croque-choux

Omiyage flower made with vintage lace.

Here is the last Omiyage flower bag I made. This one was for my son's teacher. I'm a bit late in posting this because I finished it at the beginning of July! I think this is the best one I've made yet.

A small gift

Another omiyage pochette, in progress and the finished pouch. I finally found a use for the Japanese chirimen silk I've been hanging onto. I'll have to make one of these for myself one day!

The trouble with flowers...

By this time of the year north of the Loire valley there aren't many flowers left to admire, except for the last roses of the season and maybe a few dahlias, so I thought I'd try my hand at making some flowers of my own. I'm so pleased with how this pink flower turned out, and I can think of a dozen things to do with these little things! They are so easy to make, too. I will post the link to the tutorial, as soon as I find it again. After that I thought I'd try to make a kanazashi flower, but unfortunately that went terribly wrong as you can see by the photos. 

I think that I cut the starter squares a bit too big and that the fabric I used was way too stiff. No matter  how much I fumbled with it I could not get it to look any better than this :o( Maybe I can fix it. Oh well, back to the drawing board as they say, or better still- back to the tutorials over at Spangle! And speaking of flowers gone wrong- oh my god I'm such a sucker for anything violet flavored that I bought these little violet dessert thingies at the supermarket the other day, against my better judgement. They're really weird, halfway between a yogurt and a pudding, and the color is purplish gray-  eeeeyew! 
To end this on a more positive note though: If you'd like to see some really beautiful kanazashi, follow the link from Cuteable. I really enjoy this blog by the way, so I am definitely adding Cuteable to the links on my sidebar!

It's in the bag

I finally finished this jeans bag which I started during Sharon's bags of fun challenge, and now my daughter is the happy recipient. I was going to embellish it a little more with a touch of hand embroidery or beads, but Ombeline wanted me to keep it simple. Probably just as well, because this way I spent more time on making the handles nice and sturdy, and doing a good lining with an inside cell phone pocket.
Not only did I finish this, but I also took out one of my quilt UFOs and did some needle turn appliqué, and worked on another little thing. What lead to this sudden productivity? I straightened up my craft and sewing area. I really should do this more often because not only is my space neater but I actually found a 10€ bill while I was putting things in order- talk about instant pay off :o)

Treasures!

This is the little fabric trinket box I made for my daughter's birthday. I wish I had read about THIS sooner though, because there's an exchange of these little beauties going on right now! It's a fundraiser for The American Cancer Society, so check it out. There's still time to participate! The always inspirational Quilting Arts magazine was where I read about fiber artist Carol Fletcher and saw the pattern for her Little Treasures, which you can find here free. You need to see all the eye candy on her site! Her Little Treasures are really beautiful (I'm almost embarrassed by my first effort here!). Thank you Carol for sharing such a neat little pattern and fun project :o)

On a roll

Just the mere thought that I'll have some free time soon (because of that job thang) has made me feel more creative and free. When I got home from work yesterday, I made this little black Omiyage bag for my daughter's best friend's mom. It was hard finishing this little thing with a teenager breathing down my back before a sleep-over, and this time I couldn't find any beads at all to put on the drawstrings, but the gift was much appreciated! Tonight the kids were bored so instead of watching tv or something, we had a collage party in Miles' room. We each made something, so I should be posting pictures tomorrow...

PS just a reminder: The Omiyage book is by Kumiko Sudo, and has lots of other bags and things to make. This Daffodil pouch just happens to be the easiest project- at least I think so!

Growing

...little by little.

Sidetracked

In that previous post I forgot to mention this other thing that got me off schedule for the bag I'm supposed to be making... Ever since I saw this on Sharon's blog and this, I've been wanting to give freeform knitting & crochet a go. I figure that it will be a good thing to do in front of the tv or while watching my son do his homework, because I like to keep my hands busy. This has the added benefit of keeping me from wanting to smack my son during his excruciating homework sessions. The idea here is to try to keep adding on to this little square you see here until it is long enough for a funky scarf. Unless I get sidetracked by something else again...

PS/ thanks to Michele for recently re-bringing the freeform articles to my attention again. (You know how you see stuff, and say "I wanna try that!", and then you forget? Story of my life.) I knew I forgot to add something to this post... Thank you Michele!

Emballée (all wrapped up)

The weather is getting cooler and naturally my thoughts turn to... yarn? (but I'm a quilter!) Well, I actually dug out my crochet and knitting needles the minute Fall hit, and I've had warm scarf on the brain ever since (more on that later). If only I could make something like this though! Isn't this little shawl beautiful?!! I'm SO in love with this shoulder accessory thingy. After seeing this, I promised myself that I would improve my rusty knowledge of crochet this Winter in front of the tv, with a warm quilt on my lap of course.

Cadeau