Scandinavian Gnome and Birdhouse Christmas Ornaments

Irina @nordiccrafter and I @stitchingnotes are about to start week two of our Sip Tea and EPP Christmas Sew Along. It is a lot of fun and you still have time to join us as we are going to share more projects, more ideas and more inspirations over the next few weeks on our Instagram accounts @nordiccrafter and @stitchingnotes. Last week we shared two cute ornaments: a Scandinavian Gnome designed by Irina and Birdhouse designed by me a while back.

When Irina sent me her Scandinavian Gnome pattern for our sew along, I dropped everything I was doing at that very moment and ran to my sewing space to pick the fabrics for this make. I was too excited as I knew right away that it was going to be ADORABLE.

Zakka Wool Applique Book Tour

Welcome to the Zakka Wool Applique book tour! This is the fourth book by Minki Kim, published with C & T Publishing, and it is a pure delight. The name "Zakka Wool Applique" speaks for itself, this book is filled with darling projects and cute felt applique motifs. What I love the most about this book is that it sparks your imagination and gives you sweet ideas that you can easily include in your own projects. This book is available in both digital and paper formats.

Tutorial: Scrappy Happy Trivet

Do you have some pretty fabric scraps that you cannot part with, but don't know what to use them for? Then this quick tutorial might be exactly what you need. Easy step-by-step instructions will help you create a sweet and useful trivet featuring all your precious scraps and make you smile every time you use it. Let's not waste any time and get sewing!

Tutorial: Lovely Postcard Coaster

Two years ago I made a set of Christmas coasters using my ever so favourite Belle and Boo fabric. I planned to use them only during the holiday season, but they turned out to be very popular, that I decided to keep them all year round. Every time the late night tea is served I tend to use only these coasters. They do bring joy and make us smile. I though it would be nice to spread the joy at this special time of the year so I wrote a quick tutorial for you to make your own Lovely Postcard Coasters.

Tutorial: Scrappy Liberty Bookmark

I know for sure that many of you (just like me) have a bag or a jar hidden somewhere in your sewing space filled with the most precious scraps. Those tiny pretty pieces that are too small to be stitched together, but still impossible to part with. Well, if you are a lucky owner of a bag or a jar like that, then this tutorial might be exactly what you need.

I am going to show you how to turn the tiniest snippets into a bookmark or maybe a gift tag, but keep your mind open and let this idea tickle your imagination and create something else using this method that doesn't require a sewing machine. Only a hot iron and a fusible web/adhesive.

Boro Style Coin Purse and a Little Surprise

I am totally and absolutely in love with my latest make! This little boro style kiss lock coin purse was such a pleasure to make, especially the front patchy part. I have always admired this kind of patched up tattered look, but never had enough courage to give it a go until I found a perfect pattern.

Molly and Mr Mouse

It's all about tiny details. Making a pouch or an envelope or anything else is always fun, but adding the final finishing touches is my absolutely favourite part. Working on tiny stitches, choosing the right small fun print, picking the ribbons and threads all add to the pleasure of sewing. It seems like April was mostly filled with making small fabric labels for me. How simple and cute is that label? Just a piece of the right fabric and a few tiny stitches.

A Set of Christmas Coasters...

...that I made for this Christmas and no one wants to use them. Not because we don't like them, but quite the opposite. The boys are saying that they are too pretty and nice to be used for something like a cup of tea that might stain the coaster. Well, I kind of agree with them. :-) The coasters turned out so sweet that I myself keep looking at them and fiddling with them while having my cup of tea and trying my best to keep my cup on the very corner of a coaster or using a different mug rug all together. That's ridiculous and we should stop this nonsense once and for all and enjoy using the things I make no matter how much we love them. Right?

Hand Embroidered Baby Onesie

It was a lovely calm and quiet afternoon, the baby was playing next to me and babbling away while I made this - a teddy bear embroidery with an appliquéd red balloon. I borrowed the much loved bunny from my So Little Boy for the photo session but did not notice that the ears were quite wet, they were munched on a bit. Hehe...

Cute Baby Onesies

Making something new, cute and very little. Raw edge applique on newborn's onesies. It's so much fun to create your own unique designs for things like that.

Cooking Notes

Do you like cooking or baking? I do. Very much so, especially when I have spare time and the weather is cool. I am always on a lookout for some new quick and easy recipes and new ideas. I tend to bring home a new recipe from places we travel to. Just like the one for muffins (they are truly the best!) I pulled from a local Queenstown newspaper three years ago when we went skiing there.

What Do You Think?

Unexpectedly I had to spend last Monday at home, there was plenty of house work available for me and waiting for me, just for me but I chose this instead. Too hard to resist some lace, linen and silk, threads and the soothing sound of the sewing machine. I am sure you know what I am talking about.

Love, Balloons and Tiny Hearts

I have to tell you the truth. Never before till this year I made anything for Valentine's Day. It's something we celebrate with a bunch of flowers for me and chocolates for everyone, and a nice home cooked dinner, nothing else really. Especially no decorations for the house... never. This year, for some unknown reason to me, I felt different. I felt like creating small lovely things to make this day more special with a splash of pink and red.

I enjoyed so much working on fabric love hearts and the garlands, embroidering little Valentine's tags, making a wall hanging that I am going to show you a bit later in the week and finally sewing the placemats. I think I might keep this tradition going with some extra special additions for the next year.

Funky, Wonky, Crazy Cat

... with a red tummy.

Here is a different style of a Funky, Wonky, Crazy Cat Lunch/Snack Bag. An applique for the tummy has been added for a splash of colour as requested by my son. To give this bag a more structured shape, a topstitch has been added to all side and bottom edges.

The flap is stitched on on the front of the bag and closes on the back with a prong snap. Note to Self: I might use a magnetic fastener next time, it would be much easier to close and open the bag. I really like them more than any other type of snaps and on top of that I have a whole bag full of them. I am off to work on something exciting. Have a wonderful weekend!

Sing a Rainbow

Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue... Which one is your favourite? Out of all the colours here, green, purple and orange really stand out for me. This is a tiny quilted wall hanging that can be used as a placemat as well - perfect for an afternoon cup of tea with a friend.

I like the happy colour combination and how the running writing around the flower turned out, and the way the binding accentuates the colours of petals. For this quilt I used a straight edge binding.

It still surprises me that while I am working on a project, everything seems fine but once it's finished, I see quite a few things that I wish I had done differently. I suppose it's an avoidable part of a hands-on learning experience. You can't perfect your technique if you don't experiment, if you don't try various ways of creating things. I believe there's always room for improvement and that's what makes it so enjoyable. 

Framed Applique: A Girl Went Walking

A little girl goes for a walk on a sunny autumn or maybe spring day. It's not raining and it's not cold but she loves her new red gumboots and a matching beret, she has to wear them no matter what. She just likes walking around the neighbourhood on her own. It does not matter if the sun is out or if it's raining, there are things to see and explore around.

Here is one more raw edge applique that was done a while ago but was not photographed at the time. The hand stitching of the walking girl with some applique elements was ment for a fabric envelope at first but the piece of fabric was cut too small for the envelope. Then I thought of using it for a bookmark but the girl ended up here instead. The houses were done with free motion machine stitching. If you are interested, you can see the same houses done by hand here.

Work in Progress: Rainbow or Maybe Not

Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too. Do you know this song? It inspired my current project. 

It all began with an idea of a rainbow applique. Then a few more ideas came to my mind (a little girl, a patch of grass, some clouds...), but after playing around with scraps of fabric on the floor, I ended up with something absolutely different and unexpected, as it happens quite often with me.

The only thing I know at the moment that it's going to be a mini quilt/wall hanging or a framed appliqué picture, have not decided yet which one. Have to see what the end result looks like to help me make up my mind. I love the process of creating, changing things as I go. It gives me more freedom and keeps my imagination going.

Breaking Free

I am a very conservative crafter. I like all things to be symmetrical, to have clear straight lines, not too many colour combinations. At the same time I do love seeing works of other amazing crafters who experiment with colours, textures and different techniques. A very talented fabric designer Aneela Hoey is one of them. Some time ago I found her mini quilt tutorial "Girl on a Tree Swing". The appliqué is simply adorable. The pink and yellow colour combination is so sweet and the lines of a freestyle machine embroidery remind me so much of a pencil sketch. I have to admit that I don't do patchwork, it's something I will never have patience for I think. But when I saw the way Aneela created the background for the tree (raw edge appliqué), I thought it would be an easy and quick way for me, and plus I could use my scraps of fabric.

Well, as I said being a very conservative and not being able freely to experiment with different colour combinations made this project more difficult than I expected. It took me a few attempts to even start the "trying" process, the pieces of fabric didn't seem to match or fall into a place no matter how many times I moved them around. Plus, as I mentioned before I am not good at following instructions. I did not want to simply copy Aneela's work, I had to add even a tiny bit of my own creation to it.

Last year I stitched an Oak Tree with added little fabric hexagons but this piece of embroidery was lying around without being used. I liked the tree by itself but I could not think of a way of using it in any of my projects.

A few days ago I decided to give the mini quilt one more go. The scraps were piled up on the table and the creative process began. After half an hour the final colour combination was ready and it looked really pretty to me. I was surprised that all the bits and pieces, uneven stitches and raw edges did not make me cringe, they looked happy and joyful. Right at that moment I remembered about my Oak Tree and voila - my own patchwork piece was ready. And I love it!

Of course this work is far from perfect but what it did to me and my creative thinking is priceless - it made me break free from my conservative vision, it took me away from my straight lines and perfect corners, it made me want to create more things like that. Just a crazy splash of colour and a little bit of mess. I already have a few ideas in mind and cannot wait to start working on them.