There’s been secret sewing and even some free-motion quilting lessons but mostly there has been hooking.

I came across a marvellous photo of a crocheted bag on Flickr recently, which led me to the maker’s crochet photostream and beautiful blog.  She does exquisite crochet in perfect colour combinations, as well as knitting, embroidery, patchwork, and other crafts.  And did I mention that she’s French?  I somehow found instructions for the Mamy Bag (scroll down about halfway on the linked page) and armed with the high school French I was able to dredge from my memory and combining it with my knowledge of granny squares I made a start.  27 hexagons done, 16 more to go.  Each hexagon takes me around 20 minutes to crochet, then another few minutes to weave in the ends.

Two of my cushion fronts now have backs. I chopped up one of my old jumpers to make two cushion backs, machine sewed them to the cushion fronts (catching in all those pesky ends)  and then added crocheted buttonholes and some colourful buttons to close the overlap.

Hmm, I think I’d better give those cushion backs a bit of a “shave” – there are a few pills showing up in that photo! It was a well-loved jumper.

May is going to be huge for crafty commitments. I’m heading to the Australasian Quilt Convention this Saturday with my Mum and Clare.  The following Friday I’m planning on checking out the Stitches & Craft Show with Miss Stella (so be warned if you’re going on Friday morning – I’ll be there with a not-yet-three-year-old in a stroller).  Then I’ll be busy assisting Nikki at Stiches on Saturday.  Have you begun to feel a little tired on my behalf yet?  Because that’s not all – the following weekend is Sew It Together!  And then the weekend after that I’m off to Sewjourn witha marvellous group of crafty women – and I think we’ll all be in need of a rest and laugh – inbetween doing yet more sewing, of course!  I’m not quite sure just how so many craft-related events managed to implode coincide in the one month, and it’s not ideal, but it will be fun.  Somewhere in there I’ll fit in my paid job, my unpaid one at home, spend time with my kids, spend time with my hubby, attend school council, do the washing and ironing, go to book group, do the business paperwork, go to the gym…okay, I’d better just take things one day at a time.  Breathe deeply.

And there’ll definitely be some more hooking.