Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

If you are wondering why there was a 3ish month hiatus on the blog... forget about that and look at this: I have completed 5 more squares for the throw! Hot dawg! On the left and right hand sides we have two more granny squares, the left one probably being my favourite colour scheme so far. I think that one came out so awesome because I was watching Die Hard With A Vengeance when I hooked the turquoise layers. All the granny squares seem to pull in at the edges, but they do this in the magazine pictures too so I guess it can't be all bad. I think this is a side effect of crocheting in the round. On the top is another treble square with diamond cross-stitch pattern, purple this time! The bottommost square is a half treble square with 'aztec' style (their term, not mine; mine is 'messed up S') cross-stitch pattern. This was a lot of fun to make and super quick... if not a little confusing for my simple mind. It turned out rad though, so that's all I ca

I finally got round to finishing four more squares for the blanket, clockwise from top left they are: half treble crochet square with star motif, classic granny square, half treble square with star motif again and some openwork mesh thingy square that looks like it has worms (it does not). I am super happy with how they turned out... the granny square is my favourite and the mesh patterned one a close second (it didn't photograph very well though). The hooking continues... These squares were made using the power of: Gok's Fashion Fix, Supernanny, Pinapple Dance Studio, Wife Swap U.S.A. and Jennifer's Body.

This is our friend Helen's website Recycled With Love ! We spied her stall at a gig and noticed her striking eyeballs. Not the ones in her head, silly! These ones: Eyeballs modelled by 'Lucky' James McGuinness. She also makes clothes from vintage fabric, cards and other bits, zoweeee!

I subscribed to the 'Art of Crochet' magazine a few months ago and the issues have been arriving Vin Diesel style (Fast and Furious). As a total and utter beginner I was confused by the pictures in the magazine, which didn't always seem to match my samples. I tried searching online to see if anyone else was experiencing the same problem but couldn't find anything. I then ended up even more confused by Googling the terms because after much research I found that there is a difference between American and British terms for the same stitch... probably seems dumb to the veteran crocheter, but no one explained it to me! Eventually I found this chart which helped a lot. Anyway... it's taken me a while to get the confidence together to end the practice runs and start an actual bonefide project - but I've finally cracked it! These are the beginnings of a patchwork granny vintage style blanket, I did the squares in this order: On the left is the 'Redcurrant'

This was designed to be a really quick and simple project to make, because it was one of a few tasks I set myself whilst recovering from my appendectomy! Firstly, I cut my fabric a little longer than the length of the handles and then used some educated guesswork for the other dimensions. The main body of the bag was made using the basic principle of this tutorial up until Step 4 (remember to leave gaps at either end for space to open the bag, or you will have to unpick it all like I did. D'oh). Instead of sewing all around the top of the bag and then turning it inside out, I then put my little plastic handles inside and hand sewed them in; eliminating the need to turn it inside out. The Toilet Boys denim and the Cinnamoroll swimsuit fabric in the background is from The Fabric Fairy and the Tiger print cotton is from Abakhan (although I think it's all gone now). The handles are from a local place called Inkspot, I think they were around £3. Not as nice as real bamboo,

After a 2 year break from these rompers, I have finally gotten around to finishing them! They're for my new cousin, who will be Apparating in 3 days. And hopefully not Splinching. The patterns are both from the first Sublime Stitching book . I used t-shirt stabiliser because the babygros are jersey type fabric, which stretches, not ideal for embroidering. Close ups for detail: I messed up the satin stitch in the collar (which may have triggered the 2 year hiatus), but overall I am pretty pleased. I also used a relatively more successful satin stitch for the nose, french knots for the exclamation marks and the rest is just split stitching. The part I am most proud of however, is my gay pride friendly colour theme. I am especially proud of this guy, he is comprised of split stitches again, with one more french knot in his moon buddy and a 'twinkle stitch'. I used metallic thread for extra twinkle. The baby is a girl, so they are nice and gender neutral. Once the e