Be my Valentine

No Valentines for me today, so I bought myself half a pound of freshly ground coffe and a box of truffles. The coffee was wonderful, and surprisingly I didn't feel an urge to open the box of truffles, so I'll keep that for another day. I'm not feeling sorry for myself anyway, and truffles are best when shared. Well, actually I won't go on about them, or I'll find myself opening the box any minute now...
I had a great afternoon at the quilt shop in the company of some of my friends - quilters are great, something which I have a daily reminder of in this quilt (above). It is a memento from celebrating my 40th a few (very few...) years ago, when all my friends appliquéd hearts for me which I later put together to create this quilt. Would you believe that all the hearts are from the same fabric?
Keeping withing the theme of All Hearts' Day I'll also share this little quilt, a "Mended Hearts" experiment from some years back:

It is made from appliqué blocks that were stacked two and two, cut in half, and stitched back together with their opposites - if that makes any sense... I gave it away as soon as it was finished, and I haven't got any close-ups, so you probably can't see the decorative seams I used to stitch them back together, but it was a great way to use those fancy seams on my machine.
I have Van Morrison singing in the background, and a nice cup of coffee by my side, and now I'll spend some time visiting with my blog friends around the world before I spend some quality time with said sewing machine. Bliss! Happy Valentine's day to you and yours!

Knitting bug

As I mentioned in the previous entry, there has been a bit of knitting going on here lately. The pictures today might be slightly sharper, but I'm really looking forward to longer days when it will be easier to take good photos! I finished my Calorimetry thingy - well I must admit I haven't woven in the ends and attached a button yet, but I'm almost there. Whether or not I'll wear it, I don't know, but if not, it will be a nice enough present for someone, I suppose. I just enjoyed the work - somehow the technicalities of knitting something unusual is just so fascinating that I have to try just for the sake of it. The yarn is Jazz from Twisted Sisters a soft and lovely yarn which was great to work with.

Having finished this in two evenings flat, I dove into my knitting basket and came up with this - Noro Silk Garden. I have had some of this in my stash for ages, and had an idea that I would use it for a knitted spiral scarf. I found a pattern here, and had a go last night.
I have got the hang of it by now, but have come to the conclusion that the spiral is way too dense and rigid, nothing like the soft ruffle thing I had in mind, so it's time to pull the cord, so to speak :-) I think I'll try again on thicker needles and with less stitches, and maybe I'll come up with a result that's more to my liking. Or not. I might use a thinner yarn, of course, but this is the one I had in mind, and I am stubborn, so I'll persevere...

Yarn stash

For someone who doesn't see herself as a knitter, I sure have accumulated some stash during the last year or so...
It's a good thing that I have something on the needles, at least. What it is, will become clearer in a day or two (pun intended - I'm off to bed and too tired to take a new picture).

Scrap happy

This weekend my guild arranged a get together - "bring your sewing machine, fabrics and whatever you would like to work on and let's have fun together" the invitation read. While trying to decide, I happened to glance into my scrap bag. It seems to have grown a lot lately and I had thought to myself that I wanted to do something about it. So that's what I brought.
While the rest of the gang got started making fancy quilts and bags, I sorted my fabric by colour and started piecing the scraps together. We had lots of fun, chatting and giggling and the piecing went like a dream. I ended up with this large blue piece and
this yellow one. The idea is to treat these like yardage and cut them into patches. I will do the same with my red and green scraps too, and use them all together in a quilt. Maybe combined with black? Or some other plain colour. I will have a while to decide about that, though. There are still lots of scraps left...

New book inspiration

I just bought a new Japanese book: "Quilt Works" by Hitomi Hanaoka. It is full of those lovely taupe handbags that Japanese craft designers do so well, and there are several styles I wouldn't mind having a go at. With well illustrated instructions and metric measurements

they aren't too hard to work out, although there will always be some guesswork, my Japanese language skills being what they are: non-existent! What really got my creative juices going though, was this quilt. There is no pattern, but I just loved the idea. The quilt seems to be made of men's suits and shirts - lots of lovely wool fabric, some shirts, buttons, a tie and even a belt. In the lower right end corner, buttons from these items of clothing are gathered in a little shimmering cloud. Here and there you find little stitched sketches of everyday items from a man's wardrobe and everyday life: a journal, a watch, shoes, slippers, a coat, a shirt... You get the sense that this is a tribute to a man who has meant something special to the quilter. A quiet, subdued tribute to an unassuming man, a husband, father, brother. I read a lot of love in it - hours spent thinking about him, coming up with ideas, gathering material, handstitching and putting it all together into an interesting piece of work. I might be putting too much into it - that's one of the things that may happen when you try to traverse a language barrier. But somehow that's part of the charm too - I don't understand the words, so I can make up my own story about it.

And the thing is that this has inspired me to start planning a quilt as a tribute to a special man in my own life - my grandfather. He was a wonderful man who put a lot of sunshine into my childhood, and once the idea of a special quilt struck me, I was amazed that this has never occured to me before. From the thoughts that have been spinning around in my head the last couple of days I already know that my quilt will end up being very different from this Japanese one - more colours, quotes of thing he used to say, memories of stories he would tell and episodes from the sweet, wonderful and happy times we had, cooking, singing, chatting, travelling... I started talking to my mother about it on the phone today and together we came up with lots of memories of things I might include. While writing this it has dawned upon me that my grandfather has been dead for almost thirty years, and yet he is still part of my everyday life - his love, his ideas and most importantly: his sense of humour is always there inspiring me. I have a feeling that creating this quilt will be a slow process, but one I will enjoy a lot.

Time to smell the flowers

The last traces of Christmas have been hidden away and we are half way into a hectic January. The last week has been frantic, and I'm going to spend some quiet, reflective time at home this weekend. I will do a little sewing if I feel like it - the first panel of my autumn quilt is almost done after a few bursts of sewing activity. There has been little time for that alas, but I have decided not to obsess about it - I will sew if I feel like it or do something else if that strikes my fancy - I have no deadlines looming, and that feels good.
Maybe I'll take some time to jot down a few ideas and sketches of things I want to make. I have a few ideas for handbags, and there is a blue and white quilt lurking in the wings of my mind. I might even get over the initial hesitation and place the first pencil marks in my new journal. I just couldn't resist the flocked design of this Tricia Guild journal - beautiful colours, interesting texture, pretty striped ribbons - what's not to like? It's just the idea of ruining its pristine beauty that is stopping me for a little while - it is so pretty that it should only be used for pretty thoughts...
Oh, well... who am I kidding? My thoughts are rarely pretty, but hopefully colourful and creative, and I will put this journal to good use once I get started, I'm sure. In the meantime I'll spend some quiet time curled up under a quilt and

smell the flowers. Ranunculuses have such gorgeous flowers, don't they? Like the layers upon layers of skirts and petticoats of a fairytale ball gown - who would have thought they were related to the humble buttercup?

Creating

Lots to do lately and not much time for creating, but at least I have some work up on my design wall. The advantage of using wall space like this while working on a quilt is that you can spend a few minutes every now and again moving pieces about and gradually getting to a pleasing layout. While passing through the room something will catch my eye and I'll see that one area is not working, move a few pieces, and with a sigh of content tell myself: "yes, that's better". So, little by little, the design is coming together.

There is one problem with my cramped living conditons, though - my design wall doesn't have enough room for the entire quilt. I have two panels up on the wall now and there is a third to go.

Here's my plan: I'm going to stitch the pieces for the left panel together, move the pieces of the center panel to the left and put up the pieces of the third panel when that's done. Think it will work?

I have made sure that I have squares of all sizes in a variety of colours, so I should have what I need to make the third panel interesting, and I'll be able to do a little shifting of pieces between panel 2 and 3 while I'm at it. Looking on what I have so far, I see that there is still some room for improvement before I start stitching, but I can hardly wait. It looks sooo much better in real life too, so I believe it will turn out all right in the end.

I decided to go with the leaf prints, but not the turquoise. The black in the leaf prints will echo the black in the border, so there will be a relationship between them. The turquoise will find it's way into some other project eventually - there is hardly a quilt without it here...

On the wall

The first part of the new quilt is up on my design wall and I'm beginning to reconsider. The fabrics are lovely in rich autumny colours all designed by Lonni Rossi. I usually mix and match fabric from all sorts of different collections and makers, but these just seemed to belong together with their bountiful harvest theme. The design is from Kaffe Fassett's book "Kaleidoscope of Quilts" and consists of three different panels of squares in three sizes.
The colours of these photos are a bit more matte than in real life, and the green does looks better with the rest of them. But after looking at it from a distance the thing still seems a bit bland. And as luck would have it, I didn't have enough fabric for all the small squares, so I'll have to come up with something.
I have a couple of fabrics with autumn leaves, which fit in with the theme and colours, but might be just too detailed compared to the rest.
I was thinking of adding a border in black, and in fact I do have a black version of one of the fabrics and that might work. Maybe I should add some black squares as well? Or maybe I should use a black without brown in it?
I have been tempted to add a few turqoise squares - like water glimpsed through the leaves...? But that might just be too much...

I will just have to keep the squares up on the wall and mull it over for a few days. That usually helps, even if my design wall is just a flannel sheet with grommets in two corners, hooked up on my bedroom wall...

Looking back

As I sit back and contemplate the year we've just left behind and how quickly it has passed, it's only natural to think about what I have achieved, isn't it? I won't go into the achivements on the work front, only say that more success means more time and energy spent there and less quilting time. Sigh. You can't have everything, can you ;-)

Looking on the picture of the three stems of Amaryllis (or is that Amarylli in plural?) I realize that I neglected to post much about my redecorating project this summer. The view from this angle is very different from last January with the dark blue, rag rolled walls and bright colourful curtains. The look now is also colourful, but maybe a bit more subdued. I wasn't quite sure to begin with, but I really like the new wall colour and my IKEA curtains (one wouldn't normally call them subdued of course, but compared to their predecessors...) The redecorating was a huge undertaking for me, having to move a whole wall of books and paint each and every shelf and let them dry before the wall unit could be reassembled alone took the best part of a week. And then there was the rest of the room. And the decluttering. It seems to me I've spent months on this! And I did it all singlehandedly. I have always had help from friends during previous redecorating and moving stunts, but it is easier when you have an empty room to paint. Because of lack of space to put all my stuff in, I knew I had to deal with one corner of the room at a time and move everything back before I could deal with the next area, and that would mean my friends would have had to keep coming back, helping out in small bursts at a time, which seemed too much to ask for. Not that they wouldn't have done it, mind you - and I knew that if I had breathed a word of my plans they would have been 'round in their overalls with paintbrushes at the ready in no time. Instead I chose to do it while everybody else was away on holiday, creating quite a stir when they visited afterwards and saw what I had done. That was fun!
I'm going on and on about this now, and I was really going to talk about my quilting efforts in 2007. Well, this is it:

-more or less, anyway. I think I have written about most pieces as I have been working on them, so I won't go there now, but it doesn't look too bad now, does it? And come to think of it there have been some knitting and embroidery projects too, some of which are still WIPs of course. So all in all I think 2007 has been a productive year for me. And there will hopefully be more to come in 2008. On the quilting front I have at least three projects on the go at the moment, my Grandmother's Garden quilt, the Autumn Window and the just started Autumn Garden. I will have pictures of that in the next post.

Small surprises

My mum is off on holiday tomorrow, and here's a folder I just made for her to keep things like tickets, passport, insurance card etc. in. I made one for myself a while ago, and find it very handy to have everything in one place - it's easy to whip out of your bag to find just the right document while struggling with your luggage at the airport. While searching for the right fabrics I came across a half yard of bathing beauties fabric I've had for years. It was a gift from a friend, and it is sooo cute that I have been reluctant to cut into it. But I was in the right kind of mood, so I just got on with it and whipped up this little bag for mum while I was at it. Perfect for carrying your suntan lotion and whatever down to the pool, isn't it?

Here's a view of it inside out to show the binding that finishes it off and makes that nice square bottom so that it can stand upright. It turned out that I didn't have enough of that orange fabric (an old IKEA-print - funny how I remember where all the pieces of fabric in my stash come from - obsessive or what?), so I had to join it with another. I didn't explain that it wasn't careful measuring and trimming, just pure luck that the join ended up just at the right place so you get a dark bottom and bright sides inside.
Mum was quite chuffed with her surprise presents - I really will try to make the effort to make small surprises like that for people more often - it doesn't take that much time and gives so much pleasure!

I have also been busy cutting lots of squares from that autumnal series from the last post, but I'm beginning to realize that I mightn't have quite enough fabric for the quilt I have in mind, so I will have to come up with a clever solution there. I will get the pieces up on the design wall tomorrow, and then we will see...

It's 2008 - let's create!

Happy New Year !

I woke up this morning (well, noonish...), eager to create, and this spread of fabric was what I had in mind. So in between phone calls and chores I have been cutting squares to start a Garden Quilt. The pattern is in Kaffe Fassett's book Kaleidoscope of Quilts. There is a Tapestry Garden Quilt and a Morning Garden Quilt. Mine will be an Autumn Garden Quilt, of course, with the lovely Lonni Rossi fabric I have had lying in wait for quite some time. There is also a bit of green and some brown/black to go with it.
I have several quilts in mind with all the fabric sorted, ready to go, so if I am to have any kind of new year's resolutions it is to get those plans off the drawing board and actually create something.
Let my motto be: "It's 2008 - let's create!"

Playtime

I ordered some fabric from The Glorious Color Shop that arrived just before Christmas, but I was almost too busy to look at it. I have just been casting glances in the direction of that pile during the last week and felt a surge of joy every time - funny that one can react to colour and pattern that way, isn't it! The first one is a Martha Negley design, then there is a Philip Jacobs design in two different colourways - I just couldn't decide which I liked the most... -and then of course, the man himself, Kaffe Fassett, his Verbena and Spots in two colourways. I had no plan whatsoever for these when I ordered them, it was just a case of "I have to have!"

Imagine my joy then, when I picked up my latest order from Amazon, including this great book, and discovered that there are several quilts in there which might work very well with my fabrics. I can't wait to get started now, and thought I'd spend the day sewing. But it was not to be - a friend invited me for lunch, and I couldn't very well turn down the opportunity of spending a pleasant day with friends now, could I? But soon...!
I also ordered these fabrics from a different outlet - a bit late it seems, I had to search all over for them - they were all over the place last year, but didn't tempt me then, but then I saw a great quilt in the latest issue of Quilt Sampler and suddenly felt the urge to make something similar.

It's good to have plans isn't it - now where is that website where you can purchase extra time?

Knitted heart

We've had a very peaceful few days here. For the first time in ages I have the whole week between Christmas and New Year off and it has been wonderful to

relax, spending time with family and friends. The last few days I have been so idle that I was beginning to forget how to get up from the sofa... The mere thought of going into my sewing room to start a new project, or heaven forbid, finish something, was enough to make me feel faint.

I had some knitting wool and a few needles handy, though, and found this pattern via Melody Johnson's blog, and just had to have a go. I might have stuffed the heart a bit too much, and I must say I prefer Melody's version. I only just realized that is because she has knit her squares in stockinette stitch, whereas I followed the pattern slavishly and knit every other row on the back in knit instead of purl. Hers has a much smoother finish, so if I were to try again, I would do that. The pattern claims that once you have tried these hearts you will want to make lots, but I'm afraid not. It was fun to have a go, but with me it's all "been there, done that" so I'm off searching for something new.

The yarn, by the way, is Regia and is a leftover from my first attempt at knitting a pair of socks since my schooldays. The result was disastrous, however, so I'm not going to show them here! I can't be bothered to unravel and reknit, so I have cast on for a new pair - different colourway, different pattern. Maybe I'll have something to show at the end, or maybe not...

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Merry Christmas to one and all!
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

Deck the halls

Christmas for me is all about traditions, seeing family and friends and also adding something new every year. These little fellows have been a part of my Christmases for as long as I can remember. They used to grace my grandmother's dinner table all set out on a mirror tile surrounded with cotton wool - a frozen pond surrounded by snow in my imagination.
My dear gran has long since left this world, but I inherited these figurines and feel like I'm greeting old friends every December when it is time to let them out of their little box. They have been joined this year by a sequin tree my cousin's youngest girl made for me last Christmas - a mix of old and new.
I love Christmas and all the hustle and bustle it contains. I thought that this year I had it all down pat, though - no stress, not too many unnecessary tasks. I'd keep it simple, just enough effort to make it a special few days...
But wouldn't you know it - once the Christmas preparation snowball starts rolling it grows, and grows...
You know how it goes: "I'll just make a few homemade presents this year, no stress at the last minute!". Well, I've only just finished the last piece of hand stitched binding on the last present...

And then it is the baking. "I'll just make some ginger bread and buy the rest."

Sure! But I always make brownies, must make some this year too. And now that I'm at it I may as well make those lemony coconut squares. And maybe some candy? Before you know it the tins are full, and your arms are ever so slightly longer from having carried all those shopping bags of ingredients home...

"Well, it will be dark when the guests arrive, I needn't bother too much about that dusting... "
- Yeah, right - a day off from work and seeing the place in sunshine and there's no doubt about it - cloths and dusters to the rescue. Better shine those windows too...
"Well at least I won't spend that much time shopping this year".

Who am I trying to fool - of course I find myself braving the crowds as usual trying to find just the right things for everybody.
And just when you think you are ready, there's always someone you haven't thought of who suddenly pops in with a present, and you have that mad dash to find something, while pretending you had something already prepared...
So why do we bother? 'Cause it's also a lot of fun! Getting your decorations down from the attic. Making your home shine in all it's glory and gathering your friends and loved ones around you - it's a wonderful time of year really! - fa la la la la la la!

Getting there, slowly, slowly

Well, at least I have started my Christmas shopping now. The first couple of presents are bought - one is all wrapped up and ready for a special friend - shh, don't tell!
I couldn't resist this tin decorated with vintage photos - such a sweet litte boy! It might become part of a Christmas gift, if I'm able to part with him, that is... Some pressies are in the making as well:

I was tidying up the other day and in a pile of computer printouts I found this little stitchery I made ages ago. I remember scanning it to post a picture, and then I must have forgotten all about it. It didn't even need seeing to with a hot iron - the weight of the paper had made it nice and smooth... (A great way to press one's work for someone who thinks the definition of housework is to sweep the room with a glance...)
I added a border and some quick quilting and voila: a finished present! Sorry about the blurred photo - I never seem to find myself at home during daylight hours these days... I'm also working on a sewing basket for my mother. I have combined a couple of different patterns from some Japanese books. The instructions are well illustrated, but as for the rest you have to read between the lines, so I'm kind of making it up as I go.
It has an inner basket with three compartments, and I'm going to add some stuffed yo-yos inside the bigger basket for the small one to rest on so that you get a big compartment in the bottom. I'm not explaining this very well, but there will be more pictures later! I have also made a lid and there will be zippers...
I'm going to add some more bits and pieces to it - so do come back: all will be revealed!

I have been too busy lately, but I'm going to make some time to relax now and create more of a Christmas mood here. Tomorrow I'll venture up into the attic to see if some of my Santas and snowmen would like to come downstairs, and to look for some stripy fabric for elf stockings: I have every intention of trying my hand at Calamity Kim's Christmas Elf - she is generously providing the pattern to download - go and see for yourself - it's great!

Looking for last year's Christmas decorating post, I realize that I was even later last year, and Christmas did arrive anyway, so according to my personal schedule I'm actually early this year!

December inspiration

I came across a copy of the latest issue of Marie Claire Idées yesterday. Like many bloggers I have discovered that this magazine is just full of inspiration, and the latest issue is no exception. I have spent a happy afternoon with a cup of tea and a lot of eye candy - there are just so many things to be inspired by, cute angels, stockings, embroidery, baked goods - I haven't really got my head around the fact that Christmas is approching, but this magazine is giving me a kick start. Click on the picture above to go to Flickr for a closer view.
I love this yo-yo throw in silky fabrics and with huge yo-yos (the green ones are made from 21 cm/8" circles!)

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of advent and weather permitting, time for a pre-Christmas market. That should help my Christmas spirit along...