IF ONLY I DID NOT HAVE TO GO TO WORK

Don´t get it wrong, I love my job! Teaching adults is a very rewarding activity I think.
BUT it takes time which I could spend sewing, spinning, knitting, drawing, painting,...
All of which I NEED to do it seems...
Anyway, I finished knitting this nice wrap. Said wrap will stay in my possession ( that´s for my dear sis!)



It is 100% merino and very soft, quite warm too.
Just the right thing for the coming winter.

I wish you a nice cosy warm time.

HALF-TERM ALREADY

Still gorgeous weather, a perfect indian summer over here.

It is already half-term for my DS. We went to the library yesterday to get enough books to last 2 weeks (that means 2 backpacks full! One for him and one for me).

In the meanwhile I finished the top for my mum.
(modeled by me). I hope she likes it.



I will know next week-end as I will see my whole family then.
I have finished a lace wrap too but it needs blocking, so pictures will be only next time.

I wish you a nice week-end.

WOOLY BUSY

We were lucky with the weather today, beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures.

And enjoying the weather were those funny flowers. I say funny because I remember buying bulbs which were supposed to give many small pink flowers. Instead I have these ones.

They are huge and last only one day! They make nice pictures though!


On the crafty side, I have been in wool up to the neck! I mentioned earlier on that my mother brought me a huge bag of raw wool from Ireland. She scoured it too which was very nice as it smelled a lot.

That´s a picture of the raw wool



which I carded

and then spun

before dyeing it.


I wanted to dye it purple but it turned out a kind of denim. I am knitting it now and I can already say that it is going to be a very warm garment.

I wish you a nice Indian summer.

A BIT CHILLY FOR AUGUST

We are back from our holiday which was very nice and restful.
Here is a picture I painted of our holiday cottage.


Since I came back I made a stitchery for my sis. She wanted that phrase which I then put beside some design. I hope she likes it.


As it is raining a lot I can´t card a huge bag of raw wool my mother gave me. It is a messy job which I can do outside only. I hope to show some of that next time.
Tomorrow is school begin and my DS is starting in a new school. A bit excited and a bit afraid too. Let´s see what tomorrow will bring.

I wish you a nice summer end

GONE

Tomorrow we are going away on holiday. We are looking forward to it.
Before we go, some pictures to keep you waiting until we are back!
My brown top is growing. The blocks won´t stay in that order but I like seeing them on my "design wall". I can check the size better that way.


And now for something completely different!
My DS likes drawing so some time ago we went to a great shop to get some material. The place was so inspiring that I had to buy things for me too. And then I discovered Danny Gregory and his books.
From then on there was no come back! I have started keeping an illustrated journal.
There is still a (very!) long road to go before I can achieve anything good but the way is the goal! It is fun, very rewarding I think and it makes me watch things in a different way.


Of course my son (10) doesn´t spare his critics but that´s ok. We both learn that way.

That´s it for now. I hope to draw more on holiday and to have lots to show when we come back.

Have a nice summer

NOTHING NEW!

Work, hot weather and more work, that´s all there is here at the moment. Only 2 weeks til summer break and 4 weeks holiday!

On the commuter train I can do some knitting and I finished this Lady Kina quite quickly. The pattern is great and easy. The yarn I had chosen was a pain in the a*** though. It is a cotton/ bamboo blend not at all elastic and very difficult to unknit or to sew.


Still, I like the result!

At home I added a stitchery border to my confetti top.


I will start the quilting after the holidays. I am tending towards a machine quilting. But we will see.

I wish you a nice week-end with nice temperatures.

STRAWBERRIES FOREVER

My Strawberries forever is finished.
I am very happy with it. It was a good opportunity to use repro fabrics that I had in my stash. Even the batting is pieced!
Thanks a lot to Lori for this quilt-along.

I will leave you with more pictures!






See you next time!

BONNE FÊTE MAMAN!

Today is mother´s day in France. I thought the picture was very fitting as my mother is just back from Ireland where she got me (under adventurous circumstances) some raw wool for me to spin!

When Lori started her quilt along, I liked her pattern so much, I had to start a strawberry field straight away. The design is wonderful and her directions fun. I am quilting it now and as it is small, it should not take that much time to finish.


I wish you a nice sunday and a nice mother´s day whether you are in France or not!

COLD AND WET

I was not gone on holidays! But still I have not posted for a while just because I was very busy. I gave 2 quilt courses where the students were great but it was a lot to organize. Before that I had a nasty cold and so on and on...

Anyway, as you can imagine I did not sew much but I can show small things that got finished.

First a picture my parents gave me from my grand father (the young man on the left).
As the picture is very small I added some bits and pieces to make it a bit bigger.
I am very pleased with the result and as I have some more pictures you know what will happen next!


Then I sewed a small picture inspired by Janet Bolton. I have had her wonderful book for some years now but I never had the idea to create something alike. This miniquilt won´t be the last either.

And as I hve found a great shop for frames, a 48hour day is the only thing missing!

And at last a picture of the cat frightening the birds! Don´t worry it did not catch any. The birds were too clever. Mice are not that clever though!
That´s it for today. Could you send some sun if you have any where you live. I think it has gone missing here and it is just cold and wet.
Till next time!

GREEN SPRING

I can smell it. Spring is here! Although cold in the morning, the weather is getting sunnier and the garden is back to life after the dreadful long winter.
To make the garden look even more green, I hung the last shawl I knit!

I had dyed the wool some time ago, but a pattern still wanted to be found.
That´s done now. Apart from looking cheerful in my sewing room I don´t have any use for this piece at all. Maybe my mother would like it? Green looks great on her.
Although I have to prepare 2 quilt courses for may, I could not help starting another top. My excuse is that it is a very simple and fast pattern and fat quarter friendly.
I am using some of the dyed fabric I showed last time too. I don´t plan to buy any fabric for this quilt. Let see how big it will get!

I will spend the week-end in my garden looking the daisies, clover and moss taking over the lawn!
Have a nice week-end too!

FINISHED BEFORE EASTER

It seems that the blog wants to cooperate today. I tried to post yesterday and it just would not work!
Anyway, one quilt finished!

I quilted it with a variegated cotton thread with tulip motives. I used a fusible batting for that one and it was a nice experience. I did not have to baste anything. I just ironed the top to the batting, turned it over and ironed the back to the batting. They all stuck all together long enough for me to machine quilt in the ditch.
The quilt has been washed and it feels like normal cotton batting now.


A friend of mine has her birthday soon. As I infected her with the knitting virus I sewed her a bag for putting her knitting needles in. I bought some needles too to put in the bag so she can have more projects on the go!


And this is what I made with the 80´s fabrics I STILL have around. I dyed them.
Here are the original colours:


That was the first batch with a mixture of several dyes I had at hand.
And the second batch with a brown dye.
It is very interesting to see how the different fabrics absorb the dye. They were all put together in the washing machine and still there are so many shades. I am very happy with the result and I am sure I can use those colours more easily than the original ones.


I wish you all an happy Easter!

BACK TO QUILTING

Remember that top?! Well, I decided to finish the quilt which it was supposed to become sooner or later. As the top was an attempt to reduce my 80´s /90´s fabrics, I chose to piece the back too:


Then I added some prairie points (that uses up some fabric too!)

And now I am quilting it. I hope to finish it soon.


The problem is that I still have yards of that kind of fabrics. But I tried some experiment with some of it. More of that next time!

On my commuter train I can´t quilt so I knitted some more socks. These are made of my own spun yarn with that pattern.
They fit really well which is just perfect as it is freezing cold over here.

I wish you a nice time in early spring.