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