Saturday 29 December 2012

Craft Olympics - all my thimbles

Finally the secrets are revealed, Christmas gifts opened and I can show what I have been doing to get all those thimbles from Melanie's Craft Olympics. My first thimble was for a secret knitting project, toe to top two at a time socks for my daughter Kaija, and the rest of the yarn was enough to make wrist warmers for her busy hands. The yarn is hand dyed Araucania yarn from Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten knitting cafe, very lovely to knit. I'm also beginning to learn the idea of the toe to top heel!
 
 
 
The yarn was so lovely I bought another skein and knitted socks and wrist warmers for my daughter-in-law-to-be as well.

Second thimble is for this stitchery, where I learnt some new stitches.

 
My third thimble came with this Granny Square quilt I made for my sister, who is a granny. The grey and pink outer rounds of the blocks are from our Granny's old summer dress.


 
All the fabrics came from my stash as usual, and 90 % of them are recycled garments or bed linen.



My fourth thimble was a change of plans: I had no time to make the wool applique I had planned. Wreath making is crafty too, so this will be within the rules.

 
The fifth and last thimble was for a new skill, needle-turn applique. The pattern is one of Kaaren's freebies on her blog The Painted Quilt. My work is nowhere near perfection but I could give it another try, hoping for better results and rounder circles. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, the days are really very short and dark at this time of the year here.



The applique is on the front of this bag I made for Melanie as a Christmas gift for her knitting projects.


The Craft Olympics has been a fun challenge at the end of the year, not too demanding as we could choose our crafts and change our plans during the Olympics. Go to Melanie - she always puts the kettle on when visitors arrive! - and see who else has been a crafts athlete. Melanie has links to all the finished projects on her sidebar.

10 comments:

  1. They are all wonderful projects. I don't get my circles to be prefectly round either and I figure all it takes is practice - and using different methods.

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  2. Congratualtions on all your thimble finishes! Lovely, the bag you made for Melanie!

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  3. This is how I made my round circles and it works well for the very small ones too:
    http://crispyquilts.blogspot.nl/2010/08/one-way-to-do-applique-circles.html
    I didn't pin them but used a tiny bit of glue in the middle, to hold them in place.

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  4. How wonderful that you used most of your craft olympics projects as gifts. Very special ones too. Wishing you a Happy and Creative New Year!

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  5. Wonderful Ulla! I will make sure all your thimbles show in the sidebar. :-)
    The bag is so special! I have the red wool in it -slowly being turned into a cardi for Laura. I do like project bags to keep me organised and tidy. Thank you so much.

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  6. Beautiful projects and you are so generous with your time and handwork. I hope you have a lovely New Year and a wonderful year ahead.

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  7. WONDERFUL to see the remaining projects for your Thimble collection, Ulla! It's been such to see what you've chosen to work on during the Craft Olympics. And to see what we all have taken on as creative challenges. Here's to friendship & creativity shared in the New Year--HAPPY 2013! :o)

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  8. Wonderful work all around, Ulla! Congratulations on so many thimbles!
    Cheers!

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  9. How lovely! Nice finishes earn many tumblers:-) have a great sewing year in 2013!

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  10. You have made so many lovely things for CO and your bag is very nice

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