The Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief Sews...

It's another Finish Along quarter 1 finish! And it's a knitted thing that has been on my list to finish for fucking ever! It's a Hitchhiker :D Despite what some people I know might think, this is only the second one of these I've made. But it's a good pattern, and as someone addicted to pretty sock yarn but who hates wearing socks, pretty shawls like this are the way forwards!

I have a desperate need for things to be FINISHED. It's a problem. My mental health is shite at the moment thanks to work, which means I'm exhausted by the time I get home, which means I have no time to make things. It's a cycle. The less I make the worse I feel, the more work gets to me. I took a day yesterday, called in sick and knitted, finished a shawl. Felt better for it and picked up the next half finished thing. I'm ignoring the pile of sewing that needs doing for a shop update. On my FAL 2018 post, there is an entry for a Fold Up Sewing Folio by Aneela Hoey. It's got some gorgeous big floral fabric and some grey essex linen. This is that project, but I decided I didn't like the essex linen and bought something else instead. I adore this pattern. I really really do.

Good morning! The sun is shining and I know full well the weather is going to turn again this weekend, because it's England, but stuff it, I shall rejoice in the sun, however brief it is! This is actually a Finish Along Finish! Bet you thought there wouldn't be any of those! (I wasn't sure...) This is the Triple Pouch from Aneela Hoey's Stitched Sewing Organisers book. And it's terrifying! But it looks really cool.

More stuff! This was a swap quilt, which I was obscenely proud of, and which went down well with its recipient! If you're coming here from IG, you probably know about the #saturdaynightcraftalong, in which everyone gets together in the tag and posts what they're doing on a saturday evening, and cheerleads each other and drools over other people's projects. It's good, laid back crafty fun, and at the tail end of last year, the organisers of the tag set up a swap.

This was probably finished in time for the last quarter of last year's FAL, but because I'm me, I couldn't be bothered to post it. This is the Rune Shawl , from last year's Shawl Society, and this is the 4th pattern from that collection that I've finished. The Vila and the Sprite's Fen are still in progress! This post is also the introduction of my new little helper, Jazz. I've been talking about getting a cat for AGES, and at the tail end of last year, while perusing the Cat's Protection League pages, I fell in love with a little tortie. After fighting my housing association (who hate answering their phones and giving straight answers) and her having an ongoing case of stress induced cystitis, I finally picked her up just after christmas, and she has been treading on things, jumping on my ironing board and chewing my circular needle cables ever since!

I've got to that annoying point where I've ended up with LOADS of stuff I feel I should blog, and no enthusiasm or time to actually blog them. But, since I am trying to keep track of these things, and since some of them are Finish-Along projects, I should probably get my arse in gear. So... first off, some xmas catch up! First project was a plushie bat. I love bats, most of my friends do, and my bff's housemate/landlady has recently had a bit of a time of it. So while she's not someone I'd usually gift to, I found her a really cool gothy print, and made her a bat.

Oh god, I have so many projects! And it feels like every time I do one of these lists, it gets longer and more scruffy! 1. Star Wars zip up tray pouch - oh my god I will do this! I swear! I mean I'll probably sell it, but I swear I will! 2. Teal ponte cardigan - it's been moved downstairs so I can actually cut it out. 3. Makers Tote - due to an interfacing issue, this is now a birthday present, but it's currently the project on the go, so it will be done! 4. Pink sparrow Heidi clutch - this is going on etsy, I just need to finish the bloody thing! 5. Hitchhiker take 2 - this is nearly done. It's just been shoved somewhere. 6. Unicorn embroidery pouch - this is pissing me off as the design has rubbed off and I can't easily retrace it. A labour of "oh god I will get this done" 7. Meeple cushions - they will be done! The red one has been stolen by my friend's cat, so I ought to make the rest. 8. Sprite's Fen shawl - this is getting huge a...

Let's try and keep the momentum going, right? I'm messing around with machine photos for work, so I might as well write a blog post. This pretty much brings me up to speed with the backlog. I've got one cushion cover left from the FAL Q4 list that I haven't blogged, but I'm currently working on stock and some projects that still have a long way to go, so there might be a bit of a lull. This is the Familiar Shawl , the last of the six patterns from The Shawl Society II this year. And I've got to say, I think it might be my favourite. Although that might just be because it took me about a week to knit, and I've been wearing it ever since.

Another quick and dirty finish resulting in a quick and dirty post! This is my HST cushion cover, that was made from the offcuts of the hearts I made for the Quilts for Pulse drive last year.

The problem with blogging is having to write the blog posts. I never know what to write; I'm not witty enough to write long, rambling descriptions of my life (and my life isn't that interesting to be honest) Anyway, another quick post just to say I finished something. This is the other part of the mugs and monsters swap... A cute little bat embroidery hoop. I hate embroidery. I never know why I do it. It's slow, and it's fiddly and while the results usually look pretty good, I really don't have the patience for it. This took me weeks, and it still didn't come out how I'd planned, because I decided to leave it as line art rather than shade it (a. for time and b. because I love the fabric) The bat pattern is from Urban Threads , which is a dangerous website for someone who likes cute things, but hates embroidery. I own many patterns that I'm probably never going to stitch up. I'm just like that. The fabric is Cotton and Steel "Boo...

Really quick and dirty project here... A halloween themed mug for the Mugs and Monsters swap on Instagram. I know this has been delivered, but I've not seen if my partner has actually opened the parcel. Oh well. Large black mug from the local cookware shop, ceramic paint and a toothbrush (and a normal paint brush to do the text) I love doing silhouette mugs like this, I think they look really cool. I did a Deep Space 9 one a few years ago, and that looked awesome. Cut the pattern from paper, stick it to the mug using cheap and cheerful kiddie glue that doesn't actually stick very well. I mixed up some orange and some pale green paint, and used the toothbrush to splatter it on the mug. Wait for the paint to dry and peel off the template. Voila, a witch flying across the sky! I free-handed the text because I couldn't make a stencil small enough.  Bake it in the oven for half an hour to set the paint, and there you have it!

I've got a bunch of short posts of stuff wot I 'ave finished recently to post, that have been sat with the photos prepped and nothing else for a while. First off, is the Wishmaker Shawl , pattern number 5 from the Shawl Society season 2. This is the second of the shawls from this set that I've finished, and while I do like the pattern, I ruined it with poor yarn choices.

Beth's first ever custom order! A guy at work plays Pokemon, and wanted a dice bag... voila... pokemon themed dicebag in two evenings!

I had one whole finish in Quarter 3. It turns out walking 5 miles every day for 3 months (and extra on weekends) really takes a lot of time and energy. I made progress on things, but I also had a couple of swaps on the go, and ended up working on random bits and pieces. I also opened up BlueberryBits on etsy, which desperately needs more stock! I might add photos later, but I'm busy as fuck at the moment with work, so err, it's just a list... 1. Star Wars zip up tray pouch - oh my god I will do this! I swear! I mean I'll probably sell it, but I swear I will! 2. Teal ponte cardigan - it's been moved downstairs so I can actually cut it out. 3. Makers Tote - this is going to be an xmas gift so I REALLY need to get on with it! 4. Pink sparrow Heidi clutch - this is going on etsy, I just need to finish the bloody thing! 5. Hitchhiker take 2 - this is nearly done. It's just been shoved somewhere. 6. Unicorn embroidery pouch - this is pissing me off as the design...

I've not had the photos for this sitting on my computer for about a month, honest. I really hate writing blog posts sometimes, but I've got nothing better to do at work today. These are the finished bits I made for my #seamonsterswap partner over on instagram. And a needle cosy I made because I had some scraps. After this there'll be a vague "this is how I made it" post that isn't really a tutorial, but some pictures and some swearing. Also apparently I didn't take a photo of the back of the miniquilt when it was finished. It wasn't very interesting so you're not really missing out much there. Portholes, tentacles and seahorses were the aims here, which I think this hits. Nothing massively "sea monster" but definitely deep sea and a bit weird. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do, and then had to work out if I had the skills to match! Thankfully, the issue of Quilt Now that came out around the time I was pl...

These were originally on the FAL Q2 list, but unfortunately got done in that weird period between linking up my finishes and linking up the new quarter, so they didn't count for Q2 and they're not on the Q3 list. Hey ho. I don't appear to have photos of all of them either, which is a wee bit irksome. There's another fox with a darker blue background, and a Starfleet symbol on blue. The pi and the fox patterns are by Stars and Sunshine  and are both free patterns on her craftsy store. I love foxes, and I'm a math nerd, so of course I'm going to use them. I might put these up for sale, I'm not sure. They're quilted and stuffed with polyfil, which I'm not too fond of for pincushions, but is at least light, and easy to get hold of. They're a fun way to use up odd blocks I make here and there, so I suspect there will be more of them in the future.

Hi, my name's Beth and I have a very slightly ridiculous crush on Adam Driver. That's mostly irrelevant, because despite this yarn being called 'kylo ren' it is about as kylo ren-ish as a pumpkin. Mostly, it's pink. I mean it's black and pink, but that is very definitely pink, and not red. Who cares? Not me. Black and pink is an excellent combo, and it means when I turn up to the next fandom meet up I bother to show my face at, I'll have a silly hat.

Quarter 2 turned into a bit of a fail. I made progress on stuff, but I got caught up in new projects that weren't on the list, and let things slip. I also let my sewing room fall into a hideous state of chaos that I'm now (with the help of finally having more storage space) trying to fix. The sewing machine is away until there is permanent floor and surface space. I'm going to add photos later, because everything is in boxes, and I'm writing this at work while I try to convince my body to stop trying to kill me.

This err, wasn't on the Finish Along list. Actually, a lot of what I'm working on at the moment wasn't. Oops?

This is one of those projects that I don't have a huge amount to say about, because it was a pretty simple make, but it was one of those ones where I had zero enthusiasm to actually work on it, probably because it was simple. This was made for my swap partner's son, and I was told he liked Chewbacca, the Light Side and Stormtroopers. All the patterns she posted in her mosaic were from Quiet Play , and she didn't give a lot of info about fabric or anything else really, so I was working pretty blind. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out though, and it seemed to be fairly well received, which is always nice to know. (here modeled by R, who made the fatal mistake of being at my house when I needed to take some photos)