Take Three...

....Nine Patch squares.


Quarter them....


...and re-arrange to suit...


...like this...


this...


...or this.

But which? Opinions and suggestions gratefully received, as were the patches from Kate and the idea from Helen.

Better late than never...

I suppose if I was really fussed about preparing for Christmas, I wouldn't choose to go on holiday at a time when more organised souls were decorating, shopping and wrapping. Well now that I'm back, I have made a small effort; I have trimmed a tiny tree and filled a large glass bowl on the coffee table with tinsel, berries, leaves and rather dusty candle.....I must get some new specs in the New Year. Himself has gone to town as usual downstairs in the apartment where we shall be serving Christmas dinner to nine. He made a special request for turkey this year, so a fresh bird is sitting in the fridge. A goodly sized piece of salmon fillet is marinating in salt, sugar, pepper and dill, the Saturday market yielded carrots, turnips, parsnips, squash, sprouts and fresh and dried chestnuts. The fresh chestnuts are for afternoon snacks, roasted on the cast iron Melior grill. The dried ones are to soak overnight and cook with the sprouts. Blanching and peeling chestnuts on Christmas morning is not my idea of fun, and anyway, I wouldn't be able to resist eating most of them. I was planning on making the stuffing today, but it is heaving it down outside and I don't fancy getting wet going to pick sage. Hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow, and the heat will bring out all the essential oils, and it will taste that little bit better. Tomorrow I might look for sausages to roll in bacon, or I might not. I might buy some lard and some belly and leg pork and make himself a large raised pork pie, but on the other hand I might leave that until Boxing Day; one of the joys of living here is that Christmas Day and New Years Day are Fiesta Days, but on all the days in between, life goes on as normal!

My poinsettias are not strictly Christmas decorations, but are presents for my recent birthday. They are a jolly sight, grouped together by the kitchen door. I particularly like this cream painted variety.

This is supposed to be my crafting Blog, and I have been busy making things for presents, but I seem to have forgotten to take pictures before wrapping them up. I did knit two pairs of mittens while off on my jollydays, but they were snapped up by family members who just happened to be in the vicinity, and didn't listen to the grey-haired wise old crone when she said "Bring warm clothing. It snows in the Balearics in December..."

More Monsters

Here are the Blues Brothers, commissioned by the Gran of two lovely lads who took a shine to Sitrus. I did suggest that I might add some fangs, but they were more concerned with the colour of the tongues. Scott asked for green, and Matthew wanted yellow. I have made them different in other ways, cutting the slit for the arms vertically in the first and horizontally in the next, so that I was able to have one arm coming forward and one going back as if he is on the move....OK...I admit I cocked up and put one in the wrong way round, but who's to know that? You won't tell, will you?

More leaves and a commission

The scan doesn't do this postcard justice. The background fabric is a rich chestnut with a lovely sheen. The right hand leaf has been made by sewing two layers of green taffeta together, turning right side out and then top-stitching. The centre leaf is a digital image printed onto fabric, and the third is made by using the original leaf to stamp in gold onto a turquoise batik. The whole is the work of Lourdes on ArtWeMail.

I have had fun making another Sock Monster. He is called Nastertius. He is a little too cute to be a real Monster, so I have it in mind to make another one of the same outline, but to have it the other way up with the eyes on the ends of what are now the legs, and the tail becoming an extension of the head!
Sitrus, my "first born", went down well at the Craft Exhibition on Sunday, and I have been commissioned to make two more for the grandsons of a friend. One has asked for blue stripes and the other for green, but if I can't find any green striped socks, he will settle for blue, but he does want a green tongue!

A Quick Post

There were three items in the box today. From Mary P the Three Leaves; Three Techniques swap from ArtWeMail. One stamped leaf, one appliquéd leaf and one cut out from a skeleton leaf. I was thinking along those lines myself, so I shall have to think again!
From Diana B in New Zealand came a picture of the statue on the hill, with beads sewn on to represent the illuminated halo. This was for the Fibre, Fibre, Fibre swap on ArtWeMail.
This jolly rooster eyeing up an amuse bouche is a private swap for my Wild Bird, and came from Faye.
About this....more later...

New kid on the block

Introducing Sitrus the Sock Monster. He is the result of an hour's slash and sew on Sunday. He is very basic; just a test piece really, as I know that my Elna hates knitted fabric, and the Jones has given up the ghost again. Surprisingly, the machine sailed through the firm fabric of the sock, and the only hand stitching was the mouth, eyes and stuffing hole.
Just in case you are wondering what he is leaning against, it is Kez the Fez wearing a strawberry hat and a Fake Fairisle hat. To the right is a stack of three knitted aubergines/figs/plums?
They are more purple than blue. Kez is wearing the baby size, and the other two are larger. They will actually accommodate my noggin, but are aimed at children. They are worked in short row garter stitch, and each has a different leaf or leaves. I have enough wool left for another baby size. The strawberry hat is strawberry, not the washed out orange it appears here. The white balance on the camera is set to auto. I think I'll have to play about to see if I can improve the colour rendition of the camera, as I can't always drum up the Tuits to open a graphics programme to sort it out. Just in case you think I'm expecting a baby boom in the family, I must explain that these are all going into a basket of hand-mades for the Emaus Childrens' Home in Calpe. We are having a Craft Fair to raise money for their Three Kings presents, and any that are not sold will be added to their stash! I have another ball of strawberry to knit up. If anyone would like to have a go, it's the Urchin hat off Knitty.com, and the leaves are from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments.

Wild Thing....

Isn't this an eye opener? A zingy lime green felt square, stitched onto the background with gold thread, and embellished in the centre with black bugle beads. It came from Jane O'Fallon on Artwemail.

This is the first of three postcards for the Fibre, Fibre, Fibre swap on the same Group. The only stipulation was that we used at least three different fibres. The background for the first two is a jungle print chiffon, cut from the hem of a dress that I shortened for someone. The vertical stripe is black denim that has been sprayed with copper paint. It's a shame that the scan doesn't show this well. It looks rather washed out, whereas in real life it glows. The horizontal band is gold angel hair, overlaid with navy knitted lace with a little lurex sparkle. The feather yarn is not quite so pink as it appears here.This is the second postcard, made from the same material as the one above, but with some frayed viscose, some raffia and a piece of yellow plastic netting.
The third is on a background of rust dyed polycotton with more of the copper painted denim, the frayed viscose and a square of squirrel silk from an old tie.
These are two ATCs, made mainly with leftovers from the Fibre, Fibre, Fibre postcards. Waste not, want not!

Gnome from Gnome

.

I've come across this little fellow a few times lately in Blogland, and couldn't resist having a go. I like knitting, but hate sewing up, so I adapted the pattern for knitting in the round on a circular needle. The pattern for the head/body starts at the top and works down, so before I did the last row and the "break the yarn and thread through the remaining stitches" bit, I made the bean bag bum and pushed it through the opening before I fastened off. This meant I had to stuff the rest of the body and the head through the small hole on top of the head, but this wasn't difficult. I started the legs at the toe and knitted them like a toe up sock, and did the arms the same way, leaving a bit of waste yarn for the mitten thumb and picking up the stitches later. When it came to stuffing the hands, I decided not to! I liked the way the hands became quite expressive when left floppy. I am not 100% happy with the brim of the hat. Maybe I used the wrong Cast On technique, but it didn't want to lie flat, and where I have stitched it down it has gone a bit blobby. The colour isn't true to life. He looks all washed out and a bit orange here, but he is a proper Christmassy red. I might do another one in more Autumnal woodland colours as I have some whiskery yarn that would be good to use.

Edit; I've had time this afternoon to correct the colour on the original photo

I'm a lucky sewandsew...

...I received a supersquishy from Kate N! Lots of yummy 5" charm squares, including many oriental designs, and the larger strip of "oriental dartboards" that you can see at 2 o'clock in the picture. The picture doesn't really do them justice as the stack has to be 2" high, butI was too impatient to wait until I had fanned them out singly!

Craft sewing is on the back burner this week as I have a big bag of alterations to work through. I suppose I shall have to acknowledge the fact that Ch£!$[µ@$ is just around the corner, and some people are already buying their gladrags. The local Craft Fair is booked for the 25th November, and I have had an email asking if I will pick up the fliers and distribute them. I don't mind distributing them, but I get cross that the organisers only print fliers in English and don't have the courtesy to at least have the main points in Spanish as well. I refuse to ask the Spanish shops to display them as I feel that it is downright rude. Not only that, but if they were in Spanish, then we would attract the many other nationalities who live in our town and make the effort to learn the lingo...but it seems my complaints fall on deaf ears. Add to that the fact that Women in Business are holding their Christmas Bazaar on the same day in another hotel further down the road, and it could go one way or the other...people coming out from the town centre pass our hotel first, so maybe if we have large enough posters outside in a variety of languages, we can pull in the customers first ....

Squares and Triangles

Here is today's effort. I have used the same purple as in the last one. It used to be a sheet way back in the groovy 70's, then most of it was used in a quilt for 0j0, but I still have some strips left in my purple/maroon bit box. I have tried to reflect the flowers in the border print with the sequins. It doesn't show very well in this scan, but I have stitched them on with green rayon, and added a fuchsia lined glass bead to their centres. My points still are far from perfect, but the worst one is disguised by the fact that the adjoining pieces are the same fabric. I shall get there eventually.