More completed creations found in archive

These are were completed over the Christmas period. Some were given away as presents.

The photo quality isn't that good it's amigurumi baby snow bunny from darncat. The pattern used to be able to downloaded free I checked it seems to be private blog. The head was over stuffed, this is my second attempt at amigurimi. Recently brought another Japanese craft book which has lots of cute animals. These can be hung from mobile phone straps.

My first attempt at evenweave the stitching was alright but backstitch was highly detailed. This was to replace the altered stocking brought from a shop. The Me to You bear pattern is from Xmas issue of Crosstitcher magazine. I added seed beads on the edging.

This is first attempt at creating a mouse plush, everything is hand stitched I feel the limbs are slightly off. I used material scraps lying around. If there are duplicates this means I can't be sure these are uploaded or not. Pay well to update regularly.
Still more to come and decided to update my flickr album. I used to be able to to all these stuff in the daytime now have to wait until 7pm only to find other people are using the internet. This isn't fair. I was told laptop doesn't use that much electricity.

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My return to Blogging

Has been ages since I last update this and my other blog, I decided to return to blogging since I don't getting bored of playing MMOs. Things hasn't been the same when Kitsu Saga was closed down and Jade Dynasty, my character has ascended but becoming boring now and also stupid prick keeps turning the router on whenever I'm online. The router is in another room and choose to work downstairs because this idiot. I wish for my own studio, a space for me and no one else. During my absence I have been busy crafting with numerous projects on the go and acquiring wonderful items.

The picture isn't great since I took this while the laundry was out. During my travels to St Nicholas's Market, I found a cabinet displaying all these wonderful netsuke, I've seen them on Bargain Hunt and other Antique programme. Ah, what to choose they are so lovely, cute rats, gracious dragons so I settled for this cobra. It's not rearing its fang but smiling. The block on the left I believe to be a metal stamp and could be used to stamp on clay, Fimo or other soft material. Sadly the place I brought the block from is now closed down, the shop was called Shared Earth and was only place which sold Divine Chocolate. Sad really all the wonderful shops I used to visit are now gone.

There was two holes on the netsuke, further research I discovered the netsuki are kimono attachments. Have a look at the link for more information. I brought another one from Strapya, this one is carved out of boxwood and of my animal sign. More photos to come.

Over the Christmas period I tried my hand at patchwork, took ages to bast all the fabric edges of the hexagons. The sewing took no time at all, this project is on hold as I was bored of removing all the stitches I'll return later on. Still trying to figure out what I'll use the patchwork fabric for but it's a great way to use up all those scraps.

I've found this plush kit in Hobbycraft. I think you can machine sew the individual parts together. I've made two of these plush mouse. Handmade objects have such charm and whimsical appeal.
There's more photos to show and many finished work to show. I'll update my flickr album as well because have paid for year's subscription.

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Work completed so far

I recently brought some Crosstitcher magazines which I love is free kit and the great ideas. Normally people buy a kit and frame it with the hassle of mounting. A simple design can be turned into a cushion cover. This is small amount of what I have so far, I didn't get December issue which is just tags there nothing but Christmas stuff probably crafted enough to decorate a whole tree.

This is the reindeer cake band sadly I don't have a care and didn't come with enough thread plus they are of low quality. The kits from last year had plenty of leftovers. I need more practise with a sewing machine.

Picked out a mouse plush kit while in Hobbycraft it cost £9.99. Totally hand sewn and used scraps of fabric I have in my collection. The material is very thin so I had to use iron on interfacing to stop the hem from showing through. I intend to give this someone the original fabrics I will make and keep for myself.

These seems quite pointless, Christmas houses it was a bumper pack and magazine cost £4.99 instead of £3.99. Saves on buying tree decoration in fact there are embroidered ready made ones. I wonder that fools who buy these things are it's much cheaper to use scraps.

I love these charming birds but these aren't the ones which came with the kit this is the second batch. I have the photo of actual kit birds but haven't gotten round to edit the photos.

The first proper attempt at making a plushie, I tried before and failed it's hard to visual the final shape when I'm designing the pattern. Need more practise I found this bat a struggle goodness know what teddy will be like.

I originally brought a cross stitch stocking kit but found it had lots of annoying fractional stitches and thought sod it. Choose to do something else instead I will complete just not now when I have to juggle playing MMo and crafting. This is my first attempt at evenweave it is 28 count which equivalent to 14 count Aida. I found the backstitching was pain as highly detailed and difficult to distinguish the outline thread from xstitch it was easy to do fractional stitches, this chart is by Anchor and exclusive to Crosstitcher magazine. Cross stitching on evenweave seems wasted as I can do something like Hardangar or Lagerta. I can say that I have turned pro unless you have actually crosstitched on evenweave, cannot call yourself a master of this craft. Besides it's easy and like second nature.

More projects yet to come right now I doing a embroidery sample. The first one is back in my AdGNVQ years and still have the work. Will I get any decent sleep tonight I wonder.

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Tatted projects completed so far

I haven't been tatting much because I started to learn crochet which is closest thing to knitting and much easier. I brought this book from Hobbycraft and turns out to be useless despite the fact aimed at skills at all level. The reason for crochet because  I have found a amigurumi chart of rabbit and bear in Gothic and Lolita bible extra. Amigurumi is knitted stuffed dolls there are loads on images and patterns on the net, all the skills you need is magic ring, single crochet stitch, increasing and decreasing single crochet and slip stitch plus darning/sewing skills. Waste of money buying that book because I can learn from watching videos on the net. Pfft! In general Japanese craft book have clear diagrams why can't English books do the same. Following written instructions is difficult- more show and less tell. Below is the Onion Ring butterfly by Hope Green. The original term is doppelringe which means double ring. Where exactly is the onion in this ring did they use babelfish to translate the term.

On larger rings additional picots can be added on the small ring for stability. This is my suggestion.

I adapted this pattern by using a single shuttle, yes I tried needle tatt the motif become uneven when removed from the needle and the stitches were large as well. So shuttle tat ftw. Free pattern by Iris Niebach.

Here is completed work, says 5 days took me 7 days because I was er gaming inbetween. Crochet like tatting is addictive can't stop and two can be compatible I have seen tatting patterns with crochet symbols and love the try them out. Still doing a motif for mignonette with the current pattern it's mostly composed of rings and is autonomous. I'll see if I can adapt another tatting pattern and the mignonette netting.

Recently acquired a book called The tatted Artistry of Teiko Fujito translated version from Japanese to English. Don't normally buy tatting books because majority of the pattern comes from the net or my head. Just as I suspect it has clear diagrams and new technique called split stitch it requires a separate thread and eliminates the need for cut and tie. There's some pattern involving twisted picot and crochet patters to try once I have finish the dimple ring angel (there's an easy way to make a dimple ring). With the short crochet adventure over it's back with tatting and gaming. Heh heh.

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Crafting with felt

I'm becoming less interested in Grand Fantasia and using much of my time crafting. Above is one of few cards I created for the year. This was for my cousin's birthday I'm influenced by mandalas and patterns. Would like to create more beaded or paper embroidery cards/artist trading cards (atcs). Now the World cup is on, I'm only watching a few matches, Italy, Spain and England (Even though the first match was dismal). I acquired an another Japanese Crafting book - かわいいフェルトの小物たち (Cure felt goods), ISBN ISBN9784418092192. You can buy from yesasia.

I have worked with felt before and found the material fragile, piles easily. At first glance I noticed the patterns resembles those of stuffed animals. These are my early attempts, a rabbit and chibi panda. Not a good idea to use salvage felt because it splits and pencil is not recommended for drawing around the paper template because it shows up in the sewing. I noticed a lot of other people's felt work the stitching is loose whereas my stitches are tight because this is how I hand sew. Have not yet mastered the sewing machine. Most of felt projects in the craft shops are too simple in design.

Projects become more advance further on through the book, the patterns for the deer are on the cover. The felt deer plush appears on the book cover. It was the reason why I wanted to buy the book in the first place. There was a lot of sewing involved and took me 2 days to complete. I used rose and cream felt because the pink I found in the craft store was very bright. As with all Japanese books I found the diagrams clear if in doubt I check the kanji -Japanese Chinese ideograms for any clues but some part you can make an intelligent guess. I despise people who moan or complain it's no in English. Make some effort to learn Japanese or any other language it's not difficult. Besides there was no body to help me I learnt thorough trial and error. In all I found the felt projects very easy to sew and off to make more.

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