Craft Night Road Trip

Hello everyone! 

Two of the Crafterteers went on a mini road trip today to Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham. They had a quilt exhibition on over the weekend so Amy and I went to check it out - we both have passes to get in free which was a bonus too! The museum is an open air museum, great on a bank holiday in August right! No, it was drizzling the whole time (see the very soggy sign below!), but we made the most of it and wrapped up warm :)

Beamish is one of my favourite museums, and they have a fantastic collection of locally made quilts from the 1800's to the present day. The exhibition was put on with the Quilters Guild, and mixed quilts old and new - with the newer quilts inspired by the ones from the museum's collections.

These are some of the old and new quilts on display, we both really like the family tree (second one from below) which told the family history of the quilt maker, complete with photographs and quotes from marriage certificates. It went all the way back to the 16th Century which was pretty amazing!

The display also had a few hands on elements, and a display from the Young Quilters Guild. They also had some members of the Quilters Guild there to speak to, who were doing lots of English Paper Piecing.

The most interesting part of today was finding out about regional craft groups from the past! Both from the exhibition displays, but also the brilliant book I bought afterwards, about how craft groups have been going on amongst groups of women for centuries - made me feel part of a long tradition! It is amazing to think that our little approx-once-a-month craft night is doing all the same things those women used to do, getting together to help each other out, figure out how to create new patterns, and eat and talk!

I particularly like this little passage above about the preparations for craft night being an "awful sight", and the worst thing about craft night was that the women were looking after themselves and not their men! Good on 'em!

The rest of the museum also had some bits and pieces on display, including a yoyo quilt and a fantastic granny square blanket in some fantastic colours!

Oh, and before I forget, this was my new book Amy talked me into getting...

A catalogue of Beamish quilt collections, but also a decent handful of women's history in there too, makes me feel itchy for my History degree days!

See y'all next time!

Love Ali

xx

Craft Night a la Swaddle

Hello everyone! 

We had our second Craft Night since starting the blog on Monday night. It was over to Laura's this time (we take it in turns to host, share out the cooking etc.). 5 of us made it this time, and were treated to some very lovely home made pizza, chips and salad, and a particularly lovely Chocolate Cheescake, with strawberries and cream, nom! We then made our way up to Laura's study/craft room depending on what time of day/night! 

View from Laura's kitchen, lovely sunny afternoon :)

We had a new friend joining us this time, craftertime is expanding! Laura's friend from choir Becky came over to say hi and do some squeaky knitting! It is great to have a new face, and to help us expand our crafting repertoire - Becky was knitting a doll of Audrey Hepburn! It was only the start, but she did get the body done, including some accidently inverted row we generally decided were in the right place for her boobs!

Laura was working on her beautiful granny square afghan, this has been a fairly long term project she has been returning to as an 'in betweener' and is sooo close to being done, depending on how big it ends up being. 

We had a good discussion about the relative number of blankets we have in our houses, compared with the number of people that live there - Laura's other half had assumed her blankets were gifts... no... But came happily to the conclusion that as long as we are happy, and not bankrupting ourselves/pimping ourselves out for yarn and fabric, we are all good!

Amy was starting a new project. A self confessed fan of learning a craft to achieve an end product, rather than to actually learn it, took up a challenge from Mollie Makes to make some crochet star bunting. Having been a while since Amy's last project this took a little more effort than expected! I was trying to be a good tutor, but after half a bottle of rose this wasn't the easiest! We came up with a few different versions, the pattern was not written clearly, a shame as I fancied the book it came from and have now been put off! 

I did manage to try again whilst sober, and did manage it, but pattern was still annoyingly difficult to follow!

Fiona was working on sewing a read rectangle! Early starter on Christmas crafting, Fiona refuses to go anywhere need crochet (mutterings about the devil's craft...) and started off with the border for her embroidery - watch this space for more!

I was mainly drinking wine and helping Amy with her crochet to limited success, and trying to finish the wiggly edge on my crochet blanket, I've been lusting after crocheted edged items on Pinterest for a while, don't quite know why but felt my bed blanket needed some additions! I also brought along a blanket I'm making for a pregnant friend, but as it was just sewing in the ends I didn't actually touch it all night!

And that be it! Oops, almost forgot, we had Amy's lovely little friend come to join us too! Totoro is adorable, very cute and also a fantastic back rest!

Gives you a sense of the scale of Totoro!

See y'all next time,

Ali

xx

Crochet Bunnies!

Hey everyone, Laura here!

It's crochet time again! If you're new to the craft, little toys and amigurumi are a fantastic way to learn new stitches, whilst working towards a quick win. 

This cute pair were a birthday gift I made for a Alison a few months ago, modelled after her very own pet bunnies Mac and Horatio (one has sticky up ears, one has floppy ears!).

At the time, I didn't have much experience making little toys like this, but the pattern was really well written and pretty straightforward. I tweaked it a little by using buttons for their eyes, to give it a bit more of a Coraline vibe - they are the 'Other Bunnies'! 

If you fancy making your own, check out the pattern over on Craft. The clever lady who designed them also has a lovely site full of cute crochet patterns, which I urge you to check out!

'Other Mac' and 'Other Horatio'

If you decide to make your own, as always, we'd love to see a picture!

How to: Crochet Heart Garland

Hi everyone! We're switching things up a bit tonight and instead of Alison at the helm, it's Laura. Don't worry, you're in safe hands I promise.

Let me tell you a little something about myself. I absolutely blooming love crochet. It's so fun and infinitely less stressful than knitting. All of the yarn-based joy, none of the dropped stitches...

Whenever a present giving occasion arises, it is always my go-to craft.  Five minutes on Pinterest and I've found a pattern and am on my way. Most recently, when Alison got engaged (exciting!) and asked me to be bridesmaid at the wedding (double exciting!!). So, to say a simultaneous congrats and thank you, I decided to make her and her fella a little something.

I decided to make her some heart bunting for her fireplace - with a crochet twist. I made my bunting using this pattern by Bunny Mummy (she has some other lovely crochet tutorials over there - check it out!). Full credit for this pattern lands squarely with her. Fancy making your own? I've translated the pattern for the UK crafter. 

Ready? Let's go! You'll need a 4mm crochet hook and 2 or 4 colours of DK yarn of your choosing. I opted for a purple, green, coral and cream combo - but you can choose whatever colours you like!

1. Chain 5 and join with a slip stitch.

2. Chain 4, then, working into the hole in the middle of the circle, (1 treble + 1 chain) x 11 times. (12tc).

3. Tie on your new colour. Again, this time you'll be working into the spaces. Chain 3 then work 1 treble. In the next 11 spaces work 2 treble crochets. (12 groups of 2 tc).

4. Tie in your next colour. Once again, working into the spaces, chain 3 then 2 treble crochets. In the following 11 spaces, work 3 trebles. (12 groups of 3 tc).

5. Tie in your last colour. Chain 1, 1 treble, chain 1.

6. In the next space - 3 double treble, 2 chain, 3 double treble, chain 1.

7. In the third space, 3 half double treble, chain 1.

8. In the next 3 spaces, 3 treble, chain 1.

9. In the seventh space, 1 half double treble, 2 double treble, chain 2, 2 double treble, 1 half double treble, chain 1.

10. In the next 3 spaces, 3 treble, chain 1.

11. In the eleventh space, 3 half double treble, chain 1.

12. In the twelfth space, 3 double treble, chain 2, 3 double treble, chain 1.

13. In the first space you worked in, 1 treble, 1 slip stitch.

Right that's you nearly done, just one more round to go - it's starting to look a bit heart shaped now...

14. OK, same colour, first space - 2 slip stitch, 1 half treble, chain 1.

15. Second space, 3 treble, chain 1, 1 treble, 1 half double treble, 1 double treble, chain 1.

16. Third space, 5 double treble, chain 1.

17. Fourth space, 1 double treble, 1 half double treble, 1 treble, chain 1.

18. In the next 3 spaces, 3 treble, chain 1.

19. Eighth space, 3 treble, chain 2, 3 treble, chain 1.

20. In the next 3 spaces, 3 treble, chain 1.

21. Twelfth space, 1 treble, 1 half double treble, 1 double treble, chain 1.

22. Thirteenth space, 5 double treble, chain 1.

23. Penultimate space, 1 double treble, 1 half double treble, 1 treble, chain 1, 3 treble, chain 1.

24. In your final space, 1 half treble, 2 slip stitch.

And you're done, 1 crocheted heart. Weave in your ends et voila! Beautiful.

What you do now is up to you. You could attach a ribbon to the middle and hang them individually. You could use them as patches. I chose to make them into a garland. I did this simply by creating a long chain, picking up stitches on the hearts every time I wanted to join one on. Before I did this, I took Bunny Mummy's advice and covered the hearts in starch spray just to stiffen them a bit.

I got a bit carried away - I could have made hundreds of these!

Aren't they pretty?

And here's the finished article, in situ, on Alison's fireplace (or 'Laura's Gallery' as she affectionately calls it!

So, anyone feeling inspired to make one of their own? We'd love to see!