Mwa ha ha ha ha

That was my Evil Scientist laugh in case you didn't recognise it.

I've just finished knitting this flask of potassium permanganate

(pattern from Butterfly Love on Etsy here)

Sodium dichromate is on the needles already

Take Two

The Monthly Challenge, restitched, on pre-stained fabric, without the colour runs. 

The chart is from Pineberry Lane and can be found here

Finished in a deliberately primitive style (I can do blanket stitch neater than that, honest), with tea stained lace, a twine bow and a rusty bell

Mind you, the final placement of one of the tea stains is a bit dubious

Rudolf!

 I nearly trod in that! I ought to rub your stupid red nose in it!

Fail!

I learned a lesson this week, and that lesson was:-
Check the colour fastness of your threads before you squeeze a cold tea bag over your finished piece to age it.
Feel my pain!

This is what Dexter Morgan's Father Christmas must look like
Oh well, back to the drawing board
This month's challenge reveal will be slightly delayed
On a brighter note, I found these teeny tiny daffodils in a hidden corner of the garden. To give you an idea of scale, my funky little mid-century jug is about 6 inches tall.

Soldering On

Ouch. Sorry. Couldn't resist. Here is another fused fabric piece I've done. I photographed this from two angles so that you can see the 3D effect of this one. It one uses bronze coloured organza, metallic copper bias binding, and a  bit of a charity shop scarf left over from when I added a bow neckline to a t shirt a couple of years back.
It is much more twinkly in real life because of the organza, but it's really hard to photograph it to show that using natural light, and it's too much of a faff to get the studio lights out.

Also Jo told me about a campaign by Concern Worldwide called Stitch for Syria, which aims to help Syrian refugees by teaching them embroidery. You can find more details here. To get involved they ask you to sign up and  download a small pattern to cross stitch. They are collecting the finished squares to make a wall hanging for their aid centre in Lebanon.
Here is mine. It took very little time to stitch. The hardest part was tracking down the aida they specified - I don't do aida normally, but I found the little bit that comes in a magazine cover kit is just the right size

Gifted Gorgeousness - Valentine's Edition

It's the fifteenth of the month, the day for Gifted Gorgeousness, the SAL run by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, where we celebrate the crafty gifts we have sent, received or made.
This month I am sharing these two heart shaped oven mitts that I made for my daughters. (I also made one as a birthday gift for someone, but forgot to take a picture before I posted it)

And, while I had some insulated wadding to hand I also made this heatproof mat for Kerry, who won my blog competition last month.

And finally a gift to me, from me. We were lucky enough to win the pub quiz a couple of weeks back, giving me some unexpected extra spending money when I went to the Craft for Crafters show in Exeter with my friend. We watched a workshop on fusing fabric by Margaret Beal, and I was inspired to buy a "starter pack" of a soldering iron, some shaped metal templates and a back of organza squares, and this is the result of my first little play:-

I Have a (Sort of) Shite Shirt!

Are you familiar with the concept of Shite Shirts? Check out their website here.
How utterly awesome are they?
I love the concept but they are men's fit shirts. Also I'm a little uneasy about the total randomness of the combinations. What if I got a yellow one? There are no words in the English language to express the enormity with which yellow does not suit me.
What to do? Make my own of course.
May I present my Shite(ish) Shirt:-

Front

Back

The pattern is Simplicity 1013. Full pattern review here. Each piece is cut from a different cotton print (except for one cuff which is the same as the collar). Most of them are from the Moda range "Polka Dots and Paisleys", though there are one or two others in there as well, including a piece of vintage Laura Ashley fabric (the date on the selvedge was 1979) and a tiny scrap of 1960's fabric for the front pocket.

It's shite. 

I love it.

Oops Almost Forgot!

I said a draw a name for the "Perambulating Poinsettia" at the end of January.

A few days late, but the winner is Mary (Le Coeur Celtique). I've got an address for you from the ornament exchange Mary, is it still the same?

Oh and we had some really exciting news yesterday. We've been named in a list of the UK's top wedding photographers for 2016 (you can see the list here if you're interested)