Stitches

Since I am still giving the sewing machine a time-out, I switched to simple but nice handstitches - a blanket stitch, to be exact - to do sewn egdes of projects for now. Pretty time-consuming, but the results are worth it.

I started with a large suede leather book - size about 21 x 16 cm - with handpainted details on the cover, a handstitched edge and 200 pages of creme-colored, french laid paper with wave cut egdes. I decided to keep the binding rather simple. It is bound in a combination of longstitches and linkstitches, a modifacation of a binding I tested on the binding test cards.

I also made, only much more quickly ;), a birthday card for my sister; thrown together because I did not have a card at hand and let's be honest, because I don't like the cards you mostly find in shops - often, they are too kitschy or too impersonal. The card is simply drawn on a scrap piece of linen-cotton fabric, backed with blank cardboard for writing and the edge is done in blanket stitch.

Since we are living rather far apart, I hope my sister had have a nice birthday party with lots of friends and fun this weekend ... xoxo, big sis.

Use your hands

Let's just resume this week and the one before under the headline *back to basics - doing stuff by hand* ... I don't know whether it is my *magical* hands or the hot weather - the technical stuff I am using seems to beg for a summer vacation. Well, the demon in my sewing machine decided to appear again, nothing new to me - luckily after I finished a birthday present for a friend - a gardening apron, since there are plants all over her home. 

 

So, damn, where to hell have I left the number of the exorcist?

Whereas, the fact that the graphics card of my computer went on strike was pretty new to me. The only positve thing to mention here was that there wasn't much to see either, since the internet skipped working, too ... o_O ... as well as the telephone. Oh, yeah. So, besides a lot of frustrating hours in front of some cryptic programs, updates, test runs and so on I used the time to do some experimental stuff ... ahem ... no presentable results here, so I am just pretending I was trying to take some nice pictures of my messing  around with inks ;)

or my playing around with fimo (polymer clay)...

or my fiddling with threads...

The fiddling with these *binding test cards* was a nice way to work out some bindings and to test how to modify the stitches. So at least, there was one - more or less - presentable result. The first, rather small (5,5 cm x 8 cm) book I made with a leather cover, sewn with linkstitches and a modified longstitch.

The blue book below the leather book still needs to be sewn, but I haven't decided on a binding yet, since the binding should match the handsewn edge ... maybe I will do it today, or maybe, I am just going to enjoy the brilliant summer weather ...

Have a nice weekend, everyone - one without technical issues, but with a lot of sun :)

Hello, chaos, welcome home

It happened again, although I tried very hard to avoid it and keep things sorted ... I have been visited by my old friend - guess who? Yeah, you are right, the name is chaos *sigh*.

Well, at least, I won on the stay sorted side, but I badly lost on the finishing projects side. The visit seems to be the revenge for all the painting I did lately, just too many pieces on that *fabric-painting-pile*. But on the other hand, it's always nice to find long forgotten things underneath the ones you still remember ;). Although there are always some things I like to stay buried ... awful color combinations, unsightly experiments or simply overall epic fails.

This is what I found when I sorted through the paintings pile, see that seastar in the lower corner? I totally forgot about it, it was among one of the first paintings I did - months ago ... Sad, isn't it? But well, I guess, that is just me - slightly chaotic and ticking slower than the rest of the world. The proof can be seen above.

The only book I finished lately (although I admit, I had to deal with severe/stupid computer problems for a while which needed to be solved) can also be considered as an experiment. It is a handpainted softcover fabric jounal with a polka dot, hot pink sideflap and off-white pages with pink colored egdes, bound in a combination of long stitches and link stitches. Whether it is totally unsightly or not, may be up to you ;).

I guess, I should stop writing now and get some things done ;)

Starting small and simple

Going back to bookbinding, I started small and simple with one of the most basic bookbinding stitches, the pamphlet stitch. And since I wanted to use three already cut up tiny pieces of a larger piece of handpainted fabric, I made three tiny pamphlets - to be easily tucked away in the backpocket of a jeans or any other pocket.

And what is the best thing about summer - besides the sun and icecream, of course ;) ? All sorts of fresh fruits, naturally. So I quickly made an easy summer dessert cooking some fresh peaches, lime juice and leaves of fresh peppermint - it still needs to cool down and be put into the refrigerator, but already smells delicious.

If your garden is full of mint or peppermint, too, like the one my peppermint came from, why not give this recipe a try?  Looks incredibly yummy!

Ah, well ...

... how I wish I would have been busy as a bee lately, but instead, I have been enjoying some books (ahem, reading, not binding them), the sun, far too much icecream and some new high-tech toys ...

So, I admit I am a rather lazy bee, getting easily sidetracked by all sorts of things ...

Scraps, stains and the sun

Hi there again on a finally sunny day :) - it's the first one since days, weeks ... ages? Well, anyway, I immediately took this chance to take some (hopefully) better pictuces of two items I made some time ago, both came into life more or less by accident.

The first item is a set of some fabric coasters completely made of fabric scraps - a great way to use up your scraps, in case you have some of them left and you have no idea what to do with them. Originally, I did not plan to make some coasters, I just happened to doodle on some pieces of left fabric, really nothing fancy. Then I started to randomly sew them together with some simple hand stitches ... sew sew sew ... et voilá: coasters.  I also gave them a handstichted back of some leftover handdyed fabric to make them reversible when I don't *feel scrappy* ...

The second item is a placemat made of thick cotton fabric which I really liked - until it got in touch with the lovely man I am merried to ;). Well, he added his own decor to it... Unfortunately, I don't really like random stains, especially not the ones of the kind *I am here and I will never leave you again*. So what to do with a stained placemat when nothing really works to remove the stain? Well, throw it away, or be inspired by the stain(s) and throw more *stains* onto the placemat ... Grabbing some fabric paint, I went with the second option.

Now, the meals are always a little bit more colorful :) - and by the way, those stains inpired me to do more drawings, like the one I showed you in this post. So, you never know, what might become of a random doodle.

 And since it is starting to get warmer and sunny outside, I could not resist to bring some spring onto my desk by picking up some tiny flowers in the park. They are nothing special, but particularly the daisies remind me of my childhood when the grass we played on as children was filled with numerous dots of white and yellow ...

Hope, you picked up some flowers or some kind words (as I did) for your moms last Sunday, too - or had a great day as a mom. Bye and have a nice and sunny day.

Spring and dots

As promised, I am going to try to catch up a little bit. And since today is a very grey day here - same as most days this spring here - I thought I might share some ideas for simple ornaments I made back in february and march to add some color (especially some bright green) to exactly such grey days to instantly lighten up the day and the mood.

And last, but not least, my favortite ones: I simply love the vintage feel of the lace pieces in combination with the bright colors of the felt. They were a gift to my mother-in-law, but on that day, she wasn't the only one who wanted to keep them. Guess, next year I will have to make a lot more sets than just one ...

So much for today, I am off with some words which are (at least for me) perfectly suited for grey and rainy weather to keep me smiling. ;)