Look at the Pretty!

Lots of pretty finishes in this post. First of all how lovely is this pink tutu. The top was bought but Kathleen made the actual tutu with no sewing involved. It was made with tulle which have cut into strips and then attached to elastic using a simple loop to keep it on. Very effective and so pretty.

Lyn made this beautiful wedding card. It's not really a card but more of a keepsake with all those wonderful layers. I can imagine any new couple hanging on to this as a reminder of their day.

A few years ago Helen, Isabel, Margaret and myself all knitted these scarfs with noro yarn. Poor Isabel loved hers but left it somewhere. She was on holiday a few weeks ago and there was a yarn shop which had noro yarn on sale. She saw that as a sign to knit herself a replacement. The colours aren't the same but I think this one is lovely. Don't think she will be losing it this time.

Margaret now has one finished cushion. She finished crocheting all her squares together during the week. The colours go lovely together.

We have another doily finished from the crochet class back on our craft day. This lovely doily was finished by Roberta. I don't know how she manages it as she has so many other projects on the go. Beautifully done.

These squares were also by Roberta. This was after one quick lesson last week. I love the purple and white together.

Elaine has also started attaching squares just to see what it looks like. Very effective with the black and white.

Warning! This Post Contains Lots of Finishes!

 Yep, we have a lot of finished projects this week. First off Magdalena had finished quite a few. The first is a lovely pink top for her daughter Zuzanna. As you can see she loves it as pink is her favourite colour. She also finished crocheting some pot holders which look fantastic. I would be worried they got dirty. Lastly Magdalena finished this lovely quilt for her youngest son. I love all the images on the fabric. He loves it so much he has been using it already.

Freya also had some more finishes for us. She is loving working with decoupage. She finished decorating this giraffe and this lovely box.

Miriam has been mainly working on cross stitch but she also tried her hand at knitting. This is her first attempt at it. Pretty impressive I think. She even managed colour changes.

Alison didn't get the chance to make bags at the craft day. So because of that and as a thank you for saving her scissors, Izzi made her three lovely bags.

Alison also had a finish herself and again this is from craft day. She finished the crochet sampler from Magdalena's crochet doily lesson. Looks lovely in pink.

 Linda finished knitting these lovely cowls. At one point I thought people were going to wrestle her for them. I love the buttons added to them. These are going into her shoe box charity.

I don't know if you remember but Donna had a card making kit at Gartmore last year. She got it out last week and finished this lovely card. She hasn't decided who it's for yet but whoever gets it is going to love it.

Dawn Marie finished her second pair of socks! These are for her mum and as she already had them on her feet Dawn kindly allowed me to copy her photo of them (can't blame her mum). I love the colours in them. Fingers crossed Dawn will make another pair but this time for herself.

I kept going with my crochet lesson too. You can see Margaret here working on crocheting her squares together.

Margaret has actually finished enough squares to put together her cushion which is why she was putting them together.

Dawn Marie also had a finished square. I love these colours. Will look fantastic when they are all stitched together.

Roberta had missed the lesson the week before because she was being taught scrapbooking from Helen. So she started one on Tuesday there and finished it too. She kept to the same yarn which was a variegated yarn. Made for an interesting effect.

Elaine also finished her square. I love the black and white together.

Scrapbooking With Helen

How great is this photo of Roberta? Can't remember what we were all laughing about but it made for a fantastic pic. The point of the pic is the hat and scarf that Roberta is modelling. She knitted this whilst travelling on the train that day and has given the set to Linda for her shoebox charity. I just love those colours.

A while back I had given Helen some scrapbook supplies that I wasn't going to use anymore. As a thank you she made this lovely card. I love how it all comes together.  This definitely has pride of place.

Anthea has been working on a crochet blanket for a few weeks now and she has just finished it. It's for her girls when they snuggle up to watch TV. It's made entirely out of scrap yarn from her own yarn basket and donated from family members. The colours truly go well together and I love the border. She has even lined it.

More finishes from craft day. These Sashiko coasters were made by Alison. Two of them have been photographed before but she has now finished the full set. They look amazing. I am sure that Val will be proud.

The second of the craft day finishes is this doily crocheted by Donna. Magdalena was so excited to see someone else had finished something from her class. This is the same pattern that others have done but looks stunning in white. More delicate somehow.

Helen also gave Roberta a scrapbook lesson. Roberta has thousands of photo's at home and after the craft day lesson she wanted more on how to put together simple pages. Helen volunteered and brought in one of her own albums as an example. It was a way for Roberta to see different ways of putting more than one photo on a page.

Here Helen is describing different ways that her page could be layed out after chosing her colours and frames for the photograph.

Alison watches on as she also plans to have another shot at scrapbooking.

This is Roberta's final page. A simple layout but very effective.

Gartmore at Home the Final - crochet with Magdalena

Remember this? This beautifully, delicate crochet was done by Magdalena and she offered to teach us how to do something similar.

Magdalena's class was more relaxed which was just what we needed at the end of a busy day of crafting. She had made up lots of samples and with each one contained copies of the pattern. That way whichever one we chose to work on we would be able to see what it should look like in the end. As all the patterns were done in the form of charts she also had sheets describing what each of the symbols meant. She also brought along a basket filled with crochet cotton. Each ball was just enough to do one of the samples and came in spring colours.

On each of the info sheets describing the samples there was also an indication of difficult of the piece. As a result many of us chose this one which was listed as easiest (although Magdalena was very encouraging in getting us to try some of the more difficult ones).

You can see Elaine here working on the easier pattern (it turns out it is easier because there is less counting involved).

None of us finished by the time we left although a large number had started an attempt. I was able to finish mine when I got home and I think Elaine has just about finished hers too. It has certainly made me think that maybe I could try more complex crochet. Thanks Magda!

I am sure there will be more photo's of people having tried some of the craft day lessons. So watch out for that. Also there will more than likely be another craft day later in the year. In the meantime we have actual Gartmore to look forward to followed by Donna's baby shower.

Valentine

Magdalena had quite a few finishes this week. She finished this beautiful doily which she had been working on, on and off for a few years now. All done in cotton. She will be teaching us how to do it at the Gartmore at Home day.

She also finished two jumpers. The blue one is for her son Adam and the green is for her youngest Jan. Both knitted up beautifully. She is now working on another jumper using a lovely variegated yarn.

Alison also had a finish. With the help of Izzi she has been learning to quilt. This is her first one and, not surprisingly, she is very proud of it. I love all the fabrics especially the little owls.

 
We had another donation for Roberta's charity. This was done by Lyn who was working on another. I love the rainbow colours.

I also had a finish. I finished these socks for a friend. It has a lace pattern at the front. I am now working on another pair of socks but this time for Alison.

As it was Valentines day it was a fairly quiet night. Only a small group of us but yet lots going on. There was some baby knitting, crochet blankets, cross stitch projects and we were all given a Christmas tree pattern. Oh, and Suzanna was learning to crochet.

There were still lots of people knitting for the charity. The last day for hand in is a week on Tuesday which is the 28th.

I won't be there this week so there will be no post update.