my mum back when she was still a toddler and Janet turned it into this beautiful cushion.

Because my mum loves green Janet decided to 'frame' the photo with some green satin ribbon, lace and mother of pearl buttons. The green and pink rose backing fabric is lovely too and I especially like the hot pink pipping around the edge.

Thanks for doing such a beautiful cushion Janet I'm sure my mum is going to love it!

Miniature patchwork

For the last week I've been sewing like a maniac trying to finish off what is probably my oldest UFO.

My older sister used to do a little part time work for a local fabric store and her one perk would be that she would get the occasional offcut. One day she came home with a small plastic bag full of these tiny squares of fabric - they had been samples that the shop owner had given her. She gave them to me and so the patchwork began. These squares are tiny - 2cm x 2cm and all of them I've had to hand sew together (324!)

Well that was about 14 years ago now and this patchwork has been done in little bits for many years in a number of different homes. Every now and then I would take it out and add a few more squares then put it away again. Now in my fever to finish off all my different projects I have finally put the last squares together and I'm ready to turn the
whole thing into a cushion. I've added a border of purple corduroy fabric and once I've bought a suitable zip I'll finish the whole thing off. I love this cushion and I'm so excited that it is almost finished - but I probably will have to keep it locked away for fear of ruining it.

Tomorrow I'm off on holiday for a week - but hopefully when I get back I'll have something to show you for my time away, I just have to decide what crafty goodness to pack!