featured creativity - dave OR my husband rocks!

sigh. i don't know where to begin this post as the news i have to share are both incredibly awesome and sorta, well, troublesome. maybe these pictures will help explain...








my musician husband made himself a bag. not just any ol' bag. not a silly little shopping tote or a furoshiki or anything simple. no, a really cool bag. using three different materials and lots of detail.
previous sewing experience? he made a funky improvised what we'd call "ghetto" cushion for our rocking chair once and last week he made himself some pants from scratch (pictures to follow soon). and then he made THIS! i'm still in shock. and as i said, i think it's incredibly awesome! i love him for it. the bag is beautiful and it makes me so happy to see him proud and interested and inspired and eager to learn new things... plus, he understands my passion a little better now, too.
BUT and it's a pretty big but, we now have to constantly arrange who gets to sew what when on which machine. i am learning to share my time, tools and materials. not easy but it can and must be done. i suppose most married couples deal with bigger issues.

anyways, dave rocks! i love you, husband.

on the line

serged, washed and now drying... about half of my recent fabric purchases.

yes, yes. i've sucked at blogging. been too busy enjoying summer with the kids and making stuff. i WILL take pictures of recent projects and i WILL upload them soon though. promised.
now back to cuddling the baby...

if only everything was this wonderfully colorful...

been working hard at making the world a more colorful place and i've had a few successes. now i just have to take some nice pictures to share with you. tomorrow maybe.

new favorite thing

and it's no longer mine.

my first little attempt at "quilting" resulted in a pillow for my sister.
it's her birthday today and she's about to move into her new room which will sorta have a pippi longstocking theme. perfect combination of reasons for me to go wild with scissors and the sewing machine.

i'm absolutely in love with the way the pillow turned out. in fact, i could stare at it for hours... so many of my favorite fabrics collected in one random chaotic design. it's perfect and just the tease i needed in order to really get started on our big family quilt. it's like a mouth watering appetizer.

anyways. long story short... here are some pics.









oh, in other really great news... my gran'ma is letting me have my great-grandaunt's very vintage singer machine. it's moving into my sewing space later this week hopefully. yay!

call me crazy

so i've started quilting.

that's somewhat weird because quilting is one of the last things i ever thought i'd do.

it just doesn't seem to make a whole lotta sense to cut perfectly good fabric into lots of teeny tiny pieces only to sew them all back together again and in the end have a big piece of fabric. plus, i'm terribly impatient and it appears quilting requires ridiculous amounts of time and patience.

well, logic smogic and the time and patience i'll just have to find somehow.

i made some space in my out of control chaotic sewing corner, pulled out the scissors and cut half of my cotton stack into lots and lots and lots more little pieces. yes, i used scissors. because i'm too rock'n'roll (read: too poor) for a cutting mat and rotary cutter.

now my ironing board and pfaff machine sewing table are covered in scraps and i'm picking up more fabrics (good folks. finally!!) at the post office tomorrow which will also end up getting cut.

i've done about an hour and a half of reading up on quilting online and of course decided to ditch all the instructions and advice and figure out my own approach instead. yes.

oh, did i mention that i intend for the finished project to be king size? that's where i decided to forget about all the seasoned quilter's advice... everything i read said to start with a baby quilt and i'm dead set on making a massive one right away for our big cozy family bed.

which leads to the cause of this madness. i feel the need to make a big bright colorful fun warm cover for my husband, myself and mostly the kids. so i'm making a huge blanket which will fit all of us now and when the girls are much much older and move on to college or art school or to travel the world, i can split in two pieces and each can take half.


mk. pics? pics.

the past few weeks in fabric

sigh. i feel like bathing in fabric. since that's not really a convenient option, i finally took the time to iron, fold and photograph most of my recent purchases. my husband thinks i'm a freak and he's probably right, but whatever. makes me happy and that's what matters.




14 half yards i received from fabricworm a week ago. love them for the most part. some colors are quite different from what i had expected but that's just what happens when you buy fabrics online without ordering swatches first. my favorite is the wonderland by momo print. i got a couple of other moda prints and i'm in love with the super fine feel of those fabrics... perfect for light summer shirts and dresses.



two pairs of quick summer pants i made for joon. her wardrobe needed some urgent help with the sudden change in weather. ten days ago it was winter here and now it's almost summer. crazy but oh so wonderful.


all those fabricworm pretties with their new friends in my stack of designer cottons. it appears i need to get a second bookshelf for materials some time soon.


this is the stack i got at a flea market last weekend.


and my bargains from stoffmarkt holland: a meter each of flower jersey (3euros), striped corduroy (5euros), boring but unbelievably soft grey jersey (5euros), light olive green flower print linen (2euros) and green and grey striped jersey (3euros). trin still has 2 meters of brown canvas for me which i plan on turning into thai fishermen pants next week.


still waiting for a stack of fat quarters... good folks complete collection should arrive here any day now. and i kinda feel like a five-year-old waiting for santa.



off to go work in the garden. time to start planting veggies in a couple of days.

spring awakening

the hoarding of materials and sleepless nights due to inspiration overflow have begun again.
three weeks after mika's birth i wiped a thick layer of dust off of my sewing machine (yes, it should be covered, but i just love at least looking at it from across the room every day).

first i pimped a little hoodie sweater jacket for my cousin's birthday and forgot to take a picture of it. oh well.
then i moved on to actual sewing and made myself a quick and easy top and a very retro very artsy dress for joon. then a quick two minute hat for her and today i shortened one of the many pairs of cheap jeans i recently bought.
i sold a mei tai and put everything i made off of that right back into two big fabric orders from the states which should arrive here some time next week.
i got a little bit of fabric at ikea and bought a couple of vintage materials at a fleamarket yesterday.
the list of things i want to sew is growing by the minute.

on top of all of that trin and i went to hollaendischer stoffmarkt today... fabricgasm! seriously.
140 or so market booths selling fabrics, threads, ribbons, zippers, velcro, bias, patterns, absolutely everything related to sewing and all of it for much less than at the overpriced german fabric stores. our town's market square was filled with gorgeous materials and i got to walk through it all with my best friend and without our crazy toddlers or impatient husbands for two hours. it was absolutely amazing! i didn't buy a whole lot because i just spent a lot of money on fabrics, but i did finally get that little biastape making tool and bought some jerseys, the perfect material for the thai fisher pants i've been wanting to make and some funky corduroy for kid's pants. all of that for less than 30euros.
my head is still spinning, my heart rate is probably still elevated and my creative spirits are completely overflowing. time to get a sketchbook and stop sleeping altogether.

so. tomorrow i plan of finishing a kick ass guitar hero mei tai for the store and then it's off to working on my family's spring wardrobe... for now though here are some pictures from today and a promise that i'll take and share pictures of my most recent projects asap.

yay! for springtime and the earth's fertility! can't wait to see everything in full bloom soon!