Over On Nayu's Reading Corner #34 Review Creative Embroidery and Beyond (Non-fiction, 8/10E)

 

 Hop on over to Nayu's Reading Corner see the full design of this embroidered planets and cup that I put onto a headscarf as part of an embroidery book review!

Nayu's Project Progress #43 Coming soon!

 

I have done much more of this Attic24 Cupcake blanket! Will share updated pic soon

I'm sorry for not posting for so long! Life keeps happening, and it's irritating to me, trust me! But I've been busy working on various projects including a babIy blanket. 

Felt 2 towels for £12 was a bargain in this kit

Yesterday two fun new kits arrived. I found some sweet Hello Kitty cross stitch hand towels, and as I need more than one guest towel (I have Winx Club hand towel and thankfully don't have guests often so can easily wash it but I've wanted to have more cute ones) I took the offer which was 40% off. I think you can agree they are adorable! Unfortunately the adorable matching toilet roll holder is unavailable except for a hideously high price but I reckon I can figure out the design from the picture with graph paper so can still have that cuteness in my life as it's so adorable. 

 

Anyway....the other kit I got was what I call embroidery. I know cross stitch is embroidery too, but I mean all the other embroidery stitches. I wanted something nice, and saw this beautiful cushion. I adore African Violet flowers, and the colours really spoke to me. Felt so overwhelmed when I opened the kit as I've never done a large scale project, it looked quite complex and has stitches I've never done (long and short) and another I can't recall. The long and short is simple and effective way to create realistic looking petals, I hate not being uniform so I will copy the long and short from the picture so that I'm still working to something as I can see where they do the long and short stitches (If you do embroidery you'll understand what I'm talking about, if you don't, well, it's hard to explain). The other new stitch is absolutely gorgeous and makes up the white scroll effect. So this is a daunting project and it will take take me absolutely ages to finish but will be totally worth it and is exactly what I've wanted. 

 I will keep you updated on these and other projects very soon! 

Nayu's Project Progress #42 Gorjuss Winter Friend

 

Previous progress

It's been a long week and a bit of me still recovering from the cold that started 2 weekends ago. I haven't fully got rid of it, i cough throughout the day and I can tell the germs haven't left yet. So I am resting lots, mostly gaming but I have done some cross stitch and the polar bear now has an outline! 

 

It's coming along nicely and is going to look so cute when it's finished.

 

The weather is sunnier than it has been for a long time which is a mood lifter. Lately my rose bush has begun to bloom and i love opening my back door as I instantly smell the traditional rose scent which is just lovely and makes me smile. It's the little things which can make quite a difference. 

Nayu's Craft Time #320 Crafting is happening!

A 4mm clover hook (don't think the photo is by me)

I feel rather bad that I have barely blogged here all year. I am sorry! I shouldn't neglect this blog for Twitter, where I do share all my news. I am making the effort to post more regularly - I get new followers each week and want content for you all to enjoy. I blame the weird way that 2020 has panned out. Certainly nothing any of us expected. And, in truth, I think it has changed life permanently. But that's pretty much all I'll say on the matter. I am high risk for covid, but I am alive which is a blessing.

Time to show you some craft work which I did not post on Twitter but I did do yesterday (Friday). Friday's are my time to work on a secret craft project involving a needle and thread. Unfortunately when the weather is really hot (which, for the record, my malfunctioning body lives for - being warm is a real joy! Not to need a blanket is a rare and precious occasion) I don't sew because thin needles feel too weird against my skin. I have always been like this which is why I haven't done much embroidery lately.

Crochet I can do because I don't really touch the metal part of the crochet hook. I dived back into working on a crochet blanket for a local cat charity, Cats Protection who always need blankets for each new arrival and have branches all over the country, so see what items yours is taking for donation and please help them out if you can. It is lovely to hear the blankets go with the cat on to their new home, so they have something familiar with them. I do not know when I will be able to give them the blanket, but I plan on making a few then donating them, which will be some time. I added 1 row which you can see here, created some more pink squares, and turned a skein of yarn into a proper ball.

I love crochet because I use the same stitches for the granny square, a few chain stitches and treble stitches (UK terms). I use the join by crochet method of attaching the squares together. They had been in alternate colours, but yesterday I got so engrossed watching the wonderful American Pioneer series Little House on the Prairie that I forgot to pay attention to which square I chose. Ordinarily I d unpick it, but because it is a patchwork blanket, and not all the squares will be the same colours I left the out of sequence square where it was. The cat who gets it won't care what it looks like, only that it is warm and cosy.

As much as I need the hot weather for my health, I do hope it gets cooler because I have so much fun embroidery to start! I will talk more on that in another post. Hope you all have at least one fun thing to enjoy this weekend, and I hope to post again in a few days. Side note: this is made using the new style of Blogger, which is certainly different to the old style, but it mostly makes sense. I will get used to it soon enough. I am less keen on the new Windows update, it seems I can only crop and reduce a photo, I can't simply remove a bit from the top or bottom, so I edited the blanket picture on my phone which does what I want it to.

I firmly believe this! Picture artist/photographer unknown.

Nayu's Project Progress #40 Here be embroidery!

Colourful kitty project!

If you follow me on Twitter you'll already have seen the pictures in this post. It is more for those of you who don't follow me on Twitter - I don't want you missing out on seeing what I've been working on craft wise! 

I am very happily getting to grips with embroidery. I have almost finished a kit which uses different stitches that I received as a gift from a family member. Look how cute the cat is! I started with the stitches I knew, backstitch, and learnt the other stitches when I reached them. I am forever grateful to a Youtuber who I can't remember, whose video about French knots explained them perfectly, and they are no longer a stitch I fear. As you can see I got to do a lot of them in the cat kit (small round dots on the tail). They are super fun to do and I look forward to using them, instead of dreading them and having to create my own version of the stitch. 

All finished!

At the same time as working on this kit I started new embroidery projects - I wanted something I could do with stitches I already knew, rather than having to learn new stitches when my brain fog makes me fuzzy headed. I transferred patterns from a book I will feature in a future post, using the iron on method of transfer. I use varigated thread (a thread which has a rainbow effect of colours dyed into it) and took great delight in practicing my lazy daisies, back stitch and straight stitch with a few french knots in this purple creation. 

On finishing that I changed colour to the other varigated thread I'd bought and started this now almost finished mandala. Think I prefer the colours and style more than the angled one. I am going to try all the patterns in the book before repeating them, but already have plans to tweak this pattern as well as work it with sepearate colours for each row/each type of stitch.  Not sure how I will frame them yet - I may even create a quilt like blanket from all of them! 

I hope you like these and stay tuned for more! I think embroidery is helping me stay as sane as I can in these crazy times, as is gaming, but embroidery helps me watch something pretty grow, which is important. 

Nayu's Craft Time #291 Hot weather + craft = ?

The heatwave continues!

If you follow me on Twitter (link in the side bar -> ) you'll know I've been having a quiet week resting as I wasn't well last week. I've mostly been gaming on Dragon Quest Builders, not only because I'm obsessed with it but certain crafts don't mix well in hot weather. I've a load of cute cross stitch projects but for some reason I absolutely hate how metal needs feel when it's hot. It makes me feel like a lot of people feel when fingernails are scratched on a chalk board: 

This was a common sight when I was little.

In case not everyone knows what a chalk board is, since these days schools use whiteboards, when I was at school whiteboards didn't exist. Chalkboards were used, they were usually black or a weird green colour, and chalk was used to write on them, not whiteboard markers There's a hideous sound that can be made by dragging fingernails or other material on a chalk board which irritates everyone. 

None of this for me at the moment

So (or should it be sew?!!) no sewing for me. Equally no crochet because while I use crochet hooks with rubber grippy material on the base the top part is metal. 

I love Clover crochet hooks and Clover butter!

That leaves me with 1 knitting project which I will do in a few days, once I'm over the worst of my mega strong meds that I'm having later today. I'm scheduling a couple of posts up during that time. 

Is there any craft/other activity you can't do when the weather is rather hot? 

You can insert your favourite colour with this saying!

Project Progress #37 Girl Picking Pears part 1

Want to guess what this could be?

I've had various people visiting, had my birthday recently (no date being revealed for privacy reasons) which meant I did take a few days to just relax and work on my own project for once. Started a new one, even though I've another unfinished I just wanted to start one I'd got recently. I think you'll agree this is a cute one! 

I had to unpick and redo the first part I sewed in the middle, the start the girl's right sleeve (the one on the left, just to confuse you) (white/cream) because I'd made a monumental mistake. It wasn't putting one stitch the wrong colour, it was missing an entire row! I was more frustrated at the fabric being made weaker than any time 'wasted' (maybe that's just my style of unpicking with a stitch unpicker). Anyway, I got past that, started a brown and am just doing whatever colour I feel like once I finish a section. 

I will shortly be back to crochet and sewing for others, with occasional sewing projects for me (maybe 1 week a month, I'll see). See you next time!

Nayu's Craft Time #285 Update on technology issues

Not my picture!

I couldn't think of a better title, sorry! Been wading through emails, including what seems like a zillion GDPR or whatever the initals to the newest data protection thingy is, and I simply couldn't come up with a good title. It's accurate, just not very exciting. 

Twitter woes & shameless plug to follow me @Nayuleska

I prefer to do not so good news first so here is an update on a current issue: I'm still having problems getting my blog posts to auto-update on Twitter. It is looking possible I will have to do Tweet all posts manually, but I'm awaiting confirmation on that from the amazing Hootsuite team. 

I'm  not sponsered by them, I use their services & they are awesome at customer care! Especially if you don't have a clue what you are doing.

 I still have a backlog of tweets up to March to post up, I hope to do this over the next few weeks. I will not being doing it all in one day in case I get into trouble with Twitter - I'm not sure on how many tweets I can put up in a day without annoying everyone. I'm aiming for 3-5. Please bear with me on this. 

Yet another shameless plug - come check out my shop on Etsy!

The good news about technology is that I may be getting my specially designed NCD logo back as a background! Some of you may have noticed there has been something down the sides of this blog. I noticed this myself last week - yes I'm really unobservant. I played around for a few minutes with the Blogger template, and for whatever reason my picture, which isn't even in my account but my designer's has been reinstated. The margins are completely wrong at the moment which is why I've still got the white background, but at some point over the next few weeks I will fiddle some more and see what I can come up with. As far as I know this shouldn't be happening because Photobucket made it very clear they would charge for users to keep using what had been a free service (at least I think that's what happened). I mentioned it briefly on this blog here, and in more depth on my other blog, Nayu's Reading corner. I'll be very happy if it is back for good! 

Most played game at the moment!

Other news - been busy resting and doing lots of cross stitch - will give a project progress post very soon. Family had a cold, I didn't get one exactly but I was unwell, hence the lack of blog posts. Then there was the thunderstorm which almost always gives me a headache, but I managed to prevent a migraine which is a miracle. I've happily been gaming which is always fun - I had forgotten both how funny and how grim Final Fantasy IX can be. Find out more on Nayu's Reading Corner 

It's another one!

Nayu's Project Progress #37 Girl Power!

I've been chillin'!

Morning all! Apologies for the slightly long lapse in posts - life got busy, plus family got a cold and my body threw a wobbly, then I simply had a few days R&R to myself. All recharaged (minus stupid cold weather spell that body is hating) and back blogging! Here's what I've started this week, a cute mobile phone case using cross stitch embroidery. 

The title is because girls are cool and I love being a girl! Plus this is a cute girl ^u^

 I got it from a friend ages ago, and it's actually the perfect size for my non-smart non-touchscreen phone. I didn't tweet about it because I'm not 100% sure how well I can replicate the backstitch which will make the girl look like a cute anime girl, but I'll do my best! What do you think? I'd love to hear if you're working on a sewing project at the moment! It's very engrossing, great to do when catching up with TV. 

Creativity has endless possibilities, it's not just sewing!

Nayu's Craft Time #243 I'm here!

Super cute owls! Think they are little owls (a type of owl which is super tiny)

Sorry if I forgot to mention last time that I was having my mega strong meds this weekend (the one just gone) - felt rough for a day longer than expected, but today I'm slowly feeling better and doing more than gaming! Which has been fun. I've got through about 20 games (I wish I was joking), and found 3 (though mostly 2) that I'm sticking with which don't have evil glitches or require you to be a paying player just to get through the levels. That and some had terrible game play. 

So no craft yet, but I'm planning what I'm taking for my holiday in Norfolk (starts on Saturday!), and hope to do a bit later on while listening to an audiobook. 

For those of you in the UK and any other country that has just had a national holiday I hope you had a lovely break, that if you did work it was a bit enjoyable, and it's just 3.5 days until the weekend-woohoo! 

Nayu's Craft Time #242 Monday's craft session!

The start of a blanket

Happy Wednesday! Yesterday I was a bit more tired than I'd expected from being with my friend on Monday, so the promised post is just 1 day later than planned. As ever it was wonderful catching up with my friend, which included a random and amusing incident when she met someone famous in a local shop. Not saying who or where for privacy reasons, but trust me it was quite funny and sweet. As you can see from the top picture I got a bit of crochet done! Originally I was going to do just 1 row of the purple colour, but I hadn't realised that it had such large areas of white, so with my friend's advice decided on 2 rows which looks heaps better. 

I have a special craft ruler to do these measurements!

I spent most of the morning drawing 1/4 inch sewing lines on these yet to be handsewn bookmarks: I love this part of the bookmark process, and it made sense to draw the lines while I was at a table and needed something simple (otherwise I muck up whatever I'm working on because we chat while we craft). 

Bookmarks already finished compared with unfinshed one.

Hopefully I'll be getting on with these very soon.

Today is involving a bit of blog work, then some writing and lots of reading! Tomorrow I hope to craft in the morning ^o^ 

I love ginger and white cats! These may be kittens...

Nayu's Crafts Time #241 Back from my travels

A sign of summer for some, or an all year round treat if you're like me. My ice cream looked a bit like this, sadly without a waffle cone & with an extra scoop on top!

Hi all! I'm back from my semi-unplanned trip to Devon. I had fun catching up with my friend, watching dvds, doing an insane amount of gaming, and very little craft, just a bit of crochet which I haven't taken a photo of yet. I was on holiday!

There are English versions of these incredible Disney life simulation games!

 I took advantage of the free time to play the Disney series Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life 1 & 2 (The English version has a different title, I think, than the Japanese one). I'll be chatting more about them on my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner soon. The week away was filled with sunshine after a bit of torrential rain on the drive down. I took a trip to the chocolate shop which I'd visited last time, and in that area was able to have bubblegum ice cream along with blackcurrant and clotted cream ice cream. There was only just enough of the bubblegum for a scoop, but I had it! 

I'm still recovering from the trip, as I wasn't able to rest all day on Friday: I'd (probably stupidly) agreed earlier in the week to have my 24 hour heart monitor fitted Friday morning, Discovered the tiny monitor is worth £2500 - will be glad when it's returned! Thankfully as my family work in the same hospital building they are returning it for me (the clinic isn't open on a Saturday when it should be returned but there's a special drop off box to put it in) so I didn't have to go there yesterday, but I did have to get groceries. Spent the rest of the day gaming and watching dvds while I rested. Managing a bit of blogging and other online stuff today, but as I'm out all day tomorrow with a friend, so will rest the remainder of today plus on Tuesday. 

My family saw lot of her back while I was away!

Predictably my cat was extremely grumpy most of the time I was away, not understand why I was away so soon after the previous trip or for a bit longer. Hopefully it will make the week long Norfolk trip at the end of this month easier for her. I do come back to her, just not for a several days. Family are with her, so she's not on her own, but she does like me a lot and hates her routine mucked up.

I made these! Bottom one not yet finished...

Craft news: Cute bookmarks created

Anyway, I need to head offline shortly so as not to overdo things. Will post again hopefully on Tuesday with an update of what craft I do tomorrow. Or should that be did tomorrow? 

Nayu's Craft Time #340 Cushion sewing!

Finally finished my latest sewing experiment!

So, I'd hoped to post sooner but due to needing my mega meds last week I've been out of action. I had fun doing some cross stitch which I didn't take a photo of while over at my crafty friend's house last Monday (a week and a bit ago). Using my mega meds was a last minute thing so I hadn't planned any posts prior to taking it, which I do generally try to do so you have some content up. 

I used a single bit of fabric for the cushion backing.

Anyway, while going through various stages of weird I did some craft. I wasn't up for following a pattern which ruled my counted cross stitch out. I definitely wasn't up for machine sewing, so I hand sewed a few squares together then added a backing. If you follow me on Twitter I think I posted a few pictures as the sewing progressed.

Close up of the cushion seams - nice and neat!

I wasn't entirely sure what it was going to turn into. I tried doing patchwork, but while my hand sewing is okay, my quilting stitches have a lot to be desired so I ditched that idea and turned it into a cushion. I used toy stuffing to make it puffy. 

There's no getting around that up close the final seam isn't the best, but that's because I haven't practiced neater closing stitches for edges.

I need to work on my seams for hand stitching as the final edge isn't brilliant, but I'm happy with how this first one has turned out! Definitely going to be making more soon. I'd love to know what you think of my small cushion, and if you've ever made one!

Belle has looked cute on my bed all day! Normally she goes elsewhere until the evening.

Nayu's Craft Time #239 Crafting tomorrow!!!!

Feels like it's been a bit of a crazy weekend. Saturday there was no craft because I went grocery shopping so rested after. I ended up with less than 3 hours sleep Saturday night so Sunday was a gaming day as I was tired. Within the games I played I got some cute outfits including Disney's Stitch onesie on Disney Magic Castle #1. 

I've yet to have the items required to make the head. I slept great last night, but am hungover from being so tired yesterday so apart from a few blog posts I need to preschedule on Nayu's Reading Corner I'm having another quiet day gaming & watching stuff. Craft probably won't happen as I don't have the energy for it.

My sewing box - it now has sewing in it, rather than the crochet but this was the only picture I had on file. I love my koala ballerina which my family gave me when they visited Australia a few years ago. The sewing basket was from John Lewis and I got it from some friends as a joint present.

However, as the title of this post declares I'm doing craft tomorrow! I'm seeing the friend I craft with once a month, although due to various things on both of our sides we didn't meet in February. We're both really looking forward to catching up, and doing some craft. I'm not sure what I'll be taking, possibly some sewing of a new project because it's straight forward so I don't have to do much multi-tasking during talking. Hope to update you on Wednesday about that! 

Belle sleeping on my lap with her back to me

In other news I've a slightly grumpy cat because some unexpected home renovations cropped up at the weekend. My family are staying put, but I'm staying with a neighbour until Wednesday. I'm home all day, just go there at night, but my cat hates me not being there at night (she usually sleeps on me until I go to bed then relocates herself to me again). She sat with her back to my family on the sofa last night, on the blanket I use. Usually she faces the other way round! 

It's entertaining and she does forgive me for going away, it's just my family who have to deal with the fallout. Grumpy animals are hilarious!!!! I do feel sorry for her because she doesn't understand what's going on, but she bounces back fairly quickly so it doesn't negatively affect her in the long term. Have a great day!

Very true for me!