a crochet cushion for a VSP...

A VSP (very special person) has had a bedroom makeover just recently and needed a new, more manly bedroom cushion (grandad look away now). It's been impossible to photograph this subtle duck egg blue accurately but take it from me, it's a lovely colour!

If you're thinking of quick Christmas gifts cushions have got to be a winner. I have leisurely crocheted a square or two a day and less than a week later the 9 squares are ready to sew together.

I think I will try a new type of back this time; two panels that slightly overlap with button holes. Last time I just sewed the whole thing closed which isn't ideal if it needs washing.

The design looked a bit of a jumble before joining the squares but they are ever forgiving and look ok now. In fact this colour scheme goes quite well on our sofa!

postcards from the cat...

a crochet u-turn...

I hit a psychological block with my simple cowl. It was soft and pliable but it bothered me that it looked stiff and uncomfortable. It was in danger of being thrown on the UFO pile until I remembered some bag handles I've been hoarding for years...

...and the uninspiring cowl became a magazine tote! Woohoo! I'm so happy with this bag as it turned out to be perfect for the handles and for magazines with no planning whatsoever! It needs a lining really but I will probably do that when I have to get the sewing machine set up for something else. (The sewing machine is not my best friend!).

One project 'off the hook' means I can start a new project right?

all is forgiven...

I feel a bit of a whinger after yesterday's post about crocheting for people you've never met! Mr H has just sent me a photo from his iPhone of his happy colleague wearing the flower brooch. It seems she liked it very much. Now that feels good to know.

I'll forgive him just this once!

crochet flower brooch...

Call me fussy but I'm really not keen when my husband sells my crochet skills to complete strangers and then offers them a handmade something or other!

That's what he did just recently; admired a knitted flower a colleague was wearing and said, 'oh my wife could make you one of those!' Grrrrrr! I've never even met this colleague so how I am supposed to gauge her taste in knitted flower corsages (even if I did want to give up my time to make one!)?

I doubt this little crochet effort will fit the bill given that my husband issued the brief, ie. small and in dusky colours. Lots to go on eh?

On the plus side I did use a nifty little pattern from one of my books (200 Crochet Flowers, Trims and Embellishments, details on my amazon shop page) which didn't take very long.

I did before felting and after felting photo's but side by side they didn't look that different despite the fact that it shrunk considerably.

I like the way the centre is a little dome, it gives it a bit more of a 3D quality. A fun thing to add to a bag maybe?

squash...

One of the best things we've done this year is sign up for a local veg box scheme. It's a flexible system which we can alter online as we go.

I loathe food shopping almost as much as I loathe clothes shopping so having fresh organic produce delivered to the door feels like the ultimate luxury.

It's been a learning curve too. To begin with there were things I'd never seen before, like purple Kohlrabi!

The children are gradually coming round to squash now, having overcome their suspicions that it was closely related to the disgusting swede or even worse, the yam! To date I have done mainly butternut squash soup which has always gone down well.

Take a look at The Intolerant Gourmet (listed under blogs I like) for Pippa's latest recipe 'Roasted Masala Vegetables' which includes butternut squash amongst other things. I'll be giving this a whirl today, it looks delicious!

homework I like...

I love 'junk craft'. You know the sort where you gather all the rubbish and snippets of things that you've saved 'just in case'? I have boxes of this and they do come in handy for the odd school project.

I'm not that old that we didn't have craft supplies for children in my day but it did tend to be mainly sugar paper and stars you had to lick and stick. Not terribly inspiring eh? I can remember doing an elaborate mosaic once using lentils, split peas, washers and shattered glass amongst other things.

Now that *J* is at the same school as *E* the same projects are popping up and quite frankly he needed a little help with this latest one. He laboured over the research and presented it all nicely on coloured paper. He did a design sheet of the features he planned to include... so I just did a bit of assembly, that's all.

It uses foam sheets, fabric, trim, an old stamp, sticky stars, ribbon and a small box lid, oh and large quantities of extra strong wood glue!

My last one got an A+ ;-)