Art Journal pg 10

Page 10 of my art journal lives opposite page my page 9. I prepared it and painted it at the same time. From then on I worked on the two pages treating them as one. I figured when  the page was opened, you will see both at the same time, so they have ended up similar, but not exactly the same.

Both were prepared with mod podge, both were painted and stamped, and yes I hated both. Both got the cut out paper treatment . The cuts were randomly done on the paper, so the holes are different shapes. The patterns that I drew inside and around the holes are also different, but the two pages flow well together.

In the beginning I hated these pages, but by adding the paper and patterns in and around the holes,  the pages have been  brought to life.

Christmas Wishes

Just popping in to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with joy, happiness, family, food, and of course some creativity.

This little Christmas Bell will by now be adorning a Christmas tree somewhere. I have actually made twelve of them to give to family and friends. They should all be at their final destination by now.

The decoration itself is done in Hardanger work with some counted thread work used to create the poinsettias and holly leaves. Once cut and blocked, the bells were then backed with felt. They were made using a free pattern that I found on-line.

So Merry Christmas everyone, and may your day be happy and bright.

A Stash Buster Baby Blanket

I've done a few baby blankets now, but this one is the first one that I have not used a pattern for. It is also the first time that I have combined knitting and crochet together.

It began when I heard through the family grapevine that one of the nieces was trying to have a baby. I thought I could make a blanket for her now, and  it would be ready if and when this baby arrived.

I was thinking that I could order some more wool through Bendigo Woollen Mills, then remembered I had some in my stash that I had purchased many years ago. It was acrylic, not my favourite to work with.

At the time that I purchased the yarn, another lady I know had just had her first daughter and I wanted to make her something small, so I only purchased a few balls of the pink and the white yarn. I stared on a little matinee jacket, but felt the yarn was not suitable for a newborn's skin , and I changed my mind to make a blanket instead. Silly me, of course a blanket was going to take way more time and way more yarn, so back to the shop I went to purchase more. As this stage, the store was only selling whole packets of yarn ( they we going to close down so I found out later), so ended up with ten extra balls of pink and ten extra balls of white. Mmmm......... a lot of yarn, but I knew it would all get used one day.

Needless to say the original purpose of the yarn didn't happen, it ended up a blanket that I gave to a family member when she had her daughter. That blanket can be seen here. Even after completing a blanket, I still had heaps of yarn left, and thought that if I combined the two colours together I could get another blanket for this hoped for baby.

So then I started searching the internet for ideas, and found one that had a border of granny squares .  It got me thinking, and I started making granny squares. Then I had to work out the center, it had to fit, so some maths was involved that didn't really work out so I added in more granny squares to compensate. I pondered over what pattern to put in the center, and decided to use just plain old moss stitch. It would give a texture without distracting from the granny squares, and it wouldn't curl at the edges and make life difficult. Then I added another  border in pink, also in moss stitch.

OK, so the blanket is finished. The original family member that I made it for is still not pregnant ( as far as I know), then when she does conceive, it may even be a boy. So what do I do with this blanket? At the moment it is packed away ready for the first baby girl that comes along. There are at least two babies due within the extended family in 2018, but I have planned other projects for those two. We will see, it may even go to charity yet.