I am a big fan of the FutureGirl.com. She’s an awesome crafter (crafter?!), and has all these great patterns on her website! The crochet purse I made is from her Starling Handbag pattern.

I also saw her Crochet Wristlets and made my little crochet clutch bags based on hers.

What’s that saying? Imitation is the highest form of flattery? Word.

With that being said, I’ve started making the Hex Bag that Alice from FutureGirl.com made. She posted the pattern and made these great and easy to follow videos, which I have been pausing and replaying over and over and over..

I picked up a ton of wool back in December, so I’m using it for this bag. So you have to start by making 26 circles which form the hexagons to make the bag. The one thing I’ve noticed is that I am far more partial to neutral colours than colours. Futuregirl’s bag is all kinds of pretty colours, but mine is going to be monochrome.

BUT, I was thinking that I could use a super awesome fabric to offset the monochromatic outside of the purse. HOW CUTE would that be?! It would be super cute!!!

Ok, it’s time for some pictures!

Here are a couple of the circles, with one that is half done:

Aren’t they ADORABLE!? So that’s kind of how they will be fit together into a hexagon shape.. I just had a moment of braincell activity, and realised that I will have to do black to join the circles with. Otherwise the bag will just be white with black circles – which might be cute. Or it might look like googlie eyes.. lol Maybe once all of the circles are done, I will try joining them with both white and black to see what looks the best.  But the circles are so pretty!

Look how cute they are close up!

I really like the contrast with the black and white!

Since I took the first picture I’ve made 3 more – so I’m at 12 and a half made one. Hopefully I will be able to have them all finished soon so I can start attaching them!

To be honest, I was actually really flattered that she asked me.. Because you only ask questions to people that you think are knowledgeable, right?

My friend had read my post about quilting fabric and asked the question: what is the difference between patchwork and quilting.

I honestly had no idea, and told her that I would look into it. Now, after having a little think, I concluded that they were the same thing – perhaps in Europe it’s called “patchwork” and North America, it’s called “quilting”? So I did a little research and  thought that it would be nice for us all to find out together! Isn’t this fun?

So, patchwork and quilting are actually not the same thing. Patchwork is defined as the act of piecing 2 or more “patches” or pieces of fabric together to form something. It could be a skirt, a bag or… the top of a quilt! So, for example, if I used those fabric strips that I got and pieced them together, that would be patchwork:

Quilting is the act of placing the 3 layers together that make up a quilt:

1. The quilt top: which is usually made up of patchwork fabric
2. Batting or wadding: which is the filler inside the quilt – it’s usually cotton
3. The bottom: this is usually plain fabric that compliments the colours on the top of the quilt

So sewing these 3 layers together is called quilting. Usually, this is done in a pattern over the entire top of the quilt. You can buy stencils to follow, so that the patterns are uniform. Some people do this by hand, and the stitching is so beautiful and perfect. You can also use a machine – but with a giant quilt, it’s kind of difficult to stitch nice patterns, because you have to keep turning the fabric. I found an example of it: here. You can see the white swirly stitching design in the fabric.

Up until this point, I thought that the most difficult part would be binding the edges of the quilt, so that it’s finished nicely. But, I think that the actual “Quilting” part is going to be difficult! I can’t wait to start showing you the things that I make!

Anyway, I thought I would give you a little bit of insight into my family so that you can see how doing “crafty” things is something that really is not that surprising.

Firstly, in case you have grown bored of reading, I’m going to share a picture with you. My mum will probably chime in at the bottom to share with us exactly when this photo was taken. My mum’s memory is incredible. She will probably be able to tell you what day of the week it was taken on too But I digress.. My mum is a keen knitter, and by keen, I mean an *excellent* knitter. And so fast! She’s like a human knitting machine! Anyway, when I was little (and to this day), I could sit and watch her for hours, in awe when she knits. The needles would make their rhythmic clicking sound and slowly, the sweater she was working on would grow and grow.

Oh, right. Let me add the picture before I keep rambling on!

How cute is that?! My mum with her nice cable knit vest and me in 16 layers of clothing! lol

So my mum would be knitting away with her needles clicking, and I would grab one of her balls of wool impale it with 2 crochet hooks, making sure to hit them together so that they would make a clicking noise. I thought I was knitting! To this day, the sound of my mum knitting is a very comforting sound!

And you know what’s funny, when I went home in September, my mum went through her knitting supplies and gave me a ton of stuff, that I wrote about in my Craft Haul post. Among all of the wool and cotton that she gave me, she dug out those crochet hooks from the picture above and gave them to me!!!

They’re the top 2 – the blue and green ones! I took the picture and decided that you couldn’t really see how big they are compared to a “normal” sized hook.. so I added my favourite crochet hook in there, which is at the bottom of the picture. That’s a 4mm hook, which I use for most things, like most of the bags that I made were crocheted with the 4mm hook. The 2 my mum gave me are a lot bigger, and are 3 gauge, which is 6.5mm. I actually used this hook to make the Laptop Sleeve for my bf’s MacBook Pro. On of the most confusing things in the world is figuring out what size a crochet hook is. Some places go by numbers, some go by size, some have letters. Some, like the UK sizes actually have the smallest hook labelled with the biggest number, so the big hooks are size 00000. Which is just ridiculous.

Wow, I am completely off topic now! Back to the cute picture of me and my mamma. My parents ran a wool shop, which was opened by my great (great?) grandfather as a shoe shop – hence my  love of shoes (it’s in my blood!). They started adding wool and other sewing things, like thread and buttons and stuff. My mum, as I mentioned before, knits really well. My grandmother also knitted and made a lot of things with felt. My grandfather made latch hook rugs. My great grandmother crocheted. So it is not really surprising that I like these things. And, it would be nice if I could add something – like quilting! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I think it totally would!

There is curling, hockey, a library, more churches than bus stops but there is also a quilting shop, called The Country Quilter! I’m not sure what gave me the urge to want to learn how to quilt, but I remember being in Europe and wanting to learn. But here in Richmond is the perfect place. There are a lot of Mennonite people in this area and they are big into the quilting thing. So I took a stroll to the quilting shop back in January – I may have written about it before, I really cannot remember. The lady informed me that they held classes, and there was a 1 day class that was offered in March that taught you how to make a quilt out of a pre-cut roll of fabric called a “Jelly Roll”.. but, of course, I had the shingles, so I didn’t go.

I went back maybe a month ago, and found out that they had more classes! And one of them is a beginners class that is once a week for 8 weeks.. So I put my name down! My boyfriend came with me to the shop and we had a look around, and I decided to buy some fabric. They had another pre-cut roll that is called a “Dessert Roll” and it came with instructions on how to make a plain tiled quilt. The instructions were *far* too complicated and I’ve been too busy to do anything more than take it out and look at it. Anyway, these pre-cut rolls are made up of a few different fabrics that all compliment each other. They are long strips, that are cut along the bolt of the fabric and are 5″ wide.

Here are some pictures of the fabric that came with the roll I got:

It all came wrapped in a cute little roll – which I cannot find the pictures for right now…

Just in case there aren’t enough pictures here, I’m going to add a close up of the *beautiful* paisley from the top picture. I can’t even.. And it’s actually a lot prettier than the picture.. it’s a really nice fabric.

Oh, and I found this really awesome video from The Missouri Star Quilt Company that shows you how much you can make with just one of these rolls!

Ahh!! I figured out how to embed a video!! super proud of myself.. But isn’t this cool! I love it! I kinda want one of the giant rolls! lol can you imagine?!

So I started working about 6 weeks ago – right around the time I got the yucky shingles. Basically, I’m freelance writing from home.. so I’m on the computer 25 hours a day (yes, days in my world have 25 hours!) .. and on one of my procrastinating days, I did my first bit of online shopping! (airline tickets don’t count).. And I got this pair of boots that I’ve had my eye on for like 6 months!!!

I love to shop.. Just LOVE it.. And I haven’t been able to shop recently. The only shopping I’ve been doing has been at the Value Mart in this little town we’re living in. But I’m not complaining, I love the Value Mart!

Anyway, so there is a story behind these boots.. which I’m going to share with you. You can just skip past this and scroll down to look at them if you can’t be bothered to read..

Ok, so when we were living in Europe, I would get Canada-home sick, and would look on the Aldo, Spring and Chinese Laundry (who I think might actually be U.S.. but I digress) and I would taunt myself with the shoes – since the don’t ship internationally..

And I saw this beautiful pair of boots in Spring for like $80.. and they came in beige and burgundy and they were perfect. So every so often, I would go back and look at them and drool over them.. So when I started working, I remembered that I had to look online for these boots! But, since it had been so long since I saw them, they had been relegated to the clearance section… and they were down from $80.. to $25… but they didn’t have my size

They had the beige ones in a size 11.. which just would not work at all.. ok, I guess I could have kept that scrunched up paper in there, and looked like a weirdo with giant feet.. but that’s really not a good look. And they had the burgundy ones in a size 6.. but i wear a 7 from that store.. so they would not have fit at all.

So every few days I would go back and look and continue to taunt myself with shoes that were not in my size.. until one day, I clicked on the beige ones… AND THEY HAD A SIZE 7!!!! It was so exciting! I’m even smiling about it as I’m writing about it!! What’s more, they were doing a free shipping promotion.. so not only was I getting a super cute pair of boots that were originally $80 for only $25, the shipping would be free!!! I had to buy them.. I just HAD to!

And they arrived 2 days after I brought them! And Monkey decided that the box was his new toy and had a riot jumping in it and generally being crazy. But then he started eating the box, which is not good.. anyway, I’m sidetracking again. I think it’s time for me to stop writing and for me to show you all a picture of these boots!

ahhh!! aren’t they perfect?! yes… yes they are! <3

It’s been a maniacal few months! I had the shingles, which was absolutely horrible.. and then I started working, so I’ve not had much time for writing or for much else! Well, I have had a tiny little bit of time…

I’ve been taking a bunch of pictures for you all of my various things! I’m sorry if this post sounds like the rantings of a crazy person, but it’s pretty late and I’ve been writing non-stop for like the last 6 hours.. and there are a whole bunch of things in my head that I want to share with you all, and to be honest, I’m not sure where to start!!!!

Ok, I’m going to take a few minutes to plan out what to write about and do a few posts.. just so it’s not too overwhelming with like 10,000 words and a ton of pictures!

But for now, I will leave you with this picture that we took of my kitty cat, Monkey, when I was just getting over the yucky shingles..

Yes, that is a cat. No it’s not a photoshop lying picture – if it was, I’d make myself look less pale and sickly.. I’ve been looking online and think he might be a part Maine Coon cat.. they’re big and huge and have giant feet and hairy toes and love playing in the water and LOVE to talk.. which is *exactly* what my kitty likes to do!! and this is the only way I can pick him up without him trying to take my hand off.. he seems to like it – for a little while..

I had a christening to go to over Christmas and needed a little bag for my lip gloss, so I whipped this little crochet bag together with some of the beautiful wool that my mamma gave me. There was no pattern, I just sort of winged it.

Isn’t it just DARLING!

A bit plain, I hear you say…

Ta-da! Sparkly-shiny broach embellishment! It sort of looks holiday-y right? With the dark blue wool and the sparkly broach.

I got this cute broach a few years back in the discount bin in a Le Chateau outlet store, for like $2.o0 or something. But doesn’t it make a cute embellishment?! Super cute! Someone even asked me if it was vintage!

I was going to line the inside, so that things wouldn’t poke out of it through the wool, but I didn’t have the time or patience to do it by hand, so I found this little zippy pouch that I got a few years ago for Christmas and it fits PERFECTLY inside.

(super ugly picture alert.. sorry!)

One would think that the bag was made to fit it! Not really, but it works. I mean can you imagine change and other bits and pieces jangling around in the bottom of this adorable little bag?! No. I can’t either.

The pouch is cute, and I love the fact that it’s plastic coated, so my treasures won’t get soaked if it’s raining! I also like that it’s red. Not that you can see much of it when the bag is in use.. But I think it’s nice!

I’m really sorry for the ugly pictures. I’m using my computer camera.. which is not so good. But my pictures have always been pretty bad! At least I’m consistent!!

I got a ton of wool while I was in Canada over the holidays, so I’ll have a lot more things to show you soon. P.S. I LOVE Michael’s craft store. I could probably go in there everyday to peruse the isles and not ever get bored! I love craft stores!

This blue crochet bag was the only thing I made over the holidays. At the moment, I’m working on a beautiful crochet baby blanket for a friend of mine who is having a baby next month! It’s going to be SO CUTE! And baby wool is so soft, it’s really nice to work with, although I can’t wait until it’s finished!

Well, since this is the first post for 2011, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and healthy year!

For the last several months, my boyfriend has been schlepping his laptop to work every day. When I first started crocheting, he requested that I make some sort of laptop cozy for him. So that his laptop would have a more comfortable journey to and from the office.

After a few false starts, I got it right.. And quite frankly, I think I nailed it..

It fits *perfectly*.

Before I forget, I have to give a shout out to my boyfriend for taking the pictures. I’m sure all of you can tell that I didn’t actually take these, since my pictures are usually a little sub-par .. So thank you Boyfriend for offering your wonderful picture-taking skills!

I offered to monogram it or crochet something onto it.. But he didn’t want. So it’s just plain. But it’s still cute..

I haven’t tried it with my laptop.. I’m not sure if it would fit, because mine is slightly thicker.. But the wool has a bit of give, so maybe it would fit..

The wool that I used for this is lovely and thick. They had a whole bunch of different colours at the store. I got grey, turquoise and an apple green coloured wool. I showed my boyfriend all of the wool, and he thought the turquoise was ugly. But I think it’s actually quite pretty.. And would look really nice as a MacBook Pro cover, against the silver. I’ve nearly finished the turquoise one.. So I’m curious to see how that one looks.

I also tried to crochet an iPod cozy, but failed miserably after several attempts.. So I kind of gave up on that.

Let me know what you think

I was trying to watch a YouTube video tutorial of this, but my iPod wouldn’t load it. So last night, I decided to give it a go myself.

The next bag to be lined is the brown bag. I think I made it when I was in England.. And I had tried to fit the failed lining into it – which didn’t work.

This bag was also un-embellished. I think I spent the best part of an hour trying to figure out what to put onto this bag. I thought of maybe crocheting a word on it, or hearts? But I didn’t like those ideas.

Then the logical section of my brain decided to wake up, and I started over by first choosing a lining. I went with the green fabric that I brought and decided to try to replicate one of the designs that is on it.

Yeah, I know. The fabric is CRAZY and the designs are gorgeous but so intricate.

I decided to go with the paisley looking design. Super cute!!!

Ok, so I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m nearly there.. I used a yellow yarn that I got from my mummy when I was at home.

What do you think?

I just want to add a little bit of a swirly thing to it, and then it’s done.

I think it’s going to be AWESOME! <3

So I still have 2 crochet clutch bags to finish.. and my secret project to finish.. There’s LOTS to do..

I somehow managed to sprain my wrist again.. It’s always my left wrist and I can never figure out what it is that I did to hurt it. Very irritating. And as I was crocheting on this brown bag last night, I started sneezing like CRAZY and had a slight fever.. very random.

I think  I’m going to curl up on the couch with my crocheting and a blanky and get some more of these projects finished!

I had originally made a lining for it that had ended up being too big – major lining fail. I did attempt to fix the original lining, but I would have had to undo all of the stitching. So I decided to totally start over.

This bag already had a flower embellishment that I made with my wonderful flower loom. I did start to remove it, but I decided not to.

I didn’t want 2 bags with the same sort of fabric embellishment.. So I lined the bag as it was with the pink fabric

I pretty much did the exact same thing as with the purple crochet bag. I think the pocket may even be the same size. I also widened the handle by adding a crochet row to it, as it looked a little fragile before

I filled the bag with a similar amount of things as the purple crochet bag. This time I added my iPod, which fit *perfectly* in the pocket. Totally unintentional, but awesome!

The only thing that is different is that when I stitched the lining to the bag, I stitched it higher on the beige crochet bag. That doesn’t make much sense.. So here’s a picture of what I mean..

Ok, so you see on the purple bag how there is a bigger space between the crochet top of the bag and the lining and also a bigger space between the zip and the lining? And on the beige bag, I stitched everything closer together.

I think the beige bag looks a little neater. When I was stitching the lining into the purple crochet bag, I actually deliberately left a bigger space because I thought it would look nicer to see more of the fabric. Um.. No. It doesn’t!

I’m going to leave it as it is.. But for future bags, I will stitch the lining like the beige one.

2 crochet clutch bags finished. 2 to go!