July 2012 | Himiko No Sekkai

Quite literally.

With yarn, a 2.5mm crochet hook and some bits of felt and floss.

And you know what? These are the best kind of friends to make. No questions asked, no complaining, no issues, no sound at all in fact. Just a lot of stitches coming together.

Meet Puti de Pomme... the funky little dog from the well known fabrics.

puti de pomme

puti de pomme friend

puti de pomme sitting proud

He came as a kit as part of a swap I did wit Niamh. Thanks so much for him Niamh, he's the best little doggie friend!

For the time being he's moved into the wooden cabinet from where he can keep up with daily summer holiday life.

As of last year my offspring have taken on the habit of asking for a hand made gift from me at party occasions. How cool is that?

So, as we'll be celebrating a certain someone's 7th birthday this summer, she asked me, in keeping with this new tradition, to make her a pocket book.

Ever since I made this one to store my little hexagons, she's been declaring that it would be so useful if she owned one of her own. As it would make the perfect storage for her little scraps and bits of paper. And believe me, she has many of those. My kids are genuine gatherers at heart. So I agreed. It would be a great way to store away all that junk that makes her desk overflow and that makes vacuuming rather a precarious thing to do.

So I set to work and I made her this version...

pocket book

I hunted down some of favorite pieces of fabric in my scrap basket. Keeping the color palette as soft yet as varied as I could.

pocket book fabric detail

The pocket book is a bit bigger than the original one in order to accommodate as much of her scraps of possible. And I placed a bit of cream colored lace on the side to soften up the border between the hexies and the background fabric. But just like the original it has a inner layer of soft flannel to make it a bit firmer but to keep it soft to the touch as well. For easy tying I used a special bit of dotted fabric cord by La Droguerie. It's a gorgeous pale blue-lilac. Inside there is a lining with on the left hand side six smaller pockets and on the right hand side two larger pockets (large enough to hold cards and envelopes).

pocket book inside look

And just to add some interest, down in the corner a little label from that wonderful Puti de Pomme fabric...

Puti de Pomme label

It will be a hit. I'm so sur of that. Because if she doesn't like it then I'll keep it all to myself. Ah.... as if that would even be possible...

So I fell asleep. Fast asleep.

At least over here I did.

In day-to-day life I was everything but asleep. Somehow life changed gears in May and is only now starting to wind down again. At first I had just no time to get anything up on this blog. Later I found that not having it on my mind was very calming. And a little later my mind started filling up with the existential questions one harbors about the internet and all of this virtual living. Nietzsche would have been proud of me.

But lately I was thinking, oh what the heck. Virtual life or not, it's life in one way or another. So here we are again!

Mind you, it's the summer holidays by now so the frequency of blog posts may still be a bit all over the place.

So I hear you thinking 'with all of that busy life going on, did you do any crafting at all?'

Well surprisingly, yes. A whole lot in fact. Among others I managed to knit 5 winter scarves, I am 2/3rds done with a hand quilted play blanket, I did a custom baby blanket... oh there's a thing with teeny tiny hexies half way done, some embroidery started, a cardigan is just missing one sleeve, another one is taking shape and in between a new crochet project is coming to life. A retirement gift was made for a teacher, a birthday present for the daughter and why not start with another version of the pillow I fell asleep on.... this time a story time pillow.

story time pillow in use

story time pillow

For this version, I got the leftovers from the previous pillow and arranged them to form a square -I had a square pillow insert laying around hence the choice of shape-. I made the quilted patchwork part into a pocket in which my offspring can tuck away the books she'd like to read. The edge of the pocket is finished with some English lace and white piping.

I adjusted the embroidery to fit the shape and changed the text into 'Story time' as it's meant to be the pillow you lean against while reading one of the many wonderful books we hold in our modest library.

story time pillow embroidery

It's a great pillow and the two of them together make a nice set. And most importantly, both of these pillows have become items the offspring must have around at all times!

Making new friends

Pocket book of the birthday kind

Sleepy head