Very cross, cross stitch,

 

Apologies for the lack of posting this week.  The last few days have been a bit of a mixed bag.  Work wise I'm working on a really interesting freelance project involving cross stitch.  The flip side is that the word 'cross' has been very prevalent.  Don't wish to go into too much detail but Lucy was attacked in the playground at school on Monday by another pupil.  Hopefully the rest of the week will be a little calmer!

On my desk today,

I'm working on a new pattern for a Beaver, which, as always begins with a bit of sketching, and seeking out reference material.  Look at that, in this online era in which we live, a book!  Still the best place to start in my opinion.

It doesn't matter what I do, my softie designs always come out looking a little comical.  I guess it's just my style.  There are many other softie designers whose style I admire, Tamar (of course!) and Lauri to name two.  I find their work to have an edge I fear mine lacks, but that is something I've long since come to terms with.  Design style is something that constantly develops.  The designs I do now, are very different to how I was working when I began blogging three years ago, and no doubt in another three years, it will have evolved again.  There is an opportunity on the horizon to push myself to be a bit more experimental, I've been accepted to show at Plush You 2012 in Seattle.  Eeeek! what shall I make?, suggestions needed, animal, object, ...monster?!

Meet Rosie...

Inspired by this, by the rather wonderful Molly Chicken, Rosie was born after two evenings fiddling around with felt. She is going to need some friends I think, but they will be on hold while I do some rabbit creating with an old towel, to be revealed shortly. Rosie is photographed on a charity shop pillow case bought for 50p, shame there was only one as I love the colour and pattern on it.

Tis the season for strawberries...

I've noticed there is a lot of jam making happening in Blogland lately, plus with Wimbledon also on, and so thought this tutorial for a really easy jar jar topper might be useful, if you have jam left over you'd like to give as a gift.

To make one for strawberry jam (the pattern can be easily adapted for other fruit), you will need - 

 

a jam jar with lid (mine is 8.5 cm across, and notice, once again for the purposes of photography, I have 'stunt' jam, not homemade!), a circle of felt measuring 16cm across (you will need a larger piece if your jam jar is larger than mine), two pieces of red felt 2.5cm x 4.5cm, another piece of red felt cut into a strawberry shape about 3cm tall, a small amount of green felt for leaves, about 58cm of narrow ribbon, some red, green and yellow embroidery thread (I've used pearl cotton 8), a small amount of stuffing, pencil, pins, sewing needle and some scissors.

First, scallop around the edge of the large felt circle, I just used normal scissors for this and did it freehand, but if you have some scalloped edge scissors, you could use those.

Then, place the jam jar lid centrally, and draw round it with a pencil to mark its position.  Thread the needle with the ribbon, weave it in and out all the way round, 1cm away from the drawn circle.  You may need to poke a small hole with some sharp scissors first, just make sure that both ends of the ribbon come out on the top side of the topper so they can be tied in a bow.

Next, to make mini strawberries to decorate the ribbon with, fold the red rectangle in half, and sew down one of the open edges which is at a right angle to the fold.  Trim the open side to a curve,

turn the shape inside out so the seams are on the inside, fill with a little stuffing, then sew running stitch all the way round the open edge, and pull to gather.

Before you sew it up, poke in one end of the ribbon, then secure the top with a few stitches.

Next, decorate the strawberry with a few yellow french knots, cut 4 small leaf shapes out of the green felt, and sew them to the top with the green thread.  Repeat, for the second strawberry.

Place the topper on the jam jar, and gather the ribbon, then pin the felt strawberry shape centrally to the top.  Applique it on by sewing blanket stitch around the edge, leave a small gap at the top, fill with a little stuffing, continue stitching to close it up.

Again, decorate the strawberry with some yellow french knots and add some more green felt leaves.  Then pop your topper back on your jam jar and tie the ribbon into a bow.  The good thing about making this in felt, is felt is quite forgiving, it is really easy to sew with, doesn't fray, and has a little 'give' in it so will stretch to fit if it's a little tight.

There you go, all you need know are some scones, clotted cream and a pot of tea!

If you make something from one of my tutorials please do join the Flickr group, Lucykate Crafts... pattern pieces, to show off your creations.

Kids, grrrrrrrrrrr!

One of the perils of being a Mum of school aged children is having to (usually, at very short notice) come up with various costumes for events on at school.  This week's is Superhero Day.  Lucy's class have had lots of fun this term doing projects involving Superheros, and today the whole year group (plus teachers) have gone in costumes.  Now, as always in our house, the children decide what they want to go as, and I try and come up with the goods, although I have to admit defeat on a couple of occasions when we've just gone out and bought something instead.  The biggest problem I have is with them constantly changing their minds.

Last week, Lucy was going as Wonder Girl.  She drew a design,

we went out shopping for a red t-shirt and green skirt, she decided Wonder Girl needed a logo, so I stitched a 'W' onto the top, and also made some green wrist bands too.  

There we go, sorted.  Until...,

this week, we met Cheetah Girl.  I would normally stand my ground on this and say no, already having made one costume, but she won me over after drawing a whole cartoon strip for the new character.

So, this was me last night,

Luckily, we already had a yellow t-shirt, which is now covered in Cheetah spots, oh and also a logo, because all Superheros need a logo, right?!

So, here she is, Cheetah Girl (although she is wearing Wonder Girls wristbands as a compromise).  The next costume I make is for me.  Supermum.

ps, it's July.  Countdown to turning 40 begins here!