tiny matryoshka

whipped this little sweetie up on the weekend. she only took an hour or two, and i think she's very cute:

the pattern is from sewn studio, though their version is made with washi 'X'es on a wall - brilliant idea!

finishing things...

it turns out that i am great at blogging about works in progress, but when i finish a project, i’m so keen to move on to the next one that i forget to show it off.

remember the ‘marriage of the minds’ sampler i was working on earlier this year? i finished it ages ago, and was going to wait til i’d had it all nicely framed before taking proper pictures of it. and then i forgot! it’s been hanging on the wall here in our new house for weeks!

there’s a lot of great detail in this one, so can i suggest clicking here to see an enlarged version?

i loved every moment of working on this piece, and have now become completely obsessed with the drawn thread’s beautiful, timeless designs. i’m currently working on the birth band (with important details left blank til january!), and modifying the colours so it tones in better with this sampler.

as i said in my previous post about this, my favourite part of this sampler is the bit i modified - in the original pattern the two figures at the top were a man and a woman, but i changed them to make them look like my partner and i on our not-quite-wedding day. that little change makes it all the more personal, which a sampler like this should be. the whole reason i decided to stitch this (apart from it’s general beauty) is that it features the sonnet i read to my partner on that very day.

i also love that, while most of the piece is cross stitched, it includes a range of other pretty stitches, and they add variety and texture to the overall look.

there’s a lot of symbolism incorporated in the sampler too - the two houses join through love to make one house, the rabbits are for fertility, the bluebirds for happiness, the owls for wisdom, and so on. so much love and thought has been put into every aspect of it, and that makes me so happy.

i’m pretty proud of this one, i must say…

happy new year

these days after christmas are so lovely. all the big events are over, and there is time to rest, regroup, and gear up for the new year.

we’ve been taking it very easy here, and i’ve been fully immersed in an embroidery project that i’ve been working on for some time…

the pattern is by the drawn thread, and it’s called “the marriage of minds”. i’ve made a few alterations, the main one being to make both of the figures women, and to make their dresses resemble the ones we wore at our not-quite-wedding.

i hope you’ve had a wonderful festive season - and happy new year!

love bird

i hope you’ve had (or are having!) a lovely valentine’s day.

i made my honey a love bird, using molly chicken’s tutorial. it was easy to follow and i think the result is very sweet:

she has named him rupert.

tried and true

do you have a pattern that you come back to time and time again, because it’s just so great? i have a few, and the ‘library bag’ pattern by leanne of leanne’s house is one of them. i’ve made it for friends, i’ve made it for aunties - and most recently, i made it for one of my teachers:

it's a winner.

a little gift

one of my friends had a birthday this week. she’s a crafty chick, who likes apples and red. for christmas i used the minny muu “wee apples” fabric

…to make her a little bag, and as i had a bit left i thought i would use it to make her a brooch for her birthday.

i was inspired by this tutorial by allison of cluck, cluck, sew, and it was super easy. want to see? here it is:

i particularly like the way the edges of the fabric are left ‘raw’ so that they will fray a little with use and get a shabby look.

so, next time you have some fabric that is just right for a certain friend and you’re not sure how to use it, i can highly recommend that tutorial as an easy and fun solution!

do you hear a pitter patter?

a few of my friends are expecting babies in the not-too-distant future, so i’ve started thinking about handmade gifts for newborns. then, a couple of days ago, a little man who seemed to be a newborn last time i looked turned one! i made these booties for him a year ago…

…and that reminded be about what a great pattern they were made from! heather bailey’s ‘bitty booties’ pattern is easy-as-pie to follow, and is free to download from her blog. better yet, she has a flickr group full of photos of all the different ways that people have made these booties up - it’s full of inspiring ideas!

i have a feeling i’ll be making a few pairs of these in the next little while. i’m thinking i’ll steer clear of pink and blue, and go for bright purple, yellow, green, and maybe even orange.