Buying Handmade - p.s. robot friend

Imaginary Thomas

miniature toy robot

There are lots of robots on etsy, but these tiny ones caught my eye. I find them a bit spooky in a Doctor-Who-don't-know-what's-under-the-bed kind of way and wouldn't want them scuttling around at night while I'm asleep, but they're also kind of cute. Luckily they are "guaranteed deactivated" so safe to have around the home. And, they're made from upcycled materials so you can even feel good about that. Thomas has lots of interesting creations, have a look at his website for more projects and artwork.

Today I'm busy sewing as I have two craft shows this weekend. I'll be at Crafternoon Tea this Saturday:

WHEN: Saturday November 27th, 11am to 5pm
WHERE: Queen St. East Presb. Church (Queen E. & Carlaw)



Then at the Artisan Gift Fair at the Tranzac on Sunday:

WHEN: Sunday November 28th, 12 to 6pm
WHERE: The Tranzac, 292 Brunswick Avenue

I hope you come and visit!

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Buying Handmade - part three

Very moldy business card case

This post is all about gifts for guys. Harder to shop for, right? I think so anyway. I used to think I could just get Bradley anything with a robot on it and he would be happy. But after I asked him to look for things on etsy he thought guys would like, I was surprised by the results. This is the history of keywords he looked up:

zelda triforce, musette, tour de france, cycling, lumberjack, axe, army of darkness, new pornographers, wolf parade, animal collective music, band of horses, grizzly bear, firefly mal, walking dead, himym, the wire hbo, deadwood, community troy abed, cuff links, dice, deck cards, wooden pen, wire puzzles, geocaching, camping.....robot friend


Not everything had results but maybe that gave you some ideas! My general suggestions are: wool socks, wristwatch, toiletry bag, coffee cup, coffee cup cosy, messenger bag, ipod cosy, ipad etc. cosy, artwork, passport case, notebook, pen, wallet. Anyway, here are my picks:

ELINtm:

ipod touch sleeve in felt with mold decoration

I've been admiring this shop for some time now, fascinated by the notion of embellishing handmade items with crocheted mold and lichen. And the results are stunning! I love how Elin captures a variety of textures with her choices of yarn and stitches. Each piece is a beautiful microscopic landscape.

anotherjamiedavis:

green tree toiletry bag

Jamie takes vintage items and adds her own wood grain embroidery. What a great idea! The embroidery really updates each piece and makes it so cool. I like them myself, but they're definitely manly. Practical too, this would be the perfect toiletry case to take on a camping trip.

Kate Pugsley:

ice fishermen gocco screen print

For artwork I picked one of Kate Pugsley's gocco screen prints. The details are actually hand-painted with watercolors. This print has an elegantly subtle palette and charming naive style (and I thought the ice fishing would be a good guy choice!) Kate's artwork is occasionally embellished with collage elements such as pretty patterned papers, and I love the seaside themes, with mermaids, fish and snorkelers.

The Maple Ridge:

antelien original ink drawing

And another piece of art, this time an original ink drawing. Click on the link and read the description yourself, very funny. And, also, how affordable is this original artwork? The mind reels.

So I hope my post gave you some ideas about shopping for guys. If you have any ideas yourself I'd love to hear about them in a comment!

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Buying Handmade - part two

As promised, more handmade shopping inspiration!

strawberries and cream:

woolen monkey

Does your little monkey need a little monkey? Etsy makes me wish I had more kids to buy for, so many cute things! I love this monkey's plaid jumpsuit. He looks a little perplexed: why am I still here? why hasn't anyone bought me yet??

fox and clover:

remnes lace necklace

I can't say enough about this talented artist! Sabrina's necklaces are made from recycled glass and hand-painted with beautiful lace/nature-inspired patterns. Bradley gave me one for our anniversary and to say it is a treasured possession is an understatement! Absolutely beautiful.

amanda kindregan:

egg basket block print

I love pretty much all printmaking techniques, especially when they have a textured look to them and charming content such as this "egg basket" block print. This print is part of Amanda's "happy kitchen"" series so you could even have a little grouping of them!

Part three coming up soon...

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Buying Handmade - part one

I think it's probably obvious that I'm a handmade kind of person. I buy handmade things, and I sell handmade things, and if I'm lucky I occasionally get to swap handmade things. This is great because to be frank most of us aren't getting rich selling handmade and I'm constantly surrounded by talented crafters and artists whose work I covet.

This holiday I'll be making handmade items for gifts and for upcoming craft shows. Over the years I've found lots of presents myself at craft shows and I love skipping the mall and finding something that's one-of-a-kind and didn't come from a factory. To inspire you, I thought I'd post some of my favourite handmade treats.

Ponder and Stitch:

vintage feedsack cuff

This is a lovely cuff made from vintage feedsack. Amy also offers made-to-order cuffs with custom embroidery. Her shop is popular so dash over there early if you're looking for a holiday gift!

Sadie Designs:

birch and gold geometric necklace

I've been admiring these necklaces for a while now. They're made with birch wood in geometric patterns. So cool!

MinusOne:

Now, how can you go wrong with barkcloth? It's a great search word to use if you want to find something special. This oversized pincushion is just one of many gorgeous items in this artfire shop. I also love the pretty vintage-style necklaces.

More to come in my next post!

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More needle books

Here's a peek at one of Bradley's birthday presents from October.

His very own custom robot needle book, with his name embroidered on the front and a robot print inside.

mustard linen woodland embroidered needle book

Yesterday I finally finished my last in a batch of new needle books, some in mustard with flowered branches..

and some in pink with red and pink flowers..

pink embroidered needle book

So these new ones are shaped like an acorn.

acorn needle book

The front and back covers have the cap pieced together with the nut part, then lined. The tricky part was the little stem but that really did seem necessary. Even the pages inside are shaped like acorns! Sewing together all the layers at the end can be tricky, the wool tends to shift and it all ends up a bit wonky. So I just did it by hand while a big clip held it all together. All these new needle books are in my etsy shop and will be coming with me to Crafternoon Tea.

ALSO, I just found out there's a spot for me at City of Craft! Hurray! More about that later..

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Crafternoon Tea - You're invited!

I was thrilled to be chosen for Crafternoon Tea this year. It's a Leslieville craft show that I've visited a few times and I've always loved the warm friendly vibe and amazing mix of talent.

Barkcloth Lady by a River wristlet

I'm busy making new things, many of which are sneaking their way into my etsy shop in the meantime.

Mustard-linen owl-embroidered needle book

Snowy Forest with Deer

The day of the market I'll be closing the etsy shop, then before reopening I'll delete things that get sold at Crafternoon Tea. This will probably be my only craft show this winter/Christmas so please come by!

When: Saturday November 27th, 11am to 5pm
Where: Queen St. East Presb. Church (Queen E. & Carlaw)

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Sock monkey pants

Have you ever wondered if sock monkeys get cranky? Well it's rare, but as you can see in this picture Francis has his arms crossed in a way that suggests he is annoyed about something. Here's what happened.

Francis modelled some pants for me so I could figure out the pattern to make some pants for a gift for someone else with a sock monkey. But I think there was a misunderstanding and he thought the pants were for him.

He has his arms crossed but as you can see he's still smiling because sock monkeys never really get cranky. It's just not in their nature. But I did think he should get his own pants. And of course Fifi needed pants too.

Francis picked out a red plaid for his new pants and Fifi picked a floral. They look a bit like jammy pants to me, but I wasn't going to argue because the heart wants what it wants.

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Wonky free motion quilting

This is my quilt folded, pretending it's finished

So as I was saying, we only had a handful of trick-or-treaters. Possibly Bradley's jack-o-lantern was too scary? I will have to alert him to this issue.

But now, onto the quilting. I finished my second quilt top a long time ago, the Denyse Schimdt Single Girl, but since basting it together, it has languished around being a big disappointment. This is because I made a few choices for it that I later regretted.

This is the hand-quilted part

First of all I used muslin for the background, and once it was finished it suddenly seemed a bit drab to me and I wasn't crazy about it. I had considered a white cotton initially but it seemed too bright next to some of the vintage prints. So there's that.

Then I also decided to experiment and used curtain interlining for the batting. It's sort of soft and fuzzy and thinner than the other batting I've used so I thought it would be easier to do nice fine hand-quilting. Plus it was an inexpensive option. But once it was all pin-basted together the lining seemed to make the whole quilt sort of heavy and droopy. So there's that.

Then I decided that I would hand quilt it. As I expected with the thin "batting" I could do nice tiny stitches. I used the circle design suggested by the pattern. But once I had finished three rows I wasn't thrilled. It just didn't seem quilted enough, there were large areas that I felt would need lots more quilting. Which would take ages. Especially as I wasn't motivated to finish it since I didn't love my quilt anymore.

So enough complaining, because.. I've sorted it all out! I decided that I would cut my losses and switch to machine quilting. I decided on free-motion quilting because I have a darning foot already for my Bernina, and I don't have a walking foot yet. Plus I wanted to try free-motion. And I love it! I love the way it looks, I love the way it feels and I like the muslin now. Even the interlining seems right now, it's a thin quilt (which was the original plan, I like thin quilts) but with a nice textured feel. And it's so pretty!

Detail of the machine quilting

I did a very simple scribbled loop pattern, just the same loop over and over, one column at a time. It seemed like an easy way to start and I like the design. There are lots of mistakes but you'd really have to examine the quilt to spot them, so I just don't care. Which isn't like me at all. I may do more hand quilting someday, but somehow for this quilt, machine quilting has been the answer. It does mean I will have to undo lots of hand quilting.. yuck.. but I really think it's worth it.

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Happy Halloween!

Bradley outdid himself this year, with a very simple but spooky jack-o-lantern!

I think the secret was spending more time on the sketch phase. Then he whipped it up in no time! We're ready for the trick-or-treaters now.

Update: we have had hardly any trick-or treaters. I have been FORCED to eat a bunch of candy myself.

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Zippered wristlets!

I've finally figured out how to adapt my wristlets to include a zipper. A couple of people have told me they wished my wristlets had zippers at craft shows and I thought it was a good idea too (see? I do listen to you!).

I just had to figure out how to add the zipper with the front flap there as well. I have a few ready now and I've started putting them in my shop. I love the pink and purple floral fabric on this one. Have a look!

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Yellow log cabin quilt

I've been wanting to make a yellow quilt forever. So just in time for the rainy days we've been having, I've finally gathered up the yellow prints I had on hand. I've never sewn a log cabin quilt square before, but I've read online that it's addictive. Now that I've made my first one I can confirm that it's true! I decided to do my cutting freehand, just making strips as I went along and not worrying about having them all be the same width.

I like the result. At the end I will true up each square using a cardboard template and then when I join all the squares my quilt won't be too wonky! At the end when I have a stack of squares I can arrange them before joining them together and make sure the quilt is balanced. I'm not sure yet whether I'll add sashing (extra strips between the squares).

As usual I have hoarded tiny scraps of my favourite prints, so it's been very nice to finally be able to use even the smallest pieces. Things have been busy lately so this quilt could go very slowly, but I've decided I'd rather just do a square at a time, and not cut it all out beforehand, and maybe even not do any chain piecing. I've found it very relaxing to just choose and cut a piece at a time and put it all together.

This square went together very quickly so I think you could whip up a quilt top this way in no time. For the quilt back I think I'll just keep an eye out for a vintage sheet with some yellow. My quilt is going to be so cheerful!

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Elora Gorge hiking

Last weekend was our 4th anniversary so we decided to have a little outing and rent a car so we could head up north.

Saturday was mostly about driving around and exploring. We saw a truck fire on the way up north (!), had a delicious bruschetta/salad and cream tea at SerndipiTea in Midland, explored in the area and later ended up at a nice spot near Honey Harbour where we had a short walk. Then on the way back home we saw a moose! He was standing beside the road and we slowed down so that I could (of course) try and take a picture, but before I could he turned and headed back into the woods.

My favourite outing was Sunday when we visited Elora Gorge for hiking.

I took the usual photos of the gorge but I like to take close-up photos because they seem to capture the feel of a day for me.

The hiking around Alora Gorge is very woodsy so there's lots of picturesque moss on the trees and rocks.

At the end of the day we saw some incredible caves near the gorge at the water level but by then it was too dark to take pictures. So here's a picture taken earlier in the day to give you the general idea.

We also saw some rabbits.. all-in-all it was a nice busy weekend.

p.s. I just bought the needlebook.ca domain name. I wanted ".com" but the first time I looked it was $100 and I was like "meh". Then I checked again today and it was $1000! So ".ca" it is. I've rerouted it to my blog for now so you can type in "needlebook.ca" to visit my blog. Which is just a bit easier, right?

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New items in my shop!

There are lots of new things in my shop now...

I just needed to get started with updating it again. I had some new wristlets ready, particularly two in one of my favourite barkcloth prints, a painting by Grandma Moses. The bits I've picked are snowy woods, one of them with a little cottage:

 I had a navy blue floral sweethaven bag ready as well:

The blue needlebook is the last one of that batch and I'll make some new ones soon in a different set of colours:

And a special bonus just for my blog readers - buy any wristlet, bag or needle book from my shop and mention this blog in the comments and I will send a free bonus, one of my little deer print pincushions!
NOTE * Each pincushion is a little different, offer good for September 2010, while quantities last. *

 Thanks for looking!

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How to sew a pillow with piping, a zipper and a lining

So I was looking this up online and I could find pillow tutorials with a couple of these features but not all three. I took some time to figure it out and now I'm going to show you how I did it!

Just one note, I did it with 1. a regular zipper and 2. a regular zipper foot. It's also put together with materials I had already. So there are other ways to do it, such as with an invisible zipper, but in the end I was really happy with the results.

First of all, the fabric. I had a beautiful end piece of hand printed chintz that I found at the Textile Museum Sale. It's a gorgeous 1920s Scalamandre pictorial print called China Rose, and there was actually just enough to make two large covers, the same size as the existing cushions I had on the couch.

Here's my trick for cutting out matching cushions with a pictorial print. Arrange the two halves of fabric so that the print is aligned then cut out two matching front pieces and two matching back pieces. The front is different from the back on each pillow but the two pillows match. Just a nice little detail.

To make your piping cut narrow strips of fabric on the bias and use it to cover a length of cord. You can buy cord for piping by the yard at fabric stores. You can use ready-made bias tape to cover your cord, the same fabric as your cushion, or a contrasting solid or print fabric. I used an olive green that matched the leaves in the print.

Despite the fact that this is a very nice fabric, it was a little bit thin for pillows. This means that without a lining the pillow wouldn't have a nice smooth luxurious look that does justice to the fabric. So I cut out two more squares of sturdy white cotton fabric for the linings.

Now that you have all that prepared you're ready to put it together.

STEP 1. Using your zipper foot, attach the piping to the top side of the cushion. 

Snip 3 little cuts in the extra fabric of your piping so that you can bend it neatly at the corners.

When you get to the end, pull the cord from one side out of its fabric casing a little bit, and trim the cord at an angle.

Then open up the empty fabric casing and fold it over the other end of piping. It's hard to describe this but it makes a neat join without two thicknesses of cord overlapping.

Don't do it right at the corner like I did, it's more difficult if you're working your way around the bend at the same time. I wasn't thinking ahead!

STEP 2. Attach the zipper to the bottom of the cushion (with an overall pattern it doesn't matter which side you attach it to). Place the zipper face down and open next to the piping and sew it as closely as you can to the piping.

Close the zipper and sew it to the back of the cushion.

This is what you have at this stage, the cover has the piping and zipper attached:

At this point you can decide you've had enough and finish your cushion without a lining. Just open your zipper up, pin the cushion right sides together, sew the three sides and you're done! You can serge or pink the edges of the fabric so that they don't fray. If you don't have a serger and the fabric is really prone to fraying (such as a loosely woven wool) you can cover the edges with bias tape.

Otherwise if you'd like a lining carry on to STEP 3.

STEP 3. Attach the lining piece to the zipper. The zipper will be sandwiched between the lining and the outer fabric. Pin it in place then open up to see if it's right before you sew. When the lining pieces are attached there should be nicely finished sides on both sides of the zipper - no raw edges showing. Repeat for the second lining piece. At this point I like to finger press the fabric next to the zipper so it doesn't get snagged when the zipper is opening and closing.

This is how it should look:

So far you have only joined the lining on the zipper side.

STEP 4. Align the cushion cover so that the the outside pieces are facing each other, right sides together, and the lining pieces are facing each other as well. Pin all around carefully. Make sure the zipper is open!

STEP 5. Sew all the way around, but leave a 6" gap at the bottom of the lining. Remove the pins as you go.

STEP 6. Trim the corners, then turn the cover right side out. Hand or machine stitch the gap in the lining closed. Insert your pillow form and you're finished!

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