Half-finished

I am going my way through the rooms of my house, working out what will come with us to our new home and what will be given away or thrown away or sold. In the study are my half-finished, mostly abandoned and never started craft projects.

Here are the instruction leaflets. One for Japanese reversible loop bags that I made everyone for Christmas one year and another for an Australian Bushland Wildflowers cross stitch that I made for my mother over a number of years. Another for a winter wonderland cross stitch pattern, never attempted. A Sashiko kit for a mini tote or an apron, but I haven't got any Sashiko needles. Step-by-step instructions for washi eggs. An article on papercutting. I have a lot of sketch books.

In my sketch books there are an awful lot of unfinished sketches, as well as lots of finished ones. Unfinished are some of my family and a design for a mural that I was going to paint on my mother's garden wall (before she grew a creeper up it instead). I keep the sketch books for posterity.

Tucked in the sketch books are the designs for some paper-cut Christmas cards that I made years ago. I never got beyond eight maids amilking in the cuts, although I have a design for nine ladies dancing. When I'm getting out the Christmas decorations, I'll share the paper-cuts with you.

I find a big plastic envelope full of bits of paper that I picked up in 2010 when we visited Germany and France. I've previously put together photo albums for our 2006 trip to Malaysia and England, and our 2008 trip to Vietnam. I've got organised enough to purchase albums for the Germany-France trip, but haven't decided which photos to print yet. I keep the envelope and remind Darren that we need to sort out the photos.

There are lots of things to do with felt. I discovered felting in 2010 and made quite a few wet felted scarves and baby booties, as well as some needle felted pin cushions and decorations. Here is the instruction book for the first silk merino scarf that I made, as well as my notes on making felt booties. Three beautiful books full of wonderful ideas. A half-finished stripy felt bag and a piece of felt that I was going to make into a travel wallet. A box of wool, my detergent drink bottle and some bubble wrap. I keep the instruction manuals, wool and books, and throw away the incomplete projects.

One of my finds are some wooden bodies, turned by my father-in-law, and wooden noses and a few different kinds of fur and untreated wool. These are the supplies to make little gnomes in felted hats. I started these earlier this year, glued a beard on the first gnome, and then stalled in the felting of the hat. I keep these and put them on the list of things to get around to doing.