finger thumb

and the winner is...

So I've got a new set of charm packs in the shop. I'm super excited about this one. I think it really is my favourite.  I call this set Pottery Blues because the patterns and the colours remind me so much of the Delft Blauw (did I spell that right?) china and pottery that is so much a part of my Dutch heritage. I LOVE blue and white. There are so many different traditions of blue and white pottery.

From Ming Dynasty China to India to the Willoware of England. And of course, the Delft blue of my childhood. 

Aren't they gorgeous! I made four sets of these and I am totally stealing one of them for myself. I don't know what I'll make, but I know it will be pretty!

And now to the fun part. Wanna know which one of you won a set of these? Drum roll please:

The winner is: Rachel Hofing!

Congratulations Rachel. Leave a comment letting me know which of the colour sets you want and I will contact you regarding how to get it to you.

vintage sheet fabric charm packs, plus a giveaway!

Ok, I'm excited about this.  My etsy shop has been kiiiind of empty as of late. But you know, the holidays will be soon upon us, and this is the time of year that people start to get shopping, so I figured I should do something about that. I'm always trying to think of something new for the shop, and item that I myself would like to buy. Something this is not insanely expensive to ship. And then I though of the perfect thing. 

Charm packs of fabric lovingly assembled from my extensive collection of vintage sheet fabric! (Please note that I was tempted to use the verb "curated", but realise that it is a much overused term, which people tend to latch onto when they want a "value added" buzzword. I've been around both the art block and the marketing block, and so I will not use that word, lovely though it is. This is not art. It is fabric. You could use it to make art, and then maybe someday someone will curate it into a show. But that will not be me.)

Anyhow, I digress (are you surprised?). Let me just say that I had SO MUCH FUN choosing these fabrics. I really dug deep into my stash and finally cut into some of the more precious of my sheets and pillowcases. I've been hoarding these things forever, and am feeling the need to let some of my treasures go out into the world to be treasured by others. I put together a pink and green colourway, that has just the tiniest bit of orange in it to warm it up. I've called it "Under the Pink". I wanted to call it "Maybelline" for obvious reasons (like the pink and green mascara, in case that does not seem obvious to you) but I thought maybe there might be copyright issues? 

And I love this yellow pallette. Soooo 70's. I call it "Daisy, Daisy".

But my favourite is this one. I adore the olive-y greens with bits of turqoise and robin's egg blue. This one is called "Earth Girl".

So each package has 14 different fabrics in them. There are three 5" x 5" inch squares of each of those 14 fabrics for a grand total of 42 pieces of fabric. This all adds up to 3/4 of a yard of fabric. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of Charm Packs, this is a way that fabric is sometimes sold in the quilting world. It allows you to get a little bit of a whole bunch of different fabrics from a complete fabric line, without having to buy it is awkward small amounts. You get an affordable little "taste" of everything that way. And since they are precut you can go right ahead and get to work with them. (for more information about pre-cuts and charm packs, here is an excellent little infographic) For example, if you put one of these packs together you'd make yourself a sweet little baby blanket. Or if you added 42 more 5" squares, in a solid colour for example, you could make yourself a very sweet little nine-patch crib quilt. If you bought four of these packs you could make a quilt big enough for a twin sized bed. Or you could make sew them into half-square triangels and make a lovley little pinwheel quilt or something like that. Really, the possibilites are endless. After all, that's why I (and so many other people) like buying fabric. You are not buying just a thing, you are buying potential. So, if you like the looks of these, pop on over to my etsy shop and check it out. Oh, and I almost forgot, I want to give away one of these pretty little packs to one of you to get the ball rolling. In order to be counted in the draw, just do me a favour and share a link to this post on your facebook or blog or whatever. Or share the link to my etsy shop. I'll enter you in the draw if you do either, and you can enter more than once. And if you win, you get to pick whatever colour you want. Good luck!

vintage by bibu

I've made a new addition to my etsy shop. I'm selling vintage now! I mean, it was about time. I have more lovely vintage goodies crammed into this house than I know what to do with, and I figured it was time to stop hoarding and start sharing. I wasn't sure where to start (I have books, pyrex, knitting patterns, knick-knacks, clothes, jewelry, and fabric galore) but finally settled on these sweet little items that I really have no use for.  Dresses. Adorable, sweet little vintage girls dresses. 

Because its time to face the facts: I am a mother of boys. I do not currently have any little girls and it is very unlikely that I ever will. Because I think our little family is complete. And so, as I was digging through the cupboards the other day and found this box labeled "Girl Clothes" I knew that it was time to let it go.

These little dresses need to find a proper home, and it is just a shame that they are packed away in a box, never seeing the light of day. So I dressed up my little mannequin and had a fun little photoshoot and now am ready to send them off into the world, where they can dress up your adorable little girl. 
 

evening wear

I've been working a lot of evenings lately. Which means I leave home at about 5:00 and don't return till about 11:00pm. So basically, I miss dinner and bathtime and tuck in time for bed.  I'm not home for what hubs and I refer to as "rush hour". The most jam packed (and I would add stressful) time of the parenting day. And I really appreciate that my husband handles this time on his own two and sometimes three times a week . Because I must say that I don't always feel, er, sad about leaving the house at this time, per se. There are days when I will admit that it feels downright good to get hugs and kisses from my little boys and then sweep out into the car, only a purse in hand, hair did, lookin' mall fancy and ready to spend the evening interacting with adults, instead of spending the next few hours making a meal while refereeing toy battles, cajoling reluctant eaters, washing squirmy splashers and wrestling little streakers into their pj's.

But of course, there are also days when it sucks. Days when I'm tired and just want to stay home, tuck the kids into bed, watch a little tv in the evening and go to sleep early. And days when I miss nursing my sweet bath-fresh baby and putting him to bed, and having story time with my big boy and hearing those last sleepy bits of conversation and "I love you's" after the lights are out. 

So last night I headed off to work, got home late, fell exhausted into bed. Was woken this morning by my poor coughing baby (still working out the last of the phlegm from that rotten croup) and when I got him out of bed, got the cutest surprise from my Hubs. He'd dressed the Baby in a pair of pyjamas that he'd received as a long ago baby present from one of my kind co-workers, but did not fit him till now. And I'd never seen them on him before. So here's the dapper little fellow that greeted me this morning.  Ach! So cyoot!

Tuxedo pyjamas. Seriously, could he be any more adorable? 

Its one of those little things about having kids that you don't know until you actually have kids, but the first time you dress them in anything new is so FUN! They look cute in literally, anything, and the novelty cute factor - well, its a small pleasure that you can't underestimate. Nothing like a fresh pair of pj's to lift the spirits.

And of course, on a side note unrelated to how cute this baby is in his little tuxedo pj's, I'd be remiss if I did not remind you of the fact that I"ll be doing the Movies and Maker's Holiday Craft Show and Sale tomorrow in Toronto at the Fox Theatre in the Beaches which is located at 2236 Queen Street East. I'll be there from 11 am - 5:30 pm, selling bibs and blankets and coasters and pillows and wallets and all manner of other cuteness (some of which can be previewed in my etsy shop.) Hope I get to see you there. I'll be back with pictures of the event on Monday. 

"I Spy" Patchwork Wall Hanging (girly-ish version)

Finished the other "I Spy" wall hanging and put it up for sale in my Etsy shop on the weekend. But its been so busy (and generally sleepless) around here that I didn't have time to write about it here till now. This is the "girl" version. You can read about the "boy" version here, and of course, see it in the shop. If you read here often you know how I hate those gendered distinctions, but I am making these things to sell, and I understand the views of the vast majority of parents will keep them from putting Strawberry Shortcake on their baby boy's wall. Anyhow, I ranted a bit about it last time so I won't put you through that again. 

I do love the imagery in this one though. And I spent a TON of time choosing the binding colour. I knew it was going to be a solid, as the quilt has enough going on, and that it'd be pink. ish. I had a swatch of every pink from my local fabric store, and the whole Kona swatch card and I just agonized over it. I didn't want a pink that was too, er, pinky, but didn't want it to read as a reddish orange as many of the non-pinky pinks do. It also had to be strong enough to compete with all the other colours in the patchwork. In fact, I cut out and prepared enough binding in another colour entirely, pinned it in place and everything and then just couldn't go through with it (too orange). Then switched to this dark pink and am very happy with it. I know, the non-quilters reading this think I'm crazy. But the sewists out there, you know what I'm on about. 

Lots of colours and fun and imagery in the patches that I remember fondly (or at least vaguely) from my childhood. This totally brings me back to Saturday morning cartoons. 

And I have quite grown to love this backing fabric too. I have a whole pile in my studio of fabrics that I think of as "destined to be backings". They are not amazing, but not bad. I wasn't in love with them when I bought them, but knew that I'd need a backing someday with some pink in it or whatever, and did not want to waste one of my favourites on a backing, so I bought it. Don't get me wrong, I want my quilt backs to be cute and all, but they are not the star of the show. And especially with a wall hanging, I figure its not going to be seen much at all, not as often as you'd see the back of an actual quilt. But as I sewed and quilted this one, this simple patterend fabric really, really grew on me. Funny how that happens. 

The Baby as usual gave it his high pitched squealing seal of approval. Now I've got one more to make before this years Christmas Craft show. I've got a "gender neutral" one all cut out and ready to go. Only a matter of time. 

baby "I Spy" quilted wall hanging - butch version

Spent the evening finishing sewing on the binding for the first of my "I Spy" wall hangings. A hand sewn binding can be a bit of a slog, but when its done I am always so pleased that I went the extra mile and did it. Now that its finally finished I've put it in my etsy shop, where I hope it will soon be joined by the two other ones that I cut out last week. See? I think the binding just sets it off so nicely. 

I went back and forth for awhile yesterday afternoon between a red binding and this blue one. The red seemed like a good idea because there are so many red details in the imagery. But I had a hard time finding a red that did not clash with the other reds. I know I was being picky, but it just seemed annoying that I could not find the 'right' red. So I went with this nice purple-y blue (Kona's Copen) and I'm happy that I went this way instead. 

I did a simple diamond quilting pattern, because I really want the images to pop, and the diamonds sort of frame most of the faces/characters quite nicely.

I showed it to the Baby, and despite the fact that it is a quilted wall hanging and not a quilt, he decided it was the perfect place to take a break, and get a little fake shut-eye. He now knows how to 'pretend' to sleep, but does such hilariously unconvincing job of  screwing his eyes shut and grinning from ear to ear that I laugh every time. 

Anyways, back to the wall hanging, here is the reverse side.

Another vintage sheet of course. I love this one for backings, but I'm getting down to the end of it. Good thing this is a small quilt; just 35.5" x 18.5". You can see here too that I've attached four loops along the top to make it easy to hang. Just thread a long thin piece of wood through there (strapping or something like that) that is and inch shorter than the actual width and drill or nail it to the wall. Then you can't see how it is hung and it sort of floats on the wall. No ugly dowel showing or anything like that. 

The Baby really did love it. He really likes to play "I Spy" and point to all the different characters. For some reason he keep coming back to Mr. T. 

And no, he is not shooting at Han Solo (insert 'Han Shot First' joke here) but pointing to the little yellow Woodstock bird instead. He just looks like he's got the finger guns going on. Its only a matter of time before he learns to make the little Pee-uw, Pee-uw laser noises. 

Anyhow, if you are interested in this cute little number at all, its all listed it in my etsy shop and ready to go! Now I've just got to get to the other two.....

making stuff

I've been working on some new stuff for the shop. Christmas is coming, right. I could tell this morning because we had a slight dusting of snow. The whole balcony was convincingly white and the Little Dude was very, very excited. He had big plans to play in the snow. We got out boots and snow pants for school and off he went. He was rather disappointed when I picked him up at the end of the day, to hear that the snow was gone. I can remember that feeling from when I was a little kid. How the first smidgen of snow filled your head with dreams of snow forts and snowball fights and snow men and then you went outside and there was literally nothing to work with. You'd make such a good effort, scraping handfuls of it together, trying to get it to pack into a ball. But you'd just end up with wet mittens and a laughably small, crumbly ball of snow which fell apart when you tried to throw it. Such a bummer. 

Anyhow, I'm getting distracted. Its very late and the time change is still kicking my ass as it seems no one informed my children that they could get up an hour later than normal. The Little Dude is ok with it, but the Baby is all like "Whatever, its morning, are you awake? Where is my Bup?" ('Bup' is his word for breastfeeding. I love it.)

So my point is that I'm making some new stuff and its really fun. I'm going to town on my collection of vintage kids bed linnens, and making these quilted wall-hanging things with a sort of an "Eye Spy" theme. I have three of them cut out and have finished piecing one and started quilting it tonight. I love how (comparatively) quickly they are coming together. Compared to full sized quilts that is. 

Here's the first one I did.  These are the cut pieces all laid out and ready to sew. 

Here's a close-up on the piecing after I sewed it together. 

And another close-up. The idea is that you hang it above your baby's changing table or their crib or something and then when they are the age that my Baby is now (year and a half-ish) its kind of a talking point thing. My Baby just LOVES to point and name things right now, and as I'm getting ready to put him to bed these days, he likes to go around the room and say "good night" to things. Good night to all the pictures of things especially. Anything with a face. So he'd love one of these. "Say goodnight to Luke Skywalker. Say night-night to Mr. T!" Its the sort of nostalgic humour that I like too, getting to show your child all the things you liked as a kid. 

Anyhow, I'm making three versions of this. A "boy" version, a "girl" version and an "everybody" version. You know I'm not a huge fan of gendering a child's experiences and things (as in "these are boy toys and these are girl toys" That always drives me nuts.) But that being said, I do love these old kid's cartoon characters and I am aware that most of them fall squarely into one gendered box or another. Spiderman is for Boys and Strawberry Shortcake is for girls we are told. Now of course, if I were just making this for me, I'd have all the things I liked as a kid, which means that Darth Vader would be hanging out right next to My Little Pony. But as I will be attempting to sell these things, I realize that a lot of parents do have nurseries that are blue or pink. And for some people seldom the twain shall meet. 

Anyhow, the one above is the "boy" version of course, with the A-Team, Star Wars, Batman, Pac Man and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc. But I also cut out a "girl" version.  See? My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Bambi, Care Bears, etc. Though it is worth noting that I consider Star Wars as gender neutral, or should I say, relevant to both genders even if you ascribe to a traditional view of gender roles. After all, they had the most kick ass princess in all the galaxy, so Leia gets two blocks of her own in this quilt. Also, Smurfs are both for boys (most of them were guys) and girls, so there are in both the girl themed one and the boy themed one too. 

And this last one is the party to which everyone is invited. Mr T is here, and so is Strawberry Shortcake. Bambi and Spiderman. Smurfs and Droids. Elmo and Pac Man. etc. I know this is the one I would buy, but I'll bet you anything its the last one I sell.

Anyhow, I'll be getting them sewn up over the next week or two, and then hopefully into the shop. I think I might try and take some step by step photos so I can post a tutorial about how to make one, if you are so inclined.

shop update

Finally got around to adding another item to my etsy shop. This has been sitting in my studio for months. MONTHS, I tell you! It was so fun to make and I did plan on selling it, but I had to enjoy looking at it for awhile. And then, I had to bring it to my quilt guild for show and tell. But then I forgot to go to quilt guild for a couple of months. Right. So last month I finally got to Toronto for the quilt guild, and now I can finally post this on etsy.  How fun is that, right? It will look so cute on someone's modernist couch, or in their hip kid's room. Or in the lobby of a very, very cool dentist. 

Here's a close-up. The bright coloured triangles are made of velvet (and a little corduroy) and the grey is cotton. And I hand quilted the diagonal lines that echo the patchwork. You may wonder why I decided to use velvet. You see, I used to work for a company that made velvet. And there were many, many opportunities over the course of my time there to collect bits and scraps here and there. And by bits and scraps I mean meters and yards. Whenever we dyed a new colour line, there would be meter long swatches to approve or disapprove and if they were not approved, they would go into the scrap boxes in the back room. And most likely end up getting thrown away, unless we could figure out someone to give them to, and then we would donate them. Anyhow, sometimes when they were particularly lovely I'd take them home. And after my time there was done, I looked around my studio and found that I'd collected boxes and boxes of velvet. Its such gorgeous fabric and its a shame to waste it. And at the time, I figured one day I'd make a beautiful velvet quilt. 

Of course, that was all long ago, in the days before I actually knew how to quilt. Because almost no one, in their right mind says "oooh, a velvet quilt, that'll be fun to make."

Because folks, a velvet quilt is the opposite of fun to make. It involves a lot of pinning and very slow sewing and then cursing quietly under your breath and then sewing it again, and then swearing again, but much louder this time, and then eventually you wad it all up into a ball and throw it across your studio because you can't. take it. any. more.

Its because velvet has what is called a 'nap'. Those short fibres that stand up on the fabric and make it feel all plush and, well, velvety are they nap. Its basically manufactured fur. And like real fur, that nap is directional; it goes one way more easily then the other. So when you try to sew two pieces of velvet together, no matter how carefully you've pinned it, the two pieces grab each other and sort of travel along, pulling the fabric in the direction of its nap, which is usually the opposite way that you'd like it to go. 

Anyhow, my point is: velvet - not so fun to sew with. 

But I have all this velvet and its so pretty and I want to do something with it.

So my compromise was to sew it with half velvet and half cotton, making the whole 'traveling' thing half as bad. These are half-square triangles, and I use this method to make them. It makes two sets of triangle-squares at once, and you never have to sew along the bias (because sewing velvet on the bias? That is a recipe for disaster.) And I knew that the velvet would be up to its old tricks, so I beat it to the punch. I cut out the squares that I was using to be almost a half inch bigger than I would need them to be, so that when the triangles turned out a little bit wonky (as they invariably did) I could just trim them down to be the right size. So much easier. It was still hard, but not swearing hard, if you know what I mean.

Anyhow, I slapped them all together and this pillow is the result. Very pleased with it, and now I want to make another one, all neutrals this time, because I have so much velvet in various shades of beige and fawn and oyster and mushroom, and as much as I love brights, I know the neutrals would be beautiful too. And I've had this happy colourful one sitting on the table in my studio, making me happy for long enough. Now I can send it off into the world to make someone else happy.

brazen

An old friend of mine from Montreal is celebrating five years in business today. I'm so proud of her, as I remember well when we were all leaving art school (and getting crappy jobs) but Rachel just said, 'to hell with it!' and started her own jewelry design business. And five years later Brazen Designs is still up and running. I have been happy to wear a number of her designs over the years, but I just wanted to show you one of my favourites.  Its this sweet little pine cone necklace.

I often like a big, statement-y piece, and Rachel has plenty of those in her repertoire, but I just fell in love with this lil' hemlock pine cone, because of its subtlety and also, due to the fact that it was the type of pine cone that grew on the tree where I had a tree-house as a little girl. Nostalgia will always get me in the end. Hubs was taking these pictures for me, and he insisted that I was being too squinty (on purpose, obviously) and asked me to open my eyes wider. So I tried. 

Which made for an odd picture. But somehow I like it.

Also, its not only me who likes this necklace. Its a special favourite of the Baby's. He likes to pick it up and hold it in his chubby little fingers and make happy chirping noises as he examines it. 

I like to think I'm passing my good taste on to him. 

Anyhow, check her out, she's running a giveaway because its her businessbirthday. Congrats Rachel to five years in the making and selling lovely things business. Keep on rockin' it honey!

star wars blanket

Finished another little project this week. I was commissioned to do a Star Wars themed blanket as a baby gift. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Its the same idea and pattern as this other one that I posted about awhile back. Its basically a simplified quilt, more of a patchwork blanket than a quilt. 

My favourite part is always the fussy cutting. I know that a lot of people don't like the fussy cutting, but for me, as the quilting is often very materially inspired, getting the nicest bits out of the fabric is often my focus.

Of course, my photography assistant is always present. 

And full of questions. Such as "Why is that guy half nay-kid?" Good question. Maybe becuase he was hot? Tatooine seemed like it had a rather warm climate.

Here you can see the backing fabric. 

I have a lot of sewing to do these days. Quite a little to-do list posted up by my desk. I feel like I'm getting behind in the etsy shop to. Its just these little people in my life, they really want to spend most of their time outside, and to be fair, I like being out there too. And my machine really needs to be serviced, but in order for that to happen it has to be in the shop for two weeks. Two weeks! How am I supposed to go without my machine for two weeks! Seriously. And its not like taking the car into the shop where they give you a loaner...