Quilted patchwork pillow

When tiding up my sewing room back in September, I found some fabric pieces that have been left over from this big wedding quilt and I transformed them into a fitting pillow. Perfect Christmas gift for my sister in law. 

It has too different sides and I had a lot of fun quilting. As usual you can see the quilting better from the backside.

The finished size is 60x60cm. Now that Christmas is over I can finally show pictures of it.

A bientôt,
Jane

Reindeer stamps - Gift decoration

I like to wrap gifts into neutral paper and decorate it with washi-tape, drawings, rubans or stamps. The 23rd in the evening I was checking my mental to-do-list and all of a sudden I wanted to have a new motive to decorate this years presents. I made some drawings and decided on a stick-figure style reindeer. For me not beeing a good artist of animals or persons, I think they are quite good and really funny. The carving of the stamps had been fun too. I haven't made any in month.

This is how I decorated the gifts later. Blue for one son and red for the other.

As I hadn't send out jet my Christmas greetings (I wanted to do it relaxed during the holidays) I had the idea to use the deer's for seasonal cards. 

It's more a winter theme than only for Christmas, what is great as no-one will get his cards in time this year.

Except this one, but I like the snowy blue ones better and made directly a bunch of them.

A bientôt,
Jane

Merry Christmas

Happy holidays to everybody!

It is not at all Christmas weather, but the right ambience is in the house: Excited children - last preparations to get the perfect feast - it's smelling of bakery and good food - a lot of candles that are waiting for the sun to set - a cat that would love to examine the tree a little closer but knows that it's not allowed - phone calls from and to family that is far ...

Have a very merry Christmas and peace in your heard!

Joyeux noël a tous, 

Jane

Natural deco balls

From my garden I have some natural balls that I think are a perfect decoration for Christmas. In early summer they are looking like that:

They are blooming for quite a while and after there are plenty of rays at the stem that are having a little ball with seeds at the end. They are reaching diameters of 30cm and more. When they are dry I pick them and hang them up. For example over our kitchen counter. 

And one is hanging on the ceiling of our living room since I hung it up over our Christmas tree last year. 

They are reminding me of stars and the round form is like giant Christmas tree balls. Nature is forming the perfect decoration I don't have to add a thing to it.

A bientôt,
Jane

Alternative to fir tree branches

I used ivy to make a new crown for our front door. Ivy is a good alternative to fir branches. It stays green for about the same time and is not loosing needels.

It's a little bit like the one I made last year. I told myself to have a new idea next year.

A bientôt,
Jane

Angels

Just in time for the Christmasmarket last Saturday I finished a group of angles.

I didn't even had the time to take a good picture of the choir. This is how they looked like at my stand on the market. They are mixing well with my wooden candles.

Some of the angles are having "simple" wings that are white with woven stripes in it from one side and the other side is white with spirals and stars in silver. The other angles are having wings that are decorated from one side with ribbons and laces. If you see those wings against the light the pattern of the backside is shining through.

The wings are fixed with small sticks that I integrated into the wings to the wooden body. They can be pulled out for easier stocking. 

The Christmas market has been okay. I have the impression that there are less people coming every year, but in relation to the number of visitors I am happy with my results. Next weekend I am having another smaller selling event and I hope to reduce my stock a little bit more. 

A bientôt,
Jane

Leatherbags

I buy the leather I am using for children slippers and for pouches (look here and here) in a shop in my hometown that is selling leather scraps. Quite big scraps. The biggest pieces are often having scars or dirty parts, but for little project I just cut around those zones. But I had several big pieces that I kept for a long time to make bags out of it. I just never had the courage to cut into them. Now I did and made two bags that I am really happy with.

There had been big scars in one side, but I covered them with leather circles. I have been thinking for a long time how to make the lining as the leather is too bold to turn it like I do for fabric bags. In the end I made a fabric lining with pocket and zipper, and added to the upper edge a 2cm leather strip that I could sew easily left side to left side into the outer bag. The big advantage of leather is that you don't need to hide the edges.

In comparison to the first one the next bag had been very simple and in fact it took me very few time to make it once I decided for the style.

The color is quite interesting: depending on the light it is either dark grey, aubergine or bordeaux. It is smaller than the red bag and has no lining. The shoulder strap is very small. I think it is more an evening bag than an all-day hand-bag. In the beginning I left it open, but now I added a magnetic button in the middle, that is not visible from the outside.

I am happy how the bags turned out and even happier that I didn't made any errors and wasted the leather. I have some more big pieces in stock and I am waiting for ideas how to transform them into bags. As every piece is unique, you can't come with a plan how your bag should look like, you have to make the plan depending of the size and structure of the leather. This is for day where I like to take challenges.

A bientôt,
Jane

1. Advent

I wish you all a very merry start into the Advent

I changed the usual colourful wall-hanging (click) over our sideboard to the one I made in the beginning of this year (click) and made a quick advent candle arrangement with some wooden blocks. For now I think it is a little bare, but I count on my boys to put whatever they find around it :-)

A bientôt,
Jane

Game cards to decorative magnets

From a children's game that my boys don't play anymore, I transferred the cards to fridge magnets. Easy crafting. The only thing that costs time has been to find magnets that are strong enough to hold more than one paper. I hate if magnets are too weak and falling down whenever there is a little wind or someone passing.

Aren't they cute? Every dwarf is different.

They are for sale on the Christmas market where I have a stand next week.

A bientôt,
Jane

Encoded treasure hunt

For the birthday party of my eldest, I prepared a special treasure hunt with encoded messages that they had to decipher to get the next clue. For every boy I made an encoding disk and explained them the technique of encoding by alphabet displacement. They had been occupied quite a while with decoding, following the clues and running through the village until they found the key for the safe.

A bientôt,
Jane

cushions in white

When I need white fabric I often use bedsheets that I buy in second hand stores. They are often having a much better quality than new white fabrics. For the last sheet I bought I didn't pay enough attention and there had been some embroidery on one end. To not waste this part, I used it up for some slightly romantic pillow cases in white and beige.

There are patchwork parts and old laces and around a white braid. I even managed a nearly invisible zipper in the two square cushions.

It's not the style of my living room or bed, but I like it.

A bientôt,
Jane

Solidarité

Hold on for a minute!

-

Think of what can happen every day and everywhere!

-

Be grateful of what you still have.

Tell those who are close to you, that you love them.

Stop hurrying for various reasons - are they really that important? Slow down, take time to look around you, find beauty in your life and joy. 

Lutin village with lampions

The lutins (french for dwarf) are prepared for the wet season: they are having their village now under an enormous mushroom.

Autumn is not only the wet but also a season where it is getting darker and darker, so they hung up some lampions.

Fall can be so pretty!

A bientôt,
Jane

Ninja in the house

My eldest wants to be a Ninja! He is training himself in our garden and also does exercises in the basement. He sneaks around and tries to be invisible for us (impossible: he is just too cute in his play). He told me that a real Ninja needs a ninja outfit! Of course I made one, also it hasn't been easy to fulfil the expectations.

This is the example he gave me for the costume. Do you think I hit it?

A bientôt,
Jane

Halloween

Two weeks of fall vacation, leaves a lot of time for me and the kids to do Halloween crafting and yesterday evening we used it all for decorating our front yard for a party with lots of friends.

I will just show some of it here. Most of the ideas I found on pinterest.

 We transformed plenty of old jars and glasses to lamps that spend only little light, but were very decorative on the tables and buffet.

This bats my youngest made with his friend from toiletpaper rolls. We didn't invite them to the party. They are flying in the kitchen.

I like to attach a little game for the kids, instead of giving them the bonbons directly. This year I hung up some ghosts in the forest behind our house and send the kids in with torch lights to count them. Those who came back with the right number, could have sweets. 

This ghosts are made from cast. Had been a funny mess to make them. Of course my two shining ghosts from last year are also in the woods to haunt a bit. I still think they are the most friendly ghosts!

We had a fun party! Today we will tidy up and I will put all the decoration away, because after two weeks of thinking only Halloween, I don't like to see it any more. I will set up some pretty fall decoration now.

A bientôt,
Jane