5000 Poppies- my poppy designs

I heard about the 5000 poppy project a little while ago & thought, I must look into that, but as always I got distracted. Last week I had the luck/pleasure of meeting 2 lovely ladies involved in it, Carol & Marie, & knew it was time to jump in. Carol gave me a brochure with some patterns to try, I also googled patterns, & got busy crocheting & knitting. The patterns I tried were lovely, but quite time consuming, so I decided to have a go at making up a pattern. I had changed one of the patterns I'd tried, adding an extra row of petals, so was feeling brave enough to try. The beauty of crochet is that it is very quick, & as you are only dealing with 1 stitch at a time, unlike knitting, it's easy to unpick & keep modifying.

So here it is, I hope you like it!
PS I've added a variation, scroll down to see version 2.

Jim's Poppy 

(for my dad)

You Will Need:

(UK crochet terms)

8 ply green wool/yarn
8 ply red wool/yarn
black 'eyelash' yarn
4.5mm crochet hook (Use bigger or smaller if you prefer).
  

 Using green wool/yarn make 4 chain & join them with a slip stitch. (or make a slip ring)

Row 1, 2 chain, then 11 trebles into the ring. End green wool.

Row 2, Join in red wool, work 2 chain & 1 treble, into the first space, 
work 2 trebles into each space. 
Join with a slip stitch.

Row 3, 2 ch & 1 treble into the first space, 
*1 treble into next space, 2 treble into the next.** 
Repeat from * to **. around the poppy. 
Join with a slip stitch. Fasten off yarn.

Sew in all ends & trim neatly.

Work a row of backstitch in black eyelash yarn around the green 'spokes.' (Easier to see with lines than the fluffy yarn.)

Use your darning needle to flip up the fluffy part of the eyelash yarn.

Make more! :-)



Pattern without pics.

You Will Need:

8 ply green wool/yarn
8 ply red wool/yarn
black 'eyelash' yarn
4.5mm crochet hook (Use bigger or smaller if you prefer).

Using green wool/yarn make 4 chain & join them with a slip stitch. (or make a slip ring)

Row 1, 2 chain, then 11 trebles into the ring. End green wool.

Row 2, Join in red wool, work 2 chain & 1 treble, into the first space, 
work 2 trebles into each space. 
Join with a slip stitch.

Row 3, 2 ch & 1 treble into the first space, 
*1 treble into next space, 2 treble into the next.** 
Repeat from * to **. around the poppy. 
Join with a slip stitch. Fasten off yarn.

Sew in all ends & trim neatly.

Work a row of backstitch in black eyelash yarn where the red & green rows meet.

Use your darning needle to flip up the fluffy part of the eyelash yarn.

Version 2 

Alfred's Poppy

my great uncle killed in action, France November 3rd, 1915

Work to end of Row 2 of version 1 then:
Row 3 Move up from row 2 to row 3 with just a slip stitch then, *1tr, 2tr, 1tr, 2tr, 1tr, slip st.,** repeat from * to **, making 4 petals.

I will add the eyelash wool. :-)

For more info on the 5000 Poppies project pop over to the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5000Poppies/ 

or blog: http://5000poppies.wordpress.com/

Mum's Birthday Pressie

    It's hard to believe that mum turns 85 next Monday. If you met her you'd think she was much younger, she is as sharp as a pin & still very independent. As happens every year i racked my brain to think of the right present. I asked a facebook quilt group for suggestions & one clever lady suggested a bag for mum's walker, if she has one. She does, not because she's doddery, but because she has hammer toes, the result of hand-me-down shoes. As one of 9 children, & the youngest of 5 girls growing up through the depression, it's not surprising. 

    Unfortunately mum lives 1000 kms from me, so I couldn't pop in for a visit to measure up the walker, I asked my nephew to take some pics while he was visiting & I had to wing it. He tells me mum isn't using the walker so I'm hoping this will encourage her! With this in mind I decided not to go with something pretty, but something cute, oh & the walker is red which immediately meant red, black & white to me. I hope she likes it.

  

It's 10" square, I used lightweight pellon to give it some body & some medium weight interfacing in the base. The pocket is for her keys so they are easy to find.  I sewed on red webbing to tie the bag to the walker.

I sent mum a photo album a couple of years ago with family pics in & I'm printing some more to send.

Clare's Craft Challenge #2

This finish came down to the wire as I was waiting for a nice warm day to paint the chair. I did get it undercoated a couple of weeks ago, but the weather since has been cold with a lot of wet. Anyhoo yesterday was lovely & I got the 2 top coats on. Today I covered the cushion, yes I could have done that anytime but.........:-)

Here are the two challenge photos that Clare sent me:

Here's what I started with:

So here is my tah-dah, all done & I'm very pleased with it. I would have used the darker blue if I'd have any, but I'm on another challenge of using what I have, & this is the darkest blue I had in a sample pot. The blue flower is actually quite close to the blue grey, it looks brighter in the pic.

& yes even under the cushion is finished. :-)

It also kick started a lot of furniture painting because I have a stall at a car boot sale early in November, so this is my chance to hopefully clear a lot of excess stuff from the garage. I have a dream that one day I'll be able to park at least one car in the garage.

I will blog some furniture pics in the next week or so. Right now I have been nominated by my friend Abby:
http://quiltiverse.com/2014/10/its-my-turn-at-the-around-the-world-blog-hop/
to take part in the Around the World Blog Hop, so I have another post to write. If you would like to be nominated please let me know in a comment.

Don't forget to pop over to Clare's blog:
http://clarescraftroom.blogspot.com.au/
to check out the other challenge projects, I'm on my way now! 

My Latest Challenge Project

I have signed up for another challenge with Clare & these are my challenge photos:

These are what I have chosen to use in my project:

A lovely old chair.

  Some bright fabric I bought a while ago because I couldn't resist it,

+ a pot of paint

So you can see the size of the flowers, quite big. 

Molly had to check out if it's a comfy chair, lol.

Watch this space to see the finished product. :-)

Cubes Makeover

I'm on a mission to get my house just the way I want it. We've lived in this house for 4 years now, & we have made quite a few changes/improvements, but there is so much more I want to do. The main object of the exercise, is to de-clutter as much stuff as possible. I get ridiculously attached to 'things,' & instead of all those things making me happy, I feel like I'm dragging them all along behind me, & boy are they weighing me down! 
Every so often Rowan & I daydream about moving to another country, & it all sounds so wonderful, but then I think about all the stuff I have collected over 54 years, & the idea of moving anywhere, let alone to another country, is a nightmare. SO, I'm getting rid of as much as possible to make life lighter & easier. The house will work for me, instead of against me, it will be quicker & easier to keep clean & tidy, & I'll know where everything is. 
My focus is on the lounge/dining/kitchen, which is an open plan area. Because it's a bit overwhelming to attack 3 rooms I'm breaking it down into areas. I've nearly finished 2 walls of the loungeroom, & here is a peek at a project for wall 1. The cubes were in another room, & I had an antique kitchen dresser in this position. I decided to jazz up the cubes & display things I love & will be keeping.

Before, boring.

After: I cut 3mm MDF squares, covered one side with
wallpaper & arranged them in the back of the cubes. 

 Just a few of my favourite things. As I work my way through the house I'll add more treasures. The typewriter was my dad's. I chose the wallpaper behind it with some yellow in it, as yellow was dad's favourite colour.

My Miniature Quilt Shop in Homespun Magazine

I received an email from Emma at Homespun magazine earlier this year asking if a pic of my dollhouse quilts, could be shown in an upcoming edition of Homespun magazine article on miniatures. I said yes please, & mentioned I also had a miniature quilt shop. Emma was interested in seeing pics of it so I sent a few through & Emma asked if they could be used too. I took this opportunity to add some more things to the shop before taking more pics for the article. Here it is in the September 2014 issue. I thought it would be a good time to blog my little shop for my regulars to see, & if anyone has come via Homespun, Hi & Welcome.

I built this mini quilt shop many years ago. It was a kit that I bought at an annual miniature & dollhouse show in Sydney. I built the little classroom to match, & added the side door to join the rooms. The shop is 1/12th scale, meaning 1 " = 12" which is a standard measure for most miniatures.

The quilt shop.

 I made the two quilts, the one behind the counter is hand pieced & hand quilted. The blocks are 1/2" square. The house quilt is made of pre-printed house fabric. I bought the beautiful braid rug, it is hand made.

The bolts of fabric are just fabric wrapped & glued around a piece of cardboard

The knitting corner.

Quilt shop from above.

The classroom.

I filled the stand with lots of mini magazines & mini fat 1/16ths.
I made the noticeboard & painted the scene on the stand.

The table in the corner holds a teapot & teaset,

because a classroom without a cuppa is no fun!

   The design board is a piece of felt glued to cardboard.

The class room from above.

Creative Challenge Reveal!

I signed up for a craft challenge a few weeks ago. The idea was that Clare would send me a random picture, & a colour. & I would use these to create 'something.'

Here is the challenge blog post:

http://clarescraftroom.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/are-you-up-for-creative-challenge.html

Clare emailed me these pics to base my project on:

I'll be the first to admit that my creative juices have pretty much dried up of late. I've been running on auto-pilot for quite a while now & it's hard to get my brain to focus. 

First I thought about making a small quilt, but I knew it would just get shoved in a cupboard with all the other small quilts I've made. I  love working with felt & haven't done so for a while, so that seemed very appealing. I do have a bit of pincushion obsession, & I tend to have them out on display so I can enjoy them, so I figured this would be a good way to go.

It's very simple as you can see, but it ended up taking a few days on & off as I tweaked it, & unpicked a bit here & there to change it. I enjoyed just pottering with it, & as I'm not up to much else at the moment I didn't feel guilty just faffing about with it. I also enjoyed the change from crocheting which I've been doing for the past 5 weeks. It's hard to tell the size by the pics the base has a 4" diameter.

My initial 6 week recuperation stage is nearly over so I'll be able to start doing more which will be good. No heavy lifting till next year, but I'm not sorry about that! :-)

Pop over to Clare's blog to see what other people did with their challenge.
http://clarescraftroom.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks Clare for a fun challenge!