My new challenge

I kind of hinted at this last post but didn't say what this would be. So today here is my confession.

I spent hours at spotlight on Saturday with my friend because she wanted to make a dress. Weeeeellllll I may have been distracted by all the pretty patterns and the awesome 30% of fabric and 50% off patterns BUT I was drawn into the hype.

 So I bought a pattern for a gorgeous dress. I decided to make the dress on the right. I started looking at fabrics. I was drawn to some gorgeous browns to make a lovely sedate dress. I wanted something versatile ... then I saw this fabric below!

Once I saw that fabric there was no going back! That was my dress!  Gorgeous purple with polka dots and teal trims! I couldn't resist. The fabric was just calling to me ... make me...make me ... make me.

So over the next number of weeks between cross stitch and crochet I will have to work on making up my dress. This is going to be a bit of a challenge for me but I will see how it goes.

happy stitching,
Caitlin

Bag Time

I've had this bag brewing for a couple of weeks. I bought the pattern from GingerCake before Easter thinking that they would make awesome bags for the kids with camping. That just didn't happen and I never got around to making up one of the bags. Then a couple of weeks ago now I cut out the fabric.

Then it just sat there for a while until I managed to get a zip. Then it sat again until I managed to brave spotlight for some wadding. Slowly the bag came together. I added the front pockets and extended the handles to reach the bottom of the bag. I love the effect.

Then Sunday came and I just had to power through and because I was busy running around various activities I actually got a lot more achieved than I thought I would.

Sunday night saw me sewing the lining into the bag by hand as it just looks better and I didn't want to deal with the zip on my sewing machine.

This is what happens though when you ask a 7 year old to take the photos of you with the bag. Fingers look good in photos.

So here is the finished bag. All lovely and beautiful. I do want to scotch guard it though to water proof it a little before I use it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, such a simple pattern and the directions that came with the pattern were awesome. I knew what to do with any issue that might come up because she already thought of them.

Hope you enjoy the photos of my weekends work. I have a new sewing project I will tell you about next time. I'm really excited about my new challenge.

Happy Stitching everyone,
Caitlin

Days of nothing

I had no idea what I should write in my title today but it always feels like my days are surrounded by nothing. It isn't until I actually go through my pictures on my phone that I realise no I didn't do NOTHING! I did something. Yes I did 40 million loads of washing, and I don't know how many clothes I folded or dishes I washed and floors cleaned but I also washed a cross stitch for a little girl and framed it. (Well almost I need to get some tape to seal the back so it stays closed.) 

This cross stitch has been sitting there finished for about a month. I love it because although the pattern was from a book she just looked through my colours and picked ones that she felt like using. It was all her choice and it looks amazing. 

 Unfortunately this image didn't want to spin though I told it to. Oh well! 

So this was me on Wednesday morning at craft group lacing the cross stitch onto a foam core board. Then gluing foam core to the back of the mat board to lift it away from the cross stitch so that the beads don't touch the glass.

I always hand lace anything that needs to be framed that is in a size that I can frame myself. It's just so much easier and when I found this gorgeous frame at photo continental on Tuesday I was ecstatic.

Unfortunately the fabric it was stitched on was a little small so the lacing does come around to the front. It's also good I didn't really have to straighten this much or pull tightly just firmly so I could do this.

 Here is the foam core glued on. It looks really really weird but it does the job I wanted it to do.

Thankfully all this has ended in a beautiful finish :D I must say I'm impressed by what a nine year old can accomplish when they want to. 

Now she will be entering this in the show this year and we'll see how she does!

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Caitlin

I'm up to Saturn :D

But I'm missing a colour... so it's a good thing I am planning a trip to spotlight at some point.

 Mars is missing it's eye but it was close.

Then at craft group I managed to finish Mars, start and finish Jupiter and start Saturn!

I love the colours on these little planets. Though the teacher in my doesn't like the fact that they are all the same size, Jupiter should be BIIIIIGGGG! It also needs a little mini storm on the surface. Jupiter always fascinated me and I still have my grade 4 project on it when we only knew about 16 of the moons! I think they're at 32 now.

It shouldn't take me long now to finish this, but I need to work out how I want to make the mobile. I want it to move but that is tricky. I have some time to think anyway I'm not making this for anyone but me at the moment.

I'll probably be posting less and less as the next couple of months come around. We have to move by the end of June so we are currently looking for a new rental still close to the school which is going to be hard. So I will be around but not sure how much I'll be able to post or not.

Happy Mother's Day for those that celebrate on Sunday!

Please if you made anything new or tried anything new in April can you please link it up to my Something New link up for April! I would love to see what you have tried.

Merry Stitching,
Caitlin

Moda Vera Yarns - Spotlight

So everyone should know by now I'm making a granny stripe blanket. If you didn't then where have you been? A photo is usually in most of my posts. Look at the bottom of this one for more photos :D

But, what you may not realise is what yarn I'm using. I started it using 12 colours of Moda Vera Marvel 8ply Acrylic. I won't be able to finish it using moda vera 8ply though because when I went to spotlight last week just 'looking' at stuff. I found that there was a mix of moda vera and 4 seasons in the shelves both labelled marvel. I was very worried though it didn't click until the next day why I was so worried about seeing that yarn name change. So I contacted spotlight.

Here is their response:

Dear Caitlin, 

With regards to your specific enquiry, I have been informed by our buyers that this product has been re-branded. The new brand is 4 seasons. You will be safe to select colours that are branded 4 seasons for your project. With any yarn, the only thing we can not guarantee will be the dye lots which will be different.

So if there is anyone else out there who uses Moda Vera yarns in their projects I think they are re-branding all their yarns but I know it has started with marvel. At least the colours will remain the same for the foreseeable future but I think I need to get to spotlight as soon as possible and get some more just in case. I do want this to be a full sized blanket because I can, and hopefully a matching pillow too. 

I will leave you with pretty photos of my blanket. I had to go sit in the sun and take some nice photos though it's getting harder to photograph all the colours so far. 

 
It doesn't look like just twelve colours with them all mixed up. At least this way I'm not worried about dye lot at all.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin