5000 Poppies; at the Flower and Garden show

 So the other day I went to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show.

Really the display gardens at the show were on a whole average and there was only a handful. I enjoyed the day because flowers and I went with friends but they really need to ramp up the 'garden' bit of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. 

But on to the highlight, the '5000 poppies' group had an awesome display created by Phillip Johnson / Phillip Johnson Landscaping. I'll let the pictures speak for me:

Michael Powell Second Hand Shopping Win

I picked up this little cross stitch from Savers ringwood the other week. Normally I have a problem with buying second hand cross stitch when it pops up in opshops because quite often even if I like the design there will just that one stitch that is the wrong way round. My eyes will inevitably keep being drawn to that one place...over and over. 

But this one was lovely and despite being a bit squished in the frame a complete bargain. I'd looked at designs by Michael Powell before and liked them but nothing had inspired me (yet) to buy. I'm generally a design opportunistic buyer - I see I buy, I don't search. Also I'm not a fan of doing cross stitch designs that rely so heavily on backstitching.  I get disheartened waiting for the design to appear and stop stitching or feel at the end that the backstitching was too messy or invasive to the finished design. I think there is probably a greater chance of me not liking my finished work when lots of backstitching is involved too though that might just be personal bias rather than substantiated fact.

 

So I get my purchase home and open the frame up to see it I can tighten up the design since it wasn't sitting well in the frame and got a pleasant surprise. The frame was actually hiding most of the cross stitch :)

So for $2 I got a fully completed, well done mini cottage IV designed by Michael Powell and a spare frame. A very good day.

I brought a more appropriate frame and here you go, all the lovely with almost none of the work. I feel a little guilty. 

The design is framed up a little wonky but it's not really noticeable with the design set back from the glass. 

Yarn Bomb; now in wine format

Nummy nummy wine with a name no lover of exploding thread creativity can pass by. 

Yarnbomb x Corrina Wright, McLaren Vale Shiraz. I shall meet you again :)  

Monogram Necklace

Just a quicky kit from the January 2015 Cross Stitcher magazine.  Pretty straight forward, you stitch your little letter then stick it in the plastic frame that came with the kit. 

It came with more than enough floss and the letter choice were fairly nice. I decided to put my design on a little bit of offcut from the foam board I used when framing my Hummingbird & Morning Glories design to raise the design up. Otherwise it would have sat quite deep in the frame. I like how that turned out. 

BUT I was lazy with the glue.  I couldn't be bothered finding my craft glue so just used some random super-glue that was in the kitchen...yeah not really the best idea I've had. Smelt bad, ended up going everywhere and dried too fast so I couldn't adjust the angle of the design.  I would have been much better off finding the right glue or even not using any glue at all. The board on the back would have held it into the frame fairly securely. Sigh. My own fault.

Finished product:

Hummingbird & Morning Glories

I suppose the first thing to say about this cross stitch is that it is not in any shape or form to my personal taste. I'm not one for religion.  But I made this one for a retirement gift to a person who does hold her religion close to her heart. So yeah. Religion. 

I would have liked to do something a bit more intricate or with a nicer quote. But realistically I knew if it was too much I wouldn’t get it done before she retired and I was worried if I picked a quote it'd be from the wrong branch of Christianity.  I really have no idea. So I figured play it safe with a generic statement and a small 5x7 inch cross stitch design - I settled on the Hummingbird & Morning Glories mini by Dimensions which I picked from ebay. 

There's a few bloopers in my stitching that I worked around instead of unpicking once I noticed them. An odd stitch out of place, one of the back stitched lines is off and one of the light green leave is really out of place. (The odd blue 'leaf' in the upper right is actually as per the chart) As the errors didn't really impact the design too much and I really just wanted it done while I was still mostly motivated to finish I kept working rather than unworking the errors.

I also managed to spill a drop of coffee on it despite my best intentions. It was to be a gift, I was on my best stitching behaviour. Then I look at it and there's a blot on the aida (far edge thankfully so not visible once finished). I think what happened was I left it on the couch and tripped a little while walking past with my drink. The chart seemed to have taken the most damage.

The design has a lot of thick half stitches...At one point half way through I had a bit of a freak out thinking that my half stitches and/or crosses were the wrong way round. Normally you don't really need to worry which way the cross's go as long as you keep them in the same direction. Thankfully it was all good. I was at a point when the thought occurred to me that if it had been wrong I probably would have just given up.

I framed it up myself and actually did it properly over a mount board and weaving the back. I don't have a post framing picture but it turned out really well. The extra effort (and blood where I stabbed myself) to frame it up properly was well spent. I gave it to the recipient a couple of days later. She really really liked it :) I'm glad. I always hate the idea that I wasted my time doing something and the person I give it to doesn't like it. Makes me feel like I wasted my time.

Finished Design:

 

Work in progress shots: 

My First (basic) Granny Square

So today I spent the day hanging out with a friend and attempting to crochet.  I've made chains in the past and a scarf with a pattern I have since completely forgotten how to do but that's the most crochet experience I have. I've always wanted to try my hand at it properly though and today I took my first steps towards being a crocheter by crocheting my first granny square. 

My friend tried to show me as she's been knitting an crocheting for years (though slowly as the rug she started for her first child is still only 1/3 or so done at the birth of her third child shows) but we decided a youtube tutorial would walk me though it better and include an actual 'pattern' to follow. 

Thank you youtube :)

My granny square was created using this tutorial 'Crochet: How to crochet a granny square for beginners' by Bella Coco on youtube. Much appreciated.  I am eternally grateful for all the generous crafty people out there who take the time to share their skills, knowledge and designs on the web. It is such a great resource for learning new things that would otherwise be potentially hard to learn without a mentor.  

I had A LOT of false starts but the good thing about crochet is you can just unwind it and try again. And again. And again. As many times as you need to. And the same for the youtube video, rewind, repeat and try again. 

I used a 4mm hook and some generic acrylic wool that had been floating around  not being used for forever and a day. I had to stop and start the tutorial as I went along just so I could work on it at my own pace. But doing that seems to work well for me and I was able to complete my square with not too much fuss.

So behold my first granny square!

Hopefully it will become a rug one day. Hopefully.  

And here's one my friend made. She gave me it plus the wool used to be added to the eventual rug. So two whole squares done.  Only...??? left to do.

 

A couple of WIP shots: