Red House Cross Stitch

Look what I've been up to! I've finished another project from the New Year Craft Resolution list so that's 4 finished projects!  In all honesty, the finished projects were close to completion, but having the list has made me more focused and motivated. 

Since we've had unbearably hot weather (with temperatures reaching up to 45*C), the most low impact craft activity I can do is cross stitch.  This pattern is from Rico Designs' Woodland Walks (see my other project here) and I've crossed stitched it on a aida panel tea towel (I bought 6 of these tea towels last year ...only 4 to go!).

Not that I have anything against deciduous trees, but the left tree in the pattern looked a little scrawny so I stitched a full evergreen tree to signify abundance instead (ok I'm a little superstitious even for a tea towel design).  The house reminds me of a McMansion near by with bright red bricks which I had dubbed "The Lego House" when I was a kid ... come to think of it, I still refer to it by this name!

Pastel Square Crochet Baby Blanket

Here is another project I can cross off the New Year Craft Resolutions list, that three projects within a month!  If I knew I could finish projects just because they are on "the list", I would have jotted them down years ago.  I hope I can keep up the enthusiasm, fingers crossed!
 

I was suffering from a serious bout of crochet withdrawal in early March 2013 as I had not crocheted for a few weeks. I was waiting for two lots of yarn orders ~ one from my favourite Bendigo Woollen Mills and the other from Deramores, a retailer from the UK which I was super excited about because I bought some delicious looking Stylecraft Special DK yarn that I've been drooling over in some British crochet blogs.  I needed to crochet with the yarn I had on hand so decided to make another blanket to donate.

I bought five 50g balls of Rosie's Studio Basic 4 ply baby yarn from The Craft Spot during 2012's Craft & Quilt Fair. Although I appear to use a lot of bright colours in my projects, I like softer palettes too, and at A$10 for the lot, I was super pleased.

To be honest, it's not a great yarn to crochet with, but the result is soft and cosy blanket. Following Meet Me At Mike's tutorial because I can only crochet two stitches, I had intended to make four squares from one ball of yarn and sew the square together. I then decided I didn't want to make squares any more so I joined the four pink squares together, and crocheted one big blanket.  The completed blanket measures approximately 73cm x 73cm and is the pastel version of the square blanket I made a couple of years ago.  Although it's not on the craft list, I'm in the mood to knit...

Red Vespa Scooter Cross Stitch

I was in the mood to complete a mono colour cross stitch during the Australia Day long weekend, so I selected the scooter pattern from Vert: Motifs de broderie traditionnelle et au point de croix.  I know it's not vert, but when I picture a Vespa, it's rouge!  I used my favourite DMC 666 on 14 count Aida cloth, and it took about four hours to complete.

Agnes Delage-Calvet and Anne Sohier-Fournel are my favourite cross stitch designers, and I have several of their books in English, French and Japanese.  If only I wasn't so time poor because I would love to stitch all the patterns!

This is my second project off my New Year Craft Resolution list (making at least two mono colour cross stitch pieces) so I'm traveling well!

Granny Square Cushion

I've been taking my New Year Craft Resolutions seriously and finished one of two crocheted cushion covers on the list.  Hooray, I have just the person to give it to as it's her birthday coming up.  I must confess the cushion was actually completed in early January 2013, but it took me a year to buy a cushion insert and sew it up!  Yep, I'm a major procrastinator!

I had left over yarn from the crocheted blanket I finished in 2012 which I was keen to use up because wastage is tomorrow's shortage (gasp, one can't run out of yarn!).  The tiny bundles of brightly coloured yarn were just begging to be made into something useful so they were transformed into a cosy cushion!

Each colour square consist of five rounds of treble stitch which is edged with white acrylic yarn. I had an extra pink square left over from the blanket...because I can't count, which came in very handy because it became the back of this cushion. Two thumbs up ~ I used the left over yarn and found a use for the extra square! I now have an excuse to buy more yarn (chuckle, like a need an excuse)!