tiny happy

A while ago I wrote about a fabric design course I was taking, and at the end of year we received our finished fabrics in the mail, all the way from Spoonflower in the USA. The course was taught by my friend Karuna, who is a clever textile designer originally from London. She offers short courses in fabric design from her home studio (and perhaps in the future by distance)- you can check out her blog here. 

I had such fun learning more about design and colour and space, and putting everything together. And I'm pleased with my finished fabrics, too. The main design is the piece you see in the last photo above. I wanted a slightly sketchy, hand-drawn look to it- so I started out by drawing the circles and 'stitches' in pencil, and added the sprigs of flowers which I painted with watercolours. The little coin purses above were made from two other 'co-ordinating prints' of which we ordered small samples. My class-mates designed really gorgeous and vibrant prints, so I'm looking forward to seeing their finished fabrics sometime.

I hope to use my finished fabric to make some kind of make-up or sewing supply case. And now the entire world of Spoonflower has opened up to me- what an amazing service they offer!

I made this birthday gift for a friend who has just bought a house with a big garden, and is about to get started with planting things. It's just a simple drawstring bag with a plant applique, and inside I put a vintage gardening fork, some seed-raising trays and a set of seeds from our garden, inside brown kraft envelopes with my paintings on the front. Borage, marigolds, carrots and white cosmos. Some of my favourite plants, and hopefully she'll enjoy growing them too.

So far this summer, I've been spending most of the time keeping children busy and fed and entertained. You know how it is. And there has also been some time with my sunhat on, digging around in the garden. The progress on that front is that we have a couple of new and large garden beds in which to plant vegetables, and I've put some natives in the more rocky parts of the garden. (Hebes and mountain daisies, because I love those especially.) So my reward for all that work (aside from a new batch of freckles) was this bunch of flowers picked this morning from around the house. I love those summery colours and dahlias are a new favourite.

In the evenings since Christmas time, I've been working on this cross-stitch sampler. It all started when I found a very old and beautiful framed sampler in an antique shop, but couldn't quite afford it. I'm designing this one as I go, using snippets of other samplers for inspiration and the charts for the birds, etc. It's something I've always wanted to make but never thought I would have the time- and indeed, it is a very slow-moving piece of work. And because the linen I chose to work on has a somewhat uneven weave, it requires more concentration than I had anticipated. But I only have myself to blame for that one.

Here are some more of the things I made last year- these were finished between June and December. I certainly had a lot of fun in my workroom in 2010! But now I must have a thorough clean-up in there – I'm a truly untidy worker. I've decided though, that rather than being less messy, I will just try to have proper clean-ups every month or so. I'm over making New Year's Resolutions I can't keep!

Wishing you a happy weekend. See you on Monday. 

things i made jan-june 2010, originally uploaded by tiny happy.

I've been thinking about 2010, and how it was quite a busy one and somewhat stressful at times. But, looking through my flickr account (which I use as a kind of record of my projects) I see that a lot of that said busy-ness took place in my workroom! Here are some of my favourite projects finished in the first half of the year (I'll post the remaining half tomorrow.)

This year I'd like to make more clothes for the children and I and, if i can find the time, do some more embroidery. I'm also hoping to take a class to learn a new craft when the term starts again.

What do you have in mind for this fresh new year?

Happy New Year to you, dear blog-readers. It's been a lovely long summer holiday here so far, with the days passing by in a blur of sunshine, sea-swimming, reading, seeing friends and eating berries. And lots of other foods, too, of course, because that's what a summertime Christmas seems to be all about, at our house, anyway.

I hope you had a restful and happy Christmas and New Year break too.

I'm excited about the year ahead and about sharing it with you here in this space. I have a feeling it's going to be a lovely one.

Dear readers,

I wish for a very happy Christmas and calendar-year's end to you all. Thank you for reading my ramblings and craft obsessions this year. I appreciate you all very much. 

Have a great holiday season, and I'll see you again in the New Year.

Melissa

XXXX

Here are a few last-minute gifts I've finished off this week, and now they're all wrapped and nestled under the Christmas tree. Phew. But just in case you're still looking for ideas for things to make for little ones, I thought I'd share these.

I have a tiny and sweet baby newphew named Leo, and I knitted him this rabbit. I first saw these rabbits on Hanna's blog, and I found a similar version of her pattern online, here. The entire rabbit (minus pom-pom tail and ears) is made from a simple knitted square. Which is a good thing, because I'm not such a quick knitter. 

The dark brown hat was a gift for our friend Alex, who is currently living in Belgium. And it's really cold there right now, I hear. I used the simple pattern from this book, I think it's called 'Hot Head'. 

I'm lucky enough to have quite a few nieces. This year I decided to make them something quite simple- so I sewed up some 'project bags' from colourful fabric and filled them with coloured pencils and chocolate ladybugs. I hope they like them. And Arlo wanted something similar for his best-friend-next-door to keep his marbles in.

Now, I think it might be time for a glass of red wine.

We're getting all Christmassy around here with baking and wrapping gifts and friends visiting. I made a couple of Christmas cakes- using the recipe I seem to mix up every year- it's a variation on this one. I always think I should try something adventurous, but we all love eating this one so it's no big problem. It's the kind of cake that sits in a big tin and accompanies us on all our summer picnics, getting bits chipped off as we go.

I used the cross-stitch embroideries I made whilst away on holiday to make some tree ornaments. I cut around the linen and backed each piece with a bit of Liberty lawn, and put a bit of stuffing inside and a loop for hanging. The red poppy ornament was made from a few circles of wool felt, cut with pinking shears and stitched with raw edges. All three of the cross-stitch designs came from this Dutch book I wrote about a while ago. It's a good one.

Wishing you a happy time, making and baking, if that's what you're up to.

We had a quiet kind of adventure, staying with friends in an old and rustic bach a few hours' away. It was so nice to escape town just before Christmas. There was a storm and it rained almost the entire time we were there. So that was a shame but it didn't really matter, because the children played in their raincoats anyway, digging holes and making dams and driftwood huts. And Jenny and I had the perfect excuse to do a bit of cross-stitch and look out of the window at the sea. That's a pretty good holiday in my book.