maandag 31 december 2012

happy new year !

The last day of the year
.....
sometimes busy, busy, busy
but not every year
...
sometimes I'm reflective on such a day :
what happened this year
what did I do
(right or wrong)
what plans do I have for the near future 
...
but now it's just a quiet day
waiting for the clock to strike twelve
and hug my dearly loved family members

and welcome the new year
2013
*
I wish to you all the best,
peace
(badly needed in places !)
joy
and (very important too)
good health

For all my stitching, knitting and felting friends
all over the world
a lot of
creativity


(Ha, we have to wait another 10 hours,
but New Zealand, and I think Australia too, did already launch their firework !)

maandag 24 december 2012

merry !

Merry Christmas
or
 feast of light  
or
turn of the season
for all my blogging friends
out there !



zondag 23 december 2012

Serious Request

That is the name for a special action this time each year
by three Radio DJ's
who are living in a "glass house" for a week without food.
The benefits they get,
from people who pay money to hear special music
or is donated in some other way,
will go to the Red Cross

This year the motto is
"let's hear it for the babies"
The money will be spent to fight back
infant mortality in Africa
before, during or just after birth.

That's the charity I wanted to spend
my "Mouse-lottery" money on !

So here is the mouse
sitting on top of the Christmas decoration,
the ladybug money-box (still rather empty)
the glass jar with the felted balls
and pen and paper
to write down name, telephone and chosen number of balls !
It went very well !
There was € 111,65 in the ladybug
at the end of day two.
I topped it up till a nice round figure
and just send it off to Serious Request.

And ?
How many balls wére in the jar ???
66
(yes, just my age, ha !)
But ... because there were tree people with the right answer
I had to use a RNG
(random number generator)

At first we tried to use three felted balls,
but the "generator" didn't want to pick up any of them
so we used pieces of paper with names instead

It seemed one of them tasted very good ...

and Serena is the lucky one !
I phoned her and will bring her the mouse tomorrow.
(I was very sorry for the other two "winners"
so I'll send off a finger puppet mouse to each of them)

And the Christmas Fair ?
Two loooooooooong, but fun days
and I mostly sold to people I know !

(I was véry glad that one of the little quilts that were for sale
went to my dearest friend and former teaching-partner !
I know it gets a loving home !)

It has a name now too : "This it your wake-up call"

I sewed the little "felt-fabric" onto a canvas I painted first.
I think that's a nice solution for such small work
(though for me, textile work can easily hang on it's own)


Update on Serious Request :
when the three DJ's came out of the glass house
in the evening of the 24th
the total amount of money raised for the Red Cross was
€ 12.251.667, --

 

dinsdag 18 december 2012

two more days

Preparations for the Christmas Fair
are nearing the end.

That is NOT because I'm almost
finished with all I wanted to do
...
but it's because
in two days time
the Fair starts,
this Friday ánd Saturday !

There are a lot of things that just will not be finished in time.
Creating craft and needlework is taking
a lot of time !
That's okay with me, but that means
I have to adjust my "targets"
So no more bags ...
just finishing off want I have so far,
and I'm very satisfied with

the new red one !

"Ages" ago we organized a big Christmas Fair
on the school I then worked,
with lots of things made by children
ánd a lot of their parents.
We had so much fun creating,
and the Fair was a HUGE succes !
Daughter reminded me that one of the great things then
was a lottery
with three wonderful prizes to win
(made by creative people)

Now I will have my own little lottery on the Fair :
people can guess how many felted balls there are in a glass jar

This will be the prize for the person who gets it (almost) right !

Mouse was made thanks to Gabi's
wonderful PDF tutorial
Thanks again Gabi !


(Off, finishing a few things ....)

vrijdag 14 december 2012

belated

I totally forgot about my November felting exchange
Yes
a little late
but that was due to all the Blogger fuss 

So here is the little felt piece I recieved for last month
solar eclipse


Ha, the fun thing was
it was sent in an envelope
that was made out of a newspaper page
with a stamp on it of course
(but the post missed it : there was an uncancelled stamp on it ha, ha !) 

Thanks Margot !


And this is what I made for the theme abstract
for my November partner

After it had dried, I started stitching
but ...
forgot to take a picture before I sent it off

:-(




maandag 10 december 2012

a little choir

... and we hear the angels singing ...

...
(noooo, of course not,
but why not pretend that we can hear them sing ?)

Some more of these little ladies will follow
and more mushrooms

though no edible ones,
yet

(and yes, a bag,
and some more stitching )


vrijdag 7 december 2012

it took some time ...

Everything alright now ?
Well it took me quite some time
to think it over
and to get things done
...
And how about those three blind mice ???

you see :
not blind anymore !
(all the other mice have black eyes)

There was more done of course.
From Jana I ordered the PDF for the book cover she made some months ago.
I would have known how to do it myself
but I very much like to learn the last little bits from others
(and I think Jana makes breathtaking felt work)

this was the first one
Inside is a A5 size "dummy"
(that's what a book without print is called here) 

The worst part of it all 
(besides the cutting into the half-felted piece)
was drying the finished felt on the book
so it would definately be the right size !!!
I wrapped the cover ánd all the pages in cling foil
to avoid the book from getting wet 
Pfffffft !

And there was a bag with fishes
in a different shape this time
(no strap yet)



Lots more to do


donderdag 22 november 2012

three blind mice ....

I'm working on little finger puppets
(for the fair)

O, NO
no more pictures allowed !
Something funny going on here !?!

When I was still working with the youngest children
in school, I loved to tell stories
with a hand or finger puppet
.....
the children enjoyed themselves
and had such funny reactions
talking to the puppet !

All the mice that are finished
are waiting for a new member of the family .....

No use to go on right now,
can't show my felting exchange either ... 

sorry .... !

donderdag 15 november 2012

soft stones

Right before Christmas I will experience
for the second time
what it's like to have a stand on a fair
(the first time, last year on a Spring Fair wasn't exactly a succes,
but ... why not try again)
I don't like to make things just because
I want to sell them,
it kind of hinders my free creativity.
So now I must find things to make that I like doing
ánd that are salable
This is one of my first tries :

soft stones
I took some real stones
gave them a felted jacket
and started stitching.
Because it is a Winter Fair I thought it appropriate to start with white

Simple stitches, but the combinations are fun to do


Sorry, almost forgot to give Lisa credit for her felting tutorial
which is very helpful for a lot of people.

vrijdag 9 november 2012

sunny bag

When I had this friend over who felted the red bag
I didn't do much else than a bit of knitting
(and making coffee, tea and lunch)
I don't have enough space
for "more than one bag at the time"
That's okay, but I always start felting myself
right after such a day.

I planned this new bag
to fit especially to a jacket that I made for myself
out of silk / linen five years ago
(remember for wich occasion  ;-)  !)
I will make a picture of it later, with the bag ...

Sunny colours : golden yellow, pink and a bit magenta
The Ginkgo leaves are no coincidence !


I used the same template as the one for my orange bag
(last year) and the friend's red bag


There's the Ginkgo (a bit of pre-felt) 
and I used some netting in order to prevent that the design might shift

It really took a long time and repeated corrections
before the spirals stayed in place.

(the spiral is a bit more pink than here on the photo)


Now I must wait till it's completely dry so I can fix the strap
and a little magnet as a closure.

Happy



dinsdag 6 november 2012

a fun day

Today a friend came over to felt a bag.
She wanted the bag to match
with her lovely new red boots.
I had ordered the wool that would go nicely
with the picture she send me,
but we took thát colour for the inside
and a slightly darker one for the outside.

Working very hard !


Late in the afternoon she went home
with some final instructions,
a little rolling mat
and still some homework to do !
*

Today it was a true autumn day :
some wonderful sunshine ...

(mmmmm, those colours)


... and some heavy downpour
( so we must have been in that pot of gold all day ! )
*
And finally :

" I want to ride my (mom's) bicycle ... "

( Ha, for the very first time !!! )

woensdag 31 oktober 2012

knitting again ...

The last day of  October  already
and although actually we are not into Halloween over here

I thought this lady is suited for this day
*

I'm knitting again !
But first I frogged a try-out with the lovely coloured

Rowan kidsilk haze stripe and some Drops alpaca,
the two didn't work well together.
I bought some new light blue Drops kidsilk to go with the Rowan.

Then I picked up the mitered vest,
that was kind of hibernating for a long time,
and started knitting ...
At least, that's what I wanted
but I had to do some serious reading
before I remembered again
how to do the pattern

I think it must be old age:
because I didn't know with how many stitches to start with,
what to do with the first and the last stitch on the row ...
and I had done already quite a bit ! 
And I have done a vest just like that before !!!

But luckily the magazine was still there  ;-)

( yes, from  looooong ago )


I remember people asking when I was wearing the blue vest
( that I did before ... but gave away to a friend ) 
if I sewed all the little parts together ?
NO
you don't have to
and this clever way to do it, was all in the magazine !

( Nowadays you can also find similar patterns
for mitered knitting on "Ravelry" )

HA ... and the fun part is
that you never have more than 25 stitches on your needle
(or 49 stitches when I make the bigger squares) 

The back and side pieces are finished so I could start on the front
*

Our two housemates

enjoyed a lot of autumn sunshine !
*

The last fun thing for today was brought by the post

a huge bag "mit Liebe verpackt" with wool I ordered in Germany

( I'll probably take part in a Christmas fair in the village
so there has to be done some serious felting ! )



Ohhh, we had a very clear sky last night
so there was still the beautiful moon


maandag 29 oktober 2012

rain ! .... no moon (but still a bit of silver)

Ahhhhh .... it's a pity :
there is no full moon to be seen 
because it's raining here.
( well : you can't win them all )

But here is another bit of silver


( Although I didn't hear that my little felt-exchange piece arrived safely,
it was in the mail this weekend,
I'll show what it looks like )

For this person I had to use naturals and grays.
For me, as a very "colourful" person ,
that wasn't very easy,
so that's why (among other things)
it took me quite some time to start and finish it.


It wasn't very clever of me nót to measure the beginning ...
I started a bit to big actually,
for we agreed that the pieces would be postcard-size !

Therefore I had to keep felting to shrink it to the right size
but thát way I lost a lot of the original detail
which then caused me to do a lot of embroidery.
( not so bad, because I like to stitch )
In a drawer I found this lovely bit of silk-and-metal (silver) fabric
that seemed just right for this piece !
And then ..... lots, really  LOTS  of French knots,
with wool, silk and silver thread.

I hope she likes it
*

Man is drawing again

Mmmmm love the colours !
*

Daughter made good use of some Noro and sock yarn leftovers :

pouches for semiprecious stones