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.

ATC bling bling

A quickie card made this afternoon using what was at hand: silk and cotton and little shiny bits.

It came out a little too bling for my taste, but it was good just to accomplish anything in this heat we're having!

I just joined 2 ATC groups on Flickr:  Fabric/Textile ATCs and ATCs from Europe.

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!

Broderies.

This week flew by so fast that I didn't get a chance to embroider a thing. First week on the new job and all that... However, one of the nice things about working where I now work is that there is a real library on site, and that's where I discovered this book on embroidery by Francoise Tellier Loumagne. Wow... great photos and lots of inspiration to help you discover ways of transposing your ideas into embroidery. On one page you've got pictures of plants, flowers, and everyday things like a window with dew drops (my fave), and on the facing page the same image imagined in needlework. She has written other books too which you may be familiar with. Anyway, no need to read French to savor the images and ideas in this book!

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!

girly pin cushion

Here is the pin cushion I made for an exchange I found over at Swapbot, the first swap I've done throught this website. Nothing like an exchange to get one sewing again! The cushion came out soft and feminine looking, in spite of the grey pin striped suit flannel. I love grey, pink, and ecru together. The "A" is for Autumn, the name of the person who will receive this. I added a tiny hint of lavender too, snuggled inside the stuffing. Had to let go of it quick, because it was giving me the warm fuzzies every time I handled it and I was starting to want to keep it- even though my name doesn't start with A :o)

Look no further

As I was sitting in front of my sewing machine wondering what I could work on in this hot weather, I decided to challenge myself to use only what was within arm's reach- very fitting since I'm still hobbling around the house because of my leg. So using only stuff that was flying around my sewing table or fabric scraps found on the floor, I made this little thing. It's neither here nor there as far as format goes, because it's too little to be a postcard and not the right size for an ATC because it's 4 x 2 5/8 inches big. Since I had my alphabet rubber  stamps and ink pad on hand, I stamped out the word "seek", as a reminder that sometimes you really don't have to look very far.

My little boy with the over active imagination said that to him it looked like an icy landscape with a tiny treasure at the edge of a semi frozen lake, and an that there was an aurora borealis in the sky over the barren tree. Wow :o)

A little bird told me

The idea for this little Artist Trading Card popped into my head suddenly when I went upstairs for to do something else. I had some little bird transfers left over from this ATC, and I wanted to try out the alphabet stamps I bought a few days ago, so here is what I made. My sewing machine and I are a bit rusty since I haven't been able to do much sewing 'cause of my new job, so it was nice to make a little something today even if it's only a few inches big.

Bara+Design Backtack Bunny in the house!

In the middle of all my new job turmoil, I received my Backtack III softie- isn' she CUTE?!!! J'adore. Eireann sent me this little Zakka style rabbit, and she really made a great softie. So many reasons to love this!

• adorable upturned face with hand embroidery
• vintage button necklace
• lovely lined dress & its fabric (awesome !- click on the photo)
• an original button pinned on the back
  
• Japanese obi fabric (ears & forehead)
• the bouquet she is holding is such a nice touch
• this is Eireann's original pattern!

I only hope Eireann will like the softie I made for her half as much as I love the one she made me! I wracked my brains for a pattern too. I couldn't decide on one of the patterns suggested by Backtack, so  I was all: "should I make a different cat? a bear? a horse? a dog? a badger??", then I got interrupted by that damn job interwiew and migraines... Well, I'll upload and post some teaser photos soon, but for now I won't say what I finally decided on making :o)

 

PS: See Eireann's shop for all manner of pretty things !

ATC swap

 

Here are 2 Artist Trading Cards I made recently for an exchange that I found at a Flickr group. The one on the left I painted and collaged, and the one on the right is all made out of fabric. They're halfway to New Zealand by now, post office willing. For this swap we had to use one or more images from the group image pool, so it was fun to pick a few out and figure out what to do with them.
I have lots of photos to upload for Backtack III, but that unfortunately will have to wait another day because I start my new job in the morning! Tomorrow it's back to the *real* world. I'm really nervous and stressed out right now, and desparately trying to get rid of the butterflies in my stomach... Remember your first day of school at a new school where you don't know anyone and the icky feeling that this can give you? That's what I feel like.