Week 24 Creative Challenge : Two Crocheted Doilies

Hello, hello! I hope this post finds you well.

So, the 24th week of 2023 has just passed and I'm here to show you what I made for my Creative Challenge. This week I got my much-loved crochet hook moving and made a couple of doilies, following one new-to-me free pattern that I had bookmarked to try, and a variation of one I’d made before.

These are the 12th and 13th doilies I've made so far this year. I've previously mentioned that, although I've been crocheting since I was 7, I only made my first doily last year. That opened the doily-making flood gates and I'm hooked, pardon the pun. I find it fun and interesting to see the pattern develop as you work your rounds. For most of them, every round (or row) is different than the ones before, keeping you on your toes. Doily making is not really one of those things you can do while watching tv, but I find I can listen to an ebook, while I work.

I really like these two new ones.

Week 23 Creative Challenge : Making a Miniature Hudson’s Bay Blanket

Hello! Here's what I made for my Creative Challenge last week. I don't have a dollhouse but have really been enjoying the miniatures scene on Instagram. There are people who are very serious about collecting little tiny things!

What I do have is ceramic figurines, a Calico Critter and the fabric mouse seen in the photo below, (which was created by Sri Lankan artist Barbara Sansoni), who can all make use of a little blanket that's just their size. So, that's what I made.

Week 22 Creative Challenge : Bouquet of Crochet Flowers

Hi there. Thanks for checking out what I made last week for my Creative Challenge . It's a bouquet of crochet flowers with wired stems and leaves, so they can be bent into shape to make a nice bouquet.

I've written out the pattern but please be warned that this is rough. If you know how to crochet, I'm pretty sure you'll know what I mean, but if not, these instructions might not be clear enough. If you have problems, please email me at the address in the blog footer and I'll try to help.

I used a package of cotton mini skeins of thin yarn for the flowers but any yarn of your choice will work. Each flower takes 4 colours of yarn but you can reduce that to two if you want, one colour for the middle ring and another for the rest.

For the stems and leaves, I used thin black crafting wire. The thread is very thin crochet cotton (meant for doilies) because that is what I had on hand, so I used double thickness because it was too thin to use a single thickness. Ideally, you'll find some green yarn that is the same thickness as what you used for the flowers.

The centre of the flowers is a vintage blue glass bead but any bead that is large enough not to easily slip through the centre hole of your flowers will do. It's the bead that holds the flower onto the stem. There's also a small disk of green felt on the backside of the flower, to hold it in place from the back.

Week 21 Creative Challenge : Découpage with Vintage Greeting Cards

Hi. Here's what I made this past week for the Creative Challenge I'm doing this year.

I had these vintage get well cards with great graphics, that I didn't see myself sending out to anyone, at least not all of them. I've actually had them for a few years and, touch wood, haven't needed to mail one to anyone during that time. So, I thought I could use a couple for a craft and still have enough if I ever need to send one.

Week 20 Creative Challenge : Counted Cross-Stitch

Hi. Thank you for checking out what I made last week for the Creative Challenge I set for myself for 2023. If you, too, are trying to stay creative this year, I hope you've been making things you're happy with!

I tried a new-to-me craft last week - Counted Cross-Stitch.

While I have made quite a few Cross-Stitch on Paper projects, which involve very basic patterns, where you first create a grid on paper and then you stitch it, I've never worked with Aida fabric, which has a grid woven right into it, before. Since fabric is much more sturdy than paper, the piece involved a more detailed motif and way tinier stitches and many more of them.

Since I was trying something new and not knowing how it would go, I began with a Mini Kit that I found in the craft section of Dollarama (that's a chain of dollar stores in Canada, where most items cost no more than about $4 Cdn). I imagine they have similar kits in the "whatever currency applies store" where you live.

I must admit that when I picked this kit up a couple of months ago, I didn't really have high hopes for it. While it looked cute, I didn't expect much for the low $1.25 price tag. It had the age recommendation of 5+ on it so it appeared to be for children. Really, I bought the kit for the small sized embroidery hoop which I did, in fact, use for this small embroidery project where I stitched a sprig of clover on a vintage hankie, and it was really helpful for that.