Pouch, Poppy and Peonies

Last Sunday it suddenly hit me that it had been ages since I did any kind of sewing. I haven't done any hand sewing since early December or machine sewing since mid-November. If you've followed this blog you may remember that I was suffering from vertigo in December, and was advised to keep away from anything that might put a strain on my neck. At the same time my personal life was also in turmoil due to an upsetting separation, and everything that was happening just put me completely out of rhythm for months. My recent dyecation was pure therapy to me.

So last Sunday I got out my sewing machine and got started on a little project. I guess that after dyeing all that fabric I really should have used my own hand-dyes, but I decided to use commercial fabrics instead. I have some wonderful fabrics in my stash that I have been saving for a long time and now it was time to use them. I also got out one of my favourite patchwork books: Rashida Coleman-Hale's I [heart] Patchwork. The projects in it are so simple and elegant, and I love the combination of neutral linen and colourful cottons. I made the  cosmetics pouch on p. 34.

One side is purple

And the other side is red

However, I did used some of my hand-dyes for this thread-sketched card (the orange and green):

After I'd finished the pouch, card and a number of slightly tedious projects in the category 'Things-to-alter-or-mend', I got out my unfinished Alabama Chanin market bag project and did some hand sewing. 

And you know what? The ice is leaving! Spring is on its way even up here in The North. Yoohoo!

Thanks for visiting and see you again soon! - Annika

I needed Something for my Bathroom

In my last post I wrote about the Franka wall quilt that I want to make to remind myself of a special moment. If anyone wonders, I haven’t got very far yet. I’ve scanned the image, resized it, printed it and blue-tacked it to my wall. And then other things started to demand my attention. I have a little project for a friend that I need to finish. I also have another project for a friend that I need to get cracking with. And I needed something for my bathroom.

The ‘something for my bathroom’ won this time, and so I picked out Rashida Coleman-Hale’s book ‘I Love Patchwork’.(Follow this link if you want to look inside the book.) I love this book, because it’s full of charming little projects that are just calling out to me: ‘Make me, make me!’ I decided to make a small basket for bathroom stuff based on the utensil basket she describes in the book. This is the result:

I used mainly commercial fabrics, but one of the fabrics is my own. The one with a citrus pattern is made with thickened Procion MX dye, soy wax and monoprinting. I followed the instructions in Melanie Testa’s book Inspired to Quilt when I designed it. The citrus shapes are made with a plastic thingy that came out of a jar of sundried tomatoes in oil, which I dipped in melted soy wax and applied to the fabric. I then painted around and inside the soy wax shapes with thickened dye, covered the shapes with a new layer of wax to protect them and monoprinted the background. Here's the basket put to use: