How I spent my "Crafternoons"

I've had quite a few "Crafternoons" since we arrived home from holidays. One of our daughters had a special birthday last week with a party at the weekend and I only decided what I would make for her while we were away!  That meant there were only 5 days to do it all - unpacking, holiday washing, shopping to fill the fridge and pantry, catching up with e-mails, and making the gift. And what better time to do Crafternoons than when the Olympics are on!  We have 9 channels of Olympics, so I did lots of channel swapping between swimming, table tennis, badminton, basketball, hockey, rowing and anything else I could find when the ads were on and worked steadily on my gift!

Janelle loves containers - boxes, tins, bottles, caddies, chests - so I made her a six inch cube with lift up lid.  It is modelled on my Rosebud Cottage treasure box which I will be teaching at the Creative Craft Retreat in November. It has a bit of everything - applique, embroidery, felt, silk flowers, guipure, beads and my favourite grub roses. 

This is the front:

The sides:

and the lid:

I had a few hours to spare on Friday, so whipped up a quick French tag to accompany the gift:

Having now made one, I really want to make more of these tags! They give me plenty of opportunity to let my vintage, romantic, Victorian side come to the fore, with plenty of 'prettiness', lace, ribbon, embroidery and lovely embellishments. 

But first I really should sit down and tackle one of the other four or five designs that are in various stages of production. I really am a 'finisher' but on occasions the lure of starting a new project is too strong and before I know it, my craft cupboard is strewn with carefully organised packets, each filled with fabric, threads, embellishments, and half-drawn pencil designs. Then all that careful preparation is put aside when another idea pops into the head!

I see on the calendar that the third week is coming up fast, so I had better get myself organised and prepare the next block in the free Block of the Month Thoughts in Thread quilt for you.  Don't forget to put photos of your blocks so far up on my Flickr page. There are some lovely photos there now. (If you only see a few photos, click "more photos" to see the rest.) If you don't know how to upload the photos, or don't have a Flickr account, you can e-mail me the photos and I can put them on for you.

Till next time, happy stitching!

Val