Red it is.

Do you have a colour that you never feel comfortable using!  For me it is red, I buy red wool or cotton  in tending it for a project and when I come to use it I hate it and choose another colour.  I think I have this feeling about red all my life, I can remember having a tantrum when I was about 8 when my mother wanted me to wear a red dress, I hated it shouting at her that she always dressed me in red and I hated red.   The weird thing was that whenever I wore red everyone would comment and say I looked pretty in it and how red suited me.

I must be mellowing in my old age!  For today I have a red top on and this week red has featured in my crochet in a big way.

First, a sweet little doily from the November doily Cal from the Our Happy Cal Place group on Ravelry.  The doily is Snowflake Doily and Coasters by Binita Majhi.

The variegated red and green cotton was sent to me from Bettina, a Spanish swap partner, she also sent me some other lovely cotton that we can’t get here in NZ.  Lots of coloured doilies coming up.

The second red doily is the December doily Cal from the same group above. I thought it would be good as a Christmas doily.  It is the Starshine Doily by Katherine White.

The third project is not finished yet; it is a doily for a friend who has been hinting to me ever since I took up crochet 2 years ago that she would like a red and black doily for her coffer table.  She has stopped hinting, so imagine her surprise when she opens her gift on Christmas day!

In between this all I have finished my Around the Bases afghan, got to do the ends, when will I learn to do them as I go, lol.  I will post pictures next week.

Finally, here is some more red from my succulent collection.

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting.

Sharon.

Best Laid plans.....

Wow it is Sunday again!

I am beginning to realise that lists and plans are not compatible with me.  I like making them, but somehow I do the opposite! But hey, I am retired now (since last December) and I don’t have to follow a schedule. 

I was going to work on my Around the Bases but a friend asked me to do a Baby Blanket for her soon to be granddaughter.  I thought it was a good opportunity to try doing the C2C.  I love it!  I think more C2C’s will be in my future.

I haven't yet worked out a border, but I think something simple?

I was going to finish the doilies from last week, but another friend was telling me about the antics of her cat, Julie had been in the habit of leaving a jug of water on the bench as water straight from the tap was too icy to drink.  She went into the kitchen one morning to find her Kitty drinking from it, lol.  Needless to say she now covers it.  She has been looking for one of those old fashioned milk jug covers but hasn’t been able to find one for love of money.  Then, we looked at  each other, and thought doilies.  So, I have been searching out covers.  I found one on Crochet Memories, and it is lovely and quick to make up.

Beaded Textured Cup Cover by Crochet Memories

However it is too small for the job in hand, so I have spent a lot of time this week designing my version of a jug cover.  Most doilies tend to have really open centres which is not a good thing as we don’t need flies etc crawling in!!

I am pleased with it, but when I do another one there will be some modifications.   But I know Julie will be over the moon with this one.

I will write up and it do a chart for this jug cover and post it for anyone who would like to try it.

Well, that has been my week and I will leave you with a photo of one of my favourite winter flowers from my garden, Winter Sweet. (Chimonanthus ). When the garden is bare this shrub perfumes the air as you walk by it. 

Have a wonderful week, and hopefully I will get some of the ATB done, lol.

And do please visit some of the other participants in the YOP group, just click on the button in the sidebar at the top.

Cottony Goodness

Hello everyone, hope you all had a wonderful week, I did.  You would think that being in the middle of winter that I would be beavering away with my snuggly warm Afghans.  No, I am having a love affair with cotton. Doilies, jam covers, and a bag has graced my hooks this week. 

First of all a bag that started out as a tea towel!!!

And yes it is grey and not a black and white photo.  While I am a colour junkie with my art and crafts I wear neutral tones a lot, although my accessories are usually full of colour.  This did really start out as a kitchen towel, a weekly cal at  2016weekly and dishcloth cals had a pattern that looked interesting, as I always wanted to try a towel, I thought it would be just the ticket. However, I did not choose the right cotton and as I crocheted I was beginning to realise it was too soft and silky for a towel.  So it sat there for a while, I was reluctant to undo it all as a lot of time had gone into it… those single crochets!  Then I had a brain wave, a bag!

It was about the right width so I added a flap using black loop sc.  Made a button flower and strap and hey presto!  I just need to line it with the material you see in first photo and I have a stylish bag I think.

Now enough of grey!  Some colour please.

I love doilies antique ones, modern ones, whatever I am a sucker for them.  This week I have been working on one I found on Pink Rose Crochet Blog

It is called Moon Beans by Fujiko Takagi. There is lots of eye candy on this blog if you like doilies etc., and even better some come with charts.

I had hoped to finish it for today’s post but as you see I didn’t, on the last round though.  The reason I didn’t finish was I got distracted by a blog I found this week called Crochet Memories.  There are some gorgeous doilies.  I couldn’t help myself.

I have been wanting to make set of coasters for gifts for ages  and she has several pattern which are gorgeous.

This Lacy Textured Mandala Coaster has so many colour possibilities, and I think I will be doing lots of them.

And gulp I started another doily, a ruffled one. the cal for it has just finished and I am up to week 2.

Also another doily Potpourri Spring Pineapple Lace Doily, I noticed that it could be stopped early and would make a jam cover, as I am in the process of gearing up to make marmalade.  I thought that would be wonderful for gifts.

I am going to carry on and do the full doily with this one, as I need to find some orange cotton for the flowers for the marmalade jam jars.

Soon I will be back to some snuggly wool Afghans.  I am taking part in the Ravellenics on Ravelry with the Colourful Cals group. 

I am entered in the WIP Wrestling and a Cowl Jump events.

For the WIP Wrestling event I decided to finish the 2015 Bam Cal Afghan

All the squares are done I just have to join them and do the border. So far only two are joined! Doable in two weeks I think.  I will show the Cowl I have decidecd on during the games.

Phew if you are still here well done.  I will leave you with a photo of some Daphne I picked today that is gracing my kitchen window sill and is scenting the whole house.  

I love Daphne, as to me it indicates that the garden is starting to wake up after its winter's rest.

Have a wonderful happy week crafting everyone and thank you for visiting.

Just Doodling Along....!

Circumstances haven’t allowed me to do much art lately but I still manage to get in a little bit of doodling with pastels and paints.  These are a few from this week’s colour plays.

And a painting I did of roses - a request from a loved family relative – “I would love you to do me some roses dear, pink ones, but proper!’  I hope these will be “proper” enough! Lol.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a creative week.

Linking to Paint Party Friday hosted by the lovely Kristin and Eva.

Paint Party Friday

This week has been a watercolour week with a bit of digital art thrown in.

Our autumn has been crazy, maybe because of the drought which broke last week, bushes are flowering that should not flower until spring!  There are camellias, magnolias, daphne and even blossom on the fruit trees.  Of course I had to pick the daphne as it has an amazing scent.  In this picture I used gouache as I wanted to use white to give that translucent waxy feel the flowers have. 

   

This painting is a watercolour abstract; I did after a painting I did earlier in the week.  I tend to mix up too much paint as it can be difficult to get the same tone if you have to mix up some more during the painting.  As a result I have lots of abstract watercolours, which often turn into pages for my journal.

In my digital work I have been carrying on with my theme of behind the lace series and it is evolving quite well. I am quite pleased with the one below, this beauty I found on the web and I used brushes from http://www.annikavonholdt.com/brushes/ as well as a photo of an old window with overgrown scrub outside.  I think it gives as feeling of times long gone.  For my ladies I have decided to use a mix of images from free copy right sites and my family and I am going to experiment with drawings or paintings of the ladies concerned.

I won’t be posting for the next few weeks, as I am having surgery on my shoulder next week, but I will visit!  Time to catch up on my reading hopefully!  Perhaps, I will do some drawing with my left hand!

Have a happy Paint Party Friday

Hollyhocks

 

For my entry for Diana Evan's 10Minute Warn Up today I have a watercolour of a hollyhock from my garden.  I thought that they had died, but with the recent rain they have spurted back into life.  As it is still hot everything has gone crazy, you would think it was spring instead of autumn.

This picture today is much more successful than yesterday’s, as I haven’t overworked it!  Although I think I went a bit overboard on the magenta in the flower centers, on the other hand it might be what brings the picture into life!.  I timed myself today too!  12 concentrated minutes and 5 minutes later on when paint dried, to add a touch here and there, so 17 minutes.  Mind you they are small, above is the actual size, nowhere to hide, lol!!

Blossom in Autumn!

I always like to challenge myself.  One of the hardest things to do is paint white.  Well I find it hard, lol.  So for my 10 Minute Warm Up at Diana Evans link up is painting white blossom.  Yeah, I know it is autumn here.  But I have actually got blossom on my apple trees!  I think it is because we have had a drought and it finally rained last week.  The trees have got confused.  I can see I was a bit heavy handed in some of the shadow areas, but overall I am pleased.  What would we do without Paynes Grey!

Thanks Diana for getting me to get my little watercolour sketch pad out.