And the finished piece is....

A phone bag ! I made it big enough to slip the smartphone in a hard protection thingy. So the purpose of the pouch isn't to protect the phone, but to make it look pretty, and to be able to hang it on a chair or wherever. I get a "waouh" effect each time I take my phone from my bag, because nobody has ever seen something like this.

The pattern is simply 6 petals flowers made with one shuttle, and with a bead at the base of each ring. Link the flowers to one another as you go. The handle is a sucession of split rings. And voilà !

Now I'm playing around with other motifs that would make other sort of pouches...

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Voici une pochette à smart phone en frivolité. Une succession de fleurs à 6 pétales avec des perles.

Back to tatting

I was in a  no crafting zone and then I felt like tatting again. Must be all those lovely blog posts I keep reading.

So here is what I've done since last week end. Many beaded one shuttle flowers linked together. To what purpose? Keep on watching... And in the meantime, feel free to guess  and write in the comments !

Yellow doily

I know I don't put doilies in my home as they don't fit our modern decor, but I know others (looking at mom and grandma...) who are ready to "sacrifice" themselves to indulge my doily making addiction. I don't know who will adopt this one yet.

Yesterday I bought a mini crochet doily magazine (we have plenty in France), and finished this 20cm doily over the evening. 

I am now making the long version, in white. If this one is done in size 10 thread with a 1.25 mm hook, the white one is done in size 20 thread and a 1 mm hook.

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J'adore faire des napperons en crochet, mais ça ne va pas avec mon intérieur, heureusement je trouve toujours des gens pour les adopter. 

Hier j'ai acheté un des nombreux magazines de crochet, et j'ai fait ce napperon en une soirée, en fil 10 et crochet 1.25mm.

Maintenant je fais la version plus longue en fil 20 et crochet 1mm

Bunny doily

Once a year I like to make a filet doily for Easter. Preferably a bunny. I know filet crochet is old looking, but it's the first technique I learned as a teenager, and we could argue that it's close to pixel art...

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Une fois par an je fais un napperon de pâques en filet. C'est la première technique que j'ai utilisée au crochet étant ado, même si ça fait vieillot.  Maintenant on pourrait dire que c'est du pixel art...

Granny blanket finally finished

After  4  years of on and off.... the blanket is finally finished.  I have to say that taking part of thecrochet along really motivated me, and I would like to thank Sandra from Cherry Heart for initiating this.  And thank you to all the people who cheered me up alngthe way.

This was the occasion for me to get myself on Instagram. This time people following me on Facebook and Instagram got the freshest news.

It's a lot faster to post from a tablet than blogger;)

Anyway, the blanket is now9 by 14 squares, in scrap acrylic yarn,  4mm hook, and you can see I added a red and cream border.

I really feared I wouldn't have enough of the cream colour, I even unknitted some items to get more, as I used discontinued yarn.But it was fine in the end.

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La couverture est enfin finie, grâce aux  encouragements du crochet along. Je suis maintenant sur Instagram, du coup vous pouvez me chercher là bas aussi. Je crois que mes photos apparaitront en premier là.

J'avais peur de ne pas avoir assez de couleur crème  pour finir, j'ai même défait certains trucs pour être sure d'arriver au bout. Le problème d'utiliser des pelotes qu'on a  récupérées, et pas achetées en magasin ! Mais ça a été pour finir.

Granny square blanket progress

Here are the last squares of the granny blanket for DBF. Well, I might still need to make some more, but so far, so good. Being part of the blanket crochet along really motivated me.

I got the stomach flu (again !) and after the obvious no-craft period when I was in pain in bed, I got very prolific.

I made 24 squares in a day, when I was making about 4 a day before.Don't ask.

I kept going and joined some squares to the blanket, and made this tutorial to show how I join " on the go". I hope it can be useful....

Coming in March : crochet and daffodils

March is Crochet and Craft month, and I'm already crocheting at the moment, so I'm in phase with the world.

I joined the Cherry Heart blanket crochet along. I'm making the granny squares afghan at the moment, so it sounded like a fun thing to do. To share my pictures I also had to join Instagram, so you can follow me there too.

I don't knowif I will use it after that or not, it looks like a lot of crafters use Instagram, so please share your experience of it !!!

Lately I got nostalgic of the time I was livingin the UK reading peoples blogs. Spring is my favourite time of the ear, and daffodils my favourite flowers. When i see pictures of new borm lambs in the fields,daffodils people bought to brighten their homes.... ah ! I reminds me of when I bought daffodils buquets in Tesco !

But then yesterday MIL gave me those lovely daffodils she found in a plant shop, and the world felt right again. I'm looking forward to the daffodils coming out here and there in town.... It'sa bit early for that here.

Wanderings of a crafty mind

(Note : the pictures are from 2005 projects !)

I'm still working on the granny square afghan, but I'm thinking about free hand embroidery.

It's the first craft I learned. I was stitching handkerchieves when I was 4 or 5. Of course I have no recording of that, but the pictures are showing things I made in 2005. I did a lot of cross stitching, knitting and crochet since then, but since I saw Teresa Lim's travel stitching, I feel like doing embroidery again.

But one crucial question remains : what to do with a piece of fabric with embroidery on it?

I don't want to make framed pictures, even in hoops. My walls are filled with cross stitch already. So it's time for a little research of what's out there on the web, and especially on Pinterest. The initial idea is that I would like to transfer my drawings onto fabric, but then what to do with it?

So far I have :

- stitching on felt and make a decoration out of it
- stitching on towels
- mini doll/cushion type thing.

So please give me other ideas !!!!

The adventures of the granny afghan

Crafting is an addiction : no matter how much you tell yourself you should stop because you already have too many items, you have to make stuff. It's part of what you are. I managed to stop stitching when I came across my folder of stitched projects that never see the light, but I still need to crochet from time to time.

Luckily mom needs potholders and doilies, that's already something. And I'm thinking about trying crocheted fingerless gloves for DBF.

But at the moment I crochet granny squares. When I see all those lovely afghans out there, I feel a bit ashamed to leave mine in progress for so long. Last time I worked on it was 2 years ago ! That's where keeping a blog is really useful.

So for those who just arrived, this afghan is DBF's idea. He wanted a blanket with many squares of many colours, like old times. So I started this in 2011 and I'm still working on it.

The random colours are not so random, of course, and it's a good exemple of probability and alternations. The only concern is that I won't haveenough cream colour to link them all. So I will need to make an extra border. But so far, so good.

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Me voilà de retour sur la couverture en carrés commencée en 2011 pour DBF. Ca avance pas mal cette fois....

Coup de coeur : Teresa Lim

Today I won't writeabout my crafts,but share a "coup de cœur". After all, being inspired by other crafters is part of the creative mind living.

So I was just wandering on the web, from Pinterest to Feedly, etc.... when I came across Teresa Lim's website. Her originality is to make free hand embroideries of the places she visits. It's such an original idea. Ok, it takes a few hours to make, instead of a few seconds to snap a picture, but it's so much more personal.

I've been toying with the idea of having a travel sketchbook, but so far I'm too shy to sit and draw in public. I want to go out and practice locally,  but I live in the north of France,and it's hard to find a sunny dry day, especially in winter.

So you guess I'm far from ready to embroider on the go ! But it got me thinking that I might try free hand embroidery of my drawings. Could be fun. I haven't done that in ages....

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Coup de cœur pour Teresa Lim,  qui brode les vues de ses voyages au lieu de dessiner ou de prendre  des photos. Même si je ne suis pas prête à faire de même, cela me donne envie de me remettre à la broderie traditionelle.