My beautiful grandchildren

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Another trip to visit my family…

September is birthday month in our family, I usually take myself of to Canberra so my daughter and I can have our birthdays together and of course Jack now has his birthday at the same time. I went on my own this year as Don was bowling at a championship in Sydney for a week.

Jack turned 5 this year, I can’t believe how the years have flown! He wanted a DS for his birthday and got one, talk about keep him quiet, he had that thing in his hands for the entire 10 days I was there.

The party had to be inside this year as the weather was more like the middle of winter than the first month of spring.

Katie was her usual self, opens the mouth when the eyes open of a morning and doesn’t close it until the eyes close at night! But she is delightful, great to have a conversation with. Here she is dressed for Jacks party in the little red dress I made for her, love the boots!

Katie was Grandmums Girl while I was there, one day she was off playing with her toy horse and dinosaur – I thought in her room – she came out to me and told me there was surprise in my bed.

She had put her toys in my bed so I wouldn’t be lonely without Granddad….. a moment a grandmother won't forget, pity they have to grow up!

Gold Crochet Rope revamped

I made this crocheted rope a few months ago but was never happy with the closure so it has been redone with some lovely tulip end caps that I ordered from America, the same large crystals put back on and a bigger slide bolt (not sure what it is called) clasp, then the gold filigree pendant added last. Love it now, it just needed more!

A friend turned 21 this week, so I quickly made some earrings to go with and gave it to her for her birthday, she loved it too.

Beaded Bracelets

I fell in love with the Glenwood Bracelet designed by Nancy Cain so I emailed her and asked if she would sell me the pattern as she didn’t have it available in kit form at the time.

This is my first Glenwood bracelet, cranberry red delicas with black and gold delicas and 3mm jet swarovski bicones as the feature bead in the centre.

and the closure is 6mm jet swarovski rondelles

The bracelet is so easy to make and comes together quickly, I have made 2 more but only have a photo of one of them.

I was a little disappointed in the beads with this one, in the pack they looked chocolate brown with teal highlights, but made up they appear to be a greyish colour. The highlight delicas are a gold AB finish with burnt gold 4mm bicones. The finished bracelet looks great anyway.

Katies flower bed

I had to have something quilty here for one of my online groups Friday Flaunt!!!

I have made some progress this last week on Katies first bed quilt, finally finished making all the rotten circles for the flowers and have most of them stitched to the background squares. I still have to make the leaves and the striped blocks are supposed to have a white scalloped piece down one side.

But there has been progress!!!!!

Have you ever….

made something when you really couldn’t find inspiration?

My daughter handed me these beads following a trip she and her dh made to Melbourne, she asked me to make her a necklace and earrings with them.

I have had them for ages, must be over a year now I think, and just couldn’t figure out what to do with them. Finally bought some chain and started to play. This is the result, it looks better with only one leaf as the pendant, but as she had paid for the swarovski leaves I felt I had to use them :-0. Perhaps when she gets them next month she will agree and I will take the other 2 off.

The weird thing about this is the beads and the leaves appear to be the same colour when they are sitting on the bench, but when you put the necklace on, the beads take on a blue tone, you can see a little of this in the photo, but it looks more noticeable against the skin.

At least it is another UFO done!

More crochet rope

The crochet bead rope bug is still with me, I enjoy the process of crocheting beads, it is a great project and so easy to do sitting in front of the TV at night.

This rope alternates 3 seed beads with a bugle bead, I found some cute little bell charms to use as end caps and the gold filigree heart has a swarovski heart hanging inside, that almost didn’t happen as it was very fiddly getting the crystal heart inside the filigree one. Simple earrings to with it, the same crystal hearts on a gold shepherd hook . I think this will become a favourite piece to wear.

Harper and his quilt

My nephew posted some photos of his son Harper with the quilt I made for him earlier this year.

Now all I need to do is convince Nathan that it is a quilt and not a rug :-)

This is the first quilt that I have used black fabric in, I really like it, I think there will be more quilts with black in the future.

Beaded Rope Crochet

I finally managed to teach myself bead rope crochet! I have been trying to learn this technique for several years now without success. I have been able to crochet all my adult life, but the darn beads were my downfall.

I have read all the beaded crochet books I could get my hands on to try to help me, then the last book from the library suggested that if you are crocheting a 6 bead round, to make the 6th bead a different colour, what a revelation for me.

This is my first finished piece, I love it, the beads are size 8 2cut seed beads, I used two colours and alternated them.

This is my next project, using clear beads and red crochet cotton, every sixth bead is a drop bead and it creates a lovely spiral around the rope.

I love the way the variegated red cotton shows through the clear beads.

I am not sure how this piece will be finished, perhaps a necklace with some clear crystal drops hanging mmmmmm…..

Katies first bed quilt.

I am very excited as I have just ordered a new bed quilt pattern http://patchworksplus.com.au/products/Candy_Girl-67-39.html 

This is for my granddaughters first bed, so I have some time to make it as she is still in a cot. My daughter said Katie will go into a bed at the end of the year, so I have plenty?? of time to make the quilt.

I have to say the business owner, Sarah, was so helpful, this pattern was actually on her site as a prize for a give away, but when I wrote to her she agreed to sell it to me. 

This is a new online business so please check it out. I like to support Aussie patchwork shops.