Christmas 2019

... is over already. I don't know how time can pass so quickly.
I did a little bit of paper folding for decorations.

 Made cookies to eat.

And sow a bunch of rice pad hand warmers (the big ones are upcycled for a pair of jeans, for the small ones - of which I made ten for friends - used an old bed cover, which I dyed a while ago)

Other than that, nothing really exciting is going on, hence my radio silience for the last two months. I try to do better next year (though no promises).
Happy 20201

Venice

I've been to Venice :-)
So, pictures:

Weaving and Bookbinding

After a long while, I've pulled out my riged heddle loom once again, and did a bit of weaving.
One thing I wanted to try is mixed-media weaving. Here's it fabric, yarn and paper stripes mixed. The result is okay, though I'm not so sure now, what I'm going to do with it. For now I consider it an exercise.

More practical is this rag rug I've made, using fabric stripes from old t-shirts and bed sheet covers. I still need to fix the fringes, but other than that I really love it.

There might be a second one in the near future, as I have plenty of fabric left.
I also did some book binding using a combination of the accordion binding and the simple coptic binding. The book is 15 x15 cm and perfect to store CDs.

For the leaves I used the sleeves from old floppy discs we trashed this week at work (I did ask if I could have some - we had tons). So basically, this is some form of upcycling.

I had to do the coptic binding twice, as the book behaved very differently depending if it is full of CDs or not. First time round, it was way too tight, but now I'm really happy.
The cover paper is from my first experiments with paste paper making last year. I think I have enough material to make about 10 of those books.

Cross Stitch Meets Binder

And some more projects from my current favorite book.
Binders!
In the book, they are actually sewing binders, and I made one using an old sewing pattern, which I laminated and used to cover the outside boards of the binder. I used book screws to link the back and the front, and also to put in plastic sleeves for some of my sewing pattern.

I very much liked the result, so I decided to make a few more, this time using old cross stitch finishes I had made a long time ago, which were sitting in a box, doing nothing.

I picked two finishes, the first from a Bucilla kit called 'Curiosity'. The size of the kit and the size of the cover don't quite match, but I'm still quite happy with the outcome.

 The second finished cross stitch I found is this wonderful Oehlenschläger pattern with owls (I think it was also a kit, though I'm not 100% sure). As this one has less definded borders, it does fit better in size to the cover.

For the spines and the backs I used also cross stitch fabric, which I laminated to silk paper and then pressed while it was drying (same method I used with the cross stitch pictures).

I'm very pleased with the results of this little project. I've got to use some of my old finishes, I had fun making those binders, and in the end they are even useful.
A total win in my book.

Fabric Meets Photo

Last week I mentioned Michaela Müller's Book 'Fabric Meets Paper'.
I made another project from the books, a small photo album.

For the cover I used a stitch doodle I made, when I went through my stitching thread stash and found a box with left overs from a Theresa Wentzler project from long, long ago. Mrs Wentzler has wonderful, very elaborated patterns, which use a lot of blended flosses (and I mean a LOT). In order to organize them, I always wrapped the leftover thread around a cardboard bobbin and that's how I found them. So I took the left overs and just stitched little 2x2 squares randomly in an 11x11 grid until a thread ran out and I pulled the next one from the box.

I bonded the fabric to silk paper and then covered thick cardboard stock (like 2mm) for the front and back of my photo album. For the binding I folded a stripe of paper to a little arcordion and then glued the leaves of the album into the folds. The cutting is not perfect, but well ...

Inside went pictures from an evening photography class I took in March (this is my favorite made in Offenbach's harbour at sunset). 

I also did a little bit more stitching and finsihed three booksmarks. I already gave one of them away before I took the picture (it had a little seahorse one it)

Fun in the Sun

Two years ago I won a craft book by Michaela Müller ('Bunte Bücher'). I really enjoyed the book and did some of the projects, so when her new book came out this week, I didn't hesitate to buy it outright (I don't think I can rely on winning it again)
This time the topic is 'Fabric Meets Paper', both things I like and enjoy working with. One project was using the sun (or rather the heat) do some type of printing (not cynoprinting, that needs special light-sensitive paper). The idea is to paint cotton fabric with deluted silk-paints (which I have still plenty around, even though I haven't done any silk painting in years), cover parts of it with small(ish) object, and place it in the sun (it also works in the shadows, it's the heat that does the trick)

In the book, the author uses buttons, and that's what I used as well.
When the farbic starts to dry, it does so faster in the open areas. The pigments from the covered areas are moving to the open areas, so in the end the places where the buttons where are lighter than the rest.

It actually works quite well (this is from another test, where I used blue, instead of black like in the first picture)

 I then started to play around with some other materials. I kinda like that it's not always sharply defined.

 I also really like this test, where I had two rounds, one in a golden orange, the other in green. I used Ginko leaves from my parents' garden which I picked up and pressed last year.

As the book is about how fabric meets paper, there are also instructions in how to make a traveler's journal (among other book related projects). This one is rather small (only about 15 x 11 cm), but I really like how it turned out.

Triangel Quilt

I started this quilt in October 2017.

The pattern is from a Bernina QAL and for a while I was quite good at sewing my triangles every time a new clue came out. But at one point I slipped and then it took me a long time to complete the quite top finally in January this year.

And then it took me a few month to decide on the quilting and doing the actual quilting. I basically quilted around all the triangles, and for the blue area I quilted straight lines is uneven distances. There were about a million ends to hide (and I found at least two more the moment I handed the quilt over to my nephew)

For the back side I includes the name of my nephew (that had been a lot of fun and went really quickly).



I do love the quilt and hope my nephew likes it too.

More Boxes

I've made more boxes.
A box for my inking pads.

 A box for my stamp carving tools.

 And a box, because I wanted to see if I can make a hexagon box (I can, even though this is the second attempt and the first is not fit to be shown). The lid here is made from fabric and I love it.

Boxing

I'm not really a fan of the sport boxing.
But I've discovered that I'm very much a fan of Making Boxes.
Box making is kind of a sister to book binding, and uses many of the same materials and skills used there.
Over the last couple of days I've made several boxes in various techniques, materials and sizes.

 The top box in that stack is the smalles I've made so far. It's a little over 3"x3" and only about 2" tall. To cover the cardboard I used bookbinders linen (which is linen glued to a paper foundation) and the result of some printing experiments I did last time I played with paper.

For the inside lining of this box I used some marbling paper I've made. I didn't like that paper very much as it's very faint, but for the lining it is perfect. The outside covering is from one of my paste paper experiments. This box now holds some of the stamps I carved (one of which I used for the next box)

This box is made with some simple origami technique. It comes together very quickly and is perfect if you need something to spruce up a small gift. The paper is from yet another printing experiment, and I like it very much (I may need to make another sheet of this)

Last, but certainly not least (those are not the last boxes I'm making!), is this box I made to hold some old pictures my parents made when they went to Italy in 1955. I used part of a map of Italy for the cover, and like a lot how it came out.

Roman Stripes

One classic pattern for using up left over stripes is the Roman Stripes pattern.
Sewing on a foundation (in my case left over batting I pieced together from the cuttings of various quilts) the blocks go together fast and easy.
Next step is to decide on the layout.
One option would be some kind of zig-zag (not a big fan)

 Or turning all the stripe sections to the center to make diamonds (also not super excited about that)

 In the end I decided the classic layout of all stripes sections pointing in the same direction and having the different solid triangles layed out in diagonal rows.

I joined the blocked with narrow dark blue stripes, then quilted the top diagonally with wavy lines.
This was a fast, easy quilt with the added bonus of using scrap batting and scrap fabric (in this batics I had left from my City Sampler I made in 2017)

Laurelie

Hi there. I'm still here.
Sorry for being so quite lately, but on one hand there has been some not so funny life stuff going on, on the other hand I was away for four weeks in the US on a business trip.
I haven't done much knitting lately, just wasn't in the mood. But then I bought two skeins of Tosh Merino Light in the US and found the perfect pattern for it.

 The pattern is called Laurelie and I knitted it in the colors Wash House and Antler. After a nice bath and a bit of blocking the shawl is nice and soft and cuddly, and it's a shame it's summer because I want to wrap myself in it and never let go.

I totally love the pattern mix and really enjoyed knitting the shawl. Once you get tired of the garder stitch, you move to the mosaic section and then you transition to the lace section. Very much fun.

(Don't) Stop Me Now

.... I'm having a good time.
Or an obsession.
Here are:
Baker's Twine Potholder Nummero 2

 Baker's Twine Potholder Nummero 3

 Aaaaand Baker's Twine Potholder Nummero 4

Nope, not a problem. No way. Not at all.

Baker's Twine

Two weeks ago a friend of mine mentioned a new potholder pattern, which is quite popular right not. I checked it out, liked it, bought the pattern and got knitting.

The pattern itself is not difficult and the potholders knit up very quickly. I used less stitches than the pattern suggested, because they started out huge, and I like this size better (they are 20 x 20cm)
Knitting them is a bit hard on the fingers, as the knitting is rather tight, but the result is well worth the effort.

The potholders are nice a thick and the hangers are the 'dot on the letter i' to make them perfect.

I may have started with the next pair already ....

Wonky Flower Baby Quilt

Sorry for being off for so long. Other stuff got in the way (nothing serious, just playing too much computer games)
Anyway, I finished the Wonky Flower Baby Quilt. And I love it!

The quilt is 100 x 110cm (40" x 44") and has wonky flowers in four different sizes (12", 10", 8", and 6")

For the backside I went through my stash and picked 12 semi solids for all colors of the rainbow. Each stripe is a little less than 4" tall.

I went for simply shadow quilting the flowers on the front (which ment to turn the quilt 24 times for each single flower!)

One of the most difficult decisions was what color to use for the binding, but in the end there was only one possible choice.

The baby in question is not here yet, so it will still need a label.

Very, very happy with the finished quilt. I hope the baby parents will love it too.

Wonky Flowers – A Tutorial

A couple of days ago, I came across a new trick that solved a problem I had with sewing Wonky Flowers. The problem was that I never managed to align the background very good, which leads to a lot of waste in fabric (as I used way more background fabric than needed). The trick also helps with keeping the stripes I've sewn before aligned, not necessary very important in ‘wonky’ flowers, but nice nonetheless.

For a 6 ½ inch block (6 inch final) I need:

-        1   7 x 7 inches background (green)

-          8   1 ½ x 3 inches background (green)

-          3   1 ½ x 6 ½ inches foreground (purple)

-          2   1 ½ x 3 inches foreground (purple)

-          1   1 ½ x 1 ½ inches flower center (yellow)

I assemble the foreground fabric to four stripes with background on either end, and one with the flower center in the middle: 

 Next I take one of the stripes without the flower center (that one is the last stripe to sew) and lay it right side to the right side of the background and pin it. The positioning is a little tilted and off-center (I found the best way to center it is to put it where you want it and then mark a line ½ inch to the center of fabric, away from one of the edges)

Sew along the edge and then fold over and press. 

Now comes the trick. Fold the open side over by ¼ inch (sew allowance) and press. Then dap a little bit of fabric glue on the folded over bit and fold to the other side (I just push it down with my fingers, don’t iron it) 

Turn the whole fabric over and – carefully! – cut through the background fabric, between it and the stripe. Fold the now open bit over and sew along the crease when you ironed the sew allowance over. 

Now you have a stripe perfectly aligned with the background.

You can cut back the extra background fabric away from the second seam (but don’t need to – I just think it looks nicer)

Repeat this with the other stripes. As the background is not moved while you sew on the stripes, it stays nice and square.

Once all stripes are sewn on, all that remains is to square the block to size.

Feel free to play around with the length and/or thickness of the stripes. The measurements I gave are something that works for me and my project. Your mileage may vary. They are called Wonky Flowers for a reason, and a bit of variation is always nice.