Creating creative space...

The new table

I have been busy organizing and editing my creative space, trying to contain it in a specific area of the house. Let's be precious, totally precious, and call it my studio -- even though it is officially the den.

This is my Spoolie.

This all started because I wanted to get a Gidget sewing table for Bernie, my much loved vintage Bernina 830 Record. I did this. And, then, I moved everything up to the den. This is a bedroom over the garage. It is very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. I have a fan and a little heater. I am going to be fine.

The table is facing the large windows and is filled with light when I open the blinds. The window opens and allows a breeze to flow through. I am kind of loving the new digs. It isn't nearly sorted out yet, but I have moved from the dining room.
There is no cutting table space in the new digs, so I will still have to use my giant cutting mat on the dining room table. I think it is a small price to pay.
Because the new space is also the spare room, it has a futon frame for various overnight guests, and a TV for my general entertainment.

It is a luxury to have a place where I can just be on my own. It is also fun to go through some of the stuff I have collected and decide that there are just a few projects that will never get done. I have passed them on to people who might enjoy them.

I have also been working on some projects for A Needle Pulling Thread, including Spoolies. These are my little creations to use up precious scraps and my beloved wooden spools. This is the project I will be demonstrating at the Fall Creative Festival in Toronto this October.

In other news: this month's letters section of Australian Homespun magazine has a photo of my Tilda kangaroos. I am not bragging. 

Mostly, I am justifying having my own sewing space...

In order to use up some fabric I found during my tidy up journey, I also made a few sea urchins from Tilda's Seaside ideas. Still working through the studio organization phase, but I hope to post some more photos of how well I did.

 In the meantime, I am off to get some more recycling bags. I use them to give my donations to Goodwill. I think it is nicer than the garbage bags -- after all -- it is not garbage. It's part of my cherished stash that I am willing to share.

To everything turn, turn, turn ...

Recently, I was tearing apart my messy craft space,  looking for narrow elastic to fix some pajama bottoms. During my search, I found Cath Kidston cotton duck fabric scraps. I acquired them a while ago in stellar ebay auction from a very nice seller in the UK.
About four years ago, I made a couple of string blocks with the narrowest strips. But, then I got busy with other things. And put them carefully aside, to be buried in the layers of carefully put aside things. I found the elastic to do the pajama fix, but I also decided to put my scrap bag and string experiment where I could contemplate it again.
Let me say this: I think organization is highly overrated. I admire it so much in others, but despite my best efforts, I am never completely organized.
So, I deal with an organizational system that makes sense only to me. This method often makes my crafting life surprising and delightful.
Co-incidentally, I was also making some things that needed to be turned right side out. I reached for my much loved turning tools, stored in their unattractive, but effective plastic bag.
That's when the AHA! moment occurred.
I made a fabric tuner tube base from the string blocks.
It is sturdy because I backed it with heavy weight iron on interfacing. It is lined with blue dot flannel, because I love my turning tools, and I want them to be comfy cozy when I am not using them. I created channels so that each tool has a place of its own. The whole thing is bound with binding, and some of it is stitched down by hand. I used hook and loop tape to close it , and one of my treasured, old buttons decorates the front. Despite the weight of all the layers, dear Berni whipped through the whole thing like the dear old girl she is.
Good bye plastic bag. Hello turner tool pouch.

Back to our regularly scheduled program -- eventually, maybe

We were on vacation. I didn't do much of anything truly creative.
I sat by the lake and read book after book from my iPad. A total of 10 in all. It was my definition of bliss!

No doilies or tennis sweaters

Since we returned, I confess I seem to have left my creative mojo somewhere. I blame the heat. Last week, it was brutal. Even in the air conditioned comfort of my house, there was little will to do something creative. Sad, huh?
This week it is lovely and cool. I had some medical appointments to deal with, and once I was finally released on my own recognizance, I treated myself to a little troll through the local thrift shop.
I found a bag of old sewing notions, and in it, a little flower loom. These were popular in the early 1950s and again in the 1970s. This little treasure I found was in its pristine yellow box and the instructions were still crisply folded inside. I am looking forward to trying it out with more than just yarn. I am thinking pearl cotton and even rattan.
I will not be making doilies, or that interesting tennis sweater. I promise.
This week, in anticipation of actually feeling like making something, I managed to prepare some pattern templates to make some Tilda whales and the sailing girl from the new Tone Finnanger book, Seaside Ideas.

See that little polar bear????

Just as I was coming to grips with that, I found some more images from the upcoming book for Christmas 2013. Among the fun and fab projects to come will be a polar bear that is balancing a ball made of hexagons on the tip of his nose. I will be making him for sure.
And, let's not forget the fact I have yet to finish the blanket band for Miss B. Sigh. However, I did manage to finish the wall hanging for A Needle Pulling Thread. I can't show this one though, I have to wait until next Spring to reveal it.
Until I get my creative spark ignited, I will just have to envy the productivity all around me.

Sneaky peeks of WIPs and some Christmas Tilda news

A tiny peek at my wall hanging project

Quite possibly, my favourite book block

 I am a big fan of Ayumi Takahashi of Pink Penguin fame. She creates sweet and useful projects, using fabrics that I appeal to my over-riding sense of fun and whimsy, combined with my deep and abiding adoration of linen and linen blends.
I pre-ordered her book, Patchwork Please, months before it came out in April.
As soon as I saw these paper pieced books, I knew I found my Miss B's graduation present. I am not making the full quilt, but a blanket band. I have been collecting book themed fat quarters for a while now, and I settled on a few that more or less represent her book interests -- which are wide and varied. She has been a voracious reader since early childhood, and so these book blocks were tailor-made for her.
I am a beginner paper-piecer, and it was a slow go for me, despite the book's clear instructions with many photos. Patience would be a valuable asset. However, I don't have it, and so I make mistakes. Also, a lot of mess!
None of that was Ayumi's fault.
No, I did not keep the mistakes to take photos of them.
I swore some, then threw the mess away.
That's just how I roll...
After TWO unfortunate trimming accidents, and countless unpicking of the A section, I finally turned out sufficient blocks to do the blanket band I have planned. Try to ignore all those hanging threads, I haven't tidied them yet.
In a few weeks' time, I will also be posting a tutorial on doing quilted blanket bands. They are a nice alternative to making a full sized quilt, and are usually quick to finish -- as long as you are not doing a thousand other things at once.

Remember doodling on your notebooks?

Kind of love this one too!

This is the very first book Miss B loved

Remember reading Dick and Jane?

I have also pre-ordered Tone Finanger's upcoming book, Tilda's Sweet Shop. It will be mine in about 150 days. Yeah, I have no patience when paper piecing, but I can wait 150 days for a book. I don't get it either.
There are not many places to get any idea at all of what's in the book, but I did find one image. The book is a small one, just 48 pages, but it uses my very favourite colour palette, off white, green-blue and pinks. The focus is on old fashioned cakes and sweets and old world Santas and angels. Just yummy on so many levels.

Yummy new Tilda book November 2013

Under wraps...

I am currently working on a project for next Spring's issue of A Needle Pulling Thread. Sadly, I can't share anything about it.
Okay, I can say it is a wall hanging for a baby or small child's room. It is pretty involved, and has a lot of hand work. Therefore, it is just my kind of project.
I will be back with some photos of other things I've been doing very soon. Watch this space ...
In other news,  my very talented Miss B graduated from teacher's college recently.
She is getting a special present, just as soon as I get the sashing done on the paper pieced blocks.
Oh yes, cue the circus music, I am entering the distracted crafter season, where summer tries to lure me away from my creative space and out into the big, wide world. Sigh.

Spam is driving me batty

The demonstration piece

I must first apologize for some changes I've had to make to the comments section of Heaven Is Handmaid.
Sadly, you will now have to prove you are not a robot, a spammer, or a very badly behaved person trying to sell me a number of things not at all related to the gentle art of handmade.
For the past week, I have been perplexed and confounded by the weird spam comments that have landed in my email box. There have been no less than 40 useless, tasteless  -- and some very annoying -- "comments" in the past 10 days
The verification will stay on for the foreseeable future. I understand if you would rather not deal with the verification process. But, I just can't deal with this stuff anymore.

When I started with little venture, I wanted to share the things I do, and see what other people do. I have enjoyed "talking" with so many of you over the years. The fact that this is a bad patch will not deter me from keeping the blog going. It might make you unwilling to "visit" with a comment, and while that makes me sad, I understand completely. I just can't cope with the spam clogging up my inbox. End of rant. Sorry.
Please just bear with me until the spammers go away.

Work in progress at the booth

 On to other things: some photos from the CreativFestival on the last weekend of April in Toronto.
I had a great deal of fun talking to people, and showing them how to frame their embroideries in second hand embroidery and quilting hoops.
It was so surprising to see so many young people there -- men and women. I chatted and demonstrated for a couple of hours, and did a little fabric shopping, but not too much. I was home and exhausted before dinner.

Altered mannequin shared the table

Tip-toe through the tulips with me...

 I made up a tutorial for this basket of tulips I am taking to the CreativFestival in Toronto tomorrow.

But, I am also sharing it here, adding some (hopefully helpful) photos. 

These are a nice project to do with kids. They are not hard to do, use up fabric scraps, don't take forever, and introduce some cool sewing concepts.

I can see a nice bouquet for Mom or Grandma for Mother's Day. You can download the patterns from here:

The patterns should print out in actual size. Make sure your printer is set to "no scaling."

Enjoy!

Gathered at the bottom

Gather:

Fabric for the blooms

Fabric for leaves

Small dowels or wooden skewers

Glue

Embroidery floss

Fiber fill

Paint to match leaves

Paint brush

How to:

Fold the material for the leaves in half, right sides together. Place a piece of thin batting, underneath the leaf fabric. Trace the leaf pattern on the top of this fabric sandwich. Pin all the layers together. Using a small stitch length, sew along the traced outline. Cut out, adding ¼ inch seam around the stitching. Clip all curves, turn right side out. Press.

Using embroidery floss, sew a line of running stitches up the centre of each leaf. Pull gently to create a natural looking curve, but do not gather the leaves tightly.

Paint skewers to match the green leaves. Allow to dry.

Glue in the skewer

For the tulip buds, cut out petal shapes from the pattern provided, adding a ¼ inch seam allowance. Sew three petals together, starting at the point indicated. Clip curves, turn right side out. Turn under a ¼ inch hem, press. Run a line of gathering stitches at the hem. Fill bud with fiber fill, pull up gathering stitches, but do not knot. Dab the end of skewer in glue and insert into bottom of the bud. Now, pull gathers tightly. Allow the glue to dry slightly and pull the gathers tightly against the skewer. Tie off. Allow the glue to dry.

For tulip blooms, cut out the rectangle pattern, adding ¼ seam allowance. Turn under ¼ inch hem along the long sides. Press.

With right sides together, join the short ends, using a ¼ inch seam allowance.

Turn right side out.

Run a line of gathering stitches along the bottom of the bloom hem. Dab the end of skewer in glue and insert into bottom of the bud. Now, pull gathers tightly. Allow the glue to dry slightly and pull the gathers tightly against the skewer. Tie off. Allow the glue to dry.

Tack tops together

Fill with fiber fill. You want plump blooms that have body, but don't make them too firm. It's harder to finish the flower if you do.

Tack one long side the adjacent side, pulling tightly. Add a few tacking stitches. On the opposite side, repeat the  tacking stitches, pushing down the fiber fill if necessary. Finger press to form neat points. 

Run a line of glue along the skewer, attach the leaves by folding them in half over the skewer. Use a clothes pin to keep the leaf folded around the skewer if necessary. Allow to dry.

 

The tulips can be displayed in a basket, a vase or even a re-purposed canning jar. I did a mixture of buds and blooms -- just to make the bouquet interesting. Mine are displayed in a small basket with a bit of dry floral oasis hot glued to the bottom.