Beach balls

This afternoon I had a lovely quiet house and inspired by the latest issue of Sew Hip decided I wanted to do some crafting. I’ve been meaning to make these balls http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-beach-balls/ for ages after seeing them on an online friend’s blog and finally got round to it. I hadn’t been able to decide what fabric to use but thought maybe cord would be nice. However, while under the stairs getting out the iron and ironing board I spotted a box that makes me feel guilty every time I see it.

Several years ago I decided I was going to get into quilting and patchwork. Now, I have a tendancy to decide on a hobby and spend a fortune buying stuff for it only to never actually get round to doing it or discovering I don’t actually like it. Quilting was one of these. I bought my sewing machine on the basis it was so good for quilters (not that I regret that, it’s a fab machine which I still love using 6 years on). I also spent loads on the fabric for several specific projects and on fabric that I liked and would do something with one day.

All I ever made was a wall hanging and found the piecing very boring, hated the cutting out and hated the quilting bit (in fact, I never did finish quilting it properly). So that’s another hobby out of the window. I subscribed to two patchwork magazines for a few years and ended up giving them all away on Freecycle about three years ago.

So, here’s this box with it’s contents that make me feel bad every time I see it. I’ve considered putting it all on eBay but there’s so many diferent things in it that it would take me forever to list and I can’t be bothered. I’ve considering just giving it away but I can’t.

Ok, I’m not going to make it into quilts or wall hangings, but how about this ball? Is there anything in it I could use? Well, of course there was. And I found lots of pieces that I could use for other things. Taking away the “this was for quilting” mentality from it and changing it to “this is great for all the little crafty projects I want to do” has changed the way I feel about it. Instead of feeling negative and it dragging me down I now feel positive, even inspired to go through it and sort it out (hopefully tomorrow).

So, I made the fabric ball in the photo. It’s stuffed with fleece which I carded this afternoon too. That was the bit that took the longest. Typically just as I finished Millie and Ellie wandered through and wanted a go at carding so I let them. They are currently filling bags of carded wool for me for future projects… If I’d asked them to do it for me they’d have got bored within 10 minutes but they’ve been there for hours.

The instructions made me think it was going to be really complicated but it was soooo easy and I will definitely make more. I had intended it for the new baby but I think Alfie has decided he’s going to keep it instead.

Yesterday I got the crochet blanket from the car finished so that’s now in use - Jack grabbed it and announced it was his blanket and it is currently covering him up as he sleeps on the sofa (he’s been asleep there since 4pm - it’s now 8pm - anything to do with the fact he was playing in his bedroom between 4am and 7.30am this morning????)

I am now adding onto the blanket I made for Millie with a few odd balls of wool I don’t think I will ever use for anything else. They don’t quite go but she’s happy with it which is the main thing. Of course, Sophie wants me to do the same with hers so I’m going to have to decide what I’ve got that I can use for that. I have a couple of balls of Noro I will probably use.

We have freezing weather and snow forecast this week so I have to admit I am hoping we get snowed in and I have an excuse to sit and craft with the children if they can’t get to school. I bet we get snowed in and I go into labour so the midwife can’t get here (wouldn’t that be awful???!!!!)http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-beach-balls/