Coral Reef tea cosy is done

I've finally finished it.  Two people want it.  I'm planning on making a series of landscape cosies and this is the first one.

This is a picture heavy post, a bit similar to this cosy, which is very heavy for a cosy.

jellyfish

stuff

Sea urchin & sea snake

more sea snake & stuff

ray

hermit crab and starfish

octopus

from the top

I'm finally in the middle of quilting the tone it down quilt.  Maybe a couple more weeks to go.

Boring cosy

The next charity cosy is done. I don't like it much. It's boring. These are meant to be carnations. Pink is not my favourite colour. I could embellish this more, but given that it will sell for about $12, I won't bother.

Now to make a new base for the sunflower (stolen for the daffodil cosy). Ho hum.

 

 

Maybe more hyperbolic crochet (think coral) for the next one, although that is similar to the carnations. Something over the top anyway.

Too much fruit!

I've finished off another cosy. This one is number four for my mother in law's church stall? Two more are in progress.

No such thing as too much fruit?  This is my original design fruit basket tea cosy.

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Cosies galore

Crochet is a taking up all my time, so very little has been happening on the quilting front. I only have two ufo tops left to finish, my tone it down top and the really boring low volume top. I might add borders to it so I can use it as the backing for the tone it down top.

Talking to my sister one night, I decided to make her an owl cosy as a bit of a joke. I found a copy of an old pattern on Grand Purlba's site, bought a crochet hook and yarn and jumped right in.

Stupidly, I can't find a good photo of the final product!

In May, I saw a knit/crochet along for a pineapple tea cosy and had to join in! I didn't like my effort of the crochet stitch, so did a bit of research and found another stitch which I thought would work a treat. Obviously, that meant I couldn't follow the kal pattern.

Anyhow, I ended up making two pineapple cosies, one for my sister and one for me.

 

Charity cosies were next. I mostly made them up as I went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then one for my brother, with cattle dog puppies on it.

 

Then I reused the cosy base from the sunflower charity on, added more length to it and made a daffodil one for my mother.

 

Now, I have to make a new base for the sunflower, finish the base for a fruit basket cosy and a base for a carnation cosy. Who knows what I'll do after that!

 

Pretty quiet on the quilting front

DH has been getting antsy about the amount of time I spend quilting, so for winter, I've moved to crochet.

I did finish the drunkard's path lap quilts for some friends just before we went on holidays two weeks ago.  The backs are actually white flannelette, so I don't know why they look blue.

Here they are.

The front - 2nd drunkard's path

The back

detail

Front - 1st drunkard's path

the back

detail

 I played around with the layouts forever.  Each quilt uses the reverse block of the other.  I drafted my own template from cardboard and used it to cut the curves.  As the quarter circle takes up most of each block, I had to find layouts that didn't require all four bulky seams to come together.

These are lap quilts and I gave them to the recipients before I went on holidays.  Due to the rush, I forgot to label them!  Whoops.

I have been busy making tea cosies for family and charity and will show these in my next post.  I tried to teach myself to knit, and failed fantastically, so all the cosies I have made are crocheted.

Bloggers' quilt festival 2014 - too late to enter :-(

Thanks Amy for holding the bloggers' quilt festival.  This year I was entering a quilt in the original design quilts.  Sadly, I missed the deadline by a couple of hours.  Here is what would have been my entry.

I made this quilt for my niece.

First, I drew the design on paper, to decide how to make the tail.

Then transferred it to a huge piece of paper I made from cheap kitchen paper glued together, to create pattern pieces

The tail was sewn together, the body machine appliqued to the tail.  Then cam the fun of creating the eyes.

Each eye is made from four different fabrics, with two of them needle turned applique and the smallest and largest machine appliqued.  Fifty three eyes later........

The back was made, basting done and it was quilting on my sewing machine.  I quilted the fern design from Angela Walter's book on the tail sections of the peacock.  The label information was part of the quilting, then it was bound, washed, dried and sent off to my niece.

Label quilting.

The back

Crochet, no quilting

I've decided to crochet for a while, as the weather has turned cold in the sub tropics. Joined a pineapple tea cosy knit/crochet along, although I only crochet.

The layout of my second DP lap quilt is decided. Just the setting triangles to cut.

 

 

I also finished the owl tea cosy for my sister. It hasn't turned out quite as expected, but it can be the prototype (size wise) for the pineapple tea cosy, which is also for my sister. I'll make a big raspberry for my teapot, as it is short and stout.

 

I just realised I don't have a finished picture of the owl! Maybe the next post.

The pineapple tea cosy has involved a lot of unraveling. I didn't like my effort with the puff stitch, so created my own pattern. The original pattern is the top bit and the stitch I have decided on is the bottom section. I had more than half finished the second side before I realised it was too wide, so had to unravel the whole thing and start again. Grrr to self.

I hope to have it finished in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed that I won't have to unravel again, although I might redo the first side to make it straight. I am brain dead.