Problem

My problem is that I see so many things I want to make and I never have time to make any of them, yet I become obsessed with them. Then I stop the three seconds I have spent on the previous project and move onto spending 3 seconds on the new one.

I have been tying up the loose ends of my original granny squares for my cushion which is now going to be a blanket. It's boring work and I haven't got very far since I started back at work. It's so sad to realise that you have about three hours a day of free time in which to cram in the rest of your life.

It did occur to me that I lose track of all these great things I am going to make, so I thought I might post them here so I can find them again when I need to. Obviously this means it's not my work, but I shall always try to credit people and include links. And it means my friends can see if they want to make them with me! It might all come in dribs and drabs and be a bit of a brain dump, but without further a do... I shall begin the new 'Inspiration' tagged posts.

I would like to make this cushion from the brilliant Yvestown blog.



It's so neat and tidy. I can't work out if that is down to technique, practice or wool (Cocktail by Markoma 50% cotton 50% acrylic - which only seems to be on sale in The Netherlands). I love the techniques of joining them together. It's not how we learnt it in class.

I can't decide what colours though. I love the blue, green, yellow and pink squares in this, but I also love this version on Dotty Angel's blog



This is original image that the course was advertised with and what really sold me on doing it! I love the subtle colours. Sometimes I think I am just too technicolour and I need to be more subtle and earthy.

I need to buy wool.
More wool.
I am running out of places to hide it though.

Colour Book

When I was at school, the printmaking teacher made us all create colour books which consisted of us sitting at home with a print stick or that glue that stunk of fish, sticking magazine clippings into our books. I went through an entire back catalogue of Country Living thinking it was a dumb assignment. I've still got my finished book now and I have to admit, it was a pretty good thing. There's no better colour combinations to be found than those you see around you in nature. I sometimes think I just take it in subliminally.

Time Off

So I went away on holiday and lay on a sunlounger for ten days. Since I got back I have had 4 days at home to sort odd jobs out and chill out before going back to work. I can't say I have been doing a lot of craft orientated things. Real life gets in the way too much. But I did do a few things which I have been meaning to do for ages.

1. I made a spiral. I printed it out and pricked holes in it so I could push chalk through the holes and draw my lines on. It really is the easiest way to transfer a quilting pattern to a surface, but you have to draw the lines in immediately because it brushes off in no time! It's now in the hoop and waiting for some TV nights in. I reckon I might start a new series of 24 and quilt my way through it!



2. I bought some cork tiles from the local DIY shop so I could dampen my crochet squares and pull them into the right shape. I used a few different thicknesses of wool so they are all slightly different sizes. I used an old sprayer we use for watering our seeds. It really works which surprised me as I didn't think it would make much difference, but the corners don't curl up anymore and they are all the same size! See the before and after below.





I am starting to think I might make them into a blanket and not a cushion cover. That poor cushion is never going to get a cover at this rate.

At the Market

I went to Spital Fields market on Friday for a mooch around the vinyl records and I saw these two stalls. One selling wool, which I had not seen before and one selling great crochet dolls. I thought they were great but the crafter in me wished she also sold kit patterns. There's a whole flickr roup dedicated to crochet rabbits. I want to make one like this



I also went passed this cafe and thought the flowers were really cool so I thought I'd show you. I can find Spital fields a bit depressing sometimes as I feel that also they have made it all swish and fancy, it has happened at the expense of all the fashion stalls and amazing jewelery makers that used to be there. With chain stores everywhere these days, I just thought it was a shame to fill it with more chain stores when there used to be unique little junk shops and the like on the fringes, but you know, I have to get over it.