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.

Little Foxy

I don't get much time to sketch these days. I find that I cannot sit and sketch if I know that I am going to be interrupted which is always the case with a little one around. I need some time to relax, get in the right mood and most of all be inspired. Well, some time ago, while we were having our usual late cup of tea, just the three of us, me, my Dear Husband and our not so little boy, I felt like doodling a bit. I just sat there sipping my tea, chatting and scribbling on paper. That's what came out of that late night doodling. A cute little fox with a couple of autumn leaves drifting in the air.

Friendly Hedgehog

It's been a while since I made any notebook covers. Projects like that marked the beginning of my stitching adventure a bit over a couple of years ago. Back at that time I made quite a few fabric covers with embroidery for notebooks and diaries as Christmas gifts. It feels lovely to go back to the same ideas with new skills learnt, with new techniques acquired and with more confidence than ever before.

Please Meet Mr Squeak

He is all ready and even dressed up for the occasion. He is a lovely little fellow, very friendly and sweet and he loves dandelions. He finally found a new home that I think he is quite happy about.

Sketching Away

I've been busy. Not with the usual fabrics and needles but rather with pencils and paper. I kept thinking of getting back to drawing but you know how it usually happens, one thing comes up first, then something else follows and they are all important things that require your time and attention, and at the end of the day there is no time or energy left just for you, for things that you wanted to do but didn't think were important. This time it was a chain of tiny events that finally got me back to my drawing notebook.

Wildflowers. Amazingly Beautiful

Wildflowers. So tiny, delicate and pretty, they grow in vast meadows and pop out among rocks and country roads. They are the first ones to come out in spring to bring us the reminder of the coming summer and they are the last ones to go in autumn. I love them so much. So simple and yet amazingly beautiful.

Sketching

It's been a long while since I sketched or painted last time. I am hoping that this year I can get back to learning and practicing Sumi-e, the "art of one brush stroke". It's a very relaxing and even meditating process, from the moment you start making ink to the very last stroke of the brush. I hope I make more time available for pencil sketching, drawing and simply doodling. I used to carry a small notepad in my bag at the very beginning of last year but then the rush of everyday life took over and the notepad was left on the shelf collecting dust.

A Little Bit of Warmth and Lavender

I can't believe how long it took me to finish this small project. Not the actual time of working on it but the time to get started. I was distracted with too many things lately - ideas, plans, projects and even unexpected gifts that caused even more pleasant distractions. But right now I am glad that finally I managed to find a couple of hours to complete these cute heat packs while watching an old movie.

The heat packs will make a lovely gift. They are filled with beautifully scented lavender flowers, buckwheat and barley. I love the scent of lavender. It's refreshing and soothing at the same time, it's sweet and slightly spicy, fruity and floral. Have you ever received a heat pack as a gift? I have and I really enjoyed it on cold winter nights and as a relieve for my sore back.

These bags are small, about 19cm by 11cm. I used free motion machine stitching for the plants and added just a few hand stitches to give a bit of colour to the flowers. I could not stay away from my favourite running stitch that goes around all edges in a lovely deep green shade.

It all started with a drawing of Plantago and Clover. Beautiful plants that you can find almost anywhere in the world. They always fill me with sweet childhood memories. I did not know where these sketches would end up, I just took one step at a time while enjoying the process of sketching, stitching and sewing. But I am happy with where Plantago and Clover are now. Have a wonderful creative day!

Some spots and dots, and houses with pots

Remember the houses? And the thinking they caused? They even inspired a short poem.

Well, no more thinking... it's a fabric envelope at last. I have made quite a few of them since the beginning of this year. I like the fact that with just a few adjustments you can create anything from a simple pocket for papers to a padded iPad cover. You can add any type of a fastener and you can decorate the envelopes any way you like - there are no boundaries for your imagination here.

I really like the colours of this cotton, they make me think of Autumn. Warm, sunny days with carpets of red, yellow, orange leaves spread around and a particular cool autumn air filled with mushroomy smell. It's something I would call an Autumn Palette with deep cadmium, crimson lake, rose pink and flesh pink shades. I love Autumn! Do you?

If you are interested in making your own fabric envelopes, you can find a tutorial here. Have a great day everybody!

Work in Progress: Free Motion Machine Stitching

Have you seen my sketches of Clover and Plantago on the Sketches page? Well, I am using them for this quick and easy project. It's a fun way (even addictive I have to say) to practice my newly acquired skill of free motion machine stitching and, yet again, to use up some of the small cuts of fabric.

Using calico and black thread I "sketched" my pictures with ease. It did not take any time at all, and I like the fact that it looks a bit messy compared to hand stitching. I do not have a special free motion foot for my machine and I do not use a hoop or gloves for stitching but still that does not stop me. I just have to be careful and watch my fingers while "sketching".

You must be wondering what is it going to be. Well, you have to wait for a while to see the final result. It won't take long if I manage to find some free time of course.

Fabric Envelope

The Little Girl chasing butterflies... The envelope has been completed. The colour of Molly's dress and the lining is so bright and vibrant, it almost glows. I am sure Molly is very happy now, she is surrounded by flowers and butterflies. What else a girl might need?

This simple envelope is a great storage solution for a sewing corner. It's pretty enough to be displayed on a working desk or on a shelf. It's perfect for keeping fabric, sketches, notes or any other supplies you might have in your studio. It can be easily made with old offcuts of fabric that are not big enough for anything else and can be decorated with any stitching design or appliqué. The possibilities are endless.

I am working on a few projects at the moment and one of them is going to be a fabric envelope tutorial. If you are interested, please keep your eye out for it.

Work in Progress: Molly

Just wanted to share a little work in progress with you. Have you met Molly? The little girl chasing butterflies?

She is getting a new dress today. I still have not decided whether to go with the flowery appliqué dress or the polka dot stitched one. Or maybe something different altogether? Not an easy decision. But Molly seems to be totally oblivious, she does not care, the butterflies is the only thing she can think of right now. So I better get back to work as well.

The Bird, the Oak and the Summer Forest

The cuckoo bird fabric envelope has been completed.

As I mentioned before, it takes me quite some time to decide on the fabric for the lining. This time I stopped on two choices - sky blue flowers with a hint of gold and brick red with white and orange flowers. Both fabrics look nice in combination with the bird embroidery but the blue one made me feel sad and melancholic for some reason.

The red one on the other hand had an opposite effect, it made me think of warm summer days and walks through forests in search of wild berries and flowers. So I decided to go with the red flowery fabric and I am quite happy with the result.

The envelope is big enough to fit a couple of books or maybe a notebook or a sketchbook and some pencils.

Work in Progress

This sketch was made a while ago. It was supposed to be an illustration of a cuckoo bird for a poem written by my Mum back in 2003. It's one of the things on my "To Do" list to put together a book of Mum's poems and make illustrations for them. But it's a different story. Since I got interested in stitching, I also wanted somehow to use this sketch in one of my projects.

The bird is too big for a cover of a notebook but for a fabric envelope or maybe a heat pack should be just right. The process of stitching does not take long but the process of choosing the right fabric always takes me a bit of time because I cannot decide what fabric from my constantly growing stash to use first. Finally, last week, I had made my choice, so let's see how it turns out after all the work is finished.

Meet Fedor the Bunny

Hi! My name is Fedor, and as you might have noticed, I am a Bunny. Not your ordinary type of a bunny that you can find in a forest or on a farm. I am a very sophisticated Super Duper Epically SAD Bunny. Yes, very very very very very SAD Bunny. Don't ask me why because I have no idea, this is simply the way I was born. Like my ears for example - you don't ask me why they are so long or floppy, you just accept them the way they are. So please accept me being sad all day every day and all year around. And please do not try making me laugh. It won't work. I promise. So don't waste your precious time on something as pointless as a joke or a funny story.

You might be wondering how old am I. Well, to tell you the truth I am not sure, sometimes I think that I was born already old. Not old old but something like 37 or 43 or maybe 51 or, who knows, even 79. Hmm... that sounds like a lot. But anyway, it does not really matter how old someone is; what matters is  how that someone feels deep deep inside his heart. And I have to tell you that I feel absolutely and totally young but... sad. Why? I don't know why.

From Paper to Fabric

I think on paper. Do you? I always carry with me a pen or a pencil and a small notebook. Now I carry a sketch book as well. When I have an idea or plenty things to do in a very limited time, I feel overwhelmed and my head gets "overpopulated" with too many unimportant and distracting thoughts. I feel a need to organise it. Once I put my ideas, plans, worries on paper, I feel much better and see more clearly what needs to be done and how. 

While having some soup at a cafe all by myself, I kept thinking about our family Easter Tree. The houses were finished already but I felt like something else was needed to be made, I kept going back to the idea of little birds. I got my sketch book out and in less than ten minutes I had a pattern for my birdie. The choice of fabrics and ribbon and even buttons was made at the same time. I just had to rush back home and test it. 

I am really happy with the final result. The pastel colours are so soft and sweet and attractive to me. I cannot wait to go "twigs picking" this year and fussing over our Tree while arranging the ornaments in a best possible way.