Day 8 : Saturday 16th July
I have a Dino tail 💙! I can’t show you any more of this make until it has been gifted and has arrived in its new home I’m afraid. I love the 3D quality of crochet, it’s just magic how yarn and a hook can create structures like this!
Day 9 : Sunday 17th July
I hooked up my contribution to #jennysblanketofhugs organised by Kate at Just Pootling. Crocheters around the world are making up to three squares each which will be joined together into three blankets. With a colour palette of pinks, red and orange, they are made into any of the three patterns detailed on Just Pootling: plain, stripes or bobbles.
Two of the blankets will be gifted to two ladies, a mother and daughter who are going through a tough time at the moment. The third will be raffled or auctioned off to raise money for charity. It’s a very worthy cause.
Day 10 : Monday 18th July
Having watched a video on how to crochet bobbles on Just Pootling’s Instagram I realised that yesterday’s attempts at bobbles fell far short of the required roundness. They were unraveled and redone. I think they are a far superior version and am glad I discovered my mistake. I think they could become a favourite stitch and will appear in a future project :-).
Day 11 : Tuesday 19th July
A day trip to the beach meant lots of playing in the sea and chatting to friends and not much crafting, but I did manage one solitary #woollyheartforYarndale 🙂
Day 12 : Wednesday 20th July
I took a break from my crochet hook and had a bash at free-motion machine embroidery… and failed. I did a batik, quilted, fabric picture at school in sewing which used machine embroidery to embellish it (I was trying to impress with the number of different techniques – can’t you tell 😉) and I’ve always fancied having a go again.
I tried and failed to find an attachment online to adapt my 10 year old Harmony 2039 New Home by Janome but my mind was boggled by all the options. I told my dressmaking teacher about it and she gave me the plastic plate (above right) to cover the teeth below the presser foot.
I clipped it into place (kind of) and set off. It wasn’t very free with the motion- I had to tug the fabric through and was convinced I’d end up breaking a needle (I didn’t amazingly). I did however chew up the underside of the plastic plate and got the threads tangled into lots of knots.
I asked for help from any experienced machine embroiderers on Instagram on Wednesday and was given lots of great advice about new presser feet and lowering the feed dog so I will give it another try when I get the machine out again. Isn’t the online crafting community lovely? Thank you to everyone who offered me help and advice! 🙂
Day 13 : Thursday 21st July
I’m not sure whether this counts as ‘craft’ or not, but I finished an alteration for my Mum. She asked me to shorten her new trousers, normally a simple job, but these trousers had zips at the bottom. I had to remove the zips, trim the length and then reinsert the zips in their new position.
I have to admit I was guided by my dressmaking teacher – it wasn’t an entirely solo affair, but considering that I only inserted my first zip just over six months ago, I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out.
NOTE TO FRIENDS: I am not taking in alterations 😉 these trousers were good practice but I prefer frivolous crafting to the practical stuff!
Day 14 : Friday 22nd July
I can’t show you what I made yesterday as it’s a surprise gift but I can show you my craft supplies all packed into my suitcase ready for our summer holidays. I flew to England last night to visit family along with the Little Postcards. Mr Postcard stayed behind to look after Bunny. He’ll join us later on when Bunny checks into his health farm retreat for his vacation.
I’ve got two crochet projects and a cross stitch picture to do while we’re away – do you think that’ll be enough?? 😉
Have a good holiday and if you run out of supplies you can go shopping, perfect excuse.
That sounds like an excellent plan!! The craft shops over in England are on a different level to what’s available in Gibraltar- I think I’ll be frequenting a few regardless of whether I run out or not! 😉
Enjoy your holiday…and your yarn purchases xx
Thank you Nicola 🙂
Glad you have brought some lovely weather with you. Happy visit K xXx
Thank you very much 🙂 please don’t blame me for the rain tomorrow!! 😉
You’re doing brilliantly! Enjoy your holiday to England. Schools out here now and the holidays have officially started! So I’ll be trying to keep up with you 🙂
Excellent! Enjoy your school holidays too, I look forward to seeing what you get up to 🙂
I like your ‘Note to Friends’. Once people know you sew, they nearly always assume you will do repairs or alterations. I don’t!! Too much like hard work – I rarely even do them for myself.
I attended a free motion embroidery workshop when I was over in the U.K. last month which I really enjoyed. Drop those feed dogs, get the tension right and relax. I have put the free motion foot on to my spare machine so that I can practice every now and again without having to fiddle about with my regular machine which always has the walking foot attached.
Have a great time in the U.K. – shame you missed the heatwave 😉
Hi there! Thanks for the advice, I’ll definitely get a new foot for the machine while I’m over here. The prospect of having a new toy to play with will take the sting out of returning home at the end of the holiday.
To be honest I’m glad of the cool weather, there’s been a heatwave in Spain recently and although we don’t get the worst of it, like central Spain, we have been really hot and it’s so tiring trying to function with your daily chores. Perhaps if you can just lie around the pool constantly it wouldn’t be too bad… I’m enjoying only needing one shower per day over here 😉