Two finishes

I have a real issue with finishing things, they'll sit 99% done for ages before I spend the 10 minutes needed to sew on a button or finish off a seam. So when I say that I finished TWO things yesterday it really should have party streamers and balloons and noise makers surrounding it. I'm pleased with both of them but I must admit a certain amount of trepidation in showing them here because they will reveal the extent to which I have become a tragic pug owner who has "all the pug-related merchandise made by anyone, ever" to quote this Gemma Correll poster. Or in this case, made by me. And yes, I have that poster too!

 

This cute little guy is destined for the (human) new baby brother of Ace, one of Ollie's mates. I think his head ended up a bit big due to overstuffing, but he manages to stay upright despite it. The pattern was from Jaravee on Etsy.

 

 The second was this embroidery, from Bridgeen, also off Etsy. I changed it a little from the original so it looked a bit more like Ollie looking up at me with big eyes so that I'll give him an almond.



And yes, he usually does get the almond - who could resist?

View from a Village

I'm back! Not that I really went anywhere but I had a small operation, came down with a cold, made it through one week of school holidays and went away for the second. Sounds busy but actually at least two weeks of it involved me feeling sorry for myself and sitting in bed a lot. Now I'm on a drive to get the kitchen wallpapering finished and the hallway spruced up with a coat of paint so we can put the house on the market in a couple weeks. Add in a few handmade Christmas presents and some clothes for me and some for Hazel, including a hat that is needed urgently, and the next month is looking rather busy! I think it'll be ok and even if I can't take proper photos of Christmas presents I can at least put up artistic ones.

I've been working on this cross stitch since the Olympics - I thought I'd get it done by the closing ceremonies but didn't make it, and then it languished as I wrestled with amigurumi and other crochet stuff.

The design comes from a neat little cross stitch book, Cross Stitch Patterns by Misako Murayama, that came with a Gerda Bengtsson book I wanted on Trade Me. As it turns out, it was much more fun that the Bengtsson one so I was quite pleased. It reminds me a bit of the book I had when I was learning to cross stitch as a kid, so it's kind of nostalgic.

Copyright 1976 by Ondorisha Publishers ISBN 0-87040-374-5

The colours came as a bit of a surprise when I started, though it shouldn't have considering I saw all the floss together when I bought it! The book's colours are quite different, much more muted. But I quite like the insane brightness.

When I searched for it online to see if I could learn a bit more about it, or the author, I got a bit of a shock at the prices that were being asked for it - Amazon sellers had it for $45+, Alibris had it from $73-314. Wow. I payed $10 for two books, so essentially $5. I felt quite proud of myself for scoring such a rare book accidentally, although $314 seemed a bit crazy. I mentioned to Heleen that I was doing an embroidery from this particular book, and from my vague description of the patterns "70s, Japanese, colourful" she popped out of the room and returned with her copy, which cost her all of $2 in a second hand book store! Needless to say the $314 seems even more ridiculous now - where do they pull these prices out from? I'll refrain from suggesting a place because I might get unwanted hits on my blog from Google searches ;)

After I took these photos I stupidly left the hoop lying on the spare bed, and Lucy the cat promptly slept on it, put a claw through it, and got it dirty. Luckily none of the damage is permanent, but I'll have to wash it and will probably put it in a smaller hoop to hang on the wall. Cats!

Dandelions

I finally got the dandelion cross stitch done and I'm really pleased with it, it pairs up with the plantain very nicely! They're both Gerda Bengtsson patterns. If I had some more of that linen I'd do another one to make a trio, but unless a scrap turns up they will stay a pair. I need to get some more of the Danish Flower Thread though, the DMC equivalents don't have their lovely muted colours - this embroidery is a mix of two. I think I might ask for a proper Haandarbejdets Fremme kit for Christmas, perhaps this one.

One of the reasons I'm so pleased to have it done is that I've been mentally planning on putting up the photos above my desk* in the spare room after they all came down when the room was plastered and painted, and I wanted the two hoops up there. I tried to use those 3M adhesive strips to put up the frames but they wouldn't stick to the walls so I just banged in nails and it all went up pretty quickly. I'm planning on printing off a few more of my favourite Instagram photos and then trying to keep a bit current by swapping older ones out. Or I might just expand on to the other wall I don't know!

*And trust me, the desk is not normally this tidy - far from it!

Plaintain cross stitch

I started this cross stitch for the Emergency Crafting session, and finished it fairly soon after but kept forgetting to photograph it! It's from the Gerda Bengtsson book Danish Floral Charted Designs.

I'm doing another one of dandelions to match it, but I seem to have run out of steam somewhat, so it may take longer!

Amy of Seven-Stitches turns out to be a fellow Bengtsson admirer and told me that there was another of her books on Trade Me, and then I found another one, so now I have Book of Danish Stitchery and Laegeplanter og krydderurter i korssting  (Medicinal Plants and Culinary Herbs in Cross Stitch). The first book was fairly cheap as it's not in the best shape and not uncommon, but it looks like I got the second one for a pretty good price considering what it seems to go for in other listings I've just looked at! It's always nice when that happens :)

Emergency crafting

A few days ago Heleen asked me if I could come and do some "emergency crafting" at an impromptu Lucky Penny session so a photographer could take photos of a craft group doing their thing. I duly showed up at Alphabet City at noon yesterday with my hastily assembled emergency craft in hand and had such a lovely time. I'm always intending to get along to the regular evening get-together and am dreadfully slack (I made it once last year) so I'm obviously going to have to make more of an effort in future. It was very interesting talking about crafting with the journalist and seeing the photographer go about her work. Lots of action was called for, which isn't really a crafting thing, so we did what we could - moved arms about, duly admired quilts and crochet, pointed, touched, reached for yummy baking and tried to be animated. I'm really looking forward to seeing the results!

I took along some embroidery - the beginnings of a small cross-stitch of plantain.

 

I grabbed a scrap of linen out of the stash thinking it would be ok, but in reality it's too fine and is nearly sending me blind, even in good lighting! But I'll persevere because I do love cross stitch and it's a Gerda Bengtsson design and they always make me happy. Unfortunately I'm having to mix Danish flower thread and regular DMC floss, but I think that's what is referred to as a 'first world problem'.

Mike, Kate and Duncan

Mike, Kate and Duncan, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

My brother Mike asked if I could do an embroidery for him like the one in my header and I finally got it done the night before they headed back to NY - hence the inelegant photo. I would have liked to have spent a bit more time on Duncan's chin but I got his ears perfectly so they kind of balance each other out.

Wildlife

Well the kind that lives in our yard that is.

This hare (though we call him our bunny) hangs out in the front yard most days, secure in the knowledge that he's so well camouflaged no-one can see him.  Bunnies aren't very smart.


There is also the squirrel who tears around at a mad pace up and down trees, along his little paths and down tunnels in the snow, popping back up in other places and then doing it all again with a great deal of manic energy. I miss squirrels so much in New Zealand and sometimes I entertain the notion of smuggling a few back in my underpants.


I made these ornaments for my friend Jess whose tree fell over last year (the great Christmas Tree Disaster of '09) and who lost a lot of precious decorations. The pattern is from Fa La La La Felt and they're very cute, this totally awful photo doesn't do them justice. The instructions say to cut the circles out freehand after doing the embroidery and so I did but oh boy it's hard to abandon perfect symmetry and embrace the wonk. Mum did one of them and had the same problem so I think it's probably an inherited thing ;)

Cute as a button

I'm still working away on my super secret project, I can't believe it's still in progress! There's been a few false starts with it, changes of direction, and a bit of undoing and so it's taking longer than anticipated.  I'm about the start undoing the latest wrong direction, but spurred on by the whole macro thing I thought a few photos were in order first.

I actually really really like the look of these buttons. A lot. But they're just not right for what I have in mind and Mat agrees too.  Hazel, on the other hand, thinks that pink can do no wrong and really wants them to stay.  I'm thinking that after this is done I might do her up an H in buttons or something.  It's quite fun placing them and sewing them, especially since one stitch will do. If only clothing buttons were so quick!

Tonight I will pick the buttons apart and select a whole new bunch. There are worse jobs than idly picking through buttons.

My rose didn't make it into the finalists of the PW photo competition but I'm still so thrilled it was in Group 2. There were soooo many amazing photographs I was just blown away by some of them. I mean, how on earth do people capture things like beetles emerging from a seed pod?? Most of my group favourites didn't make it into the finalists actually, I guess it's that pesky personal taste thing again :) If the finalists don't move you I highly recommend going through the 5 groups because there's some talented people out there!

Ok, back to Australopithecus afarensis.

Linen and red

What's that I hear you say? Another close-up shot of linen with red embroidery? I do seem to have a bit of a mania for it at the moment, but I assure it will end and I'll be off in some other direction shortly. I'm a bit like that with breakfast cereals too...  When another blogger gets on a bit of a theme and post after post is variations on X, Y or Z and I often wonder if it will ever end. I kind of understand them now!  Forgive me bloggers who I have silently maligned!




This the back of my latest WIP, hopefully it'll be ready for proper viewing soon, though I've had a bit of a hiccup in the colour-selection line. If I'd just stuck with the red it would have been fine but noooo, had to get all fancy and now I have to go back and rip it out and redo it. In pink. Because Hazel insists it must be pink. And considering how she's been behaving in the last couple months I'm damned if I'm going to fight her on it, it's too emotionally draining!

Everyone says the Terrible Twos are so awful, they even have their own name for goodness' sake. Then I was told that three is worse and I should just start drinking while she was two. Pfft! A walk in the park.  I'm here to tell you that 4 may be delightful but 4.5 is frightful and I've never been angrier with her or more frustrated.  Or more in love.  But hoooboy, I'm glad I've got the 4.5 years practice under my belt because it's taking every ounce of self-control I have to negotiate conversations like this on a daily basis:

Me (very casually and following our usual routine): Ok, let's just brush you hair and braid it and then we'll go swimming with daddy.
Hazel: No. I don't want to.
Me: Well you have to have your hair braided otherwise it gets tangled in your googles. C'mon, just a quick brush and we'll go.
Hazel: No. I don't want to.
Me: Well we can't go until we've done your hair.
Hazel: But I want to go!
Me: Well let's do your hair then.
Hazel: No. No. No!
Me (in my laying-down-the-law-even-though-she-wishes-she-hadn't-started-it voice) Well we're not going to go swimming until your hair is done. What do you want to do?
Hazel: I don't know
Me: Well that's not an answer, yes or no?
Hazel: I don't know
Me: Ok then, we're not going
Hazel: BUT I WANT TO GO!!
Me: Well let's brush your hair.
Hazel. No, I don't want to!!!
...........................repeat ad nauseum for about 10 minutes until Hazel is placed in her room crying hysterically and I repair to the living room wishing the sun was over the yard arm. And we don't go swimming.  I'm assuming it's a "stage" and that it's about exerting control over her life but geez, does she have to choose such illogical things to control?  She knows they are too I think, which adds to her stubborness.  Today we had an episode after which she actually came out of her room after 10 minutes and said she was willing to get dressed and go out now. Oh please please please let it be the light at the end of the tunnel!

Cross stitch for Christmas

This is the end result of the cross stitch plants I've been doing - a small bag and a larger shoe bag for my sister-in-law in the States.



I'm really pleased how it all turned out! I made the shoe bag following the tutorial over at //Between the lines//, complete with french seams and all! It looks great. The little bag was my own pattern, hence its slightly blobby lines, but hopefully she'll be so distracted by the embroidery that she won't notice :)

More embroidery

I finished this Common Milkwort a couple days ago and really love the blue and purple against the muted greens and greys.


From Gerda Bengtsson's Danish Floral Charted Designs (as always!).

I'm having an awful time with the colour balance with the SLR - sometimes it's fine and sometimes it's not, even when I play around with the light source settings. The spots yesterday were super super saturated and weird-looking too. I think I really do need to build myself a light box! I pushed and pulled this with Photoshop and it looks okay, but not like the lovely colours of the original. I might try again later on with different lighting.

Yeah, It's a Win

Ground Ivy, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I finished the embroidery and I'm now pretty happy with it! Although the blue has washed out a little bit in the photo, it really makes it. I also put in the other two stems in the pattern as I figured a larger design would make it stand out more. The pattern is Ground Ivy from Gerda Bengtsson's book Danish Floral Charted Designs. The next step is to turn it into a wee bag for my sister-in-law.

The link takes you to the book on Google Books, which despite it seeming too good to be true, has several of the charts up for all to use! She's my embroidery hero(ine) so I must go looking to see if there are more. I'd also love the excuse to buy more books!

Embroidery WIP - win or fail?

Embroidery WIP, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I'm really unsure about this embroidery. I think I've chosen the wrong colour for the linen - it needs to be much much lighter, or maybe red (and another pattern!). Not that grey-tinged green, it just doesn't stand out enough. Or maybe it's ok, I don't know! It'll have 3 small blue flowers and one darker leaf, so maybe that'll save it... It's just so hard to continue with something you're unsure about, it's a lot of effort if I decide to not use it. Oh darn it! I guess I'll finish it but I'm doubtful about its overall effect (and not in a fishing for compliments kind of way either!).

Felt pouch #3

Felt pouch #3, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I made this for Hazel this afternoon. She'd admired the two I did yesterday and especially this flower button, so I figured we'd keep the button in the family and I'd put it somewhere she would be less likely to lose it. It really is a fabulous button, I think she's got great taste! I'm going to have to stop making these little bags though, they're strangely addictive and I can see I could end up with lots around the house with no real purpose. I think it's the sheer ease of making them - start in one corner, up the side, around the top and down the other side, stitch the buttonhole, attach the button and voila! I did this one while watching half an hour of Spongebob Squarepants with Hazel.

Kristen wondered if I'd do a tutorial for the blanket stitch, but I'd recommend this one at Futuregirl because I actually learned how to go around corners and start a new strand of floss half way through. Also check out this YouTube video, sometimes it's good to see someone doing it in real time rather than just photos. Personally I almost always forget how to start it off, unless I have been doing it a lot recently, so I have to look it up in my embroidery stitch book. Nice to know there are online options for when I can't find it!

My effort for the day

Felt pouches, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Little felt pouches for little things. About 8.5cm wide with a button from the button box. I'm quite pleased with them, there's something about blanket stitch that's just so appealing.

My first quilt!

I finally finished Baby Amy's quilt, it's been washed and is now drying. I still need to put a name and date on it but thought I'd share some pre-wash photos I took between rain showers yesterday. It's photo-less at the moment because Amy's mum Jess reads this blog and she hasn't told me yet whether she wants it to be a surprise when it arrives or not! So you'll need to click through to the photos on Flickr for the time being. Hah, she couldn't resist looking so here are the photos:



The quilt is based on the Pink Bliss pattern from Amy Butler, but after assembling my scraps and buying a few more (sorry Jess, I know I said I wouldn't but I had to!) the blocks were looking awfully busy and jumbly. I was in despair because I still had vertical strips to add in and it was going to be horrible. Then Mat suggested putting white strips instead, and then to put strips around the outside too. I think it totally saved it - instead of being heinous it's not bad. I'm still not thrilled with my fabric choices but on the whole I quite like it which is probably not too bad for a first effort!

When the time came to get fabric for the back I had an awful time:



Because there was such an assortment of colours and patterns on the front and no single unifying theme, nothing really matched nicely. I ended up with an Amy Butler dot fabric and a zigzag fabric for the binding. In the end the zigzag was too much and I went looking for a green. The quilt shop I went to had virtually no solids (!!) so I was faced with a green with small circles on it, or a very long drive from virtually one end of Auckland to the other to the next shop - I went with the green. It's ok, but not perfect.

The one thing I really AM pleased with is the strip across the back:



I've often admired these on other quilts but thought they were just a neat design feature - until I got my backing fabric and realised I'd have to put a join in it, so might as well make it an interesting one! This time I was able to select fabrics that I felt really 'went' with each other - including the little Loobylu embroidery I did with this in mind.

Hazel's desperate for me to make her a quilt and I will start seriously considering it after Christmas I think. This has been a good learning experience in terms of finding out what I like in a quilt and what I don't like, how I like colours to match and so on. It always bugs me how conventional my colour choices are when I'm left to my own devices, or how hard I find it to judge what looks good and what doesn't. I think I'd rather let a professional do it for me to be honest (for the moment anyways), so I'm watching all the reports out of the Quilt Market that are on blogs at the moment, evaluating the new fabric lines and so on. Of course Hazel would LOVE a very pink quilt, but I saw a lovely quilt made from Art Gallery fabrics at the quilt fabric that has much more muted tones that I loved. I guess it's a toss-up between a quilt she'll love now but may not suit an older girl, and a quilt that will last a life-time but might not have such a rapturous reception now. I suppose the former option is probably the best but that Art Gallery quilt was gorgeous!

Embroidery finish!

Finished the Loobylu embroidery today, it went pretty well



I did most of it in split stitch and a little in stem stitch. I think given the size of it (6cm high), especially the eyes where I used the stem stitch, that I should have stuck with split stitch. The stem stitch has pulled in a little tight on the left-hand eye, which gives it a bit of a Clockwork Orange air. Oh yeah, I like to keep my embroidery edgy man.



I'm really pleased with it though, and I can't wait to do it bigger!

Embroidery WIP

embroidery wip, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Or more properly 'Embroidery I haven't started yet but am wildly excited about doing' Doesn't make as good an URL though :)

I won't say what it's for yet, but I can't resist documenting its progress - assuming it goes well! The scale is on the small side but I think my aging eyes can handle it. It's half of a delightful pattern you can download over at Loobylu. I fully intend on doing the pattern again with both figures and at a much larger size, it seems like the perfect project for over Xmas. I'm doing this one in a medium reddish/orangy pink (I swear, that's the technical term, ask any artist!) because it needs to be, but the next one will be a lovely true red.

Birthday preparations

Let's pretend I actually blogged about this before the party shall we? Great.

I decided that Hazel, being a four year old girl, needed a crown and wand for the party and duly constructed them.



The crown was made from the pattern at Koala Brains, with embellishments inspired by Woodcraft's felt crown and another one that had cute embroidery on it but I'm darned if I can find it again to credit it! I started with the big felt flower, and then had the idea with the button flowers, and then decided to round it out with some little plain plants similar to the ones I've been loving over at Tiny Happy. I don't often do things in that sort of organic way, I tend to be more planned, but I really enjoyed the process of just adding things until it looked right.



For the wand I followed the instructions over at Little Birdie Secrets and I think it came out ok, but perhaps would have been better with shorter ribbons and more of them.



Whatever, I think it looks pretty good and I'll be doing another one for her friend Suzy so will get a chance to get it more to my taste. The best thing about making the wand was curling the ribbons - it's like magic! The only issue I had is a couple of my dowels exuded resins during the baking which soaked into the ribbons and ruined them. Next time I'll cover the dowels with foil before wrapping the ribbon around and that should solve that problem. Made the house smell nice though, like a pine forest on a hot day!

Hazel being four though, didn't really want a bar of either item! She spent most of her party tearing around the house holding model dinosaurs. This created a conflict in my heart - on one hand I was a bit crushed that she didn't appreciate all that hard work, but on the other hand I'm really pleased that she's into dinosaurs! Archaeologists don't dig up dinosaurs, but they really are the next best thing (or possibly even better to be honest) so I'll cross my fingers she becomes a palaentologist and takes her old mum on excavations sometimes.

Chibi rabbit and kitty

Part of the reason I was so quiet the last few days was a flurry of birthday activity - 'tis the season for us with all of Hazel's cohort approaching their fourth birthdays and their siblings having first birthdays. The first cab off the rank was Alexander with his crown. Next was Boo who was having her third birthday yesterday. Unfortunately Hazel ended up with a rather high fever Saturday night and couldn't go - but the Chibi Bunny and Kitty I made for her did. I also made a pair for Hazel - I bunny in bulk! I've been wanting to make the My Little Mochi Chibi Kitty and Rabbit pattern for ages, so this was the perfect excuse. Hazel picked all the fabrics and decided which went with which. I honestly think I couldn't have done better. Personally I wouldn't have chosen the cherries fabric to go with the white but it works really well, and goes perfectly with the brown fabrics of the kitty.




They end up looking quite different as the bunnies have their ears pulled in a lot more than the kitties




The light was so bright behind them yesterday morning you can see the clipping around the bunny ears! I hate clipping curves So. Much. but really, how else can you get a good curve? I'm always surprised by how many patterns don't do this step and to my mind it makes all the difference in the final appearance of the toy. Although I obviously didn't need to clip as much as I did for these ears, I tend to be a bit OCD with that kind of thing!