Sonic Blanket Progress Report!

My hands have been busy this past week! What you see here are 38 completed granny squares! I have decided to work row by row, then I will be able to see my results quicker. I have also done 6 black squares for the eyes which aren't shown.

 I edited the sonic picture to show you the area that I have completed, since you can't really tell from the photos.

I have also started joining them together in rows so I can give myself a break from squares and so I don't have to do it all at the end. I am just joining them together with a single crochet stitch.

 The other thing I found out is that Sonic will be HUGE! All the better for snuggling with. Also, less squares to crochet for the background!

Pretty good progress I think! Here's hoping the motivation keeps up.

My New Project - Sonic Granny Square Blanket

This is what my newest long term blanket is going to look like! I am so excited about how it will turn out.

In total there are 319 squares in Sonic, not including the background! I have a long-term project on my hands!

My motivation is going pretty well, I have finished all the black and red squares and have started on the dark blue outline. I did a huge amount over the weekend and have averaged about 4 a night since.
I was inspired by the 1UP Mushroom blanket that Paisley Jade created.

I am doing the Summer Garden Granny Square by Attic24 but doing one less round than she did. So I have mini granny squares! 

I will keep you up to date with the progress.

By the way, have you entered my 50th Post Giveaway yet? Not long left to enter!

50th Post Giveaway!

According to my Blogger stats, this is post number 50! that is a lot of posts in 6 months!

To celebrate, I am going to have my very first GIVEAWAY!

Do you remember way back when, I made THESE COOL BRASS FRAMES and did THIS AWESOME TRANSFORMATION with them?

Well I am giving away the blue one to one of you wonderful readers!

To enter the competition, just subscribe to my blog via Google friend connect or subscribe via email,
Then leave me a comment letting me know why you should win.
The winner will be drawn in two weeks time on Friday 6th July by random.


You can earn yourself an extra entry if you share this giveaway and let me know how you did it!

Good luck!

Competition only open to NZ readers.

(p.s the subscription links can be found on the right sidebar near the top)

From T-Shirt to Cushion

Dave has a band t-shirt he loves, but it got into a bit of a pink accident with a towel. So he never wore said t-shirt again in public. He suggested I turn it into a cushion for him. I figured what the hey, I can do that. So I did.

Edit: Credit for this idea came from the beautiful Rosita Kennedy!

Pretty cool ay! The band, if you are interested, is August Burns Red. You may want to turn down your speakers slightly.

The other project I undertook at the same time was turning a wee tote bag into a cushion.

Its already a cushion at this stage, I just pretended the straps were still on :P

This tote bag was a $2 charity donation with purchase at Typo. I stuffed both cushions with remnants from the winter weight duvet inner I used for my Quilt.

(I borrowed this idea from my friends Alicia and Corey. They had done it with 2 of these bags, and I had one lying around - Thanks!)

Op Shop Finds

Saturday gave me a quick opportunity (pun intended) to head to our local (sort of) Salvation Army store. I say sort of because the closest two have closed because of earthquakes.

Anyway, I picked up a few good bargains, for the nice total of $5

A pretty picture frame

A pillowcase with pretty material and a single bed duvet cover with a honeycomb pattern

Some new sheet music for crafts and a tiny crochet hook

Not bad huh.

I have also been out spotting some funny stuff and photographing it:

In the self-serve drink bay at McDonalds - I just paid for my drink, I think I'll have some water.

I'd like a set of Wenches please!

Tutorial: The 5 Fat Quarter Scarf

Remember that felt fox I made last week? Well in the same prize pack I won, there were 5 fat quarters in various bright prints. I didn't want to go and buy more fabric to go with what I had, so I searched the mighty Google for things to make with fat quarters. Lo and behold I found a tutorial for a scarf (handy since it is freezing here) that needed 5 fat quarters (how convenient! Exactly how many I had!)

I followed a tutorial based on one over at Tea Rose Home but I was organized and took photos along the way so I thought I would give you a simple run down of how I did it.

My 5 fat quarters

1. Cut each of your fat quarters into 6 strips. I cut off the selvedge and worked along from there. I cut each in half, then in thirds.

2. Next, lie the strips in 6 rows of 5. Play around with the arrangement so you are happy with how each row looks with its neighbours.

3. I offset every second row so all the seams wern't in the same place, this may affect how you placed each strip so choose carefully! (I didn't mean to have the oranges so close together but it happened somehow)

4. Sew all strips together in long strips first, then join each row.

My birthday rotary cutter. So sharp and easy!

5. Fold the scarf in half lenthwise so the right sides are together. Cut off any excess material on each end from off-setting the rows.

6. Fold the end of the scarf up on a 45 degree angle and cut. (Feel free to use a neater way of doing this if you are more of a perfectionist than me!)

(You may now also iron your seams if you so desire)

7. Keep the scarf folded and sew around all edges, leaving a hole along the side to pull the scarf in on itself.

8. Trim the corners and pull the scarf right way out. Use a pen or similar to bring the ends to a nice point.

9. Iron the scarf so the seams sit flat.

10. Top stitch close to the edge of the scarf all the way around and take this opportunity to sew the gap closed as you go.

11. Iron again if it needs it, otherwise - CONGRATULATIONS! You just made a super awesome bright scarf.

Note: The fabric may feel a bit stiff, throw it through the wash or wear it lots and it will wear itself in.

How I wore it:

This scarf makes me feel a little bit brighter about a bleak winter ahead. It will get used heaps.

If you make one, please share photos, I would love to see what combinations you come up with!

Felt Foxes

I have been on a bit of a lucky streak lately. It is nice to have a few fun things happen after feeling a bit rotten. I won a double pass to the Roller Derby this weekend, found $20 on the side of the road on the way home and a wee while ago I won an awesome fabric package from Sew Pretty in the Unfolding Hope Campaign.

Included in that package was a few pieces of felt. I hadn't worked with felt before so it was a bit of a challenge but I think Mr Fox looks pretty fantastic. No plans for him yet, he might live on Dave's office desk.

In case you hadn't noticed, I am by no means a perfectionist. I am quite happy to leave things a little rough, which drives Dave crazy sometimes.

The size of Mr Fox

What inspired me was this cute wee brooch my amazing friend Holly from Hollymayb whipped up for me. It is seriously the coolest brooch ever. I wear it with pride.

Also, stay tuned, I have been given permission to feature some of Dave's awesome creations and hacks, there may even be a fancy header involved (Thanks Soph!)

QUILT FINISHED!!!!

On a chilly but sunny Sunday afternoon, I decided that enough was enough and my quilt was going to be finished. This afternoon.

Snow still on the ground

I have to admit it cut a few corners here and there (not literally).

Since I used silly thick winter duvet batting, machine quilting was out of the question. I attempted hand quilting some of the intersections but gave that up too.

In the end I just cut the batting to size and folded the backing material over the front and sewed each side. That is done enough for me.

I can always go back and hand quilt if I feel the need. But lets be honest here, I probably wont.

Anyway, we can officially call this project finished.

Ta-da!

You can follow my quilt progress here:
A Quilt of Sorts
Quilt Update
Un-finished Objects

A Tekapo Adventure

Dave's parents caravan - home for the weekend

Over Queens Birthday weekend, Dave and I had our first proper holiday for the year. I had been looking forward to it for a good few months.

What I was not expecting was for it to be so COLD!!! (Little did I know it would snow in Christchurch the day after we got home).

Sunrise

Luckily we had warm clothes and all the power we could use in a tiny caravan so the oil heater did its job and kept us roasty toasty. 

Tekapo lake, and a breakfast on tupperware camping plates

We lazed about for heaps of the weekend, but managed to fit in a few activities, walks along the lake, watching ice hockey, an evening soak in the hot pools overlooking the lake, a dinner out, walking driving up Mt John to check out the view and observatory, stumbling upon a classic car picnic and making good use of the gas stove in the caravan.

Ice hockey drills, the kids were so cute in their giant uniforms

Lil' bit of humour there

View from Mt John: Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo and a very windy day.

A classic car rally stops for a picnic by the lake.

It was so nice to get out of Christchurch for just a couple of days and do not-very-much.

P.s I have been playing around with PicMonkey to edit my photos, sorry for the non-cohesiveness of the effects etc.