Bits and Bobs #1 - English paper piecing, cross stitch and podcasts

Welcome to Bits and Bobs - my new weekly blog post about all of the random things that are happening in the world of The Red Deer. I have been biting my nails thinking about what I want this blog to be - making myself a nervous wreck, and then last night I had a brain wave! I said to myself "Alicia, how about you just chill out and go with the flow for once?" - and that is exactly what I am going to do! I have no grand plan at this stage - I'm just going to use this platform to share what I am doing and what is happening in my life, and hopefully make some online friends who have similar interests to me. And thus I have decided that a weekly bits and bobs post is a great way to ease me in. I'm just going to keep it casual and keep a record of what is important to me week-to-week.


So first of all I have been working on "the mega quilt" - I finished all of my hexagons that were already basted, and now I am back to basting up the next batch. Basting is definitely not my favourite part of the process, and I sometimes freak out about how many hexagons there are on this quilt (2,936 to be exact). I have completed 13 out of 57 rows of the quilt - so 670 hexagons down so 2,266 to go! Yep, it is going to be quite a few more years before this one is finished.


The other project that I am part way through is the Old Metal Roof House cross stitch. I'm planning to have this framed and then gift it to my mum for Christmas this year. I still quite enjoy cross stitching - I find it quite soothing and I love the beautiful embroidery thread. I think after I finish this pattern though I would like to start creating my own patterns and try something a little bit different. I tried to start playing around with ideas on the bus into work, but it turns out that motion sickness and cross stitch pattern design don't go well together.


So on the bus I can't draw or design or read, but I can listen to podcasts! I've been doing that every day and loving it! That is one great thing about public transport - it gives you the chance to do absolutely nothing and just sit back (or stand up) and listen to some wonderfully inspirational people. At the moment I am going through all of the Crafty Planner episodes - and I just can't get enough, I've also listened to all of the Craft-ish episodes and soon I will need to find another source to feed the addiction.


I've also decided to start another project - because you can never have enough projects on the go. I want to start machine piecing - so I am going to make a simple table runner to get me started. I chose to just keep it simple for this project - it is going to be simple squares using the blue/aqua solids and the yellow flower pattern, the backing will be the aqua with gold and the binding will be the black and white print. I am nervous about getting started, but I am building myself up to it - any moment now....

Just got to get my machine up and running - I kinda broke the needle last time I used it, and then I should really get started. Once I have that tiny project done I have a whole list of things that I would like to try. However, I need to remember to take it one step at a time. Baby steps Alicia, baby steps.

Reading: Quilting Basics - A step-by-step course for first-time quilters by Michael Caputo

Listening: Crafty Planner podcast, Craft-ish podcast and Michael Jackson (always Michael Jackson)

Watching: Gilmore Girls (season 1 and start of season 2) and Orange is the New Black (season 3)

Eating: Homemade banana cake with lemon icing mmmmmm


Til next time!

Creative Thursday

Finally my two chicken cross stitches are completed! These darn chickens took along time for me to finish. So I have to be honest with you - I am very, very glad that they are finally done - I am over them! I will hopefully hang them up in the kitchen over the weekend and take some more pics of them then, but until then check out some of the detail...

My favourite part are the curly tail feathers - cute!

Look at all of those perfect looking stitches.

Just don't look at the back of these chickens because then you will really see my total lack of neat stitching skills.

Creative Thursday

My mum came to visit the other day and brought me a lovely big stash of threads and needles that my grandma used to own. Don't they all look pretty together! Now I actually need to do some sewing at some stage to use my massive thread collection, but not until I have finished my current projects. I always start too many things at one time and take forever to finish them.


Speaking of current projects, I have decided to cut out the rest of my cupcake lino prints to make them into gift tags. I still need to hole punch them all - but would you believe I don't have a hole punch?! What kind of stationery lover am I?


Another ongoing project is my cross stitched chicken and it is getting there slowly. I hope to have it finished by next week and I must say I am looking forward to having it over and done with.

Creative Thursday

I can't believe how slack I have been! I only just started my second cross stitched chicken last night, I have just been far too lazy lately. So yes, there is movement in the craft station - it is just quite slow.

I have decided to change up the colours of the second chicken a bit just to keep things interesting. I hope they look good together!

Creative Thursday

Yahoo!! I finished my first cross stitch chicken ever. It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to but I am really happy with the results. I really like the colours, especially since they match my KitchenAid, and I think the pattern looks pretty cool and retro too. So now I have to do the second chicken and then arrange to get these babies framed and ready for the kitchen - very exciting!

Creative Thursday

A bit late, but I am still making progress on my chicken cross stitch - in fact I am very close to finishing it. After I have finished my first chicken I will have one more to do which is basically just the mirror image of this one, although I might change up the colours just a little bit - we'll see.

Creative Thursday

While I am still working on my mosaic pots during the day I have also started a night time craft project. I am doing two chicken cross stitches for my kitchen to match my beautiful KitchenAid. I have made quite a lot of progress on the first one as it is quite addictive. Although a warning to you all - do not do this in front of your favourite TV show if you are like me, I had to undo a lot of stitches because I wasn't paying enough attention.