Saturday 22 July 2017

Puzzle ball


July is normally a rubbish month for crafting.  It's hot and sticky (except it's cold and wet today) which means your hands stick to the wool.  And the Tour de France is on so we spend out evenings watching the highlights.  And now we have the Milo dog too, any evening that might be left over is take up with a walk.  Not that I am complaining, just explaining why not much craft happens in July.
So I am pretty happy with the small project I have just managed to complete.


As soon as I saw the puzzle ball design on the Purl Soho site I knew I wanted to make one.  I just loved how they had used different colours inside.  So then I started looking round to see how to make one.  Little Red Farm had a very good tutorial which I followed, although I hand sewed mine, rather than machine sewing, which is part of why it took me so long, but did mean I could do it during the adverts.


Once I understood what I had to do, each section didn't really take that long, the worst part was working out the order they should go in so that each section had all three colours.  There was also that worrying moment when you think you don't have enough bits 'cos the last gap looks too big, but it was fine.


I love how its come out.  I wasn't sure about the colours when I started but they work so well together.  Its very pleasing.  All I have to do now is keep it away from Milo who thinks its for him, it is a ball after all.

Saturday 8 July 2017

Tiny flowers


Ages ago I bought some lenses to use with my phone.


As with all these things they got put to one side and a bit forgotten, until now.  I've taken to walking round the lake at lunch times at work, and as the season has progressed and I've seen all the beautiful wild flowers growing round it I decided to take the lenses with me on a walk and see what I could capture.


I was so impressed with the images I also look the lens with me when we visited Uppark recently. 


It's the macro lens which has been really impressing me.  It can be a little tricky - the lightest breeze makes the flowers move like they are in a gale! And in the sunshine my phone screen doesn't always show a very good image.  I also find using the touch screen button tricky!  
But I still somehow manage to take the odd good photo (there are many more blurry ones). 


Its amazing what you can see when you stop and look!



Sunday 2 July 2017

Stary necklace


Anyone who knows me, knows I love stars.
I've got more star jewellery than you can shake a stick at but that didn't stop me from desiring another necklace. And this is were the bees wax comes in.
I'd found some tiny star beads and wanted to hang them on something equally delicate. I'd looked into chains but it was impossible to work out if they chain would go through the bead holes without seeing them in person, and they all seemed to have massive findings for doing them up which kinda defeats the objective in my eyes.


So I started thinking about other ways to hang them. What about a cord with a sliding knot?  The first cord I tried was way too thick for the beads so I found some of my own embroidery thread and coated it in bees wax (this helps it to handle better, wear better and lets the knots slide).  I then ironed the thread between some grease proof paper to even the wax out a bit.  With my cotton ready I threaded my beads then tied my sliding knots.
For something so simple it's come out really well.  I like to wear it quite high, nearly a choker, but could easily have it lower if I wanted - part of the beauty of a sliding knot.