Month: July 2017

Summer Craft Challenge 2017 (Week 1)

~ Making Stitches ~ 14 Comments

Summer is here! Last year during the entirety of the school summer holiday I decided to set myself a challenge to do something creative every day (mainly for my own mental health during the 8 week-long summer holiday from school). I rose to the challenge and amazingly managed to do something creative every single day of that 8 weeks except for one, when we spent a rediculous amount of time traveling home from Suffolk to Gibraltar. 

The idea was sparked on the very first day of last year’s school holiday and worked amazingly well – the previous year’s summer vacation had been a very long and stressful time (I put so much effort into trying to entertain the 3 Little Postcards that there was little time or energy left for me to do what I love; creating). The new focus on creativity last year worked wonders for my mood, I made sure I had a crochet or sewing project with me on our trips away whether to the beach or park close to home or on our holiday away in England.

Keen to repeat the success of last year I decided  to do it again. Last Saturday was 1st July and although the school holidays hadn’t yet started I set off on my epic challenge a week early. Do you want to see how I got on? Here goes…

Day 1 : Saturday 1st July

What better way to start a summer craft challenge than by making a crochet unicorn? The kit and Ilaria Caliri pattern came with issue 54 of Simply Crochet magazine several months ago and has been in my to do list since.

Day 2 : Sunday 2nd July 

Allow me to introduce Europa the unicorn. She’s going to be the mascot of the Postcard from Gibraltar summer craft challenge and joining me on my summer long crafty adventure. She’s named after the southern most tip of Gibraltar and will come along with us on our summer trips (all of which will be in Europe).

Day 3 : Monday 3rd July

Day 3 was a bit crazy busy. By the time I picked up my crochet hook it was late at night and I started work on part of a commission I was working on. (Didn’t do much as you can see and it turned out to be wrong too because I was tired – but at least I tried!)

Day 4 : Tuesday 4th July

A change of craft for day 4. A similarly hectic day but I had a window of opportunity to do come thing crafty while I had a cake baking in the oven. I am in the process of making a felted picture and am adding the final embroidered touches. More on that later…

Day 5 : Wednesday 5th July

Back to that commission, and Europa was overseeing the creation of another little creature.

Day 6 : Thursday 6th July


Does this little sheepy head remind you of anyone?


Maybe a little crochet Sheep who had lots of adventures around Gibraltar last summer??

Introducing Llanita the third… here she is hanging out with her new bestie Europa. I was asked back in September last year if I would make a Llanita for someone. Ten months later and I finally managed it!

Day 7 : Friday 7th July

It was a blue sky kind of a day on Friday and I thought as school had officially closed for the summer it was a perfect opportunity to get my Little Box of Crochet WIP Blue Sky Hug scarf out of hibernation. After a short attempt to carry on with it, I was reminded that I had put it away because I need to concentrate when I work on it. The craziness of end of term means my attention span has been reduced to approximately 20 seconds so it was put back into hibernation and I looked for another WIP…

Ahh, that’s better! My Attic 24 designed mug cosy pattern is much easier on this tired brain… Roll on summer holidays! 

I’m posting daily photos on my Instagram page throughout my summer craft challenge. Fancy joining in? Just post your photos with the tag #summercraftchallenge2017

2017 Weekly photo challenge (week 27) Turn

~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments


….or should that be ‘no turn’? 

Apologies for this week’s rather uninspiring entry to the photo challenge, things have been a bit hectic of late and I didn’t have room in my brain to come up with a more inspiring one! 

PS I’m kicking myself for not including this photo in last week’s entry for ‘wave’…


… so I’ve put it into this week’s – is that cheating??! 😉

I’m linking with Nana Cathy & Wild Daffodil for this weekly photo challenge throughout 2017.

Sunday Sevens #90 2.7.17

~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Sunday Sevens number 90?? Crumbs have I really been doing it that long? I hope I’m not boring you! Thanks for coming along for the ride! 😊

So here’s this week’s installment of Sunday Sevens…

Another beautiful evening sky

I thought the clouds looked particularly pretty on Sunday evening last week. Unfortunately the camera on my phone didn’t quite do them justice. We are being really spoiled with gorgeous sunsets this summer.

End of term for dressmaking class

I can hardly believe that I have reached the end of my second year of dressmaking classes with the immensely clever Dorcas Hammond (you can read all about Dorcas in this post). It may seem a silly thing to do to end the year with the beginnings of a new project, but for various reasons I got a bit behind with my work this year.

I am now all ready to get cracking in September stitching this gorgeous Kafe Fassett fabric into a blouse.

Last watercolour lesson of the term

Similar to dressmaking I had my last watercolour lesson this week and again I spent my lesson working on a new project. I am attempting to paint a sunset I photographed a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed playing with the colours to find the right tones for the sky and sea. I do fear that the trial run may turn out better than the real thing though!! You can also see my post about my hugely talented watercolour teacher Deborah M Lawson here.

Crochet therapy

Life seems to be very hectic at the moment, it shouldn’t surprise me but it always is at this time of year. As the school year draws to a close and we are inundated with notes and emails detailing special days and meetings and a flurry of birthday party invitations for children whose birthdays fall during the long summer break. 

There have been days when I am sure I have had steam coming out of my ears and I’ve been contemplating running away and locking myself in a darkened room until September. However, I did make it to the weekend and next week is the last week of term for the Little Postcards. I did realise this week that I need to keep crafting to retain my sanity, so whenever I could, I grabbed a crochet hook and got busy on the border for this blanket. 

Poniente breezes

Something which has gone in our favour this week is is the fact that the wind direction changed. Of late we have ‘enjoyed’ a Levante (easterly) wind which has brought with it hot and humid weather, this week we received a welcome break with Poniente (westerly) breezes bringing much cooler weather. 

You could see the North Moroccan coast really clearly on Friday but blimey the water in the Strait was choppy. I don’t fancy being on that little boat! 

Another blanket finished

TA-dah! The latest Sixty Million Trebles blanket is completed. This one is the result of a collaboration and was created by the Gibraltar Crochet Collective, I just joined it and added the border. This is a slightly smaller baby blanket and will go with two others to a drop off point in England when I am over visiting family this summer. For more on Sixty Million Trebles, you can see their website here. 

Yesterday the organisation revealed the big news that they have reached the 3/4 point in their goal of reaching 60 million treble stitches. Hopefully they will hit 60 by the time the blankets are shipped to help Syrian refugee children in September.

Summer craft challenge 2017

Last year during the school summer holidays I challenged myself to do a little bit of craft every day in order to maintain my sanity. I amazed myself at managing to fulfill the challenge on all bar one day over the eight week long school break. 

This year, I have decided to do the same thing. I began my challenge yesterday seeing as it was the first of July and it felt like the start of summer proper. I wonder whether I’ll be able to maintain my challenge again this year?  Fancy joining in? If you do, you can follow my progress on Instagram, just use the tag #summercraftchallenge2017 with your creations.

Thanks for joining me this week. Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins