Summer holidays - Friday crafting

With Mr Pickle still on holidays there have been some lovely opportunities for crafting time over the past week. I've spent quite a bit of time drafting patterns and cutting things out as I seem to find that one of the hardest jobs to find uninterrupted time for and the Pickles always seem to end up tangled in fabric and the pins are strewn in every direction if I attempt this job with them around. That does however increase the ever present feeling of 'so many projects waiting, so little time to complete' that tends to nag constantly at the edge of my consciousness.

A barbeque was planned for the end of the week with two sets of friends, one who has just had her birthday and another with a baby not yet acknowledged. This presented an opportunity for some gift making.

A new lanyard and a linen 'bucket' for the friend and then a pair of Quick Change pants (from this book) for baby Amelia with a set of my almost signature (so oft have I repeated this baby gift of late) knitted ducks.

I love this pants pattern so much. Little Pickle has several pairs and they are so practical with their double sidedness and last forever with cuffs that roll-up and then down and then up again to become shorts.

 A new shop bought top found its way home with me the other day after a rare solo shopping outing (loving this two parent holiday thing) and it was crying out for a complimentary accessory. Suddenly that rather large and long collected stash of selvedges, tiny offcuts of ribbon, ricrac and other trims and some special saved buttons made sense and came into its own.
After finishing the pants at 9:30pm the night before the barbeque (so organised for me - nearly 24 hours ahead of delivery!) I confused Mr Pickle by kissing him goodnight as he went to bed and explaining gently that I had another little project I wanted to work on for a bit.
Some unexpectedly interesting television (in particular a show called The Big C - two episodes back to back) was the perfect background motivation to release all the ideas that had been working themselves out in my head for the past four days and eventually a bit after midnight I trotted off to bed with the glorious feeling of knowing I had a new necklace to wear.

 This mini wreath was inspired by some larger ones my sister makes with fabric scraps to hang on doorknobs. Whilst beautiful they seem a bit weird to me (doorknob decorations wouldn't really work in my house) the idea of a miniature version on a necklace seems much more fun to me.

 The rest of these details just sort of evolved and created themselves. I'm not quite sure the balance is exactly right and I want to put some little felt backs on some of them to hide my stitching and also to help them stay the right way around but I've taken it out for a spin a couple of times already and we are really enjoying each other's company.

The best bit for me was that as I made this I came up with lots of other ideas and starting contemplating other colour combinations so there may be some other late night sessions to further add to my accessory wardrobe for the new year.

To see some other crafting goodness pop over to here.