Ravenhill

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!

 

Spring sewing and learning something new

Spring is here and it is wonderful! No way to express it really, the immense joy of it! I try here to capture some of its beauty.

Blossoms are turning up here and there!

The surge of energy of the spring air must have encouraged me to tackle my first buttonhole. I found myself making this dress for Lilly with three buttons and that meant I had to get over my fear of learning how to do the button holes. I got out a sewing book, my sewing machine instructions, and the funny button hole foot. I used a scrap and made a few practice ones. There were a few setbacks at the beginning but I kept at it and before long I dared to do the real thing on her dress.

Here she is wearing it. The fit of the dress isn't the best, but that isn't due to my sewing skills.

She was patient and played happily with her bunnies while I took photos. As you might have noticed, they are smooching.

Outdoors we are now on our way to nursery school.

Early morning walks are always a joy, full of song, skipping and discoveries.

  

Buttons, take two, in color

Here are my trapped flower buttons again. This time in color. I wish I knew more about them. They seem so special and unique. If anyone has an idea of how they make these, when they were made or other information about this type of buttons I would love to know.

The jars are also from one of my thrifting adventures. I can never have too many containers.

I wonder if you thought the buttons prettier in black and white or in color?

I wonder what you did this weekend and if it seems to fly by for you too? I spent a bit of time sewing and lots of time laughing with my family. My son has been annoying us for a time by scaring us, you know, jumping out from behind a curtain and roaring "Raaaah!" We finally realized that he really wanted us to scare him! Now we are having the most outragous time trying to frighten him. He loves it and we all laugh hysterically, every single time.

Black and White buttons

The vintage buttons in the forground are some of my favorites. I was going to use them on the secret Valentine's gift I mentioned yesterday, but then had another idea. When I got them out though I thought I should show them to you. I found them at a flea market. I should explain something about many Norwegian flea markets. They are held by sports teams or bands, to raise money for the group. All items for sale are donated by people wanting to help or to simply get rid of no-longer-wanted items. So someone just gave these wonderful buttons away.

The flowers are actually pink. I think I will have to show them in color soon too. I added two new bags to my shop today. They are bright and colorful and wouldn't really fit with today's post.

I am already dreaming of flea market season opening in a few months. Better yet, talking with mom today and discussing possible dates of future visits! This is really going to help me through the remainder of the winter.

Lilly's new doll and doll clothes

Lilly was excited as can be at Christmas when she opened up her doll and doll clothes from Grandma and Papap (her grandfather.)

She was promptly named after me, because of the curly hair.

Here is one of the beautiful peices of clothing my mom stitched up for little Emily. I wish this little red fleece with the beautiful black glass buttons was in my size!

Mom made this beautiful dress too. The fabric is delicate with the pretty blossoms scattered all over it and is so lovely, trimmed with dainty lace. Lilly's intense concetration gives a good indication of her pleasure in playing with her new dolly.

Gifts to inspire YOU!

It is finally the most festive of months! December is a lovely month to enjoy making things. I thought it would be fun to share my enthusiasm for the Christmas season and my love of crafting with you by offering inspirational packs! I have two to give away and two that are in my shop. Because I am lazy I only took photos of the two packs for my shop, but the two I am giving away are nearly alike, they simply have a slightly different selection of buttons and threads. So feast your eyes on the goodies....

My first fun pack features reds, greens, whites, and a bit of aqua and blue thrown in!

I put together a mix of new and vintage prints in the spirit of the season.

Here is the second one, very traditional reds and greens, and like the first pack, it too contains fabrics, ribbons, notions, stickers, flosses:

I love to spread a bit of Christmas cheer!

Yes, a great amount of fun could be had with these and I hope that the two lucky winners will have a ball! If you would like to enter my little give away please simply leave a comment to this post. Comments will close Tuesday, December 8th at 7 am Norwegian time. Soon after I will announce two lucky winners!

I also have two Christsmas inspiration packs in my shop (so sorry, they sold out fast!)

Black and white Monday

I might declair Monday the official Black and White photography day, I am just so inspired by this "new" perspective. Today was the first day of Fall vacation and since I needed some felt for a custom order the children and I took a trip downtown to Oslo.

I had my old trusty compact camera along and as always we enjoyed the views on our journey.

Noway Design had a new window display for autumn.

Finally we arrived at Husfliden for some yarn for my pjoning project and thread. This is their pretty symbol outside the shop. My children had behaved so wonderfully and were perhaps even a bit unusually well-mannered... until we got to Husfliden. While I had my back turned looking at some yarn I hear my 8 year old tearing through the shop after my 4 year old. I had to stop that. I couldn't be banned from Husfliden! They now offer ever 9th ball of yarn for free!

By this time we were hungry and the park bench in front of the parliment building was the perfect spot for people watching, a bite to eat, and to rest our weary feet a bit.

Lilly seems mesmerized here by the birds that were flitting around close by.

Oslo is a beautiful city. Here it is 11.15 am and our bellies are full as we head down the main street to Panduro Hobby shop for a half meter of felt. We had a lovely trip to the city.

These jet black buttons that I have been dying to show you and have you ohhh and ahhh over with me are perfect for my Monday B&W theme. I bought handfulls of these pretties and even have an idea of what I would like to do with them!

I have a few sets of several, some pairs and many many singles. Most of them are different. I was lucky enough to find a button collector at the flea market we went to in Maine. He had such gorgeous ones and picking was no easy task.

A good book

Things have been busy here lately. Nothing special, just the daily activities with two children and a husband. We are enjoying signs of spring.

The snow is still covering a larger percent of the ground than I would like though... but the other day my little one squealed: "Look Mommy, grass!" That is a sight for sore eyes after many months of snow coverage.

When I found this incredible book, Yllebroderier, by Ingrid Eggimann-Jonsson, from the library, about wool embroidery I nearly wanted winter to start again.

The link will get you to a site where you may purchase this book if you get the desire.

I think she is so talented and want to try doing this myself... I will just show you a few more photos...

I just wish I was more adept at reading Swedish. It really isn't that different from Norwegian, but different enough that I find it rather tedious.

I am sure you recall the recent swap I told you about in my last post, well, now Anne is hosting a give away of one of my matryoshka dolls if you would like to join in! These two happy mamas, Fru Lind and Fru Blomdal are in my shop.

Our day, a homemade skirt and mail!

Yesterday my big boy was home sick with a fever which happily was gone by this morning. That meant that little one and I were free to go to open day care.

Occasionally I help Anne Katrine by walking her adorable wee one to her nursery school which is in the same building as the play group we go to.

The walk to our play group is especially pretty in the snow. This is were we often seen the ducks.

The little red house with the pointy roof is where we go to meet some other stay-at-home parents and thier children.

After the fun of playing with the other children, song time, and having lunch we walked home on the slippery paths. I decided it was late for a nap and she agreed to a photo shoot instead! So here she is in a twirly skirt I made her from vintage Liberty of London fabric paired with another Liberty of London at the waist.

The vintage morning glory fabric is a heavier weight and puffs out nicely.

 

Here she is putting her baby to bed and you might wonder about her bare feet on our hard wood floors. Well, our heat is from hot water that is piped into our neighborhood. The water is heated by burning garbage. We actaully never ever turn on our radiators! The heat coming in through the pipes is sufficient to heat our place warmer than we need, so the kids go barefooted year round.

 

Finally, I have to show you Lilly's favorite accessory these days. I won it on a give away held by Kaori. She sent me such a delightful package!

Can you read what she wrote on the tissue holder? "Germs germs - go away!" Everything was so sweet and prettily wrapped. I was so tickled and Lilly just swooned over the handmade hair clips!

It took me ages to convince Lilly that it was ok to just wear ONE at a time and not all three front and center on her bangs...

 

Thank you so very much Kaori! They are certainly being put to good use and Lilly gets so many compliments about them.

I nearly forgot to tell you: Ravenhill Liberty of London photos have been spotted on this blog, Vain and Vapid; and one of my little matryoshkas was featured on Little Brown Pen.

I attacked my thrifted Norwegian sweater

We were off line for nearly two days. I nearly went mad! It was probably good for me, but it is frustrating when you have things to do! I got a few sewing projects done instead. Remeber I showed you my pile of Norwegian hand made sweaters I had thrifted awhile ago?

Well one of them had numerous challenges: missing buttons, holes in the sleeve, a wrist coming apart at the seams, and a neck that was no longer staying sewn down.

I repaired the various holes and seams and then took off all but one button. I then dug into my stash of vintage pewter buttons and found mismatching buttons of the right size.

The sweater is so warm and cozy with a perfect fit. I have always wanted a sweater with mismatched buttons and now I have one of my very own! It is definitely sweater weather as it has gotten bitterly cold lately.

My little one having a picnic in the woods with daddy and big brother the other day. As you can see, we are still desprately in need of snow!

These little babies in a basket were barely in my shop before someone had taken pity on them and offered them a loving home! Thank you!

And these little ones are my latest creations!

 

I hope that I can find them a good home soon. They are snug in thier little quilts made from Japanese Lecien cotton fabrics which are my favorite at the moment.

Not so neat and tidy, a few glimpses of my sewing room

Thank you so much for all the good wishes for my night alone this past weekend! It was a true delight to enjoy so many uninterrupted hours of tranquility. On Saturday, I just goofed off surfing on the computer and then on Sunday I got busy sewing.

It is funny, I still feel like the new blogger on the block, but I just realized that I am approaching my first year anniversary! So I am going to think up something marvelous to give away to celebrate and thank you for all your wonderful support. I guess blogging just wouldn't be so much fun without getting the lovely feedback from you. It has pushed me much further than I would have gone on my own. The very best part of blogging for me though is feeling a part of this fantastic crafting network of inspiring artists, designers and crafters.

I realized too that I haven't shown you much of my sewing room! I have my own tiny, tiny, almost doll-sized sewing room. Americans, with their typically big houses, would probably say it was the size of a walk-in-closet, but it does have a window so we can count it as a room.

I don't like to show so much of my home because, it is more shabby than chic and well, I make so many messes with my projects that it isn't always is very seldom anything near "perfect". I guess I have wanted you to think good things of me, but perhaps after blogging for nearly a year I am ready to show you more of who I am.

I would love to have my fabrics all nicely folded and arranged perfectly, but I am forever pawing through them to find just the right one, and that makes it a bit untidy... Sometimes my children paw through them too and that really makes things untidy. Anyway I have four sets of shelves with doors nearly ceiling high fairly full of fabric. These shelves aren't too heavily laden but some are near swaying under the weight of it.

 

I can't even keep my stack of Liberty of London nice and neat, but I still think it is beautiful!

With all the colorful fabrics a sewing room doesn't need much in the way of decorations, but I love the three butterflies on the one wall. I wouldn't have bought them myself because it is rather sad for the poor creatures. Since my husband inherited them we are happy to have their beauty on our walls. I hope you have enjoyed this mini-tour of my sewing space. Getting to see other people's messes and crafting spaces is always a thrill for me as I know I am not the only one less than perfect.

Collector, hoarder...

Yesterday Lilly and I took an expedition to the other side of town to pick up some treasures!

A full 1.5 kilo of buttons! The lovely Mother of Pearl had a surprising amount of blue ones.

These two-toned metal buttons are rather unusual.

I think these pewter hammered buttons are quite handsome.

These are probably my favorites. I just love the designs.

Here are the reds! What great fun to sort through them all to find such pretty shapes and colors.

I love these petite glass buttons...

Just wanted to share my latest goodies with you so as to inspire to a lovely and possibly crafty weekend!