"The Craft Group" plus...

Country Threads Magazine featured this cute project. The Beehive is made of felt and pretty embroidery with a few cute buttons. It is a needlecase and mini scissor holder. You know you want to make one, I can see it in your eyes. For those of you who come along to the group....  it is just 2 more sleeps until The Craft Group meets again for a new term!!! It will be really nice to see everyone again (and see their projects they have been busy with??) This term if anyone wants to make the Beehive Needle case project (taken from Country threads magazine), you can see the magazine on thursday and Leanne has made up kits (so everyone doesn't have to put together the little bits 'n pieces required.) Here's a reminder of what it looks like... See you then. Now, this term will be a bit different for me :( Remember that I told you about my Javelin throwing attempt ? Well, the end diagnosis for my knee is a snapped Anterior Cruciate Ligament and some other bits ...

This scarf by Shirley looks like it has been made with many different textures of year. But it is made by one ball she bought from Big W. Instead of it being a variety of colours, the one ball is a variey of textures. That has many easy creative possibilities!

Here is a feast of ideas for pretty cards: By Rita... By Cheryl... By Anne... By Elly... Nice cards ladies  :)

Crocheted hats are appearing everywhere! Here is a cute one made by Wendy. Here are a few online free patterns I found if you are interested in whipping up a few hats... A fast and chunky one. Find the pattern here.  at JJCrochet blog. Learn how to add a soft fabric lining to your crocheted hats here  at "The Green Dragonfly" . Sometimes you want added warmth and less prickle factor! Also at the "Green Dragonfly" you can find the pattern for this great hat for a man in your life. Or for you if you are a man reading this and you love to crochet! Just google "Crocheted hat free patterns" or "Crochet hat free patterns" and click on images and you will find all the hats in the world to choose from. Maybe you want to make this one.... go on, you know you want to! Oh, you have to buy it . Maybe just stick with the freebies!

Some babies just don't do the hair growing thing for such a long time! Like my little Annalee here! Maybe I should have made her some hair! (or maybe not!) Sarah Boccolucci from Tots and Bottoms Blog  gave her daughter some hair and here are her results.  Cute hey! Good for a winters day! Find the pattern here .

Home made cards and gifts say so much more to the receiver. You know it wasn't a case of "I just ran out to the shops 5 minutes before I came and grabbed something for your birthday". (We've all been there, done that!) Here is a special box, completely hand made, given to me for my birthday by Elly. It had all the good qualities of a gift... It looked super nice. It was hand made just for me, which is so special. It had a sense of mystery as I opened it. It felt luxurious untying the satin ribbon as opposed to picking at sticky tape. It contained a surprise.... the little 'drawers' opened up, each containing a little envelope which also had a surprise in it!  AND.... there was chocolate in each section! Thanks Elly! It's lovely to have a well thought out gift that is an event in itself to open :) (El... do you have a link for how to make this one?)

The school holidays are nearly over. Some kids have one more week. Why not get creative and make some pretty lanterns to hang in your bedroom? (Caitlin and Ryan... if you make one and take a photo, I'll put it on the blog!) A teacher at school made these with her grade 3 class.  I was the photographer, so I captured the pictorial step-by-step instructions.

I have just been involved in a project which is so worthwhile and really fun to do. A group of us ladies found out from our friend, Sunet about a great need for tactile quilts to be used in early intervention programs for babies and toddlers with disabilities. The research shows that stimulating the brain is good for little ones. That makes sense for all children, but for these special little ones, the stimulation has to involve as many senses as possible and be both comfortable and uncomfortable. We like to give babies lovely soft things, but for short bursts of time, it has been found to be beneficial to lie little ones with disabilities on surfaces of varying textures. The more the better... rough, smooth, scratchy, bumpy, crinkly, bright, sparkly etc etc. We all decided to make a few 10 1/2 inch squares and then bring them together to make a square floor quilt of 16 squares total. This was textile craft at its best. No rules. No need to buy anything. Just create. We could us...

This is one of the first things I made at The Craft Group. Seeing as this is our 20th Anniversary year, I thought I'd show you. I made lining for a basket for my little girls hair clips and ribbons.  She didn't have much hair in those days so I made little pockets which very soon were too small for their intended use (but still very cute!) The poor old basket is now 22 years old. I am hopeless at throwing things out, so I washed it and use it now for holding craft projects. By 'little girl' is 23 years old, and she is still around too! For a little family update, her knee operation went well. She was in so much pain after the op it was not nice. It doesn't matter how old your kids are, it is always awful to see them in pain. We are home now and the recovery process begins! 

Well, the blog is neglected again because the blogger is otherwise occupied. With this blog in it's second year, you can start to see the annual rhythm of my life. This past week was our kids holiday program which we had last year too (and for the past 20 years!) So it has been a week of telling children and their families about the great, life saving message that Jesus wants us to know. It's an exhausting week for all but such an uplifting time for our church family and such fun and worthwhile too. Now, this afternoon I have an activity I'd rather not have to do... take Annalee for a knee reconstruction operation. I'll have to tell you some time about her first knee reconstruction (the other leg) and how I didn't go to the hospital with her. It scarred me for life. So today I am going with her. I may just share more later if there are stories to tell!