Crafting and Messy

Where is this month going so fast? I have been soooo busy with life in general and making some crafts for selling, so this post will be short. The above pictured half made dollies are part of my effort. I try to get pictures of the finished ones as well. At the moment the light is too bad for photographing.

I have seen on the net several articles about creative people's working spaces and it never ceases fascinate me. Now, I don't have a dedicated studio, neither do I have to work on the dining table. My therapy room doubles as a sewing/crafting/painting room/office. I love my big, old Victorian chest of draws, filled with my sewing things. I must admit that it is not quite enough for all my stuff. Here is one of the draws where some of my material stash lives in neat piles.

As many other crafty people I am quite obsessive about having my space well organised, but not under the creative process. Then it looks more like this on the table:

And on the floor:

Yes, bad, isn't it? See you soon with hopefully nicer pictures.

March and Much More

BIG SORRY to leave the blog for this long. I did not have much chance to blog on my holidays; going back home means catching up with the loved ones every minute at my disposal. We got back safely and then the horrid tummy bug hit our house...So this post is a real mixed bag. In the first picture my March calendar. You might ask: "What about February"? Well, officially it did not happen in our house, so no calendar. In truth I did not get round to it and had to force myself to do something for March. The end result was far better than my uninspired mood predicted.

I made a doll for my niece whom I met for the first time despite her being 18 months old. She was stinking cute (the niece, not the doll) and sligthly confused about who I might be tropping up with the Grandparents. Initially she wanted to call me grandma as well.

I just LOVE this doll and the colours. I have never before tried this type of combo. The doll is made of cotton, so is the hair. I am always torn between being really "natural" and use natural materials only or make it washable. So this time I went for the washable option as the doll was for a toddler. The filling is polyester and the doll is weighted with plastic beads. (Both parts secondhand, so at least that was a bonus). Obviously the face was embroided instead of painted for the washability. I quite liked the end result myself.

















I think this was the first time I used knits for doll clothes and it was SO good. The whole question of how to get the doll into the clothes was solved as they stretch, no zigzaging needed as the material doesn't fray. And the best of all, my old long t-shirt sleeves were the perfect size for the body part of the shirt and the trousers. So I had ready made hems!

I also made a playmat for a friend's little son. Unfortunately they were travelling while we were visiting, so it had to be posted. The playmat was made of hand dyed African cotton for the front and the binding and thrifted soft cotton for the back. I made different "sensory" things for the upper edge of the quilt for baby to play with. It is playmat size and can alternatively be used in a pushchair where the baby will still have access to his toys. The pockets were hand embroided as well as the robot's face. I hand quilted it with an irregular squiggly pattern, which went well with it's modern bright colours and toy theme. Everything it is washable and if the mother gets tired with the toys dangling from it, they can be snipped away.

 The weather up North was wintery. At times it was -22 C with stiff wind. That meant not going out other than getting from point A to point B. My sister claimed that her frontal lobes were deep frozen during our walk from the Zoological Museum to a department store. The picture of the elf son was taken on a day of lesser severity; only around -14 C and no noticeable wind. He is on the frozen sea ice, making confusing trails.

I promise not to leave the blog for another month. There are more things to blog from the travels and new fresh things to show, so see you soon.

Bags for Everything

I like bags, purses and boxes and anything at all that can hold something. This is what I made for my husband for Christmas. They are for his laptop and graphic pad. I used African cotton and padded them with fleece and lined with unbleached cotton and used velcro for fastening the flap. I must admit that I almost did not give them to him, because I was so in love with them myself. Coveting the gift I had made for him! In the end I actually decided that I could easily produce similar ones for myself, if I really needed them. I haven't as it is, but I made this for my new mobile:

Looking at the material makes me smile, but next time I will plan my velcro sewing so that it won't show on the outside. The lining is made of hand dyed African cotton.
Something much less arty are these bags I made for my son, the same African cotton and old white sheet used for the project.:

They contain his lego, all sorted according the type (length, width and thickness) and labelled. Yes, we are nerdy in that way in our house, but when you own lego in the amounts that Elf Son does, this is the only way forward, if you don't want to lose your mind while searching for a certain bit.

February is so weird. It is such a long short month. Sometimes it just drags on and on, but this year it seems to dissappear before it started. I might not be around for a while, as it is school holidays and the Son and I are heading towards Scandinavia. We are back on the last day of this month. I will blog a little from our travels if I get access to a computer and time to use it. Hope your winter holidays are good!

Bob the Bunny

Meet Bob the Bunny. He looks far hairier than he is in person, I notice.

He is my first ever felt project, entirely made by needling. He is made of  British Blue Face sheep wool, nothing else. People are always really surprised when I tell them this.  Bob is rather firm to touch, so many people assume that he has been filled with something else. Wool is like that. You can choose to work it so it is loose and soft or very tight and hard.

I made Bob about a year ago, I think. I haven't ever taken a course in felting techniques, just studied it from books, so I was rather pleased that I could get the wool to felt at all. I found the needling rather an easy process albeit couple of fingers were punctured! I was working from raw wool, so the process took its time. If you have not tried felting at all, this means that I bought a sheep fleece, washed it, dried it, hand carder the fibres to soft fluff and then attacked it with a hand held needle to make it to felt. Since my first attempt I have done couple of cushion covers and a handbag which sadlly still is WIP (work in process).

I love wool and have a bunch of ideas to realise, but have not got around to clean and carder enough wool for this. Sometimes I think that I should buy some merino wool or at least carded wool, so the process speeds up a bit. Just the thought of having to clean the room after a session of carding can put me off. The solution to my dilemma must be that in the coming spring I need to give up a few sunny days of gardening for washing, drying and carding of wool outside. We will see...

Yarn Temptations

Oooh, aah. I have been to a BIG CITY over the weekend and got to caress yarns and haberdashery in John Lewis. I meant to be very diciplined and only buy some wool to begin a blanket, but then I eyed cotton yarn on sale and decided to have some colours for little projects like birdies and purses.
I could almost eat these...

I did restrict myself to the yarn and did not succumb to the temptation of East of India ribbons as lovely as they were. By the way, I was by no means the only one trying not to leave a wet patch of drool on Jonh Lewis' carpet. There were several ladies having the unmistakable lovelorn look in their eyes on Saturday morning.

Thrift Gifts

This is what I am going to take to my friend tomorrow. Homemade apple chutney and carrot-pineapple jam and a thermos I found on my thrifty rounds. It is the same colour as one of her kitchen walls. I don't mind giving people gifts and them doing whatever they are moved to do with it, but this time I am going on train and don't want to carry unnecessary things, so I actually asked her whether she fancied the thermos. She has not seen it yet and since she is not reading this blog I am safe showing it off to the whole world.
I am always pleased to find treasures in thrift shops and this thermos has been calling for me for months. Luckily I remembered to ask my friend, because when I went to the shop the flask had made it from the shelves to the pavement box. Close shave!

From the Doll Archives

This is a doll I made about a year ago. The story is rather similar to the Princess' birthday party. The Elf son was invited and I was the Royal Purveyor of the Present, as usual. The little Lady who was to receive this doll is herself rather an artistic girl. I thought she would appreciate a doll, which was looking a bit like her. The doll was made of a mixture of old and new fabrics/ lace/ buttons. I painted the face with acrylic paints and filled her with English sheep wool.

Afterwards I heard that she was awfully pleased about the specs, as she wears them herself. Obviously the Big Brother had immediately removed these from the doll, which had caused a little skirmish between the siblings. Luckily the specs were made to be removed. I remember as a child being thoroughly frustrated with dolls and soft toys with non-removable "bits" like collars, jewellery, hats and specs. I thought that it would be awfully unpleasant for my charges to sleep wearing these things.

I toyed with an idea making these for sale, as I enjoyed producing this one. I made a few more, but was not that happy with them and admit that they still sit in my draw. I could easily make more, if anybody wants to have their handmade dolly. They are suitable for over three year olds and adults too! Obviously I can make dollies for younger children, but I would then do away with the painted face and any "loose" bits. (Obviously the face would be there, but embroided, I think.)
My absolutely favourire bits about this doll were her specs

and her green felt mary-janes.

Crochet Madness

I purchased a couple of crochet hooks and am now officially hooked. I blame Lucy from Attic24. I just had to try after seeing all her lovely crochet. I learnt to crochet as a child, but cannot remember doing it since age 10. So...we were in for long shots here. I could miraculously dig up chaining and single stitches from my muscle memory. They sort of flowed automatically, if you know what I mean. Beyond that, thank heavens for utube. It didn't take long to get the movements back and now I am thoroughly enjoying it.
To start with I just did some boring samples on stitches. Then I tried "granny squares" just to see if I could actually produce something. This is when the above pictured flower also was made. It was easy with Lucy's really clear instructions. (If you want to try, go onto her blog and all the patterns are in the sidebar, brilliant). I made the flower to a pin and put in on the lapel of my wintercoat.  I still hadn't quite made up my mind what to do as my first "big" project, so I decided to try the crocheted birds. And this bird was made

I have two of them as unfinished projects lying in my yarn basket. They will be completed, but just now time and efforts, besides having the horrible cold, are used for this one

This is going to be my summer bag. I am so proud of noticing that I had made the bottom far too big and had the guts actually go back and unravel it to a more appropriate size. I unravelled more than a skein of cotton, so there was quite a lot of work going down the drain...
I am using Lucy's pattern, but have modified it, so if you make it from her pattern, it won't look like mine, not exactly. I think that my bag is going to look quite different on the whole, so watch this space.

I hope you have avoided the seasonal sniffles...See you soon!

Atchoo!

That's how I have sounded last five days. I have had a cold and haven't had energy to blog. The pictures need to be taken of the latest crafty things and a few lines written. I promise I will be back VERY soon.

Finds

I went to my local charity shop yesterday to give them items I had cleared out of our kitchen cupboards. Of course I had to have a nose around for some treasures for myself. I am slowly building up a collection of glass containers for our pantry items. I like my flour, nuts, salt, sugar etc in containers instead of bags from which they tend to spread all over the cupboard in our household. I don't want to store my food in plastic, so big old jars do the job for me. I am in no hurry, I just pick up things when i see them in charity shops or car boot sales. This time I got one jar for my peppermint teabags and a new butterdish. Hurrah! I was starting to despair with our current butterdish, cheap stoneware from a supermarket, which had chips in it. It was not the most hygienic of containers any more.
I try to do mine for the environment, but I do buy new materials and yarns etc for my crafts. I hugely admire Amanda Blake Soule of www.soulemama.com for using so many repurposed materials. When I am in thrift shops I try to think in terms of "materials"and am getting better. There is also the matter of keeping all the stash, especially when it does not just fold in neat piles of fabric. I cannot make myself to cut the garments into fat quarters, as I know that so much of  the garment can be used as smaller pieces. Anyway, there was somebody's stash of fabrics for sale yesterday and I took a few pieces home with me together with some wool for my new crochet projects.
I picked up something to be shined up as a present for a person, but not going to show that as yet. Quite a while I have planned to start using fabric napkins instead of the never ending use of kitchen towels and paper napkins. My plan is to make some myself, quite simply from some cotton or linen, but these were cute and price was pennies...

I also got this tablecloth with fabulous colours and that unmistakable old-made-to-last-quality. The napkins I bought quite long ago from the same shop.
















The ladies in the shop are absolutely lovely and know me. They even remember Elf Son. Yesterday they sent a surprise to him in form of a tin full of marbles. Elf Son has a marble collection and these were a well received addition. All in all a very pleasing expedition with some stuff I didn't bother to show. The price? £5. Have you found any good things lately?
Editor's note: Sorry about the poor quality and total borishness of the pictures. There has been no light around these latitudes for a week and I could not wait with posting until we got some more natural light.