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http://zoescrafts.wordpress.com

Crochet

I have never been able to get the hang of crochet, this week our Sew Make Believe meeting was a granny square crochet workshop. I had a slight problem getting started, but Roisin is an excellent teacher and once she has sorted me out I was well away. I was really impressed with how much I managed to get done in the two hours.

I decided to crochet and edging for my multicoloured knitted blanket, it too most of Sunday, and lots of Buffy season 2, but I finished it. The blanket is for Paul and he seemed very happy with it.

For my next crochet project I plan to make a blanket, I think I will use the purple yarn left over from the blanket I knitted at the start of the year.

Vintage and Handmade

Saturday was the Sew Make Believe outing to the Vintage and Handmade fair in Chipping Sodbury. I forgot to take my camera but Caroline took lots of great pictures so have a look at her blog too.

I would highly recommend this fair as the stalls are all of a really high quality selling a lovely mix of handmade items, fabric, buttons and other crafting materials, and vintage items. I could have spent lots of money, but I had no particular projects in mind and decided not to buy any fabric. I bought some buttons as I can't stop myself when it comes to buttons! 

I love this purple, it is such a rich colour, I might have to find a project to use these on rather than just keeping them in a jar.

I really like the little flowers in this lot, I could have had just the flowers, but this bag of different green buttons seemed like much more fun.

This bag of random buttons was much cheaper than the other buttons I bought, the quality isn't as good, but they will be useful for general craft projects, and they do look pretty in the little bag.

I also bought this cute hanky with pink and blue bunnies on it. 

We treated ourselves to some tea and cake, the cakes were all homemade and looked lovely, I chose a cup cake with yellow flowers on the top. The tea and cakes were served on miss matched vintage plates, tea cups and saucers, they looked lovely.

Craft Projects and Freebies

 I started knitting blocks to make a blanket two or three years ago, I have gradually made more over that time. This weekend I thought I would see how it is coming along. There were enough blocks to make a small, but useful blanket so I have sewn them all together. 

I think I might need to add a few more blocks so you can wrap yourself up in it and I have started some edging which will take a while to finish. I am  pleased with how it looks, especially the panel down the middle with hearts and mine and my husbands initials.

I have started making the cushion for my craft room chair. I have a piece of foam cut to the right shape and size. I decided to use the Amy Butler charm pack that I got for Christmas for the cover. After laying the fabric out in different combinations I decided to use all the pink squares. I have sewn them together, now I need to get some fabric to make the bottom of the cushion cover. I think I will go for bright pink. My chair is an old pine dining chair and I am going to paint it either white or bright pink.

With the latest edition of Ideal Home magazine I received a sheet of card printed with lovely patterns to cut up and make into bunting, I had a piece of ribbon that was the right length so I decided I might as well make it. The finished bunting hangs nicely at the top of my craft room curtains.

I have had another good freebie this week, Easy Living magazine came with a Cath Kidston shopping bag, a copy of the Cath Kidston magazine and 15% Cath Kidston. I only subscribe to this magazine because I had an offer of 12 issues for £12 last time they had free Cath Kidston things with the magazine. The freebies I have had during the 12 issues have made it well worth getting. 

Basket

Mum recently gave me a basket that she had when I was a baby. I thought it would be perfect for keeping my knitting organised in the living room (I like to knit when watching the TV).

I found this lovely piece of fabric in a rummage bin for £1, it was the right size to line the basket, so after much fiddling I managed to get it the right shape and size to attach to the basket. Sewing the lining on wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, the basket weave is quite loose at the top, only the corners were a little tricky.

I am very pleased with the finished result, unfortunately the basket is slightly too tall to slide under the sofa out the way, but at least it looks pretty on the living room floor.

Liberty

Sorry this is a little late, we went to London for the Ideal Home Show at Easter, we had a great time at the show, but I didn't feel very inspired by anything, I bought a fantastic bag of magazines from Good Homes magazine, I got three recent issues of Good Homes, Get Creative, a calendar, a cookbook and a tray for just £5. I do love flicking through homes magazines, and of course cutting them up for my scrapbook of ideas.

We went to Harvey Nichols next and had a lovely look at all the expensive stuff, I found some dresses and jackets I would love to have, far too expensive though. We had a drink in the Daylesford Organic cafe, I had hot chocolate and it came with a little square of chocolate brownie that was delicious.

Next stop was Liberty, this was my favourite part of the day, we looked at all the wonderful new and vintage furniture wishing we had loads of money. The haberdashery department was the best though, I love looking at all the wonderful fabrics. I didn't buy anything, which was very hard, but I really want the fabric that ties in the the V&A quilts show, I am planning on going to this show and will wait until then to buy the fabirc.

Boot Fair Bargains

We visited friends in Oxford at the weekend. We spent Saturday afternoon walking around the shops in the sunshine, then had cocktails, followed by a tasty meal at the Jam Factory, finished off with some ice cream at G&D's Cafe.

We got up relatively early on Sunday morning to visit the boot fair that is only a few minutes walk from their house. This was my first boot fair of 2010, hopefully the first of many!

I bought two Pyrex dishes, a large casserole dish and a serving dish, they are the same pattern but in different colourways. I love Pyrex as it can go in the microwave, oven and dishwasher.


I got a few crafty bits too, and old needlecraft book, a jar of buttons and a fantastic 1950/60s dress pattern, that looks easy to make.

I think I did quite well, and was very pleased with my purchases for a total price of only £4.50. I haven't emptied our the jar of buttons yet, I am saving that up for next weekend, hopefully there are lots of lovely ones in there, if not I am sure I will be able to use them somehow.

We spent the rest of Sunday playing Settlers of Catan, which was great fun, before returning home and having Cartmel sticky toffee pudding and custard for our dinner.