Tuesday 22 April 2014

WOYWW #254 - tidy threads

Hello Wednesdayers or What's on your Workdesk Wednesday peeps. Of course, I am joining in with WOYWW today but alas my desk is pretty clear. I have been mainly working on the floor (quilting) or in front of the TV (crochet).

This crochet Granny Blanket has been in the making for about three years now and has been on five plane journeys (it is too big for any planes now). It is wide enough to go over our King Size bed but not quite long enough so I am carrying on for now.

I took my desk one from a different angle today as the last two shots of my desk were the same.

The quilt is coming on fine except I got to the point where the pattern was driving me insane. It was just too complicated (or rather I was making it too complicated) so I I have gathered the squares up and piled them in colour groups. I have also decided I will get a different colour to put between the colourful squares and around the edge so it is not quite so bright!

Ooh I see a rogue Easter Egg hider on the photo!!

Grab a cuppa and go and see who else and what else is going on in the Crafty World of WOYWW.

 

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Woyww #253 squares coming out of my ears

Wednesday. Well that must mean it's the day to show you my desk. In fact I am joining in with WOYWW which translates to What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, but you know that already.

Well it's a messy desk. These days I just tend to run up here, sew a bit, cut a bit, pin a bit and then run down again. No time to tidy the floor, the ironing board or the desk. My Huffle has just stolen the ironing board so I can't show you what was on there but it was a pile of fabrics, a tub of pins and an iron.

This is probably vey similar to last week. My strips of fabric waiting to be cut on my mat. Behind the sewing machine is a Mason Jar which I am filling with any off cuts of material (too small to use for sewing). I saw this tip on one of your blogs somewhere, saying that you never knew when you might need a thin strip of fabric or thread. Good idea and it looks pretty too. My scissors are there (not my good ones just the snippy ones) and a tin with pins in it. Main stage is my sewing machine. I am getting more confident by the day.

And just to prove I am making progress with my quilt, here is where I am so far....

Each little square is 2.5" x 2.5" to to give you perspective. The ones on the edge are waiting to be sewed together but I was planning what colours I needed next. I have to say, I am finding it very therapeutic and the boys came up the other day. The Smallest one said "WOW that's going to be brilliant, will it have buttons on the end like my quilt cover?". The Small one said "Mummy that's amazing, is it a collage?". Love the appreciation.

This project is going to take me forever, I hope I don't lose interest. At the moment it probably fits a cot and I want it to fit a King Size Bed. Plus I still haven't finished Monkey and I am at the point of casting off my socks but I have just signed up for a Knit A Long Blanket where we get a new pattern each week and we don't know what it will turn out like in the end. Exciting!?!?

 

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Woyww#253 - pins and needles

Hi, sorry been away again. I had to hibernate as I was finding this endless snow just too much. However, today the sunshine has brought me out, so I thought I would join in with What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, and show you my desk, which this week is a bit different.

I have got the quilting bug. I bought myself a starter kit with a mat, a cutter, pins etc and a roll of different fabrics and I had a quick lesson from my friend and away I went. I love it. I find the cutting out, the ironing of seams, the small bits of stitching together, more ironing, pinning, unpinning soooooo therapeutic. I have managed to sew together blocks of 16 x 2.5" squares and so far (in less than a week) made 8 blocks. I am just going to keep going until I think it is big enough and then I need my next lesson.

I have to say I am quite pleased with myself. I am still crocheting the monkey and am still knitting my socks and making my pig hat in the evenings but when I can, in the day, I am busily sewing and cutting and pinning. I need a bigger table!!!

I hope to pop round to everyone else's desk after I have done my aerobics and am sitting recuperating with my cup of tea.

 

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Pokemon Cake

Sunday was Smallest's seventh birthday and yesterday was his party for his friends. As usual my kids like to challenge me to make them a spectacular cake (in their eyes anyway!)

So began the challenge............

I made two sandwich chocolate cakes and sandwiched them together with chocolate fudge butter icing.

Then I buttericed them with vanilla buttercream which is called Dirty Icing (I know this because I am an avid Cake Boss fan.

I made two pokemon figures as per my instructions.

May I introduce Pikachu.....

.....and Oshawott

Then I half iced the cake with red fondant icing and the other half with white Fondant icing. Added a red strip around the bottom and a white circle on top.

This is to represent the PokeBall (of course).

I needed a black stripe - I didn't have any black fondant and adding black colouring never properly works plus it tastes bad. So I bought some Black Modelling Wafers, melted them and painted my stripe on (not the best straight line).

 

TADDDAAAAAAAAAA

Tastes good too.