2013 bead mat

Early last week I finished adding the diamonds to my 2013 bead mat.

All last year I put the black, white and gold one's to one side so that I could do some sort of border on it this time.

In total I made 212 diamonds in 97 colours but it should of been more, I had a list of 30+ colours that I hadn't made a diamond for but I'd reached the point of not being able to face doing any more of them so they didn't get done!

And not all the diamonds I made got added on the mat this year, they are in a tub waiting for me to decide what to do with them.

I've made a start on my 2014 mat but I'm not doing diamonds this year, I've gone with squares this time for a change if I'd stuck with diamonds I doubt I'd make one this year!

Last couple of gifts

Fella has 2 girls and earlier this year I found this eyelash yarn in my stash and thought that I would knit them a scarf each for Christmas.   Each one took 1 50 gram ball and I did them in plain old stocking stitch 20 stitches wide.

Both girls loved them and fella says they have been in constant use

Lucy also got a spike bracelet

Please excuse the mess in this pic, my bead mat is always untidy but it shows the spikes off really well

Mum's Christmas Present

Mum is also a beader and had I just given her the kit for this she would probably of asked me to make it up anyway as she doesn't do as much as I do!   So I decided to skip that step and give it to her already made up and ready for her to use.

This is the Pasture Scissor keep and tassel from Spellbound and is one of the items I couldn't share when I went to Harrogate.

Unfortunately this was the best overall pic I took

So I've added some closer up ones as well

The scissors are not included in the kit and were also bought at Harrogate

Some Christmas gifts

I've made a few of the gifts I've given this year and of course I couldn't share them until they had been handed out so here goes.

Lucy loves skulls so when monthly bead along appeared for 2 drop peyote and someone posted a link to this etsy shop I had a hard time picking one but eventually settled on this one

Mel is an animal lover and when I saw this racing turtle bracelet kit I had to get it for her

Lucy is also a huge Doctor Who fan so again when someone posted a link somewhere to this Etsy shop I had another hard time picking which one to stitch for her. But it did make for an easy stitch when I was sick a few months ago

More gift ornaments

The last of the ornaments that I'm giving as gifts this year have been handed out now and are with their new owners so I can post them here without letting the cat out of the bag :)

This is for my Parents neighbour

This one is Mel's

And this one is fella's

Woohoo the fairies are finished

At long last they are done and I'm over the moon about it and feel like a weight has been lifted as they are so not my taste but they are paying for Christmas this year :)

I wasn't planning on finishing them today and fully expected it to be tomorrow but my neck and shoulder didn't complain at me like they have in the past when I've been beading them so I kept on going.

Some ornaments

On Saturday the family went off to Krampus and as has become normal for me I gave my parents their ornament for this year but I also gave Lucy her's and Teejay's was completed this morning before I took them home.

Mum and Dad's

Lucy's

Teejay's

Flower Fairy

Another item made for the charity fair which I'm told raised a total of £7,500!

I made one of these for myself years ago (in different colours) and she sits on top of the tin I keep my needles in.

The thing in her hands is a flower shaped bead and I hadn't noticed it was on it's side when I took the pic and I no longer have her to take another.

With this post I've made it to the end of NaBloPoMo 2013 and have managed to post every day with resorting to posting an old TW finish, yay

More pen toppers

Few more of the pen toppers I did for the Charity stall a few weeks ago

Kris Kringle

I've been on a class today with Oak Tree Crafts to make a Christmas decoration called Kris Kringle.

It started off badly for me and it took 3 attempts to get his hat started!  Then it took me I don't know how long to figure out why the white at the bottom of the hat refused to sit in the right place on the mould but I got there in the end.

I did manage to get him done by the end of the day and I've booked myself on a class in January so here's hoping the weather plays ball for me to go.

Here he is in all his glory

Better view of his hat

Better view of his beard

I had a phone call while I was there to tell me that a friend from WI passed last night and I have to say it's shocked me quite deeply as she was only 50 and in good health.

More charity bead work

This time it's a few tube ornaments.

These are done round the tube's that beads (mostly Delica's) often come in and the patterns are all from Threadabead.  I spotted a new one on facebook I think it was that's a reindeer and he's really cute.

Anne over at Feather Stitching asked about the tassel from yesterday and where to get it.

I should of posted the link and I forgot to, sorry about that :(  anyway it's from Spellbound and comes in a few other colours

Balmoral Tassel

Another project that was made for the charity event a friend did.

She gave me this kit and asked me to make it up so I did.

It was a more enjoyable make than I expected it to be and far more sparklie as well.

Thank you all for your support over the death of my family member.

It's probably going to be at least a week before a service is held for him as his repatriation has still to be arranged (he passed in Saudi)

Matrioska aka Russian Doll

I love Russian Dolls, they fascinate me and always have so when I saw this free pattern for one I just had to do it.

I started it back in June but other things came along that needed to be done sooner rather than later so it got put aside, last week I sat down and got her finished.

Angel Pen toppers

A friend has been busy beading for the last few months ready for a charity garden party near her that she does every year.

This year I said I'd do a few things for her and here are some of them.

The one top left is in the given colours but I didn't want to do them all the same so used up some oddments of delica's for them.

Fiendish Fancy

Back in April when I got my copy of Sweet Treats and made some Fondant Fancies I decided that each time a limited edition version appeared I would have to have a box research.

So when Fiendish Fancies appeared in early October I had to have a box.

It took a bit of time to find the right shade of orange and although it doesn't look it in my pic it's almost perfect

Today while shopping I noticed that Festive fancies have appeared on the shelves so a box of those will have to make their way into my food shop sometime in the next few weeks for more research :)

Christmas poem book

Last year (almost to the day I might add but not planned to be) I posted my finish of the Christmas Carol book and mentioned that I had the poem book to do.

Well it's taken me 12 months to get round to it but it's done at last

Front of the book

Back of the book

And open showing the clasp

It comes as a kit from Threadabead but you can buy extra books which is what I did with Mum last year

Netted Bauble

Saturday was the Needlecraft Haven bi annual meet up and this time we had a raffle the proceeds of which will be used to make the board ad free for however the £ will last.

Donations for the raffle would gratefully received so I made a netted bauble, put a few dangles on it and this is the result.

Mel's Rose

When I posted the pics from Chester Zoo I forgot to post the one of Mel's gift.

I found this freebie on the web years ago and always had Mel in mind for it and I finally got round to making it this year.

It's mounted on a box I painted black out side and purple inside but I can't find a pic of that and I'm sure I took one :(

Unfortunately the link no longer works to the chart as the designer passed away last year so I can't point you to it, sorry folks

Another box

While I was sick I had a call off my WI president who was ringing to make sure I was OK and she reminded me about the competition we have in October.   Every year at the Autumn group meeting the WI's in the area hold a competition and it's always for a craft item based around a theme.  This year the theme was black and white but I had no idea about it as I've not been to meetings all summer with bowling.

I did think about entering something I'd made in the past but in the end decided that in the 3 weeks I had I could make something and after a little thought I went with a box.

I would of liked to make the Pagoda in Little Bead Boxes but it's fairly complicated and I didn't want to put myself under pressure while recovering so in the end I went the triangle box that I've made before from the same book by Julia Pretl

It's not really clear in the pics that I used 2 different blacks, one matt and one shiny

Mine wasn't the project picked by the institute to go through to the Autumn meeting but I'm still happy with my box

Psy-cat-ic

My latest beading finish is Psy-cat-ic from A Muse Ink

If your a friend on Facebook you may remember me complaining about a pattern I was working on a month or so ago saying that the pattern was totally different to the pic on the front.  I'd emailed them about it and not got a reply so I emailed again with even more difference's and got a reply, both thought the other had replied first time round lol.

Anyway they fixed the chart and sent me a replacement within a few days and once it arrived it took me a little while to get round to finishing it off.

Poor guy had a post it over his face while I worked the top of his head so he wasn't staring at me having the chart do that was bad enough!