MOONSTITCHES

Prendre la Liberté

Prendre la Liberté is what I did last week. And I am not just talking Liberty here, actually I finally, after a long time of not crafting on a daily basis (aside from knitting which I do everyday while being on the kindergarten's playground) I enjoyed one whole week of cutting, machine piecing, hand sewing and quilting, planning more quilts, making sketches... I am now dealing with what has been neglecting during this fabulous week, but I think it was worth it. At the beginning of the week I finally took the plunge and started quilting the Liberty Leaves. It'll be a rather dense quilting, so it takes some time till all is done.

While working on the leaves I was thinking that this quilt was supposed to be a quick one which had been started as a simple, machine pieced quilt that could be finished almost instantly... while working on my Pop Stars (which I planned to finish during the first half of 2008)... Seems I find myself in a sort of patchwork spiral because on Friday last week I had the brilliant idea of squeezing in a simple, machine pieced quilt that could be finished almost instantly... this time, however, I am pretty certain I will succeed... but let's see where we are at the end of the month ;)

I took the scraps that were left over after cutting the leaves from those striped sheets, cut small squares, cut strips of solids I had in my stash and made Courthouse Steps blocks in a Denyse Schmidt's What a Bunch of Squares manner. This block really is a quick one and so I had my twelve blocks done in a day. It's a pretty uninspired project but I love simple blocks like the Courthouse Steps or Log Cabin and never get tired of them. And as I said, that one shall really be a quick quilt.

And if I wasn't busy enough, over the weekend I started another quilt... a rather slow natured one, yes, another one of those, because I love accumulating long term quilt projects which make me worry if I will be living long enough to finish them...

It will be the center of my Medallion Quilt. Again I am using leftovers from the Liberty Leaves, seems a bit unoriginal and you may already be fed up with all those tiny flowers, but I feel good using up all those scraps and no doubt it will turn out pretty. So? Why not.

And speaking of scraps: the lovely Kristine of Townmouse recently sent me a wonderful selection of precious Liberty bits... *sigh* Once again, Kristine, thank you so much for this generous and inspiring gift! And you, dear readers, be prepared for more tiny flowers projects...
And while we're at it, I would like to finally introduce this adorable guy we got about two years ago. Of course I have been thanking Alison before, but I always intended to blog about him, so, eventually, after all this time, here he is!

And because this blog is for taking record of my all my crafty endeavours... some nicely bedded owls I made a few months ago for an exchange of sweets with Josie over at mr. monkeysuit (oh, what a cute picnic they just had!)

The end.

Have a nice day!

Cassie, Cecile and Mirjam

Wonderful, wonderful mail lately.

So very generous, well chosen, beautifully made and given from the heart - I am so lucky. We are, because my little girl got some great things, too.
Thank you Cassie, Cecile and Mirjam!!!

To begin with... there was a Thank You  for a Thank You I had send to Cecile for this present (we could go on like this, Cecile, could we?)

Then there was absolutely delicious fiber (a lot of!) from Cassie, who also indulged me by knitting this cozy scarf... it is soft like heaven. Cashmere from Posh Yarn *sigh*
The pattern is Stitch Marker's Cream of Spinach, really pretty. And although it's almost May, it is just the right thing to wear these days, rather awful spring weather here around this year.

I can't possibly show all yarny gorgeousness here, suffice to say I truly am in yarn heaven now and would love to start a bunch of new project. Which would be the reason why I, in the midst of two patchwork endeavours, picked some yarn from my stash and decided it was time to finally try toe up socks... to tame the urges.

Cassie also sent us Tasha Tudor's The Springs of Joy. Dagny is so delighted by the enchanting illustrations - and I pretty busy explaining the quotes. This book is such a moving and heartwarming treasure.

Here a little bit of yarn...

And then Mirjam from the Netherlands, who had been a winner in my two years blog's birthday drawing some time back, pleased us immensely by bestowing us with a load of fabulous gifts of all sorts (again, here are only a few of the gifts shown). Crafty (new bag for my girl!), cute, vintage-y, delicious, fun... including a Kleintjes Strooibaar from  De Ruijter and soap bubbles (non Japanese style, therefore even more exciting) ... and something else soapy, too... :)

A girl and its new bag...

Cassie, Cecile and Mirjam, you are just too sweet.

Thank you!

Josie, Cecile, Kirsten and Marianne

Thank you!

Josie, Cecile, Kirsten and Marianne, thank you all so much for being so nice and generous.

Incredibly sweet odd sock soup from Marianne...

French vintage from Cecile...

A gorgeous knitting bag from Kirsten... including enough yarn to make a copy of her beautiful bamboo Bainbridge Scarf!
Playgroundknitting will be done in style from now on ;)

Josie's felt cupcakes that came with two cute placemats and napkins. All most intensively played with meanwhile but still looking fabulous. One of the best gifts Dagny ever got, Josie!
Also, Josie included three pieces of Liberty fabrics in her parcel... part of the Liberty quilt very soon!

There are so many kind and generous blogging (and not blogging) girls out there, I have been given a lot of gifts, fantastic gifts, surprising gifts... I often feel so very spoiled that I hesitate to write a "Look what I got!" posting. Feels odd because I already am in this lucky place... crafting and living in Japan, I honestly couldn't ask for more. Still, you guys send me gifts!
Thank you.

Just to let you know, there are more thank yous to come.

Edit: I think I must add that once I delay doing something, like writing a thank you posting, my really poor memory endangers my intention to write that posting at all. For what I am very sorry. But I am working on becoming a better person/blogger.

I have almost finished the easy sewing for the quilt. Two sheets to go, but I must cut more fabric for those. Will make a photo in the afternoon.
Now I am off to my playgroundknittinghour!
Have a great day!

PS: More photos here! and a very, very cute one here!

simplicity

Firstly, just to quickly clarify about the cake which I offered you on the occasion of my blog's birthday in the last posting... that was only metaphorically meant, of course, no real cake involved. In fact there will be some Japanese crafty delectabilities such as a Rhubarb Scarf kit winging their way to three lucky winners.

And speaking of delectable... isn't this guy just sweet?

the scent of water photo swap.

Rachel (Blue Algae Creative) sent this minimalistic yet super cute photo of a Schleich figure. And a set of her really beautiful postcards - picturing a garden hose. Who would have thought. A garden hose! Available in her shop, by the way.
Go and have a look at her photostream on Flickr, Rachel's work is so interesting. Some of my favourites.

Thank you, Rachel.

The reason I knew instantly which kind of guy's rear end this photo captured... Last time I was in Germany (2005) I picked up this little catalogue.

"DAS SAMMELBUECHLEIN VON SCHLEICH.
ALLES DRIN, WAS MAN WISSEN MUSS."

All my whining about how cold it was  at our home lately actually helped, today very strong wind blew in some degrees more and we had a beautifully warm spring day. Pretty windy though, so we decided to forego the plum trees and just went on a walk around town.

Hope you have a fine weekend!

Wallflower #2

When speaking of those boxes a couple of months ago I said I was hoping for them to be filled with beautiful vintage buttons... and indeed, they will. Have been.

I knew you all would love Paula's gorgeous green buttons I have posted to my flickr account yesterday... they are really precious. As are those lovely haberdasheries Alison indulged me with about a month ago (remember this?)... those wooden spools... all carefully chosen, all so beautiful. Alison also sent some vintage bias tape, gorgeous pins and delicate vintage buttons.... lucky boxes, happy me.

See that girl in the picture?
It is my paternal grandmother, 1916, age 15. My grandmother must have been a busy crafter at some time in her life, I guess, because there were tablecloths and a Gobelin tapestry I do remember very well. I know she did crochet,  needlepoint and embroidery but I never actually saw her crafting. It must have happened before I was old enough to really recognize what was happening around me.
I recall inheriting her embroidery thread treasure box and her oh so tiny crochet hooks. Unfortunately I have no clue where those hooks went in the course of the years, I would love to use them today.

larger image here

The hamster wheel / wallflower#2, made because I had to let my hands do something instead of do nothing just because I could not think of what to do first... Now that it appears I found my way into crochet after having been trying for so long, I felt following in my grandmother's footsteps would be the obvious thing to do.

Making this doily was fun and recreation, just what I hoped for. Besides, I like the result and have now an impression of the time and patience that went into my grandmother's lacework. Or restlessness, who knows.

The pattern came from a book, which is full of hidden beauties, well hidden beauties, some photos actually are looking quite hideous, but if you think away loud coloured shiny satin and imagine natural linen... The instructions for various kinds of handicrafts such as knitting, needlepoint, cross stitch or crochet are essential and easy to follow. Of course, the book is in German... hat jemand ausser mir dieses Buch? Mal was draus gemacht?

Still I don't know on whose blog I came across the matcha cake, but I have a link to the recipe I used, it's here.

Have a good day!

time to think

Washing the dishes, doing the laundry, those are the times I see my mails and blog entries written, unfinished craft projects progressing, new ones  laid out. Fabrics combined,  parcels packed... even my craft room is tidied then... mundane moments give time to think and  I highly appreciate those  opportunities  to let my mind wander.
But having to catch up with enormous loads of laundry as well as dish washing last week my mind was a bit too well endowed with idle moments and went from wandering to jumping nervously, unable to focus, having too many ideas, experiencing restlessness. When the week was almost over I was desperate to let some creative steam off and engaged on a kind of hamster wheel crochet project... a wee dull, going round and round and round but fortunately having come to a rather pretty end this morning and now being blocked.
Ahhhhh, I feel much better now!

Still I don't remember who inspired me to make this cake though... please, if you are reading this and know it was you, tell me. The cake was one fine piece of matcha delight.

Besides this marbled matcha cake a lot more lovely green things were happening last week, my old green Liberty friends got some new playmates, Paula sent me off to vintage button heaven and the first, freshly picked green tea of 2007 was drunk... if only I haven't had so much time for thinking, it could have been such a nice week...!

Stay tuned for the hamster wheel and some lovely vintage haberdasheries, hope I will be back tomorrow.

c, k, l, o, o and w

These players will be on the bench next round.

New, fresh ones are coming in to join the team on the field.

I is sporting some gorgeous vintage buttons Paula once sent me, they really make perfect owls eyes.
I thought this might be a good opportunity to finally show you what a great treasure  I was given by Paula last September... almost half a year ago... oh my, time is flying, don't you think?!

Along with those precious buttons the most beautiful vintage fabric came to me. I just love the pattern, the colours and the texture.

Once again, Thank you so much, Paula, for this generous gift.

Some words on the enthusiastic reception of my woowls...
First let me just say a word I rarely use since I don't like it too much but in this case it seems to fit pretty good. So I give in and say: WOW.
Believe me I had the greatest pleasure during the whole owl project (and still have), it is one of those  very loooooong stretched moments of pure bliss. From the initial urge to play with my wools till the photo shooting I was actually smiling, feeling a bit childish though but also very thrilled by knowing these woolstrucked owls were only the beginning... there are so many possibilities in them!
It's so good to see my joy with the project jumping over to you. I already saw some owls popping up in your blogs - maybe you could leave a link to yours in the comment section of my last post so we can all see them?

There have been questions about the pattern... I replied I could not pass it since it is copyright protected and was thinking of a way to give some hints for making those owls but as I saw today, a very similar pattern is already out there... 

The last week I hadn't much time to craft or reply to all your nice comments, so there are just these three new owls and a Big Thank You today.

Have a good start into the fresh week (I wrote that a week ago... this blog appears to be a weekly blog these days...)!

Me, Queen of Procrastination

Before writing the heading for this post I checked the phrase on the internet and saw there are quite a lot of gals claiming for that title... maybe we all tend to paraphrase our failure with some florid language to play it down?!

So, without any flowery words:

I missed the deadline for a swap with three fellow bloggers. The packages were due last summer but I had a hard time coming up with ideas for that little crafted item which should accompany  five fat quarters... just a little thing... Obviously I cannot think of three original ideas at the same time. I got totally stuck.

Did a lot of compensating crafts in the meantime because being idle meant "Think!".

Last October I finally gave in, let go the aim of doing something original and decided to make similar things for each of those girls to finally get those parcels on their journeys. I did sew three quilted crafting aprons, even used a real pattern from NHK's Oshare Kobo and told afterwards what I've been doing here on the blog...  and there came the next flaw...
It was not my intention to lie about the aprons when I told about them. I guess I must have been so relieved  about finally having made something for the swap that I was kind of  happily dazed when I posted about the aprons. Because it totally slipped my consciousness that the aprons had no ties yet.
And you know when I finally made them...

I am sorry. Your swap packages will reach you soon, I mean it.

Interestingly, once started, working on the aprons was fun, they are a great project for playing with scraps, even so much fun that I made three more aprons. One for me (shown above) and these two for girls who are in the lucky position of not knowing they'll be receiving them. After all, as unoriginal these aprons are, they seem to be a decent gift to me. Next time I try not to trip myself up and just do something. Anything. On time.

Take care!

22 Hours...

Phew, only 22 hours to go till the new year starts and sooooo much to catch up with...
2006 will end without having done many things I wanted to do but now it's really too late to worry about that. The Long  Overdues which were begun in October are still waiting to be continued... next year.

What I'd like to tell about today is a parcel that Nic and Sabine have sent us. It traveled a while but reached us just in time... look at all this fabulous wool felt - the green and red one were perfect for the mittens!

I am such a lucky girl that Sabine of Farbenmix was going through her stash and thought I could use that gorgeous yet not machine washable wool felt for some not to be washed items...

If I try very, very hard, I might come up with some (more) ideas... ;)

Thank you so much, Sabine!

Echt, Sabine, der Filz ist herrlich und wird ueber die Jahre (ja, ja, so lange wird's wohl dauern, bis der weg ist!) mit groesster Freude verarbeitet werden.

Bist ein Schatz.

The other, very lucky girl here is Dagny. My poor girl that is still waiting for fitting clothes... She got a new dress! Nic who is writing Luzia Pimpinella, one of my favourite blogs because Nic is such a lovely person, extremely busy, creative and inspiring, instantly thought of making Dagny a dress of a certain fabric she had on her stash when she read that orange post of mine back in October...

And indeed, the dress would have fitted so well... and it actually is fitting well!

That's my happy girl...

Once again I am thrilled how wonderful people are out there.

Nic, thanks a lot!!!!!

Und auch mit Nic spreche ich immer noch Deutsch...

Mutter und Kind haben sich sehr gefreut, der Sesamstrassencharme ist ganz nach unserem Geschmack - und Deine Liebe zum Detail sowieso!

More pictures of that sweet dress here and here.

PS: Dagny needs new sweaters... ;-)

All Things Sweet

A quick muffler scarf (thanks for the proper word) for keeping me warm. Not really the Denyse Schmidt-ish one, but inspired by it anyways.
Oh, I love, love, love my Liberties! I know many of you do, too. Does anybody of you know if there is a kind of library somewhere out there where all the pattern's names are listed? I do like to know the name of my babies ;-)

Isn't it just perfect?
It came along with these... mmmmh!
Lovely and very gifted quilt artist Kristin made it for me - thank you so much!

Matcha.
Sweet and hot and creamy.
Heaven - if you like green tea.
Love it.

EDIT: I found the missing names of the pink and green fabrics that went into this scarf:

Millie and Parsley.

"Millie" was lingering around with some other "Classics" on the Japanese Liberty site, and that lovely herb "Parsley" that I thought could be dill was spotted here. What a nice name, a Libertytheque... it exists! Well, kind of... appears to be dormant... maybe it needs to be fed?