Halloween Is Coming...

... the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in an old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny,

a ha' penny will do.

If you haven't got a ha' penny,

God bless you.

I learned this rhyme from a young girl while I was living in Scotland. She had a turnip lantern and was dressed up as a witch. She remined me of a similar custom we have in Finland, but at Easter. Halloween isn't a traditional festival in Finland, although we do celebrate All Hallows' Day. However, Halloween has slowly been creeping in among our festivals over the years, and why not? We need a little fun this dreary and dark season. Therefore I decided to embrace Halloween and make myself a pumpkin to cheer things up a little. I found the pattern in Anne-Pia Godske Rasmussen's book Sy liv i lapparna (From 2002, so probably out of print).

Happy Halloween!

Flora & Fauna

It's time for another quick Franka update. By now I've added the flowers and the fish and started working on the thought bubble.

All those tiny spaces inside the letters... They were a total surprise to me. I hadn't noticed them before I drew the outside of the letters. It's probably just as well I didn't. :D

Behind the thought bubble you can catch a glimpse of another project, which turned out to be a little more ambitious than I expected. That's perfectly normal in my world. I still haven't learned that whenever I think "That shouldn't be too hard" or "That shouldn't take too long", an alarm bell should go off. But it's probably just as well it doesn't. :D

You Can Tell It's Autumn...

... by the clicking of my knitting needles. In an earlier blog entry, I wrote that knitting is something I regress into when my energy levels are low. I also tend to knit more in the autumn, as the cold weather inspires warm accessories. I found a fun yarn in my stash and figured that a pair of socks would be a useful project for my recent train journeys to and from Ostrobothnia.

Socks in progress. Yarn: Nalle Marjaretki by Novita. 

This particular yarn is probably no longer available, 

so the closest equivalent would be Nalle Kukkaketo.

Creatively speaking, I haven't been up to much lately, as I've been both tired and away from home. But I have kept myself busy with a few small projects. Two weeks ago, I came up with an idea for a little jewellery pouch, and made 9 in one sitting. (They're really quick to make.) I'm planning to write instructions for them for this blog. They're made from organza, which gives them a luxurious feel, and since the fabric is transparent, you can easily see which piece of jewellery is in which pouch. They're great for necklaces, which easily get tangled up in the jewellery box.

Another project that I've been working on during train journeys and in front of the TV is the pillow cover that I blogged about here. By now I've finished all the embroidery and appliqué...

... and started beading it. I really like the way it is turning out.

And dreaming about my next visit to a warmer climate and the Home of the Boxfish, I've bought a book about snorkelling and free-diving. Inspired by Mrs Eider's and Mrs Merganser's Diving Schools for Ducklings, I've decided to teach myself some simple diving techniques. I'm definitely not planning to learn any advanced free-diving skills, as I'm happy just to be able to pop down under the surface for a few seconds to say hello to my finned friends. So far, however, I've just been practising holding my breath out of the water: on the bus (between bus stops) and walking (between lamp posts). It's quite exciting, and a little bit scary.

My drawing and paiting has been to a near standstill, but I did this doodle recently, inspired by my day-dreaming about diving and snorkelling. I've picked up a few tips along the way about Zen doodling and Zentangle, so I thought I'd give it a try. I've always done pretty boring and unimaginative doodles, so I decided that it's time I shook them up a bit and tried to doodle a bit more creatively. That way it's not just a doodle, but something that I actually might be able to use somewhere. And it's a lot more fun!

Needle-felted Heart Ornaments

I'm sorry that it took me so long, but here, finally, are the directions for the needle-felted heart ornaments that I wrote about just over a month ago in this blog entry.

Needle-felted heart ornament

Materials:

• 2 pieces of craft felt, approximately 12 x 12 cm (4.5” x 4.5”) 
• scraps of yarn, embroidery thread, embroidery floss, etc. 
• sewing or machine embroidery thread 
• 1 piece of batting, approximately 10 x 10 cm (4” x 4”) 
• 22 cm (9”) of narrow ribbon 
• beads 
• embroidery floss

Print the template in 150 dpi to ensure that the size is correct

Directions 

1. Arrange the fibres that you wish to needle-punch onto the felt on top of one of the felt pieces. If you use snippets of machine embroidery thread, it is best to place them under the wool, as that makes it easier to secure them.

2. Punch the fibres into the felt with a hand felting tool or a needle-felting machine. You just need to punch them until they stick reasonably well to the surface.

3. Secure the fibres with free-motion stitching or some other form of machine stitching.

4. Trace the heart template on the back of the needle-felted piece, but do not cut it out yet.

5. Place the felt pieces right sides together and stitch along the heart-shaped line, making sure you leave an opening that is approximately 5.5 cm (2 ¼”).

6. Cut around the heart and clip the corners and curves. You can also use pinking shears, in which case you don’t need to clip the curves. Turn the heart right sides out.

7. Trace the heart template onto the piece of batting and cut out the heart shape.

8. Poke the heart shaped piece of batting into the sewn heart through the opening. A tool such as haemostats or tweezers is helpful to get the batting in the right position.

9. Fold the ribbon in half and make a knot close to the raw edges to form a loop. Thread the looped end of the ribbon through a big needle and bring the needle inside the heart through the opening. Poke the needle through the fabric in the indentation on top of the heart and pull the ribbon through. The knot is now hidden inside the heart.

10. Whip stitch the opening closed.

11. Finish the heart with beaded blanket stitch, which is worked like this: take a stitch, thread a bead onto the embroidery floss and push it as far as it goes, take a new stitch, making sure that the bead sits on the loop that forms along the top edge of the stitch.

The finished needle-felted heart ornament

Good luck with your heart ornament!   

PS. Please let me know if you find errors in the directions so I can correct them!

Anniversary

Today it is exactly one year since I started blogging. Here's a link to my first ever blog entry. I didn't have much to say, did I, but I had some cute boxes to show.

At first I regarded the blog as an experiment, and I didn't have much of a plan for what I was going to do with it. However, I knew that I needed something that would activate me into trying things out instead of just reading about them and planning to do them "later". I'm an information hoarder, and for me there's a real danger that I never get round to trying things out in practice, as it seems to be easier to read about them than to actually do the job. The past year has taught me that there isn't any substitute for experience. You can read every book there is on a subject, but actually trying it yourself is the best teacher.

Having a space where I can share my experiments and projects with other kindred spirits has really helped me activate myself, and I love sharing my discoveries with you readers. A year ago I thought it was such a shame that I had hardly anyone to share my discoveries with and perhaps to inspire. By now my blog has had visitors from over 50 countries from every continent except the Arctic and Antarctic. Amazing!

A big thank you to all my readers! Please don't hesitate to leave comments and suggestions on the blog, and if you don't want to leave an official comment, you're welcome to e-mail me on the address provided to the left. I'm looking forward to hearing from you! And please continue to visit my blog, as there is plenty more coming this way. I have big plans and I'm bursting with ideas.

A Job Well Done

To my great relief, the project that has been my bane at the office for the last four weeks was finally wrapped up on Friday. To celebrate, I went by a chocolaterie on my way home and bought four handmade pralines to enjoy with a cup of tea. Flavours: champagne, cherry-orange, strawberry-lime and mocha.

Makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?

After tea and chocolates, inspiration descended upon me and I made my first multicoloured stamp. I learned this technique from Melanie Testa and Patricia Gaignat at least a year ago, but haven’t tried it before now. There are a number of circumstances why the time was ripe for me to try it now, and here are the top three:

1. Melanie has been making and using multicoloured stamps a lot lately, and has blogged about it, so that whetted my appetite.

2. At the crafts fair that I visited a couple of weeks ago I found double sided self-adhesive film, which makes it super easy to attach craft foam shapes to transparencies. So far I haven’t been able to find self-adhesive craft foam here, so this is the second best thing. What a relief not to have to mess around with glue any more!

3. A few months ago I came across an interesting product called Tack-n-Peel (by Tsukineko). This is a sticky and reusable cling sheet that you can attach to a piece of acrylic. You can then use this print block for unmounted stamps or [...drum roll...] craft foam shapes that are attached to a piece of transparency.

This craft foam, self-adhesive film, transparency and Tack’n’Peel on a block of acrylic combo is a real winner in my world, because these stamps are easy to make, the materials are inexpensive, the transparency backing is a real space saver, and the cling sheet on a block of acrylic gives the flimsy transparency backed stamp stability when needed, AND it creates a transparent print block, so you know exactly where you place your stamp. The advantages never seem to end. I’m sold.

Different parts of a multicoloured stamp. 

Many of these shapes can also be used on their own.

The stamped image

Now I need to think about inkpads. My collection of inkpads isn’t very big, as I haven’t been much into stamping so far. Here’s another blog entry where I discuss stamping. However, when stamp-making has become as easy as this, I might actually catch the pox and start making more stamps. They are after all a great way of trying out ideas in your sketchbook.

PS. Look at these yummy scissors (from Fiskars) that a friend gifted me! Don’t they make you wanna pull out your fabrics and start cutting? 

She's Smiling Now

A quick Franka update. I felt inspired to continue my work on the Franka wall quilt today, and got on quite a bit. It's great to see the smile on her face. I couldn't bear to stop until her face was in place.

If you wonder how I keep track of everything, this is how I do it:

I number every pattern piece after I've drawn it on tracing paper. I have also given each separate fabric a letter, and after I've decided what fabric to use for a certain pattern piece, I write the letter after the number. When I've traced the pattern piece onto paper-backed fusible web, fused it onto fabric and cut it out, I draw a line after the letter. And finally, after I've fused a pattern piece in place on the quilt, I tick it off on the list. I feel slightly silly to share this list with you, as there's something slightly control freakish about it, but if you have a closer look, you'll see that there are 87 pieces listed already, and a few more still missing, so I need something to help me keep track of everything. Some of the pieces are so complicated that I don't want to have to cut them out twice if I can help it. (Ask me how I know...)

Have a great week everyone!