Playing with Rectangles

I need your help! I spent all day yesterday cutting out sweet little rectangles of coloured glass. I then had a play around with the layout and colours and came up with something I thought I was happy with. This is the layout, you'll have to imagine it with the lead between each of the pieces.

 

Anyway, I went to bed last night and couldn't stop thinking about my design (the things we lose sleep over!). Was my design really what I wanted? I then started to wonder whether I should change it up a little bit, maybe by subdividing some of the rectangles. I've had a little play with the photo above and added a few additional divisions to the horizontal rectangles (a little roughly!). Below is the new (improved?) design, what do you think? Sorry, I should have added the black lines to the first image too, to make it easier to compare.

 

 

So thats the quandry. Should I leave it well alone or get cutting? I'd love to hear from you, please add your comments below.

 

Coloured Glass

I have finally finished my first stained glass window, I think I'll leave the final reveal until after it has been fitted (sorry!). This has meant that my thoughts have turned to the next project and I really only have one option - the glass panel beneath the first project (which is still sporting hideous safety glass - see here). I'd really like to get the two panels fitted at the same time so I need to crack on.

I used lots of circles for the original panel, but don't think I want to do the same again as it might be a bit visually overwhelming. My thoughts at the moment are to go with squares and rectangles. We'll see. The lovely Tim was kind enough to drive me to Kansa Glass today. I have chosen five different pieces of glass. Although the colours tie in with my first panel, I have changed the palette to include purples and exclude greens. I'll also include the leftover glass from the original panel.

 

So pretty... but yes I did manage to break one piece on the way home!!

Guest Blog

Today's blog post is brought to you courtesy of my lovely sister Vicky. She has been making some cute clothes for her daughter, I'll leave the rest to her (and yes she came up with her blogging name all be herself)!

Hello there, I have been asked by my lovely sister Sally (thought sparkle) to put together a little blog post about a recent crafty project I have completed. I was actually inspired to have a go at making something after seeing the fantastic things Sally has created. I am not as talented as Sally and it has been a long time since I touched a sewing machine so I wanted to start with something simple.
 

I decided I wanted to make my daughter Emma a pinafore dress and managed to find a fantastic free tutorial on the smashed peas and carrots blog. As soon as I saw how easy the tutorial was I thought instead of making one dress I would make two. The first dress is made from Amy Butler fabric in the Lark range, unfortunately I don't know what the second fabric is.
It was a great tutorial to follow and i managed to make the dresses in only a few hours, Emma even enjoyed watching me in her high chair while I sewed away. I'm so pleased with the way the dresses have turned out. Here is a picture of the completed dresses.

I really struggled to find the right buttons as i wanted chunky but finally found the right style and colour in Atkinsons, Sheffield. Aren't they cute?
Here is a picture of Emma in her dress. The whole outfit was a real bargain, I picked up the jeans for £4 from Primark and the vest for £3 from H&M. I think she looks smashing.

 

Bye for now!

Vicky (thought vejazzle)

 

Knitted Party Dress

I've finished knitting Emma's party dress  - a purple sparkly number for my favourite niece. I knitted the age 1 size, but it looks generous so I suspect she has got some growing to do. I'm not sure my photo really does it justice, hopefully I can get a better one when it's being worn. I'm imagining it will look cute with a long sleeve top and tights underneath.

I think my favourite bit of the pattern is the sparkly hem!

Vicky,
Prepare to receive a parcel. I'm popping this in the post tomorrow. Hope you (and Emma) like it.
Love Auntie Sally
PS - It's hand wash only - sorry!!!

Knitting Needles

I've been doing a lot of knitting in the last week, I really enjoy it, but wish I could make faster progress sometimes! I started this project at Christmas and I should be (finally) finished in the next week or so. I thought I'd share with you my favourite knitting needles as they are so lovely to knit with (and pretty!), perhaps you might even get a bit of needle envy? Maybe?!

Anyhow...They are KnitPro interchangeable circular needles. I love the smooth feel of the wood and the little clack sound as you knit a stitch.

I am very lucky because my lovely husband bought me the full interchangeable needle set, they range in size from 3.5mm to 8mm. You just screw the tips into the provided cables to create a circular needle. What makes them so handy is they come with a variety of lengths of cable so you can knit in the round to numerous proportions. The join between the tip and the cable is also totally smooth so your knitting doesn't get snagged as it passes over the join - I hate most circular needles for that reason, totally useless.

 

Before I go, here is a sneaky peak at what I've been making. Loving the diamonds!

 





Feeling a Bit Green Patchwork Quilt

My lovely Patchwork Quilt is starting to come together. The original fabrics I bought were all reds and pinks, but as I was starting to put them together I became a bit concerned that there just wasn't anything to make the colours really zing. Here are the fabrics sewn into strips, do you see what I mean?

I decided to add one extra fabric in a vastly contrasting colour - lime green - to make the quilt top pop. I settled on another Kaffe Fassett fabric called Paperweight. I'll definitely be using it sparingly as it's a touch garish! I do love the glass paperweight effect though.

 

So far I've made 5 blocks consisting of 25 three and a half inch squares. Each of the blocks has a maximum of one green square, some have none. Here are four of the finished blocks laid out  - what do you think to the green fabric addition?

 

 

I am trying to be extra careful sewing these blocks together, keeping the seems as straight as possible, because it really shows if they are offline. Although the blocks come together quickly, I've still got a large pile of strips to sew together into blocks. I want the final quilt to be large enough for my double bed (too big!).

 

Hope you all like it.

Birthday Cake for Ben

It's my friend' s son's first birthday today. Me and Tim decided to make him a birthday cake to celebrate. His favourite thing is a stuffed toy zebra name Zambezi, so that's the design we've gone for. The cake is a simple Victoria Sponge, covered in marzipan and roll out icing. It's not perfect by any means but my lovely husband and I had fun in the kitchen together.

I'm particularly pleased with the zebra stripes, which we achieved by rolling out sausages of sugar paste in black and white, then rolling them together with a rolling pin. Here it is next to the toy. Snap!

 

 

Happy Birthday Ben!