Pouches and painting

I've finally learned how to make zipper pouches! I found a tutorial online that showed me how. While googling to find the link to show you, I found this even better one! I've been wanted to learn how for ages and kept putting it off. I use pouches all the time, my odds and ends are organized all over the place in pouches. (if you look in the background you can see Bradley's maps - he's just discovered geocaching!)

You may recognize the fabric for this one, it's from the apron I just showed you. I couldn't wait to make something with that fabric. I interfaced it because although it was in quite good condition it wasn't very sturdy. I made two, one for me, and one for my shop.Incidentally I have an etsy tip. If you want to buy something from etsy you make an account for yourself with your email address. It's free and easy, and I did it myself the first time I made an etsy purchase. But if you decide later on you want to open up your own shop (also free and easy) you cannot change your name. That's why my name on etsy isn't needle book, which I would have preferred. Not everyone wants to open up a shop but just in case I thought I'd mention that.

Here's another one of my pouches:
And another - believe me I'll be making lots!And last but not least I had another project this week - painting a little wooden desk for my niece. I painted the main part pale yellow which matched the other furniture in her room. Then added these flowers in white, pale pink and red:
She's just turned five and now she's in school and ready for a desk! Happy birthday Haleigh!

I forgot to add the book info which I was asked for. You can buy these books online, I got mine at Chapters/Indigo.

The Apron Book
Hardcover: 152 pages
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; Bk&Acces edition (Sep 1 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0740761811
ISBN-13: 978-0740761812

Simple Sewing With a French Twist
Paperback: 255 pages
Publisher: Potter Craft (Jan 2 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307351823
ISBN-13: 978-0307351821

One skein
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Interweave Press; 1 edition (April 1 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1931499748
ISBN-13: 978-1931499743

In stitches
Spiral-bound: 176 pages
Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1 edition (Jul 26 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0811851591
ISBN-13: 978-0811851596

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Beautiful books

I keep meaning to show you some of the great books I've been looking through lately. The first one is a titled The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort, and it's just what it sounds like. This book is full of colour photographs of vintage aprons through the history of handmade aprons. I was particularly captivated by some of the old feedsack aprons. During the Depression women would use every scrap of material they could find and for some reason feedsacks were often made with really pretty prints. My favourite is a pale green apron with lovely clusters of white cottonballs and flowers. This book is full of stories and nostalgia, and even has some patterns so you can sew your own aprons.
The only trouble with books about vintage aprons is that now more people know about them and it's driving the prices up! I found a lovely one this past weekend at a store among the cluster of antique stores on Queen West at Roncesvalles. It was at a new discovery for me, a store called The Painted Table at 1716 Queen St. W. They had several aprons and I couldn't resist the one above. Here's a detail of the print, I don't know why but I just love it so much!
One book you've probably already seen by now is One skein: 30 quick projects to knit and crochet. I have already learned a new crochet stitch and made the bobble bag. I have a list of things I want to try, such as the felted striped tote, felted bowls, fingerless garter mitts and pretty cable footies - I need a replacement for my scruffy slippers.

Another one I'm sure everyone has already is Amy Butler's In Stitches: More than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects. This books is full of her wonderful patterns and I can't wait to make most of the things inside it. And of course the gorgeous fabrics and photos are so inspiring.
And a new one I just found is called Simple Sewing with a French Twist. It was one of those books that I had to pick up and after just a quick flip I had it firmly tucked on my arm as a definite purchase. I love the pictures inside, which not only have inspiring crafts images but beautiful backgrounds too which are giving me home decor ideas. Also, the patterns really appeal to me because they're simple, not too detailed, but explain clearly how the things are made.
And finally who else can't wait for Amy Karol's new book??

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More jewellery (and no yarn for a year?)

Once I rediscover a craft I can get a little bit obsessed about it! I can't seem to stop making jewellery. So I've been busy turning my new silver findings into more earrings, necklaces and one bracelet. The things I don't keep or give as presents are now in the shop at www.clairelmilne.etsy.com.
In the meantime I have also done a little felting and embroidering and made two eyeglasses cases, one for me and one for the shop.Part of putting all these things into the shop is an early effort to spring clean. Our apartment is very small - I love it because it's cosy and really has everything we need but it means you definitely have to keep your belongings under control. So this new site caught my eye - no yarn for a year! I saw it just before boxing day and so I picked up some yarn at Romni's big sale and I'm going to try to leave it at that. Of course the exceptions make it liveable - it's ok to buy yarn to finish a project, or for a specific gift.

My extra exception is thrifted items - if I see a nice bag of yarn at a flea market for $5 I'm not going to pass it up! Unless of course it's acrylic as sadly those grab bags often are. And generally I think it's inspiring to have some sort of stash on hand because I always look through what I have before I buy anything and it can give you good ideas. But I'd like everything to fit into my one cabinet and not have extra bags of yarn squirreled around the apartment!

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Fresh start

I was wondering what kind of New Year's post to do and decided to just show some of my projects from last year that I didn't show at the time. Lots of these projects come with ideas that anyone can use.

The picture at the top shows some of our new wall colours - we've finally painted the walls and it's made such a difference. I was a little tired of the green on my walls, it was a bit too heavy and yellow and not what I had originally imagined. So I just went a bit more apple green, and a bit lighter and I like it much better now. The colour is Debbie Travis' "poached pear". We then painted the kitchen an even lighter version of the green ("chiffon") and the two pale greens are really fresh and pretty together (the kitchen has a window to the living room). I love how the wall colour looks with this ceramic bird painted mold from my favourite antique/vintage shop at St. Lawrence market.

There's still one wall to go in the kitchen - so you can see the old colour. It was a peachy kind of yellow (which really didn't look great with the new green next to it in the living room) and had quite a few scuffs and marks that wouldn't come off. When we painted it we had to take down a few shelves and had one of those "why do we even need these?" moments. We managed to tuck away a few things into the closet and move some others and ended up getting rid of a large cluttered shelf altogether.One of the quick knitting projects I did over the holidays was this pink hat. It's from the Stitch n' Bitch book - the boy hat with the flame colours, and it knits up so fast! I did it in one evening while we were at a bed & breakfast.
The best part is I used a bunch of old yarns mixed together. I had lots of odds and ends, a bright pink that was a bit too bright, a rusty orange that was a bit drab, a peachy mohair that was a bit too peachy and a pale pink that was a bit bland. But I love them blended together! This is a great way to use up some of the odd balls in your stash. I still have this ball left over:
The following is one of my favourite new projects because the fabric was a Christmas present from Bradley. It came all the way from Cath Kidston in London! I missed going to her shop and regretted it. What a wonderful present, particularly as it was a complete surprise. He also bought me a little sewing kit with a red oilcloth cover with birds on it and a flowery needlebook. The same fabric as this cute book bag.
So this is my new knitting tote. The handles are dark olive green and the lining is a light tan coloured gingham.
Another quick project was this tea cosy:
It's two squares knit in a k2 p2 rib with a few holes (yo, k2tog) along the top of each. Then you sew the sides together leaving a gap where your teapot has its handles and spout. Thread a ribbon through the holes to gather up the top. And voila! you have a custom cosy that's perfect for your teapot and you don't have to take it off to pour.
I didn't make as many presents this year, a hat for one friend, earrings for another and a bag and this GPS cosy for Bradley. (note: this is a good present idea for your boyfriend if you don't want to risk the "breakup" sweater.)
He was thrilled - I also gave him the GPS! The following scarf isn't that exciting - but I love it because it's really large and warm, and made from 100% lambswool. The best part though is that I got all the wool from a boxy sweater from Old Navy. It took a couple of evenings to unravel but it was worth it. To do this you need to find sweaters with yarn worth salvaging, that are sewn together at the seams like a handknit sweater, and not cut and serged at the seams. You can google images of "serged edge" to see what I mean. It's a kind of machine sewing that keeps cut edges from unravelling.

Then all you do is undo the seams carefully with your stitch ripper so that you have separate panels of knitting. Then unravel. If you want you can wash the skeins and that will remove the kinks.
The stitch is broken rib - a great scarf stitch that looks the same on both sides, doesn't curl and isn't as tight as a regular rib so you get more width for your yarn. It's just k2 p2 rib on an odd number of stitches.And finally I made this olive green hat but it's just a bit too small for my head. I think this one is getting unravelled!
That's it for 2006. I wish everyone a wonderful new year!

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Making jewellery

My new thing over the holidays has been making jewellery. I've done beading over the years, then put it aside for awhile in favour of all the textile type stuff. But I felt inspired over the holidays and have got back into the jewellery.

I actually have a large box with two large drawers filled with tons and tons of beads and findings. I love buying beads and things, but then I don't always get around to making things with them. I'll show you the box sometime, it's quite a collection.

My favourite materials are swarovski crystals and pearl beads with silver findings. I've also been wanting to make something with my two favourite beads that were a gift from Bradley, a tiny white elephant bead, and a tiny pink bird bead (both made from mother of pearl). The two necklaces I made from these beads are keepers, but the most of my other creations are going into my etsy shop.

The top of the page shows my white elephant necklace, and this is the pink bird version:
Some blue amazonite, swarovski crystal and glass bead earrings (given as a gift to my friend Jaimie):
Freshwater pearl silver flower decorated earrings:
Matching necklace with a freshwater pearl, new and vintage crystals:
Swarovski crystal earrings in pink and brown:
And lastly, this necklace is about to go into the shop... it has a grey freshwater pearl that I love, also from Sassy Bead Co. It's not one of the black pearls you see more often but a lovely silvery grey colour. I've looked for more of the mother of pearl beads at the Sassy Bead co. where they came from but they didn't have any left. I think they had some other animals...but the elephant and bird were my favourites. Has everyone noticed all the new bead stores on Queen West? It seems to be a real bead neighbourhood there - you can find just about anything. I think I still like Arton best - they really do have great prices.

Ok, back to knitting...

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Christmas crafts continued

How did it get so close to Christmas already? I was a little groggy from having a cold for a week so that may be why I didn't notice the time flying by. It's also my excuse for not managing to send out cards this year. But still, I've been busy making some presents and also these new stockings for me and Bradley. They're made from white microfleece lined with a pink patterned cotton fabric. I embroidered the little trees and then added the red rick-rack at the end. The rick-rack has an extra loop for hanging up the stockings.
Then at the end I added tags with our names...just to make sure you-know-who knows whose is whose. Merry Christmas everyone!

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Small Christmas tree

This year we bought a wee (artificial) tree, just 2 feet tall which is the perfect size for our little home. I waited until the beginning of December to decorate it, since November just seemed too early. And I decided in a madcap flash of inspiration that the colour scheme would be red and white.

In previous years I've bought little potted trees, but I never did seem to be able to plant them, so they would linger along for a few months (which is actually quite nice in the wintertime) but then start to look sadder and sadder and eventually die. So it seemed perfect when I found this little artificial one in a Queen West furniture shop (and for only $11.50). It looks quite real, and the branches have wire inside so you can adjust them.

When it comes to miniature trees I like the ornaments to be proportional in size. The first thing I found was a box of red glass balls. Then I gathered up all the little red and white ornaments I had from previous years and added the red bird for the top. At that point I found some little pinecones I had gathered up sometime last year (where? when?) and knew I had found the perfect finishing touch. So this is my Christmas decorating "how to" for this year.

I've been doing a lot of painting lately so I had this little container of white paint. Debbie Travis sells them at Canadian Tire so you can try out her paint colours. Such a great idea, and even better they have little brushes attached to the lid. So the first step is to just brush paint along the outside of the cone so that it looks like snow.
Then the second step is to hot glue gold thread to the top so that you can hang the ornament.
Here's a close-up. I even think the hot glue looks a bit like sap so it doesn't look bad at all!
And that's it! I love our tree this year.

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Bird satchel

One of the first things I made when we returned from our trip was this bag. I don't know why I make so many but whenever I get inspired with a new idea I can't help it. I have tons of my handmade bags that I've only used a few times, sometimes only once!

While I've accepted the fact that I can't resist buying new crafts supplies, especially vintage or anything that resembles a "grab bag", I still try to "use what you have" as often as possible. This bag was made from leftover scraps of brown cordoruy on the sides, and a scrap of upholstery fabric for the front and back. It's quite thick, and therefore good for a bag, and is a kind of peachy colour with a cream coloured scallop pattern. The inside is lined a white cotton with pink "v" pattern. I added a compartmented (is that a word?) pocket inside and one big lined pocket on the front.The strap is light olive green cotton, and is adjustable so that the bag can go work as a shoulder bag or have the strap go across the chest.

The front flap of course is the best part, made from a piece of the lovely pink wool sent to me by Cathy as part of a swap package (Thank you Cathy!). I appliqued a branch with flowers and a bird from wool felt. I don't know why always the bird motif but it's still my favourite. I'm just not tired of putting birds on everything.One of my favourite parts are the middles of the flowers which are affixed in the middle with a star of thread, but have the ends free to stand out.
In the meantime I am already inspired with an idea to make another one with a similar shape but quite different materials. That's right, another bag. And I can't say for sure but this one will probably have a bird on it too.

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