Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Project 11: A cushion cover for Alesya's friend


Alesya's friend invited her over for a play date. It was also the day of her birthday, so we needed a gift. Why not make one ourselves, Alesya agreed. So while she was having her siesta I cut up some fabric,and as I was sewing it all together thought something was missing.
So I added some pink fabric tiny strips on two sides of the cushion cover. As I was sewing I also ironed out all the seems so it would look nicer once stitched on the seems.
To finish off, cut her friend's name from vinyl and Alesya helped me ironing the letters on the cushion cover.
Both Catalina and her parents loved the home made gift.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Project 10: Blue bed cover finalized


My bedcover is finished and it turned out so beautiful. The fabric catching some sun makes it even more stunning.
Finding the right colour for the outer trim was quite a challenge as where I live fabric stores are not widely available.
Am very happy the way this has turned out.

Monday, February 15, 2016

Project 10: Bed cover


I just love African fabrics, they come in so many colours and designs and not necessarily only in the West-African batiks that we often see in pictures. My dear friend Sue who works in Africa regularly brings me some fabrics. Including this beautiful royal blue with white flowers and black rims. This blue is so my colour blue. When my friend saw it she knew she had to buy it for me.
I did not have to think long for what I would make of this gorgeous fabric: a bed cover. I took the measurements and started thinking how I would tackle this project. African fabric in the middle, a white board around it and then some more blue (or black) to finish off.
If I would use the same batik for the edges I would finish all my fabric in one project and I was not ready for that as I had some more ideas slowly growing. So I figured that time would tell what the outer ridge should be. I bought matching blue uni cotton and had to decide how wide the white strip would be
Almost done

Project 9: Doll house


Alesya has a dollhouse from the 20's or so based on the colours (or could be 70's, opinions differ). It needed a bit of modernizing and in September we went to the hardware store to choose the colours. I should have taken"a before picture", but completely forgot. We chose red for the roof, pink, blue and violet for the inside walls and floors, and the outside walls are for now in off-white. The modernized dollhouse is now in her room with the furniture in place. It could do with some curtains and pictures ........ my project list will never get shorter ........

Project 8: Bulletin board for Alesya


Alesya had a hard time keeping track of the days of the week. And each day we had to ask her what day it was and remind her of what activity she had, or where she would be going. She has a very busy schedule between twice a week speech therapy, once a week ergo-therapy and judo. So I bought a cork bulletin board from Ikea
The idea was to cut the days of the week from iron on vinyl. I had ordered the colours, and was going to iron these on a blue cotton fabric. The challenge was how to add the cloth to the bulletin board. I tried to remove the frame, but could not do so without damaging. Then {lightbulb}: the board is made from cork and cork is heat resistant. What if I would iron the letters directly on the board. I tried it out on a cork coaster and nothing went up in flames. I did use parchment paper just in case. It worked and it stayed on. So now all I had to do was decide if I wanted to hang the bulletin board horizontally or vertically.
The activities were cut from the same vinyl, placed in a plastic envelop, heat sealed and cut.

Project 7: Coat knobs


As the kids grow and get bigger, so do their coats. The coat-rack I had made in 2010 was getting fuller and fuller and too small for their winter coats. So needed a new solution. I ended up buying drawer knobs and mounted these on the wooden window shutter that we use for the kids coats, well we had to do something with the shutter ..... [pic forthcoming]

Project 6: Chair for Slava


Slava was still using the plastic high chair we had bought for Alexei in 2010. And yes it was on my list to buy him a "grown-up chair", if only I could get motivated going the shop on a Saturday morning, find a parking place, go in and face the crowd, wait my turn, order the chair hoping that they would have it in stock, drive to the warehouse to pick it up, knowing that it would take me easily one hour waiting ...... So on a Friday morning drove out to the shop and was done with the whole process one hour later ........... OK, so not a creative challenge, however very satisfactory to be able to remove this from the list [pic forthcoming]

Project 5: Cardigan for Elise


Last year I had bought pink yarn for a cardigan for Alesya that a friend offered to knit. I had miscalculated the quantity needed and ordered way too much. So last year made a cardigan for my niece and still had plenty left. Elise's birthday is in January so made a cardigan for her (she is the daughter of a friend from the children's school). The yarn is Phildar Impact bright pink. I hand knitted the boards and used the USM (Bond) for the rest. The front side is crochetted using DK by Stylecraft.

Project 4: Christmas card


And another project that was very due in January. A few years ago, my Christmas/New Year's cards would be made in November and send out early December.

Project 3: Yearly calendar of the kids


Ever since the kids arrived in France we have made a yearly calendar for the family. Each month a picture from the previous year. Usually we are done in December so we can offer them at Christmas. The 2016 version ....... was made in 2016.

Project 2: African quilt for Alexei


A few years ago my friend Sue brought me some African fabric (Nigerian if not mistaken). I had made curtains for the boys room and last year made a lamp shade. And still a lot left over. As I wanted to learn how to quilt (improve my skills) decided to make an African quilt for Alexei. In December the two of us went to the "lapjesmarkt" in Utrecht and choose the colours to go with the African fabric: bleu, yellow and red. The quilt was made in January. As I was sick (flue) and couldn't do much else, finished the project in one week. A learning curve ...... for my next quilt need to do some reading and video watching to improve.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Project 1: Finishing Slava's cardigan


In December I knitted a cardigan for Slava. The yarn I had bought in October 2014 in the Netherlands, 300 gr, not very expensive. As I had only bought the BOND USM in 2013, I figured best to start with cheap yarn. Well, the yarn had to wait for more than a year. And then again for a few weeks as I was almost done, almost. And after our Christmas holidays I took a needle and some left over yarn, a pair of scissors and sat down. Not allowed to do anything else but finish. OK, staying put wasn't too difficult as I was quite sick and the weather was horrible.

Fiftytwo projects or more ......


A new start of the year and the list of UFOs (Un Finished Objects) and new ideas gets longer and longer and longer. The pile of fabrics, yarn, beads, paper, ..... gets bigger and bigger and my studio is overflowing. Time for a clean-up. I challenge myself this year to finish at least one project per week. No idea if this is feasible at all. So in January as I am on a break I decided to get started with the list and see how far I get. I wish myself good luck :-)

Projects December 2015


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Projects November 2015


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Projects October 2015


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Projects September 2015


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Projects August 2015


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Projects July 2015


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Projects June 2015


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Projects May 2015


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Projects April 2015


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Projects March 2015


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Projects February 2015


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Projects January 2015


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