Ballet or Opera anyone?

Although closer on the republican side in the monarchy debate, I happen to love Maxima (don't tell anyone). She is the Dutch crown princess, in case anyone wonders. The sole purpose of making a clutch is to adress my inner Maxima. It would have been in a beautiful Pruissian blue velvet, but I ruined it. Velvet, especially this slightly elastic stuff, is probably the worst kind of fabric to work with. Black and blue dust all over the place.

After the disaster with the blue velvet I tried one in this lovely Lecien cotton. I used a free pattern by Keyka Lou, but I changed the corners. I didn't box them, but made little darts, so it would be a bit more curvy. I like it better that way. This one turned out quite neat, so I took a deep breath and got back to the velvet. But it's official now: it's rotten stuff to sew with, and it's almost impossible, at least for a amateur like myself, to photograph. Why work with velvet anyway?

So, ballet or opera, anyone?

Screenprinted tablecloth #1

"Rondom dezen disch geschaard", kind of old fashioned Dutch for "to be seated at this table", with these words my grandfather started every mealtime prayer. I had no idea at the time what he was talking about. It was just a strange phrase to start dinner with, I guessed.

As I picked up the plan to make my own tablecloth this sentence came up again. I like a well set table. No pots or pans on the table, but proper bowls and dishes, and Wedgwood china  every day. Not only did I inherit the love for fabric and beautiful damask tablecloths, I even have my own heirloom pieces. In early days, days gone by, so to speak (that's what Vervlogen Dagen means in English), almost every woman made her own tablecloths. In my family,  for some reason, there are various hardanger style tablecloths.

My tablecloth is not hardanger, does not even involve needle and thread, sor far. I started to screenprint one. Not as time-consuming maybe, but nevertheless it's quite a process. I drew our cutlery and the Wedgwood print on the back of our plates and handlettered the "rondom dezen disch geschaard". Then I bought some (almost four metres) of white linen and measured it all out on my actual table.

This week I did the first half of the tablecloth and I can't wait to get the rest done. It's just what I had in mind.

Swimming bag

Isa, a friend of Lauren's,  isn't exactly fond of swimming, but she has to, it's in the school's curriculum after all. Maybe a nice bag makes it a little more bearable. The diving girl is inspired by the Jantzen diving girl, from the 1940's. It's a present for her birtday party. The lining is made out of oilcloth, I hope the water isn't leaking through the seams. I mean, have you ever taken out the swimming gear of your kids; it's soaked every time again!

Nani Iro Scarf

Months ago I ordered this Nani Iro fabric, just because I loved it so much. But when I saw this scarf, I knew immediately what I would make out of it. My mother had a perfect shawl for the lining, pure thai silk in a strange skin color, but perfectly matching the plum color of the Nani Iro fabric. The giant ochre ric rac was too cheap not to buy and is now the just the finishing touch it needed.

Nice to wear with my burgundy leather jacket and quite posh with the velvet Edith and Ella one. 

Happy Birthday

A homemade present has become a part of the birthday ritual for Lauren. Last year I made her a butterfly mosquito net, this year a sewing kit. The needlebook and matching pincushion I made of felt.  I couldn't find the time to sew the whole kit, as I originally intended,  but bought a box instead at a hideous store  for almost nothing. I changed the look a bit and added my 'vervlogen dagen' button.
The lady in my favourite fabric store used to say that "there are no people living at the back", when I excused myself for the messy back of a quilt top. In case of the needlebook and pincushion an embellished, people might also live at the back, hence the embellishments. I put also three Kaffe Fasset fat quarters in her kit, for the sake of matching colors.

And for now, let them eat cake! Happy Birthday, lieve Lauren. 

Why small classes are so important...

...when you're making treats for your daughter! Tomorrow's is Lauren's birthday. To stay with the circus theme it seemed a good idea at the time to make this trapeze artist caketoppers. I found a free printable and used that for my own drawing. Attaching them to the little sticks is the less fun part of it.

Silkscreen

My first silkscreen prints! Three weeks ago I started  a silkscreen printing course and what a great joy it is. My main intention was to learn to print fabric, but I love every step of the way. We started with paper templates the first time. Without any preparation of thinking about the result I started and during the process I thought of making a silkscreen print for Lauren's birthday instead of a drawing. Since her birthday party is somewhat circus-themed I came up with the lady on the horse.

The whole idea of printing is to make duplicates, mine are more like  puzzles. Find the differences.

I sewed a skirt and I liked it

For some reason there are a lot of Belgian sewing blogs. I like to read their posts for several reasons. First because they exhibit their fine sewing skills of course, but I like their language just as much. Flemish and Dutch are very much alike, but yet so very different. Everytime I read one of their blogs I reconsider writing in Dutch. It's difficult to be funny or profound if it's not your mother tongue you're communicating in. But then again, I love the fact that people all over the world can understand this, when it's in English. Anyway, a few weeks ago I discovered emma en mona, and I'm a huge fan since. These pretty skirts this mother is making for her twin daughters seemed doable for me too. So here it is,  approved by Lauren, so there will be following some more! I've noticed that a lot of you don't like the color purple. I, on the other hand, love it. This fabric is actually lilac with red and burgundy. 

And the give away goes to....

To draw the names for my give away I used the Random Generator, but I don't have a clue how to place a picture of it on this blog. There are more clues missing since the give away post. People ask me about 'feeds' and 'GFC' and I have no idea what that is all about, but I enjoyed reading all your nice comments. The yellow notebook goes to Elisanna, who makes beautiful things herself and the brown one is for Virginia from Amo-te mil milhoes, who's work I admire also very much. Let me know your adresses and the rest will follow.

Japanese bag

For a long time I wanted  to make a little grocery bag with leather straps, but they were not very easy to find. Now I can't wait to let time do the work on the color of this sadle leather. I might let the children run around with it, with their dirty greasy hands...

Since this is a bag for me, it's not a very colorful one. Despite all the color I use for others, I like a simple, almost Japanese colorscheme.  I printed my logo with some transferpaper on so called 'fairy tale felt', to make it look even more Japanese.

I'm pretty proud of this one and I'm getting better and better with the inserted pockets! I used the selvedge of the heavy weight denim as an eyecatcher.

Needlebook

Before she was born, I made a mobile for Lauren to hang above her crib. With an clearvoyant vision I made little felt horses and embellished them with felt flowers and embroidery, not knowing she would turn out to be a horseloving girl.

Years later I was planning on turning this mobile into a merry-go-round and I cut the horses loose from the mobile frame, but that merry-go-round stayed in the closet. Unfinished. That's how things go, sometimes. I ran into these little horses again while I was thinking about making (or even sewing) a sewingkit for Lauren's birthday in October. I made this needlebook.  I really love that folk art style. In the back of my mind I knew I was  copying an idea I've seen somewhere in blogland. Larissa from mmmcrafts made these beautiful needlebooks and a while ago they were available in her etsy shop. Please visit her lovely blog and admire her beautiful designs.

This week I saw/DWZI...

... St. Michael. Een jaar geleden schreef  ik over het fenomeen dat ik eind september overal Michael of Joris en de draak tegenkwam. Tenminste op gevelstenen en schilderijen en dergelijke. Een onvermoede antroposofische erfenis noemde ik dat.  Het is weer zover! Bovendien schijnt er een kleine Michielszomer aan te komen. Zo heet dat klaarblijkelijk. Beter bekend onder de naam luiewijvenzomer of nazomer. Geniet ervan. De linkertekening maakte ik, de rechter Casper, de beroerde foto's zijn ook van mijn hand.

 ...St. Michael. A year ago I wrote about the phenomenon of me seeing St. Micheal or his counterpart George fighting the dragon everywhere around me, in late september. An unexpected Waldorf heritage I called it. It's happening again. I've just learned that a Micheal's summer is what  Americans refer to as an Indian summer. And according to the weather forcast we're about to have one. At least for a week or so. I made the drawing on the left and Casper the one on the right, and I have to admit I made the poor pictures as well.

You can still join the give away till September 30th

Cathedral Window, my first quilt

Today I sew my log cabin blocks. I chose the barn raising (the left one) by the way. Thanks for your comments on that! It's nice to do some patchwork again. I don't do it very often, but the result is always nice. I never was much of a crafter, until I got pregnant with our first son. Suddenly I felt the need to keep my hands busy. My mother is pro when it comes to quilting so I guess it's all about the chip and the old block. This was my first quilt. It's called a 'cathedral window', and on the picture right on the top, you can tell why. This is what it looks like when the light comes through. Origanally there were little bells on the bottom, but they didn't survive Casper's toddlerhood.

Cathedral window is a technique which combines origami and sewing. It's done all by hand, that is why I chose it for my first quilt; I didn't have a sewing machine back then. You can find a good tutorial over here (and way more beautiful examples of this technique. I used to be scared of color, apparently.)

You can still join the give away until September 30th.

Give away, first blog anniversary

A little more than a year ago I started this blog with a post in Dutch. I enjoyed reading other blogs and admiring them, so I thought it would be fun to start one of my own. And fun it is. I enjoy making things, learning new techniques from others and I love to make nice pictures of it (at least I intend to).

 A part of me hates this blog too. I think it's nerve wrecking (why not exaggerate?) when I posted something I think is great and nobody leaves a comment. I envy bloggers who get over twenty comments everytime they post something (why not expose my character flaws?)

I started in Dutch, but the 'stats' (which I discovered when I was already blogging for weeks) showed all this foreign audience, so I thought it would be nice to blog in English (forgive me my mistakes). I was surprised there even was an audience! I thought my mom was the only reader I had. Thanks Rahel and Hetty, you were the early adapters.  In the beginning my children kept counting the number of countries where my audience came from. It's a pity there are so little comments from abroad. I like to know you too!

"When one has something to celebrate, one has to be treating the guests", as the Dutch say. "Wie jarig is, trakteert". My notebook cover tutorial is one of the best read posts, so I thought it would be nice to make a pair to give away.

So, if you're interested in one of those, leave me a comment and tell me which one you like. The petrol/mustard -the it-colors from the fall- or the brown/lavender one. The covers come with a notebook inside. I will ship internationally. You don't have to become a follower of whatever, although of course you're very welcome to do so. On September 30th  I will draw two winners.

Log cabin puzzle

Autumn is here to stay apparently, so I might as well catch up on some quilting. Twentyfour logcabin blocks. Not by far enough to make a bedsize quilt out of it,  as I originally intended. Too ambitious. I started this a couple of years ago, but since it will never become a bedsize quilt, I might as well finish it with the blocks I made so far. Quite a puzzle though. Which one to you like best? Oh, and I'm working on the give-away I promised you. Keep in touch!