Craft Life

I’ve recently had a surge of crafting activity and not just on my quilt, which is rocketing along at the moment, but also on the striped baby-grow I’m knitting for Flo and some other household crafting which has been begging to be done for some time.

Ages ago I knitted up some gorgeous curly mohair into cushion covers for my sofa, but a couple of years later they’re malting all over the place and Florence keeps turning up with fists full of fluff. So it was time for them to go and they were unpicked and packed away for a time when tiny hands aren’t trying to tear or eat them.

With the cold weather rolling in I’ve been spending more and more time under my favourite blanket which I knitted throughout my primary school holidays . This knitted relic has been with me through thick and thin but I haven’t shown it much love back. There were large rips in the soft backing fabric and big pulls in several of the squares. So I gave it some much needed TLC by replacing the fabric, washing the knitted top and repairing the pulls. The new lease of life in the blanket means that we’ll be lovely and cosy this winter without the fear of putting our feet though the worn thin fabric.

Continuing with the Christmas theme I made some of Nigella’s Christmas Cupcakes from How to Be a Domestic Goddess today and topped them with edible glitter from one of my favourite shops Lakeland. You’ll never know that you needed so many crazy gadgets and home-wares until you’ve been to this shop and coveted an egg poaching cup or a magic ironing board cover. These cup cakes along with it being the first Sunday of Advent today and the ‘Holidays are Coming’ Coke ad I saw on TV have signalled the true start of the festive season.

To give you a quick quilt update I have sewn the front together and made the backing, which is basically like making another whole quilt! I tried to make it as simple as possible to save some time and it was considerably quicker than making the front. I then sandwiched the front and back with the squishy wadding and have tacked it in place. The next step is the actual quilting part, which involves me hand stitching around each star and across each candy cane square. That’s hand stitching. By hand! Even once I’ve finished that I’ve got binding to put round the edge. Can this really be finished by Christmas?

Sadly I didn’t make it along to the Craftacular today. Did you? How was it? What was in the goody bag? Oh how I love a goody bag!