Crochet blanket progress

I think I will need around 75 blocks to make a single blanket.
15 blocks completed. 60 to go!

New project

I'm learning to crochet. I want to make Lara and Sam a granny square blanket (each). Here are a couple of my practice squares. I have a few teachers (a friend, mother-in-law and a book), but each told me slight differnt stitches (I'm sure there are many ways to do grannty squares) and I struggled to understand the book (it was a very lovely book called 200 crochet blocks by Jan Eaton from the library). My fingers are sore from holding the wool and needle and my squares are a little too 'loose' but I'm gettint there. I can now "see the stitches" so I can tell if I'm doing it right.

This new hobby provides a nice distraction, a goal to focus on. I'm very excited thinking about the colour combinations of the blanket. There are so many nice blocks I want to do when I'm better, but I need to understand the book first (and finish my first blanket!)

Birthday cards

I spent a few hours over two days and made these cards during Sam's day sleeps. I enjoyed thinking about the design and rearranging the pieces to make the final product.

Lara's cot quilt

My mother-in-law bought some nice material last year to do a cot quilt for Lara. She put the whole thing together very quickly then handed it to me to hand-quilted the top. I started in November before the hot of summer and I remembered thinking yeah easy I'll surely have it completed well before winter is here.

Well ... I just finished it (thank god it's still winter!) and it's on Lara's cot! Even though Lara's too young to stay underneath it, it should at least provide some warmth in those cold winter mornings.

Beautiful quilts at 2008 Craft show

I spent a enjoyable day at the Craft show in Darling Harbour with Gabs today. We started at 10am and by 3pm, we were both exhausted! I didn't really buy anything nor did I want to buy anything - I've got enough unfinished craft projects to do! I just felt like a day out to see what was there and hopefully get inspired. It is one of my resolutions to make my own patchwork quilt(s) one day. Hopefully I'm getting closer to that goal.

This is one of my favorite quilts at the show. Looks like the judges liked it too.


This quilt was made by a 7-year old. It also won a prize in the junior quilter category. What a clever seven year old!! This picture encouraged me to make a start soon.


I like the colour of this one, a clever design too.


This looked stunning from afar. I think I should start with a simple square one that doesn't require complicated maneuvers of a sawing machine. I actually saw a quilt at the show that could be my first project. I didn't buy the kit ($150) as it would only fit on top of a single bed. Am I being too ambitious to want to do a quilt for our king-size bed as a first quilt project?

Lara's activity book

This can probably be loosely classified as "craft".
I spent a couple of nights doing a cover for Lara's activity book for day care.

I did some tidying up the other night and found these stickers that I have kept for the last 20 years (how I loved stickers when I was young!). In the spirit of "using things up", I decided to put some of these stickers on the cover of Lara's activity book. I also did a few simple drawings of animals and objects appeared in Lara's books to fill the blanks.


(Here's the front)


(And back)

It ended up looking quite busy, but I enjoyed this first 'homework'.