Works in Progress: Crochet Cloths

It's really starting to look like we're moving.  Piles of boxes line the dining room walls and the cupboards and cabinets house-wide are increasingly empty.  This is all very good, but I've had to slow the packing a bit as we still have to live here for another 4 weeks.  

Somewhere in all those boxes are my sewing things.  As luck would have it, I'm feeling especially inspired to sew this week.  Pawing through fabric and patterns (to pack them) will do that.  

So I've been expending my creative energies via crochet.  I needed some new dish cloths, so I tried out a couple of patterns and picked my favorite.  Then I kept going.

I''m a little obsessed with these flower-topped bundles.  They're great fun to line up and admire.  These are already up in the Dapple Shop with a few more colours to come.

I've also begun something on a whim because I saw it on Pinterest.  Oh Pinterest.

Just one square doesn't look like much, but maybe I'll make enough for this retro circles blanket.

What colours would you combine with this blue?

Burlap Birdies

These adorable little birdies are the result of an bad bout of boredom and an overfull scrap box.  They're bright and cheerful in a simple way.  They make me smile.

I'm repainting a small wooden frame to catch the blue one in.  Something fresh to hang in my new house.

Given the popularity of my Simple Burlap Place Mats over on Etsy, I'm wondering about making a set of Burlap Birdie Place Mats.  Which design do you like best?

Stitching on a Rainy Saturday

And the rain rain rain came down down down.  Not in torrents, but persistently as it does here on the coast.  This afternoon Miss S is sleeping, Hubby is performing surgery on the wood stove and I'm curled up with some hand stitching -- at least I will be in a minute, when this post is done and the kettle has boiled for tea.

First, I thought I'd share a few of my many works in progress.

In the sewing room I'm working, slowly but surely, on a new set of table linens for the Dapple shop.  I absolutely love this combination of fabrics.  Grey and pastel.  Mountains and waves.

Miss S sometimes sits on my lap while I do this type of sewing, helping by pulling the pins out when I tell her it's time and meticulously storing them away in the pin cushion.

But in the evenings I've been parked in the living room with my hand work.  These leaves are a bit of scrap bag fun.  I wanted to doodle stitch -- no project in mind.  If you look closely, you'll note that my embroidery skills needed dusting off.   I might chalk this piece up to practice and return it to the scrap bag.  It was fun.

So much fun, in fact, that I've jumped into another little project.  Felt appliques and a little embroidery.  It's quick and simple.  Cozy work.  I have a vague plan of making a enough of these for a bunting-style garland.  

And that is what I'm planning to curl up with right now.  Happy weekend to you.

Works in Progress

Sometimes I go about my day and write about it after the fact as a means of reflection.  Sometimes, to be completely honest, I add things to my day specifically so I can write about them. Blogging and living is a two-way street.  And every once in a while, life catches me up and I'm so inspired, so driven that I can't take time out to write for fear of missing something while I do. That's where I've been lately.  In the garden.  At the sewing machine.  Taking long dawdling walks in the sunshine with my Little Miss.

Would you like to see a few of my projects?

This will be a sweater for Miss S.  It's by far the most involved crochet that I've done, but it's turning out well.  I'm using this pattern.  I have the back panel completed.

I'm also sewing a couple of play dresses for Miss S.  Frustrated with the selection of toddler patterns from the usual sources, I'm trying a PDF pattern for the first time.  This is the "Anywhere Dress" available from Go To Patterns.  So far so good.

There are some new items in my Etsy shop too.  For summer I thought I'd branch out a little and make a line of casual table linens.

The Sea Breeze collection is already the shop and I'm itching to get to work with this summery fabric combination.  I need a glass of lemonade just looking at it.

Now it's back to work for me, but I'll try to surface a little more frequently.  Do you have anything interesting on the go?

Stitching Bliss

Evenings are for remembering to think and breathe, for rhythmic pursuits that leave the imagination free to roam.  

Lately, I've been filling my evenings with short and long stitch in three shades of creamy yellow.  It's the precision of this work that appeals to me, as well as the freedom.  There are no patterns or counted stitches, just an outline -- a suggestion of shape -- and floss to paint with one tiny stitch at a time.

My mind wonders back through the day to sift and interpret, to remember and smile.  I have conversations with people I saw today and characters from books I'm currently reading.  I think of my mother-in-law who gave me this set of linen place mats from her stash because she doesn't like embroidery.  I wonder if I'll ever finish them and realize that I don't really care.  On the way up to bed, I notice my cup of tea, still half full and cold.

What do you do to unwind at end of day?