Valentine's Cards

I don't think Valentine's is as big a deal here in NZ as it is in North America - less institutionalised anyways. I asked Hazel's teacher what her policy was on cards and she was quite taken-aback and said she didn't really have one; but that we didn't have to give one out to everyone and that kids had to learn that sometimes they'd miss out on things like that. Fair enough but I'm glad it's Hazel who has to hand them out because they're only going to the girls! She's under strict instructions to be tactful with it too - although considering I had to explain what tactful was, and she IS 5 years old, I'm not entirely sure how it will go! Anyways, she's keen about it and they are pretty damned cute.

I saw the idea at Jenn Parker Photography and Hazel was all over it from the moment I showed her.

Very simple and very effective, although I think a flatter lollipop would have caused less distortion to the photo. Of course she wanted the big round ones for herself so there was no way she was settling for less on the off-chance there would be extras (there were).

ETA: she managed to hand out about half of them, apparently she "ran out of time" for the rest. Actually that's more than I thought she'd manage, she's quite shy with that kind of thing and has only been at school with some of the girls for a week. OR she just wanted the lollipops for herself...

Felt bag with embroidered bird

It's done! Man, this took a lot longer to do than I expected, thick felt is tough to embroider through! But it was totally worth the sore fingers. The design is from Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs.

The design itself isn't hard, and the stitches are simple.  I've never done a whipped stitch before and while it seemed like double-handling, it gives a lovely three-dimensional effect. I like how the design almost looks like yarn just sitting on the surface.

The instructions say to use "thick felt" but don't elaborate so I really wasn't sure what to use. I went looking and found Jenny Hislop's gorgeous version, and it sounded like just putting together two layers of thin felt wasn't going to really do the trick.  In the end I bought the most beautiful 3mm white felt from FilzFelt on Etsy and it was perfect. I got the 1/2 yard and it's not cheap, but I discovered that there's enough in that to do 2 bags plus have some left over for other small projects. It's really just amazing after dealing with the much thinner felts, the body it has is unique - plus it still smells like wool a little bit which makes it nice to work with.

In general, although the instructions are perfectly adequate, I did rather want a bit more detail in terms of stitch spacing and construction techniques. So I thought I'd just pop down my thoughts in case anyone was casting about for guidance.

• Cut it with a rotary cutter, even the cut-outs, it gives a beautiful edge. I just used a box cutter to trim into the points of the cut-outs and to get into the corners of the handle. I used a small cutter for the inside of the handle.
• Cut out the front and embroider it before cutting out the back to match it, the front changed in shape and size a bit and then I had to trim the back down which was a pain.
• You will probably need to tuck in the raw edges of the fabric behind the cut-outs and stitch it down to avoid fraying and to keep it tidier inside.
• I did the cross-stitching down the side spaced 10mm and 5mm in from the edge. More tightly spaced at maybe 8mm might have been good too, although more work! I marked the lines out with water-soluble marker to keep things even.
• You can do a lot of the embroidery without having to come through to the back of the felt which not only makes it much easier to work, but keeps the inside looking tidier.

So now I just have to work up the courage to actually use it - I have a really bad feeling it will get dirty around the handles fairly quickly and I'm not sure how well it will wash. I did briefly consider trying to put some sort of lining in it that would wrap around the inside of the handle but I actually think the thickness of the felt is particularly obvious around the handles and part of the appeal of the bag for me.

I pondered faithfully copying the original after seeing Jenny's interpretation, but in the end I decided that I'd seen the pattern and wanted THAT bag, not anything else, so it's not really a cop-out in terms of creativity. What do you feel about that kind of thing - do you always change things up a bit or do you tend to copy the original as closely as you can?

Projects for 2011

Why hello little blog, I've been neglecting you! It's been a busy week with Hazel starting back at school, a bit of paint stripping on exterior windows and slowly working away on my Scandinavian Needlework project - hopefully it'll be finished in a day or two!

In the meantime I thought I'd post a picture of the assembled non-clothing projects I want to do this year, the ones I know about anyways! I know there are two topsy-turvey dolls and maybe a bunny for Easter lined up as well. Some of these are still lurking from last year, some are with fabrics I bought in Canada.

Did you know that fabric is slated to increase about 30% in the next year or so? That's what I was told by one lady in a quilt shop, so that's not only quilting fabrics but ALL fabric, even that used by clothing manufacturers. Something to do with the fabric mills in China. Pretty sobering!

Projects for 2011, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

So let's think about happier things shall we? So from top left and going clockwise: a quilt for Hazel made from Far Far Away fabrics. This one has been sitting around for far too long. Stack of Amy Butler Soul Blossoms FQ, destined for a quilt (pattern undetermined), a couple of panels of Saffron Craig fabric, some hand-printed fabric from Heleen at Ruby in the Dust, destined for a lapquilt. My red quilt top and back, all ready to be quilted. I think this one will be first cab off the rank. Pile of fabrics, mostly from It's a Hoot by MoMo, also for a quilt. Green and brown fabrics for either coasters or placemats for a gift, haven't decided on which yet. This has some urgency, maybe it should be first... Yellow, red, orange and pink print and solid set to make a quilt from Practical Guide to Patchwork. My friend Sarah gave me a gift certificate to a fabric shop for Xmas, so the working title will be "Sarah's quilt", some Echino fabrics to make pillows with.

So that's the line-up and aside from anything very small and utterly necessary to one of these projects I am placing my hand on my heart and saying that I will not buy any more fabric this year and will work solely from my stash, amen. And I really do mean it and part of the reason for posting all this stuff up here is that I'll feel like I've got the world watching - I respond well to the threat of public shaming.

Safety Mes

My sister-in-law Kate gave Hazel the most gorgeous present for Christmas (well one amongst many amazing things she gave!) A giant matchbox:

Which opens to:

A tiny mouse! It's made by a Danish company called Maileg, who I'd never heard of before, though heaps of places carry their stuff so I'm just a bit late onto the bandwagon is all :)

The mouse really is gorgeous, and comes dressed in a wee red skirt and there's a ticking mattress and pillow, and a small knitted blanket to keep her snug in her matchbox. 

I tried for the retro Hipstamatic look with these photos but ended up with a weird green cast so it wasn't entirely successful! I don't have Photoshop on my new computer yet so am stuck with what iPhoto and Picnic can do, which in this case isn't much!

Some of Maileg's stuff is very reminiscent of patterns in the various Scandinavian books that have come out recently, the Tomte that they sell are almost identical to a pattern in Scandinavian Stitches, which I'm picking up from the library on Monday. Woot!

The whole set-up reminds me very much of the tiny little doll in The Little Girl and the Tiny Doll, there is something about beds in matchboxes! It's such a great book, one of my childhood favourites I've recently rediscovered by chance and Hazel loves it too. The mouse is also reminiscent of the Jofus and Lally mouse pattern.

Paintchip collage

This afternoon Hazel and I sat down to some cutting/gluing/drawing/cutting/stickering and I decided to do something with this huge bag of paint chips I had. Many moons ago my friend Jess sent me a stack of Martha Stewart paint chips from Canada - I can't remember why but I'm sure I must have asked her to and I do remember going through them and loving some of the combinations. They appeared again when I was looking for a NZ paint chart for the outside of our house and were sitting there begging to be used. I've seen some really cool things done with paint chips, like using them for wallpaper, but I decided to be a bit more modest in my ambitions! I just cut the edges off to get rid of the names/numbers and then cut each strip in two lengthwise. Then I glued each strip of four colours onto a big piece of card in horizontal lines. It's rough and ready but I'm very taken with it!

Small things

Felt tag, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

I did something! It's small, literally, but it's little steps to something bigger and totally awesome.

Hydrangeas

I'm still on an enforced sewing break with my machines in the shop, which means I can legitimately pester you all with Hipstamatic photos.

I pruned back the hydrangeas yesterday so we could get down the side of the house and salvaged these flowerheads




The rest were antiqued, which I know people will pay a lot of money for, but I really only like them true blue. Or white. Or pink. Just not antique.

Hopefully there will be some sewing soon, I need to start prepping a few things and considering some UFOs and upcoming birthdays.

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