All posts tagged blue

Happy New Year!

That’s another year over and I hardly noticed. I’ve got a few finished projects for the yearly round up but not as many as in previous years, and I definitely haven’t posted here as often as I would have liked throughout 2015. I’ve even had to cheat! The cross stitched A, B and C below are all from a larger project which isn’t yet completed. Sometimes, life gets in the way of crafting.

Anyway, here’s a little collection from 2015. If you want to see the posts relating to the individual finished items, click the photos in the link here.

There is also a patchwork and quilting round up on my other blog Oh Sew Tempting.

Thank you to everyone who supported my blog last year, whether you have been reading anonymously in the background or actively liking, commenting and emailing. I hope to be a lot more crafty throughout 2016.

Happy New Year 🙂

25 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on January 1, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in 2015, Yearly Round Ups

Tagged ABC Bears, aida, blanket, blue, Christmas, crochet, cross stitch, Cross-stitch, decoration, DMC, embroidery, fabric, floss, handmade, interior design, Needlework, SAL, sampler, Sewing, thread

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on January 1, 2016

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/happy-new-year-3/

A little surprise…don’t tell!

Hello everyone,

I’ve been making a little birthday present for my Great Niece. Her birthday isn’t until next month but I like to be organised you know. It’s a very simple, lined drawstring bag.

I absolutely adore this fabric. I bought it just after my Great Niece was born and always had in mind that one day I’d make her a bag from it. Soon she will be four years old. Those turtles are so cute! I lined it with the same solid blue as I made the drawstrings from and it has a box shaped base so it’ll stand up on its own.

All in all, a good afternoon’s sewing. I really enjoyed that 🙂

Avis x

22 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on November 20, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in 2015, Bags, Finished!, Sewing

Tagged birthday, blue, craft, drawstring bag, fabric, handmade, interior design, lined drawstring bag, Sewing, turtles, whales

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on November 20, 2015

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/a-little-surprisedont-tell/

Another Happy Dance

Good afternoon everyone,

Just a few words and a photo of my latest finish by Bothy Threads. It is part of a series of four New England houses, one for each season and this one is for Spring. I really enjoyed stitching it and hope to get it in a frame very soon. In case you know this design, I omitted the weather vane on the roof because I wasn’t keen on it. Typical eh?

I’ve just started a new sampler by Design Works called ABC Bears and I’ll show you progress when I’ve finished the letter A.

Avis x

25 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on August 31, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in 2015, Cross stitch, Finished!, New England House

Tagged aida, blue, Bothy Threads, craft, cross stitch, Cross-stitch, embroidery, fabric, floss, interior design, Needlework, New England, Sewing, thread

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on August 31, 2015

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/another-happy-dance/

Happy New Year!

Good morning everybody. There are so many things that I should have been doing over the last couple of days but I got a little distracted which is so unlike me (not). I finally made the decision to buy 28 count black evenweave fabric for the Cirque des Cercles design mentioned in my last post. I’ll be stitching it in DMC shade 111. I may live to regret using black fabric but my trial with my tiny LED reading lamp clamped to the embroidery frame worked a treat. In fact, after a while I didn’t seem to need the light and was working by feeling the underside of the fabric with the needle.

Materials ordered online take time to arrive, especially at this time of year, so how could I possibly resist lifting a little motif from the chart and stitching it as my trial on royal blue fabric? So now I have a lovely card in my stash to send to someone this year. I used pale blue thread on royal blue aida.

I can’t wait to get started on my new project with Claire!

Best wishes for 2014 to all of my lovely readers around the world. Thank you so much for all of your comments and emails. It is always a pleasure to receive them Smile

Avis x

20 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on December 31, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Cross stitch

Tagged aida, blue, card, Cirque des Cercles, cross stitch, embroidery, fabric, gift, greetings, handmade, Ink Circles, interior design

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on December 31, 2013

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/happy-new-year/

Happy dancing!

Hello to all the lovely crafters around the world. Today, I have a finish to show you.

I have now finished both socks, the first pair I have ever knitted, and I’m so pleased with them. I ummed and aaahed and asked lots of questions about knitting socks on my other blog about a year ago and then never got around to knitting them. Some of you had great suggestions. I signed up for a Craftsy class for knitting toe-up socks (which I still haven’t looked at) and then found this free pattern on Ravelry called Jeck for a cuff-down version. The yarn is Opal brand and it’s made in Germany but mine was purchased in the UK by my daughter at a craft fair. The label says “Pullover & Sockenwolle 100g”.

As a complete coincidence, my daughter was buying me wool at a craft fair while I was visiting the Isle of Skye buying more wool. We visited a wonderful shop called Shilasdair. It could actually be described as a small visitor centre as there is a video set-up showing all of the different processes of hand-dyeing the wool they sell and I found it very interesting. Shilasdair uses lots of lovely natural dyes and the colours are stunning. How could I leave without buying some?

This is what I bought. Isn’t it similar to the wool my daughter bought for me?

The lady in the shop explained that the blues are dyed with indigo but the shades are just like the blaeberries on the label.

My Shilasdair wool is a mix of cashmere, baby camel, angora and merino lambswool so it is very soft. It is labelled as a luxury double knit weight.

Now all I have to decide is, will I be knitting socks or a scarf with this new wool? I’m drawn towards a scarf this time due to the heavier weight of this yarn, maybe something quite lacy……but then I enjoyed knitting the socks so much on four needles. I could always shop for other sock yarn….decisions, decisions.

Happy crafting!

Avis x

25 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on October 13, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in 2013, Finished!, Knitting, Socks

Tagged blue, craft, double pointed, knitting, knitting needles, knitting pins, needles, opal, purple, socks, wool, yarn

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on October 13, 2013

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/happy-dancing/

It’s time to knit socks!

Hi everyone,

Here’s what I’ve decided to knit with my lovely gift of wool. I haven’t knit anything on four needles before so it is a new challenge for me. I had to restart several times due to making mistakes but once I had a few rounds on the needles it became much less fiddly. I had expected the wool to continue changing colour. However, as you can see, there are longer lengths of blues between groups of mixed colours which have resulted in stripes 🙂

Here is my progress so far….

The free pattern I am following can be downloaded on Ravelry here. So far I’m managing to follow it but I’ll soon be up to the heel and I haven’t done one of those on two needles before so it could be interesting to say the least.

I hope you all have a wonderful crafty weekend ahead!

Avis x

19 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on September 13, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Knitting, Socks

Tagged blue, craft, double pointed, gift, knitting, knitting needles, knitting pins, purple, wool, yarn

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on September 13, 2013

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/time-to-knit-socks/

I know exactly what I’m going to do with this!

Happy Sunday everyone!

An enormous welcome is extended to all of my new followers and also to those of you who have skipped across from Oh Sew Tempting. It’s always so good to meet up with you again in our virtual crafty world 🙂

I couldn’t resist popping in today to show you my very unexpected gift. My daughter came to stay last week and she saw this yarn in her local craft market a while ago. She thought I would like it (well it is predominantly blue and purple) and she also bought the needles for a project that she knows I’ve been wanting to try for ages.

Any guesses what I’m going to make?

Also, I have a Linky Party to share with all of you thread and yarn fanatics. If you haven’t been there already, hop across to Woolhogs and enter this month’s Made it Challenge. I’ve actually entered a patchwork quilt from my other blog and the blackwork house from over here but you have until almost the end of September to add your own links. It’s just a bit of fun and we all like that, don’t we?

Here’s wishing you all a super crafty time this week!

Avis x

13 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on September 8, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Knitting, Socks

Tagged blue, craft, double pointed, gift, knitting, knitting needles, knitting pins, purple

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on September 8, 2013

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/i-know-exactly-what-im-going-to-do-with-this/