Made by Me and Work In Progress

Christmas feels like a long time ago, especially as I've been plagued by illness for most of January. But the plus side of recovering from illness is that there is time to create.

The best Christmas present I received (from my fabulous parents) was a tapestry kit from the wonderful Hannah Bass. I've been lusting after these for quite some time and of course I had to go for Amsterdam - one of my favourite cities! 

I've been stitching away and I'm half way through which is pretty good going given I only started on Christmas day. It's been great because as I've stitched I've been remembering wandering down the canals with OH on our past holidays. 

I was equally chuffed that I've managed to keep the back relatively . Normally when I stitch pieces the back is absolute chaos. 

Another Christmas gift was the new book from Louise Firchau 'Paper Panda's Guide to Papercutting'. I love Paper Panda's work and enjoyed trialing this for my sister's birthday card but I must admit I was a little disappointed with the book overall as many of the patterns were from other paper cut artists which I hadn't realised and they're not of a style I particularly like but that's just my personal choice. For a beginners book it has some great advice. 

Next up the last baby blanket for a while (that I'm aware of). In 2016 I made 5 blankets - this is included as I started it in November and finished it in early January just in time for little Rowan for who it was made for. 

I'm not sure if the colours are a little bonkers but at least it's bright and happy!

I made a quick co-co top in readiness for the spring when it's hopefully a bit warmer. Am hoping I'm not going to regret the stripes but there we go. 

And finally a quick lesson on when you should buy fabric that you like when you see it. I saw this in my local shop Simply Fabric in Brixton over the Summer, debated what I could make with it and by the time I went in to buy it they had sold out of it! Luckily I spotted it back on the shelves in early winter so snapped it up and made this top for work over Christmas. 

And so there we have it - my latest makes from just before Christmas. Not a bad haul even if I do say so myself. I'll post again when I've finished my Amsterdam needlepoint which given I have yet another cold may be sooner rather than later!