Himiko No Sekkai | handmade lovable goods

And then Amy made the best pillow ever.

And I had lots of projects in various stages of completion demanding my attention.

But I set to make one for this household anyway. That's how well restrained and disciplined I truly am. Hah!

pillow

In my defense, it's gorgeous. And I had these Lecien flower fabrics that I had been hovering over for months on end, trying to decide what they should be. I had a moment of clear vision and knew the answer to that and the rest of the universe would be 'that pillow'.

pillow full view

Cute embroidery coupled with flowery fabric, quilting, crisp white lace and white piping... a combination that can't go wrong.

The little lady on who's bed this pillow now sits, went "ooooooooooooohhhhhh" and buried her head in it claiming that she'd stay that way forever. School got in the way of those plans but I get her. I do.

pillow close up

quilting

What more can I say? Except, go make one for yourself. Best thing you'll have done in a very long time!

And since I was doing towels, I had one more brilliant towel idea. Anyone with young children will get this...

There comes a time when bibs are outgrown for all sorts of reasons but a towel in reach for cleaning up messy faces, dripping cups and greasy hands still is a good idea. Leaving a full blown kitchen towel by every child's plate is a bit much and the ties of those old bibs, folded to look like a small towel, keep getting tangled up with the cups and cutlery producing even more mess to clean up. So I had a better idea.

Have a look at this:

child towel

A small sized towel - they call it guest towels over here- with a twist. A hand sewn hexagon flower, a small label, a little bit of embroidered ribbon and, hey where did I see that before, a crocheted edging. This time only at the bottom of the towel as the top sports a fancy piece of ribbon for hanging the thing up on a hook.

Folded in four, this layout makes for a pretty and comfortable sized towel that will replace all bibs around here.

towel detail

Oh I'm a fan. I made four so far... in pairs of two identical ones... in an effort to reduce discussions at the table to a minimum. They are such a pretty and fun means of getting out those small pieces of ribbon that linger in your sewing basket. Those little fabric scraps, the remaining labels. A cool purpose to indulge in hexagon sewing. And before you know it you're saying, in a slightly shrieky and panicking voice, things like "don't use it for your chocolate fingers... it might get stained!"

Useful. Did I mention they are really useful?

Were was I?

Well, mainly here. In my garden. In between the copious rain. Enjoying such beauties as these camelias.

garden

But I did promise a further look at what I had been up to. So here it is. A pretty pile of towels.

towel trio

The bathroom was in need of some new additions. Now I'm no great fan of prints on towels. Nor of bold colors. They are too much of a sore sight to my weary eyes in the morning. So I went for crisp white ones. Big and fluffy. And with the help of some cotton and a crochet hook, now with a softly colored frill at both ends.

edge detail

And as a way to use up some leftover fabric scraps and label scraps, I made small labels to go with the color of the crochet edgings.

towel labels

This is one of those projects that will be repeated in the future as more towels need replacing. Elegant, soft and luxurious looking towels. Man, it just about turns my humble bathroom in a true spa!

sneek peek

Just a little peek into something I've been working on but isn't finished yet. White and fluffy just like that fluffy bunny. Soon I'll have more to show...

And then there were small left overs of plain white drawing paper. And a need for some new bookmarks to take to school. No more needed to be said. Here you go.

bookmarks full view

We opened up Photoshop and created black frames, bookmark size, in which we typed 'Shhtt, be quiet. X (name of child) is reading a book.' We left enough room to make a drawing and printed that out on the left over paper.

Then it was time to get the favorite book out. One about a clever dog and his illiterate nephew the wolf.

We searched for our favorite illustrations and set to draw them ourselves on the empty space on the bookmark. Some aquarel, for mum, and some felt tip coloring pencils, for the girl, later we decided to back them with a lovely patterned paper before finally laminating them. Personalized bookmarks really are the best!

bookmark close up

How cool are these? Marije Tolman did the original illustrations and these are our personal interpretations. They look really similar I think!

bookmark detail

And does anybody else agree with me that these drawings made by my 6 year old are really fab? Cause I think so. But then according to me I have the best kids in the world. Apparently that's being bias. Pfff...

This past Easter holiday the weather has been stormy as my daughters put it. The weatherman prefers boisterous, it being spring and all. Anyhow, pouring showers, hail, thunder, blustering wind and cold temperatures kept us mainly indoors. And there I began the great task of sorting through my stuff and chucking lots of it out. You can't be too careful in trying not to fall into the pitfalls of hoarding.

So when my eye spotted a big pile of crafty magazines, beautiful magazines but all read and just sitting there, I called upon my girls and we tore the lot to pieces. Fun pages and pictures were put in a box for future projects, the remains went to the recycling bins.

And this is what one can do with pretty pages.....

enveloppes

The start of a collection of wonderful handmade envelopes!

And all those cardboard monochrome pages that were scattered throughout the magazines? They became ,with the help of a punch and a blistered and battered thumb, little jars filled with paper confetti...

confetti

So not only did I get rid of this big pile of untouched magazines, I also gained, neatly in a box and some jars, ready to use stationary and craft supplies. How often does that happen?

So then I made another one. As planned. A circus act. For my personal 4 year old circus act. A perfect choice as she exclaimed instantly "oh this is my favorite pillow case ever...he does tricks!" An instant connection they shared, the smiling bunny and my smiling daughter. Entire conversations she holds with him at night when she's supposed to go to sleep. Getting the bunny of her bed and destined for the washing machine is something else all together but let me just say that as soon as he's back on there, the order in her universe seems to be restored.

bunny pillow case

He's made following the trusty recipe. One takes a vintage transfer embroidery and one embroiders that with red floss onto a piece of white cotton. Then one adds bits of colorful fabric above, under and to the side of the embroidery as if to make a frame. Then one adds a fanciful piece of ribbon -a bunting in this case- to the lot and one incorporates this patch onto a pillow case. As a finishing touch one crochets a neat border and stitches onto the open side of the pillow case. One cannot fail. Yay!

full view pillow case

hexie cuttings

All this cutting left me with two blisters on my fingers but they are neat and tidy and ready to be sewn up...

hexies

Making quilts makes sense right now. After a premature spot of summer, day and nights have turned chilly again. Although... chilly... good heavens, we're in for frosty mornings again around the weekend.

Anyhow, with two ladies to entertain during the holidays I wasn't really in any position to make a full blown adult sized quilt. But a doll quilt... now that is manageable. And let's be frank, if it's chilly for us then it's chilly for our doll posse. And an extra blanket never hurt anyone.

So here it is. Little leftover patches of pale pink from an actual adult sized and finished quilt and some colorful squares from my 1930's fabric stash. Simple little thing. But so cheerful...

doll quilt

doll quilt back

quilt detail

Yes, and now you wonder... who is it for?

Well, meet 'Katie'. Wait for it.... 'Katie Canon ball'. Seriously. Canon ball. And be warned, if you start to laugh at this point -as I did when my youngest introduced her- a severe reprimanding awaits you. I speak from experience.

Katie Canon ball is a member of a royal family, being a baby princess, and one can't mock royals. I have been told!

doll

At least she wears home made clothes. And sleeps in a glorified Ikea doll bed... with cool bedding.

doll bed

sheets

So for the last few days 'Canon ball' by the Breeders has been the background music in my mind... constantly. Katie Canon ball, really...

cardigan front

Last week I was asked by my offspring if they could put on their sleeveless cardigans. It was a little cool that morning but they added some strong arguments to their case 'It's so nice to wear a beautiful cardigan that you made mum!'

Defense lawyers to be, surely.

Anyhow. It sparked the idea to make them both a second cardigan. It's such a practical model for those spring days when the mornings are still quite chilly but the daytime sun gives of quite some warmth.

In my stash I found enough Kaleïdo yarn, a mix of linen and bamboo, to make one for the oldest. This yarn is super soft and flows beautifully. It gives warmth yet feels cool to the touch. Ideal for summer knits really.

The model is from Citronille and as their sizes are quite big I decided to make the 4 year old size for my 6,5 year old. And tadaah, a perfect fit. For my 4 year old I'll go for the 2 year old model knitted in a 4mm needle instead of 3,5 mm.

cardigan back

The light blue color tends to change quite a bit depending on the light. It goes from light blue to grayish and pearl. There's a light shine on this yarn as well so that the light seems to bounce right of it. The color suits my fair girl to the bone.

And in my button drawer I found a set of old flower buttons in just the right color.

cardigan folded

It's a joy to knit this little cardigan. It is worked top down without seams on straight needles and it advances pretty well once you're past the yoke. I think that for the little sister version I might go for Cascade cotton. But which color to choose? Oh well, I guess I'll have a good think about that whilst finishing of a cowl I'm knitting for myself...

And now we'll go to sleep.

Avoid the mess.

Were was I?

Teasing

Things to do with paper, part II.

Things to do with paper, part I.

From one circus act to the other.

3-2-1 and go!

Royal armor

Time for spring knitting