The delightful Alicia Paulson designed a little rabbit. Then my delightful little offspring really took a shine to it. And as this particular offspring tends to really play with all her dolls and stuffed animals I thought well alright, we'll make room for an adorable bunny with, let's face it, the most adorable boots I've seen in a long while.

Her name is Blushers. Officially it's Maggie but, and I am sorry to say this Alicia, when I informed my daughter of this she looked me straight and stern in the eye and went "oh no, that is a horrible name for a rabbit. And for everyone else actually, just horrible." She shook her head in sheer disbelief and then suggested a name that was "totally suited for a bunny and just absolutely smashing.... blushers!" She seemed really chuffed that this bunny had a narrow escape from that awful name and could now relax being a cute Blushers. Oh well. She's 5. We'll put it down to age shall we?

And as much as she disliked her official name, she is just smitten with this sweet bunny. And secretly so am I. And hence I am in the process of making her a blanket, a pillow some nightwear and whatever I can think of in the next few weeks. But hush hush, Blushers' chaperone knows nothing of these grand plans and I'd like to keep to keep it so for a little longer.

I made a little something. 

Not quite sure what it is. Nor what it should be.

It's the kind of thing that happens when you just start stitching some little leftover patches together.

But never mind. It looks pretty and cute and I'm sure someone somewhere will surely know what I should use it for.

A potholder perhaps? A snack mat? A little rug? A tiny doll quilt? Wall decoration? 

The only sure thing is that this little thing houses a few of my absolute favorite fabrics. It's cheerful yet sweet and soft. And so I figured I'd give the back a similar feel... cheerful and sweet... Yep, inspite of not knowing what to do with it exactly, I rather like it. 

As for the technical info... I sewed together 16 patches of 5 cm each. Put two small borders around them and quilted the thing by hand. The squares have diagonal quilting lines crossing over them, the two borders have a quilting line that runs down the middle of both strips. The binding is sewn on by hand as per usual. 

All that is left to do is to settle on a use for it. Hmmm, tricky part....

I haven't exactly been idle in the time I was away from this blog. There is in fact quite a lot that I made and did. Not everything however got captured by my camera before it left my house in the shape of presents. Other things have been put to use straight away and are showing signs of ware and tare. 

Playing catch up isn't my strong suit but I'll give it a go.

This little fellow was given to me for Christmas by my girls and husband in the shape of a pattern and a parcel of supplies. It took me two days to end up with the most friendly of all elephants... Eli:

Isn't he a cutie? 

A heavy, slow, creamy and mellow elephant ... and all dressed up for a little party somewhere.

I feel he always looks as if he's having a small party by himself, a traditional and somewhat melancholic do I imagine. But mostly I feel he could have been picked up from the toy shelf of a little boy or girl in a long lost era. 

I am so happy he is now partying away on our shelf. 

If you would like to have a go on an Eli yourself, then head over to the lovely shop of Jennifer Murphy. She sells the most beautiful patterns (ranging in difficulty) and supplies for Eli and a couple of his animal friends. 

Life can be so unfair. Somehow my 4 year old ended up a play blanket short. 

With two girls with a great sense of justice and fairness, scores are being kept as to who can take a turn and apparently as to who needs a new blanket. 

And then life got even more unfair. Because I decided that yes, a new blanket was a good idea. But this time I would quilt the entire thing by hand. So it would take some time. "Oh no mum" was the initial reaction. After my explanation that this would be the greatest looking blanket ever made by me "Well okay then' was the final reaction.

By now the blanket is finished and mister Linus Lapinus judged it's loftiness and the jury was favorable to me!

- big sigh of relief-

So this is the winning blanket...

The top consists of regular squares alternated by nine patch squares. For these nine patches I chose mainly 1930's reproduction fabrics. And in an effort to tone down the bold colors I picked a white fabric with a delicate blue flower arrangement for the big squares. All in all there are 54 squares in this design. The new owner in fact pointed out to me that this was an awesome design. She calls it "the puzzle quilt". She loves nothing more than to sit straight in the middle of it only to point out at one of the many pieces of fabric in it and to say with her most formal voice "now, who can find me another piece just like this one?" Ah... and don't be mistaken. This is a serious business... her puzzle quilt. Prices and medals and bouquets of flowers can be won for getting it right. I think she might be a bit too much into to Olympic spirit here but hey...

To continue the sewing talk, a pale lilac striped linnen went all around it... a bit like a picture frame and then some contrasting flowery binding, sewn on by hand.

For the backing fabric I picked a soft blue gingham piece of cotton that has been in my stash for quite an eternity. It's extremely soft cotton so it proofed a delight to quilt. For the quilting itself I went all around the inner edges of the squares and then finished each square of with doing the diagonals as well. I could have however used an extra pair of fingers for this.... bruised, battered and blistered... such were my fingers after finishing it. Why on earth can't I work with thimbles? 

But it was all worth it. The result is so much better than machine stitching. It gives that good old feeling of coziness and comfort. Hmm, I can already see the husband raising an eyebrow or two. Yes, coziness and comfort. Well at least it does for those who love sewing.... or making puzzles.

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...

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.

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).

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

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.

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.

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!

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! 

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'. 

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. 

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:

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. 

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?

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.

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!

Little duckling. All dressed up. Returning from a spring flower market. And now having a little wander around on this little pillow case. Did I mention before that I have a vague plan to make a gazillion of these cases? 

Red embroidery floss, DMC 304 for those who are into floss color charts, 2 strands used. Then I added some flowery fabrics in the patchwork part to accompany the flowers she's holding under her wings. A soft pink gingham for the front panel, a stronger pink dotted fabric for the back panel. And a deep pink crochet edge. Simple but effective. And the growing pile in the linen cupboard is looking increasingly yummy. 

If all goes well then the next one will feature a juggling bunny. In striped pants. No kidding. A genuine circus act I might add.... Just right for my own 4 year old circus act!