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It is only a short post for two reasons:
1. I am awfully tired. I have some pics to show you but I can't write a good post when I am so sleepy... I just can't type and think and keep my eyes open....
2. This is the first day of the Christmas Advent Swap and the lucky Aussie ladies opened their pressies but I still have to sleep one more so it is better to go to bed....
A longer - and hopefully more interesting - post is coming tomorrow......
Have a nice day!
First, dear Readers, I am so sorry to leave you without comments in the last few days.
As I am very busy with gifts (and they are still top secrets...) here is an old present. This was made 4 or 5 years ago to my stepfather. I found some fabric (used for the pockets) in a close shop, so I had to cut it into small pieces. I was a real beginner at that time, so it took me a while (I know it is very simple but that day I didn't have to much experience to help me...).
The red fabric was a very old one sitting under the bed in a box in my mum's flat. She used it for a skirt I think, but a piece was left in the box.
I wanted to embroider the numbers but at that time I found a new dye in my friend's hobby shop. It is called 'puffy dye' or something like that. You have to write the number you want, wait for some hours to dry then iron it from the wrong side of the fabric and when you heat, it becomes puffy. (I used the same dye on the fishy T-shirt).
It is a really simple design, but I hope it will give you a bit of Christmas feeling.... (Sorry for the picture, this is the best I have..... of course the original is red instead of pink...)
And I am back to this year's top secret sewing project (or at least to on e of them )...
I have special relationship with Christmas carols, I think.
First I have to say: I love carols. Unfortunately I live in a country where there are no Christmas carol singers and nearly all Christmas song is sad (except the children's songs of course).
When I was a high school student we made a small choir each Christmas. (Of course we had a really special teacher who helped in organizing things - thank you to her for that.) We learnt some (or a lot, I think quite a lot, yes) carols. We had singers, guitarists and some had bells, drums and rattles. before Christmas we went to the centre of the city (it is a capital, so quite big). We have a street there as all big city does. You know the one with lots of shops and tourists, fair before Christmas.
So we went there sang Christmas carols and collected money in a huge box. The money went to big and poor families with lots of children and not much money. But charity was only one side. On the other side we created a really good and special atmosphere in the street. People sang with us and some of them started to dance. It was the best part of Christmas for years to me. (I really didn't like Christmas for some reasons but this part was my favourite...)
When I started teaching I wanted to continue singing carols. I work with little ones so singing in the street at winter time for 4 or 5 hours is not a good idea. So we decided to create the special atmosphere in the school for the others. Advent mornings find us in the school hall next to the door singing Christmas carols. I have enthusiastic children each year who help me. They love Christmas carols like I do. I am always very happy when we sing together. It is wonderful!
Before Christmas I like listening to carols at home too. When I sew the pressies or bake the cakes I need some more special Christmas feeling which can be created by the carols.
Today I got a huge collection of Christmas carols of my B. (100 carols on 6 CDs!) I am very happy with it as I didn't have new songs this year so I listened to my only cassette (My CD player is still not working so the next - hopefully quick - step is to get it repaired.) . Now I have the opportunity to learn new carols and to hear the others sang by different singers. It was a huge surprise! Thank you for it, B!!
I haven't written in the last two days... Actually I didn't have time to switch on my laptop....
I didn't have time for sleeping either...
My best friend has a souvenir shop with a lot of things in it. Before Christmas there is a lot to do. After work I helped her during the last two evenings and nights.
We unpacked lots of snowmen, Santa, candles, pencils, statues, lamps, notebooks, decoration, etc. We checked if they were damaged on the way or not, gave them price, put them on the shelves or re-wrapped and put back into categorised boxes. We did a lot, but still not finished. And she buys new stuff nearly all day, so it seems endless work now.
I also decorated two shopping windows. (They are not perfect as I don't know what are in the new boxes so I change the things when new favourites come out.) It is much fun, I love it. It is not so difficult, as my friend has good taste so I can't use ugly things (she doesn't have them in her shop).
Now I am late with my Christmas plans so I have to hurry.... And I must stop now as it is time to go back to the sewing machine....
I have some problems with blog these days:
1. I have to help my friend in her shop (not enough time to sew)
2. I can't really put pics about gifts on blog (I try to forbid all friends to visit this blog, but...hmmm... I am not sure... hopefully they are good enough :D)
But this is a picture about a last year Xmas pressie, so I dare to put it here. You know the pattern of a previous post (2 little bags) but you can change its style with different fabrics and different shape (double possibilities).
This was made for a friend who just loves everything blue and everything in connection with sea. This was the perfect fabric for her I think. I was very lucky to find this.
And now in this cold weather it is a bit of summer (for Aussie readers it is just in time, hihihi)
This was a simple Tuesday. Started like a usual one. Getting up early, going to work, in the afternoon running home, working a bit at home. It was quite late when I finished.
It looks like an awful weekday, but to tell you the truth it wasn't. I believe each day can be wonderful if you make it wonderful. Everything depends on you. When I start a day I always try to find the good thing in it. It is like a kind of motivation. Sometimes it is not so easy, but usually I can find something. And what is the connection with patchwork?
I know it is a blog about patchwork. I mean it wanted to be a blog about patchwork, but I write it, so I am in it. It is written by me, it shows me, so....hmm.... sometimes all my thoughts come out.... Usually I sew a lot in head. So my thoughts and sewing are in 'tight connection'. Unfortunately I have much more ideas than time. Half of my projects can be made only in my head. And I am quite lucky - I can enjoy travelling on a crowded bus or stranding in a queue because I can sew in head meanwhile. Can you see the connection? I hope the answer is yes.
So my motivation for today was patchwork and sewing again. I knew after finishing work I can go home and work on my Christmas projects. As I am a slow sewer I have to plan a lot. I always make lists (half of them must be cancelled at the end...sigh) and plans to use time the best. Sometimes I want to be quick, but the main point is to enjoy my hobby, so not the final result is the most important but the way.
Back to this day, I was right. I arrived home and could work on two Christmas projects. It was a good exchange for the tiring day. And what is the motivation for tomorrow? Maybe I can continue my projects... hmm? Isn't is a good idea?
It is not always true before Christmas as I want to finish the presents on time so I can't enjoy the way if I am not sure I can finish the gifts.
This is another old project again.
I have made it 2 years ago. I did Irish step dance at that time. Unfortunately I had an accident and my ankle is not perfect so I had some problem with it, and I stopped dancing. Since then I have knee problems as well but I so hate doctors I don't dare to visit them and show them my legs. I know I am stupid but I hope they will become better somehow without doctors and medicines. I do not have problems with playing basketball so I am for it now and I hope once I can go back to step dance.
Irish dancers use black clothes that is why I chose a simple black T-shirt from the nearest cheap sports shop. One of my teacher was a fish-lover person so I decided to make a T-shirt with fishes. I am not very good at drawing so I found some pics about fishes. I draw them and not copied totally so finally they were a bit of my 'taste' and style.
It is a very simple design I used only white. The tricky part is that I used puffy dye so they bilge. (You have to wait for drying then iron it to become puffy.) The dye looks white but it is fluorescent. I looked quite funny in a dark room. It is simple but the contrast and the puffy fishes make it special so it became one of the favourites of my teacher. Unfortunately it is not so nice now after lots of washing. (The good thing is that you can take off the 'half gone' fish and draw another instead. I am not worried at all - I still have some of the dye so I can 'refresh' the T-shirt.)
I spent the whole day with watching films. Friends came to us and we watched the 4 Harry Potter films on TV. It was a huge movie. Started around 11 o'clock in the morning and finished at 9 in the evening. We prepared food yesterday, so in the breaks (3 minutes between the films) we healed the soup, past, or made coffee or ate tiramisu. It was a huge and wonderful menu with good movies. I enjoyed to see the very beginning and the 4th film after each other.
While watching TV i knitted the puddings from the Handmade magazine I got from Juliet. Unfortunately some part were very good so I forgot to do the handwork, only watched the film. Today I have no finished project, it is just an UFO now. But hopefully tomorrow I can post it.
I think I had enough of TV so tomorrow more and more motivation for sewing. :D
Today was another 'reading day' for me as I still one more magazine to read plus I got a 'Happy Friday Present' from my friend, Pungi (the happy owner of the snowman in the pyjamas). This is the new book of my favourite Norwegian designer called 'Tildas hus'.
This was the best part of the day! I also got a beautiful Debbie Mumm fabric from my B which was another huge surprise... It is beautiful, blue, white and red with Santa and polar bears on it and of course beautiful snowflakes. Unfortunately I couldn't find a pic of the fabric, so I cannot show it right now.
So I have a lot to do now. I got inspiration so it is the time of the hand now.
I didn't have time to sew with so much reading but the weekend is coming so I can sew a bit. My 'to do list' is sooo long.
And little snowman, have a happy life with Pungi! (This was the day I saw my friend and gave her the snowman.)
Here is a picture about the book cover:
Let me introduce you my newest friend. Actually he is a wish of my best friend who is sick now with awful and long flu, hopefully she is staying in bed at the moment. I promised her when she was a good girl and stayed in bed drinking tea she would get a surprise. This is her surprise for today. Snowman who hopefully cures her, and make her healthy soon.
Actually that's how I looked like last week when I had something very similar. I had a huge red nose then (and it turned orange as I felt better and better), I wore pyjamas (orange ones of course unfortunately without these beautiful checked pattern) and I was not so cute as he but had more hair (luckily I still have more hair).
He is also a Tildas pattern from the Christmas book. I used simple cheap creamy (I am not sure how we call this colour... even using my mother tongue...but it is a mixture of white and yellow) cotton fabric and this checked one which I bought in summer on a sale. I am a bit sad now because I haven't bought enough. I have changed the nose and designed one for myself as I wanted to have it of fabric as well but the original design had something else. It is made of a little piece of very bright orange. For the eyes I used black DMC and made French knots.
He should have a piece of string on his hand as a hanger but I didn't have the perfect string so I skipped this problem.
I hope you like him... Ah and unfortunately we don't have snow.... It is raining outside....Grrrrr.... I don't like this cold rain let's push the 'snow button'!
Yesterday I had a very busy day. It started after a horrible Friday with awful headache, the whole day spent in bed, a bit of a sleep each time, horrible evening and worse night (when I couldn't sleep just heard the terrible wind outside). So I got up on Saturday with much better 'conditions'. I went to the supermarket for lots of ingredients as my friend, T. had his 30th birthday on Thursday and we decided to make him a surprise party this weekend. (The boys had a football match together and then a friend organised a 'rubber-sumo' party for T. We all had a mini sumo match with him. Then we went to a restaurant, ate a lot and finally we went to another friends' house to have a glass of wine, water, tea or juice and talked for hours. I think it was a lovely night and I hope T agrees.)
I was responsible for the cake. T. is a funny guy interested in astronomy, space and strange things like that. I decided to make him 5 small cakes. I couldn't decide if UFOs or planets would be better so I started to make UFOs with caramel rounds around. I called his younger brother and found out he loved coconut cream cakes. I was not sure if everyone liked it too, so I made 2 coconuts and 3 chocolate cakes.
I started to make them in the morning and I was in a big hurry at the end, so I didn't have time to make good photos about them. The only one I have was made on the party. I put it here and I hope the friends will post me better ones later, so then i can edit this post and add some more.
The chocolate cream is my mum's recipe, I love her cakes so it seemed a good choice. The coconut cream was in a good recipe book which I got from my B years ago on a birthday. It had not enough coconut in it I thought so I put 3 times as much as it was written. Luckily everyone liked it :D (Ah, yes and I put some extra vanilla paste in it. Shhhhhh!) The caramel rounds caused lots of problems at the end. And they all broke on the way :(, but friend were so nice to eat them happily.
Finally here is the only photo I mentioned:
This is time to start sewing for Christmas.... I mean it is a bit late... but still.... So today I spent some time on making Christmas projects.
I can't show anything as 3 dolls are half made, but I can show you a little angel (to start Christmas time with) which I learned a month ago.
It is made of felt. The pattern is simple, arms (one piece), legs (one piece also), head (of 2 pieces) and hair. Ah, and the dress of course (made of one piece also).
There is some batting inside. I used simple thread for sewing and DMC for the eyes and mouth. I am not totally satisfied with the hair so I am going to try some new shapes.... later...
It is funny as the angel is quite funny without hair, and it is like 'sun' with hair.... hopefully I can make other designs as well when I will be able to get some more kinds of felt. She (or this one is a 'he' mostly) is nearly finished but as you see I had some more work on the neck...
I thought he was funny this way, the bold one, but put a hair on, and got the 'sunny' one. Look:
AH, AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A FRIEND, T. WHO IS 30 YEARS OLD TODAY!!!!!!!
Maybe most of the patch workers disagree with me (or most but all of them) but for me making a block a really stressful thing. Especially when making a quilt together with other people.
You have to be very precise for that which is not easy for me. In doll making 2 mm here or there mostly doesn't cause problem, just change the character of a doll a bit. But 2 mm can make a whole block wrong.
But yesterday and today I was working on a block. One of the internet friends decided to make a quilt together for charity. They collect money for a young girl. I was not brave enough to sign on the list, but I have started to make the block and I put my name in only at the end...
I was so frightened my hands trembled, even cutting a lint next to the ruler was a problem... (Yes, I am mad.... for sure...) Finally I had the block of the maple... And guess what! It is the given size! It was a real surprise for me, I could make it 30x30cm.
I had to use autumn colours, so I chose this green. All of us used cream for the back fabric and for the background. I stitched it a bit.
Here it is (I know it is something really simple, but was not easy for me to make...):
Ah, this was a good weekend in the countryside with friends. This is a late post for the weekend.
The doll of October was a witch. We had a given picture and we had to make a witch based on it.
Here is my witch. I made some pictures while working so if you want to follow my work and make one doll, here is some help.
This is my own design (but not the picture what I got, I don't know its origin). The head, neck and body is cut of one piece (I wanted her to be able to hold her head, so I cut those of one piece and used a lot of filling in the neck.)
I had a lot of trouble with the arms and legs... They are very thin so it was not easy to turn them out.
Here is the doll....
As you see she is not a huge doll (about 15 cm). When I make a doll it is always the last step to make her face so she had to wait a lot more.....
As I am not a professional designer I used the doll to design her clothes so they are the right size.
The next step was the double dress. The patterned one with long sleeves, and the checked one without sleeves.
For the first one I used a blouse which I found in a second hand shop. Unfortunately it was not my size, but I loved the fabric, so I washed and ironed it at used a small part for this tiny dress.
For the other dress I needed a ribbon with pumpkins on. So I learned the 'needle painting' technique and tried to make my best (I posted about it before).
After the dresses it was time to make the hat. I used black plush for it. I needle painted the ribbon (I only had white satin ribbon but I needed purple) and finally I added some beads.
Her hair is made of knitting thread, and I embroidered her face. This is her half made hair:
Finally I made her tiny shoes and the broom. For the broom I used branches and those orange something (once I got a bunch of flowers from my friend and this was the decoration I was sure it was good for something but didn't know what. I got the answer when wanted something for the broom.). I stack them with glue gun.
And here is my witch (I know I am not good at taking photos, but hopefully I can improve my knowledge.)
