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 :)

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. ;)

Simple colors

Back in time, just before the weekend - and still fighting with paint and chaos *sigh*. But at least, I am progressing - *yay* for that :). And I am keeping the promise, and will show you what I have been working on just before I took my vacation in Chaosland.

All of them are fabric prints on natural, unbleached cotton, made with all kinds of materials I had at hand: potatos (released my inner child), rubber stamps, cardbord rolls, buttons, foam and plastic packaging, cork from a wine bottle - see, really anything works. Although I am not sure yet if I dare to cut the prints down or use them as whole pieces ... Anyway, here are some colorful candies for your eyes - the icy blue, light pistacio green and light purple ones are my favorites, what are yours?

Have a colorful weekend :)

Playing Christmas elf

In case anyone might have wondered where I have been the last week and what I have been doing, here are some photos. But be aware they are mostly sneaks, and not more than that because you know: Christmas and all those presents ... I don't want to risk anyone seeing the items I have been making for them too early.

;)

I hope you had a nice, creative and productive week, too.

C'est fini ...

Christmas is approaching, and so is the time of the secrets... As I promised yesterday, I finished another more or less green item, this time something for my first swap. The overall look is still a secret until it arrives in its new home. Although green was intended to be the basic color, I have to admit, the sneak photo shows quite much orange in this item... hm....

Anyway, I hope the receiver might like the concept and is looking forward to hold it in her hands ;)

Trying to get into the mood for ...

I`ll give you three guesses ;)

Besides some other things I am currently *crafting*, I just had to use some felt scaps and turn them into some Christmas decoration. First, because I am not planning to use this color anytime soon for something else, and second, because I felt the urgent need to get into the mood for Christmas with our really nice Christmas market already opening tomorrow and the town being already decorated with lights ...

I hope, you are starting to get into the Christmas mood, too, at least slowly.

Seems like I am much in love with this shade of green this year. More of green to come tomorrow in a little sneak *preview* ;)