Meet the latest arrival in my fabric stash. A jelly roll by Moda. The Bliss collection to be precise.
It won't be in my stash for long though. Plans are to turn it into a quilt as soon as I find the time to cut it up.
Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 08:18
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - 16:29
Sharpen up those pencils. A Wednesday afternoon filled with children who draw and a mother who sharpens the pencils.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 - 19:45
I've been asked what was on the bed of my youngest offspring before the new pinwheel quilt arrived. And the best way to answer that is to just show you.
Yes, a quilt. No surprises there, right?
This quilt came about last summer and consists of 700+ squares of 10 cms each. The majority is in a pale blue cotton, the rest is a mix of a dozen different flower designs. They have been put together without a specific pattern in mind and have therefore a very spontaneous feel to it. It always reminds me of a flowery meadow.
It's been such fun making this quilt that it was far from the only quilt like this that I made. I did a pink version for my pink loving offspring and a giant one (queen size) for my own bed. And it has been a joy sleeping and dreaming underneath these babies. Really, if there is a craft that you should consider getting the hang of, it's quilt making. Just imagine sleeping underneath one of these yourself!
Monday, February 7, 2011 - 09:26
Every sewer knows that there are times when you stumble over a fabric and even though you have no specific sewing plans, you just know that the only wise thing to do is to get a yard or so and put it in your stash.
This is what happened to me in autumn when I came across this liberty. A few weeks later it was calling out to me from the fabric stash saying " turn me into a blouse, a blouse I tell you". Dreadful mistakes in the distant and not so distant past have taught me to listen to such orders. So a blouse it became.
A simple pattern from 'Les Jolis Mercredis' by La Droguerie with raglan sleeves and a gathered neck line did the fabric justice.
To keep the neck line in check I opted for a ribbon crocheted in a dark cotton. Where the satin ribbon the pattern called for kept slipping in and out of the cord tunnel, the cotton version has more grip and once tied stays firmly in it's place. An important thing to consider before sending a 3 year old dressed in this blouse of to play. Blouses dropping to the floor by lack of tied ribbons, or even worse, strange and dangerous bondage situations with ribbons all over the place are to be avoided I feel. And this works. We did a trial run under parental supervision and it has been declared 'play safe'.
Thank goodness for that. This blouse is too sweet to spend it's days in the wardrobe.
Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 10:10
On my needles today. The start of a cowl as seen at Julija's Wardrobe.
It's an ideal project for some scrap busting. A mere 35 grams of several colors in alpaga will make up a lovely striped cowl. However, the fact that one must set up a number of 170 stitches and knit about 15 cms in each of the six colors using a pair of 3.5 mm needles make this a long lasting project. But a needle here and a row there and before you know it you have a couple of stripes ready. Anthracite, aster and épinards.
But what will come next? If you hang around I'll keep you up to speed...
Friday, February 4, 2011 - 07:50
And for the second pillow case, that is for the second daughter, I went for a different approach. The embroidery approach.
How about a monogram I thought? In a padded satin stitch? Oh yes, now that would make a great pillow case for a girl. So off to work it was. First you need to outline the monogram in backstitches. Then one must fill up the outline with satin stitches perpendicular to the stitches one wants to end up with. And lastly, you guessed it, you add another layer of satin stitches in the opposite and final direction. A technique that consumes a lot of time and embroidery floss but look at how scrumptious the end result looks:
Perfect to make a pillow corner.
To top it off I added a narrow band of pink gingham to it, yes it's meant for our local pink lover, and put some vintage lace between the two fabrics. As the crocheted picot edging worked so well before, I did another one but this time in white.
It all came together really well. I'd like one for myself now.
Yes, I'd definitively like one for myself...
If you'd like to make one for yourself, you'll find these lovely monograms and a whole bunch of explanations on how to make them in the latest book by Alicia Paulson, Embroidery Companion.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 14:37
A pillow case. That is what the girls needed. A sparkling new pillow case. So I set to work.
The bird fabric that I picked up over the weekend made up a perfect envelope specimen for girl unos.
I complemented it with an aqua dotted cotton. The edge between the two fabrics is softened by a piece of white lace. The side of the pillow case is finished by a crocheted picot lace in a soft peachy pink color.
For the crocheted lace I used a thin crochet cotton and set up 218 chain stitches with a hook of 1.75mm to obtain a total of 54 picot scallops. There are only 7 rows to crochet for this particular edge but the small gauge makes it a rather time consuming little work. However the result makes it worth the effort.
By now the pillow case is in full use. And I'm told that it makes one sleep really soundly... I'd better be off to make some more then!
Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 08:24
So what exactly did I do last week? One thing is for sure, it wasn't blogging.
Sorry for that but I got literally wrapped up in a big project that I couldn't pry myself away from... I made a brand new quilt!! A pinwheel quilt. This quilt actually...
It started out like this, a pile of squares cut from scraps and leftover fabrics.
But before I knew it they had turned into little pinwheels. And many pinwheels, 88 to be exact, made up the center of the quilt. I framed them with a border in the softest of soft stripes while keeping the width of the border the same size as the pinwheels in order to obtain good proportions. I do believe I succeeded there.
Stitching it all the way through on either side of the horizontal and vertical seams finished the look off beautifully.
All that remained was to made the bed. And it wasn't just my sleeping beauty who was really happy with her new bed cover. Her posse of furry and cuddly friends at the end of the bed seem to like it too.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 19:59
Every winter we open our very local bird restaurant in our backyard. We set it up under and around our Cercis Siliquastrum, or as it is called here our Judas tree. That way we can sit by the French windows and see flocks of birds fly in and out for a small snack.
This season we counted 16 different species of birds... all regular customers who come back from year to year.
And we're not the only ones to be thinking of our little flying friends. In kindergarten our 3 year old lady crafted a special bird feeder by paint spraying a pine cone silver and then filling it with pieces of apple and stale bread.
It proved really popular. Over the space of 24 hours there was not a crumb left in it.
And it's just so pretty to look at. Well done sweetie!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 14:49
First things first. Lingering on my hard disc are the pictures of another finished product of my knitting frenzy from a fortnight ago.
So without further ado, here it is...
Yes we are pretty much ready for Valentine with such a lovely pink cardigan. And yes, it's the larger and more pink twin of this cardigan. Same pattern but in size 6 years and this time round I used alpaga in color 'églantier'. It's a beautiful dusky rose color... pink yet not sugar cane pink. Very satisfying indeed, I've bookmarked it as a favorite color for future projects.
The owner has been wearing it with pride. The knitter has been overlooking this all with a keen sense of contentment.
