Ravenhill

Sewing for little one

Oh, the weekend whizzed by and so did our first week of summer vacation!

My favorite daughter got a new top.

She clammours for new clothes all the time and I really should pick up the pace a bit. She can really think me a bore that I am so slow about it.

I had thought it would leave the top just "plain" with no added embellishment, she however, thought a bit of fancying up was called for. So I made a wee, little ragged edged rose. It turned out that she was right, this was just what the top needed. I like the subtlety of it.

Then it needed a tag inside, this she also insists upon. Funny, the store tags I am asked to cut off, they irritate her sensitive skin. However, she would like her handmade garments to have tags to help to show where the back and front are. It is fun to make them actually.

Whenever I take photos with her we end up in stiches. Sometimes the camera shakes as much as she does while we giggle together.   

Before I run off to enjoy the rest of what has been an incredibly lovely sunny weekend I have to tell you about how Jacquie shows off how she has done up some wonderful flowers with pretty leaves and shows some great ways to use them. She made them using my Cute as a Button Flower Tutorial.

Crazy for Patchwork Pillows and a Winner

The other day I was asked if I would do a custom order for patchwork pillows. It was such a ball that I have made more! For these I have combined Heather Bailey fabrics from all three of her collections. I don't know how those silly dolls, Fru Leren and Fru Mongstad snuck into the photo. They like to do that. They are so used to being in the limelight...

You have all been so nice! I have felt positively lifted several feet off the ground from the enormous amount of good cheer you have given me! Thank you for all the encouragement, both for the things that I make and for the tutorial. I was nervous about it since I had never done one before and wanted to make it very clear. I so appreciate all of you who wrote to me about it. Then it was a huge thrill when Hege wrote me today and let me know that she had already made a little flower to decorate a pretty dress!

I want to thank in particular

Catherine

Melissa P. who also has already made flowers with my tutorial and has posted them on the flickr group!

saffiertje

for assiting me in telling the world about the give away! Eeek! We have two winners!

I used a random number generator to help me pick the winners of my Twine and Heart give away. A warm congratulations to Clare and Linda!

Guess what? I was featured on Cuteable! And a mama and baby showed up here. The very kind Tara also featured my matryoshkas today. I fear my matryoshkas might let it get to their heads... all this fame... Many thanks to you for these fun features!

I haven't made any non-floral dolls for some time now and these adorable Japanese fabrics (the deer one on Fru Osterberg is from Lecien and the lamb is Japanese but I am sorry I don't recall who made it) inspired me to make some non-flowery dolls. The chicken fabric on Fru Bondegård is an old favorite of mine.

I had time to list the dolls in my Etsy shop tonight, but it is getting late and I will have to leave the patchwork pillows for another day.

I decided I would try my hand at crochet today, and maybe I will have something pretty to show you soon... Are you doing any crafting today?
 

Cute as a Button, a Flower Tutorial for you

A number of you have asked me how I made my button flowers and I thought I would push my fears aside and plunge in with my very first tutorial. I must admit I am a bit nervous about this. I have always wanted to share with my fellow craftspeople, but somehow never got around to it until now.

In any case, you can find my first tutorial here.

This new pouch got gussied up with this Cute as a Button Flower that I made. Now what am I going to do with the other 58 or so odd flowers in various shapes, colors, and sizes? That is where you come in. If you should make some of these yourself then I would be thrilled if you would post them on my Cute as a Button Flower Flickr group. 

I didn't show you the white one I made...

Well, actually, there are more...

In the blink of an eye they were sewn onto a new bunting with vintage laces and doilies. 

I seem to be a hopeless romantic,

I can just imagine someone using this white and ecru bunting for their wedding.

It has been delightful to have been flooded with so many lovely comments on my give away post! Thank you all so very much for making me feel appreciated. The give away is still open! Please join in if you haven't already. A special thank you to the following sweet readers who have been helping spread the word about the give away by blogging about it:

zydintisvajoniupieva

Michele

Elisabeth

The happy hedgehog

Redirected Dreams

Valarie

I am sorry, I am poor with names, so mostly I have just used the name of your blogs. I just wanted you to know how nice you were to share the news.

TIP: If you haven't already joined this raffle you might want to, and this one I am dying to win... if you like fabric that is...

Have a most creative day!

 

Twine and Heart Give Away

There is nothing like new craft supplies to get the creative juices flowing. The very nice Whitney sent me her Whisker Graphics Twine to use and to share some yardage with you!

Aren't the colors great! Who ever heard of lime or orange twine? And the aqua is delicious.

I only got a tiny taste of her new colors, and I am particularly enamoured with the cotton candy at the far right.

So, I get to give away some twine! Two lucky commenters will be receiving twine from me!

But that is not all, the winners will also receive one homemade heart ornamanent each.

As I mentioned earlier, new crafting supplies really can inspire! I made these hearts, with various twines to hang with, including Whisker Graphics.

I had a ball making them.

I used fabric scraps, snippets of ribbon, copious embroidery stitches (french knots, bullion stiches and daisy chains), surrouned it with crocheted lace, and topped them off with colorful twine or perle floss.

There are multiple of ways you may enter my give away. Each one counts as 1 entry (so the more you do the more chances you have to win).

1. Leave a comment on this blog post 
2. Link to this post on your blog (please feel free to use the photos from this post!) and then come back here to leave a comment telling me you have done so.
3. Link to this post on Twitter and then come back here to leave a comment telling me you have done so.
4. Link to this post on Facebook and then come back here to leave a comment telling me you have done so.

If you do 2,3, or 4 please make a separate comment on this post for each letting me know what you have done so as the comments are your entries. So if you do all four you need to leave 4 comments. 

So, please help me spread the word?

Giveaway ends this Sunday, June 20th at midnight and there will be two winners which I will announce soon after!

EXTRA!!! The next 5 buyers in my Etsy shop will each receive one free heart ornament along with their order.

   

Thank you so much Melissa

The nicest goodies arrived in the mail! The incredibly gifted and kind Melissa sent these wonderful things to me. I had the supreme good fortune of winning her give away. Do you see the amazing peice of vintage lace she sent me? Oh, this brought a huge sigh of delight!

Melissa had already read this book so she offered it up for a give away. I am so pleased to be reading it.

Perhaps I should start to feel a bit guilty of winning so many give aways? The truth is I do feel a tad guilty about it, but I couldn't help but enter. Everything Melissa makes is delightful. She and I share a love of vintage textiles, especially embroidery. If you haven't already seen the baby shoes she makes then you are missing out. She salvages the most beautiful hand embroideries and gives them new life as shoes for wee tots.

This little pouch has such fine embroidery on it and was such a delightful surprise! Thank you Melissa for the amazing package!

You might be curious as to the little creatures peeking at the pretty things from Melissa? My grandmother made this baby quilt for my father, must be over 70 years old.

My grandmother gave it to my mom when we were children and mom passed it on to me when my first was born.

It has faded and is a bit frayed in places from use and love. How nice it is to think of my dear Grandma Louise, as we called her, sitting and hand stitching all those tiny stitches.

This pooch really is cute. I like how they broke up the pink, blue and green with some splashes of color on some of the embroidery. It would have been neat to know how the colors looked when new.

Wishing you a nice and hopefully creative weekend.

 

Cutting into precious embroidery for a new project

I made something new today. I think it is really special. I have been collecting vintage embroideries for a few years now, tablecloths, napkins, dresser scarves, etc. I only cut into the ones that have holes or stains that don't want to disappear. Today I got up the courage to cut into a few. I have had this idea for awhile and was happy to find the time to attempt it.

After my little one's birthday I have had parties and celebrations on my mind. I really love to think that someone will want to use my handmade things to decorate their wedding, nursery, garden or anywhere they can think of.

For this banner I cut into three different embroidered vintage tablecloths. I also used vintage and repurposed eyelet fabric, a lovely white linen which I decorated with hand stitches of my own and snippets of a doily or laces. 

I couldn't stop doing it up, I decided to add some of the fabric flowers I had made one day out in the sun with little one who helped me to turn and stuff them. Those little fingers are so good at such jobs and we had such a nice time chatting, soaking in the sun and doing our little sewing project together.

I am not really sure if perhaps the fabric flowers were over the top? 

It is in the shop. Now I am running off to my sewing room to make more garlands! 
 

Birthday party

My little one turned 5 recently. What a fun age for birthdays! The anticipation of it was tremendous, the counting down the days and planning the party. She seems to be a big planner, just like me. I made her this bunting for the party with Heather Bailey Nicey Jane fabrics. We still haven't taken it down from the kitchen. It really brightens it up.

For the party with her friends she wore the beautiful dress my mom made for her. The pleats are so pretty! She also chose to wear the floral pants that I made underneath. She was quite the flowery one that day!

Here she is standing still for a moment and you can see the dress a bit better. The fabric is gorgeous. The row of carved mother of pearl buttons on the front makes it even more special.

You can see one of them up close above. 

Mom called me her little flower when I was little, and I named my little one after a flower. She is growing up too fast, but blossoming nicely. Before I get teary I will show you a bit of what I put in the shop today.

Fru Asperud and her friends would like to travel, make new friends and spread good cheer.

Lazy summer days and knitting

 
You won't find me slaving away at the stove. I am not busy organizing the closets or sitting at the computer.

No, on these bright, sunny, blue-sky days I am outside, with a bit of knitting or sewing. The kids play in the sprinkler or at the playground. Today I got to chat with friends and work on this knitting while the kids played. This is going to be a pair of mittens for someone near and dear, and it is a traditional Norwgian pattern from a near-vintage well used pattern book.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Designer Knitting in my mailbox today. I cancelled my subscription over a year ago I thought in an effort to reduce my, ahem, creative expenditures. It is such an inspiring knitting magazine so I was delighted to have some reading to do in the sun.

I hope you have a sunny and creative weekend! I will be heading to a flea market tomorrow and hopefully have some wonderful finds to show you later.