wordless Wednesday

19 - 7 - 19 (.... I forgot)

Ahhhh ... forgot my 19 / 19 date post

because we were watching

the replay of the Apollo moon landing

50 years ago

Still some a-ma-zing stuff !!!

I've been stitching some very small pieces

that will become brooches

(5 x 7.5 cm  or 2"x 3")

... or they can be put in a small frame.

We had some very rainy days

but the garden  LOVED  it.

(and it keeps me from filling the watering can

and getting back ache again !)

When I was stitching

right next to the window because it was quite dark

I saw these :

But right now the hot weather

is just around the corner again.

so this afternoon the young swans were having a good time

swimming in their dinner !

(both with one foot on their back, haha)

And I was busy making a special bag

for daughters holiday

I'll finish it tomorrow ...

youngsters

We're already in the second half of the year ...

time flies.

I've been busy making new textile jewels,

bigger ones than my Pink Ribbon's this time,

using all kind of textile "beads".

Like the ones in the last post.

The bright blue one is finished

and another pale blue one.

Little pieces of black-and-white fabric

are waiting to become the next one.

(I'll have a Textile-art Market in August

and one in September)

But today daughter was busy on my sewing machine

to make a farewell present

for the schoolteacher of her youngest.

The children that move to the next grade

did some drawing with textile crayons !

The teacher can lean on a sweet memory cushion.

While most of us enjoy the warm sunny weather

the garden is longing for a good bit of rain.

The drought gives already problems :

like forest fires, trees losing their leaves,

yellow lawns, desperate farmers ...

We heard of birds leaving their nests and young

in the eastern part of the country,

but here some of them are doing still fine !

A young blackbird waiting by our front door

for mum or dad to come with something juicy.

The grebe family passed by in the water.

Must be hard to find any fish under the duckweed ...

And this evening, just before we had our outside dinner,

a bunch of eight blue tits came by to forage

in the garden : no corner or crevice remained unexamined !

(ha, one even sat on my (still empty) dinner plate !)

*

So all the young ones seem rather happy here !

tell me a dragon ...

That is the title of a wonderfully illustrated

children's book by Jackie Morris,

someone I admire a lot !

These last few days I SEWED a dragon

A dragon costume

for the youngest grandson !

(they're going to "Castle Fest" again)

Daughter had been working on the costume of the eldest

so I was the "aid group" for the youngest

(the middle one already had something he wants to wear)

We took the "knight" outfit I once made,

looked up a lot on Pinterest,

and daughter made a little sketch

to show how she liked it

...

Her idea for the head was to use a cap inside,

(the "Minions" cap that grandson loves to wear)

I also had the "old" knight's helmet pattern.

On the Saturday-market in Rotterdam I bought some green cotton

and some glittery fabric.

But I went again to buy some more green

(because the glitter wasn't the right colour ...)

but they didn't have that with them that day

so I bought something else :

really WILD soft tricot : with black and yellow drops on green background,

BUT the backside was quite nice !!! 

Ears, part of the mouth, points for the head and the back ...

(thick fiberfill : stash from the old "quilting-days")

I decided to make the head without the his cap,
in fact making a new "cap", the sturdy bit will be the mouth
(it's got plastic inside !)

HA ... a bit like "Darth Vader" (uhhhhm Green Vader !)
(you can see the "wild" inside here ...)

points for the back  .....  and my clever tool to turn it !

(got the tool from a friend : these surgical pliers are thrown away !!! 

because buying new is cheaper than sterilize them .... ???)

Attaching the points on the back of the (still) open shirt :
half with the machine, half by hand.

Diner-time ...
but still wings to make

But then daughter arrived
to tell they're not going to the party tomorrow ...
but on Sunday !

Ahhhhh ... BIG time for a show !!!

WOW !
SOME  FIERCE  DRAGON  THIS  IS  !!!

(the pants are at home : daughter made them,
just like his favorite sweatpants !)

(LOL he was a lot louder, after this first picture was taken  ;-) ...!)

They went home (with the head)
and I finished the wings and sewed them on the back of the shirt.
Done !

at the sewing machine ...

Yes, that's where I spent

the main part of my day :

at the sewing machine.

Daughter has this wonderful plan to go to

"Castle fest"

It's a show with lots of people in medieval clothes,

elves, soldiers, witches and all your

fantasy can think of.

She liked to dress up when she was in "Kindergarten"

and she still does !

Then, I was the one who made fun costumes,

now she makes them herself of course.

But

there is also her big daughter

who looooves the dresses in "Game of Thrones"

So there was a complicated dress for the big girl

ánd some clothes for mama.

(a frilly skirt)

Well ... that was a bit too much in such a short time !!!

Disaster of not being finished in time

lurked around the corner ...

So a call came

and a little voice said :

help !

Ahhhh well, I was only doing a bit of hand stitching ...

So, yesterday evening

they all came to visit

and she brought me the fabric package.

A top piece and then four strips ...

the last one 8 meters wide !!!

(ruffle, ruffle, ruffle)

One down, three more to go ...

GRRRRR 

this only happened twice

but that was annoying enough !

And late tonight :

done !

pfffffffffffft 

(the top that goes with it will hopefully be finished tomorrow)

Donn't know what the big boy is wearing,

but the small one has a fitting

knight's armor

(out of fabric   ;-)  )

hot in July

While summer solstice was a kind of drizzly day,

at the end of June and now in July

the summer is in full swing :

it's HOT !

We keep the doors and windows closed

to keep the heat out as much as possible

only to open them up very late in the evening.

Last night it stayed well over 25 degrees

...

Lots of time to make some new items

for the MAF-Festival (and market)

this Sunday :

a "dance" waistband 

(leastwise : there are tiny bells sewn onto it,

so it jingles as you move)

(MAF : Mother Earth Family festival)

It was so much fun to look for bright and "bling" goodies

in my vast stash.

But some of the ribbon (also with the pompons) I bought

last week on the Rotterdam weekly market.

I lóve those tiny pompons

except :

I  DON'T like it that my thread

catches time and again behind them !!!

I just need to sew on the bands to tie it.

A detailed peek.

And here is another one in blue

That little "baby" ...  is just a matching cuff

Another detail.

Of course the cuff has a little bell too !

And yet another, in black and white.

It was hard to find some good black-and-white flowers

(I didn't have a big felted one)

so I took this gorgeous big silk peony and bow

as a bright pink accent.

I sat in the garden just now,
sewing on the black and white one in the last daylight,
listening to the quiet, lazy songs of several blackbirds
singing their latest tunes
.... mmmmmm
warm summer nights !

a bit of everything

I'm still busy with my cuffs,

but because I had to mount one of my "Solstice" quiltlets

on a canvas (it's sold)

I took out my acrylic paints as well today.

(ahhhhhh ... that's been really a long time, but

that will get a follow-up now, I think)

Here are some of my special "Night" cuffs :

three Full Moons and one Starry Night.

Amazing :

the one on the left I made specially for Daughter !

(you can see the delicate thin wrist she has :

always looking for a bracelet .... but hard to find one that fits !)

(ha, one could throw a ball ...)

* 

Because it's school holiday here, the grandchildren 

are here on the days that Daughter is working.

The oldest is quite clever with her phone, Youtube and a crochet hook

(and Granny has some yarn)

This will be an amigurumi Little Bigfoot Bunny ...

and you can see she's skillful in doing her hair too !

*

Late this afternoon Daughter came in with a sad face 

she had been doing her laundry

and when she opened the machine

she saw to her horrer

her beautiful new felted hat lying on top of everything else

GRRRRRRRRRRR !!!

It must have slipped in with the clothes she put in the machine !

She came by so we could put it on the hat mold

PFFFFFFT

The hat was washed

but, thank heavens, it still fitted !

What a relief 

She must have done a pretty good job in the first place !!!

Earth day

Isn't that a bit ridiculous

one day only ?

I think we should be a bit more aware

of what this little blue marble in the vast universe

means to us.

We should be more careful what we do,

what we use up, change, spoil, pollute,

thinking we can go on without end

...

Earth is very good for us

and we are only part of this vast mechanism called life

part of it

!

An "Earth" cuff to celebrate this day

(in the making)

and a brooch

And here they are finished

;-)

colours .....

After I started with the few cuffs I made

out of the boxful of  fabric strips

it is almost as if I can't stop :

I have so many gorgeous fabrics in my (giant) stash !

It is so tempting to make new colour combinatons ...

It's like creating a new little story
over and over again.

The one on the right is finished,

the one on the left I finished late in the evening

because it fits só well to the yellow/green "Spring"sweater

that I wanted to wear to the Stitch'n Bitch yesterday.

Uhhhhm ..... I couldn't help it but had to make

a matching brooch too !

Today I finished of the ones that were only halfway done.

It took a lot of time

but I love them all to be neat when they're up for sale on the market !

Spring, Dusk, Seaglass and Dawn

The finished batch so far ...

(in front of my collection of children's picture books)

(I'm thinking about some earthy colours too to complete it ...)

I can  NEVER  resist taking a picture

when the Prunus (flowering cherry) is in bloom

...

SPRING  !