Embroidery wall art take I

Before we set on the trip to Italy and got so inspired by Roman mosaics... I started an embroidery wall art for the house... I was inspired by the wallpaper I saw in a shop nearby (sadly I didn't take any pictures). So with a little drawing around and designing the pattern was ready and I set on to embroider it! Remember this sneak peak?



And voilà. here it is finished, framed and hanging on the wall...

I am so pleased with it, that we decided to change its original location in the house, to the dining room and make a set of three! Yes the other two are inspired by all the Roman mosaics and designs, I am still working on the patterns but we will get there! (You can see the pictures of the mosaics here).

I have not yet got the pattern ready for download, but in the meantime, if you can't wait to make it here are the details:

• Made on Aida fabric 16 count (just look for a tiny grid but that you can comfortably work on). 
• It measures 20cm x 29cm. I recommend you buy the frames first and then make sure you match the pattern to the desired size... going the other way around may mean that you end up spending a lot of money of framing!
• The pattern was all made on backstitch and one row at at time horizontally (as that was the best way to fit my 25cm frame that I have). For a little more detail on the pattern here's a close up.

I hope to finalise the pattern soon, at the minute I am a but puzzled on how to transfer it to a digital form so it is neat and nice to work with... any ideas welcome?

I am linking up to Show and Tell Tuesday over at I have to say blog (link here).

WIP Wednesdays

Hello! I have been out and about lately and took a little break from blogging... but I am back and with a lot of new and exiting things on the way!

But what have I been up to lately? Well we took a week's holiday in Italy, visiting lots of Roman ruins (see some inspirational pics here), eating fantastic food and enjoying the sunshine...

Then I was back for almost a week with my puppy and getting the routine back on track when my husband invited me to join him in Paris for one night as he had to attend a course there... so Feli and I went! and we had so much fun walking along Parisian streets and taking some lovely pictures of the puppy on his first trip...

So what I am currently working on?



This week I had three new orders, two are going to Argentina and one will fly to the UK. The little chicken (still missing her eye and legs) was a custom order, but I am thinking it will become one of the shop's designs, as I am absolutely in love with it!

And also working on.... a project for Lily's Quilts Blog as I was selected for one of her featured projects... look forward to finishing it so the post can go up in both blogs!



As you can see not a lot crafting going on this week... so what's in my immediate To-Do list (I decided not to even bothered trying to fit a few UFOs here, who I am kidding right?)

- Finishing up the lovely blanket for my friend Ines who is expecting a baby girl soon. Status of the project: I tried to put it together with the squares I had and it turns out it to too small, so I am making new squares and attaching them in one row at a time!

- Take pictures and show you all the first of my three series of embroidery art, I am going for a sort of geometric Roman-inspired theme here... but the other two may take a little bit to finish.

- My quilt is sort of in stand by, and I am so hoping to get back to it this week, it is half way quilted- half way unpicked (yes I didn't like it so I bought new batting and I am trying a new take on it).

So what are you up to this week, don't forget to link up as I am with Freshly Pieced to let us all know what loveliness is happening your way!

Have a fantastic week!

Roman inspiration

My husband and I went on a week tour in Italy, we visited lots of places including the town where my grandparents were born... but what inspired the most was the beautiful art, especially the mosaics, from the Romans... we visited Pompei and Herculaneum, where you can actually see a lot of it... so here are a few pictures of the trip... hope it inspires you as well...

I am thinking... lets get my embroidery hoop and aida fabric and get stitching!

Hope you got to experience through this pictures a little bit of what I experienced and how I got inspired last week! 

Following

I am joining the Blogger revolution after we heard that google reader is disappearing, but I will keep this post short and easy. I will still love to see who is out there following and reading my blog... and I still want to see, all in one page, what is going on with my fellow bloggers that I follow, admire, and inspire me so much every day. And so I am joining the Bloglovin crowd. If you also like this site, you can now find me profile set up, following the new Bloglovin button at the top of the sidebar (and below).

 

Or you can click in the big + sign button on top of my old google reader followers section (lower on the sidebar or below).

I am not sure what is going to happen with the old google followers, but at least we have a plan B so you can still see my posts and read about what is going on in my little sewing room in Luxembourg.

I am researching other popular blog reader sites and will add the options for you to follow me on those, but if you are already using a blog reader and would like me to add a "follow" button to my sidebar, just let me know and I will get it done!

You may have seen that I have been missing in action for a week, well I am back from a holiday in Italy and lots of inspiring Roman ruins visits that I will tell you all about very soon!

Easter designs on the shop

Are you already getting ready for Easter? I certainly am, thinking about the lovely egg hunt with my niece and nephews, baking some lovely goodies for them and so I thought you may have some little ones arriving in the world around Easter? or a little girl or boy birthday? or maybe you would just like a themed outfit for the day?

Well whichever your excuse is... I thought I would share this little outfit I made for a friend whose baby is expected right before Easter... 

The Easter Bunny design can be adapted to fit a baby onesie from in any size to a toddler T-shirt. And also there is a huge array of fabrics an colours it can be made of. Just let me know your preferences and I will design it especially for you.

In this case it went as a 3-6 month baby onesie paired with a little hat, so hopefully he will wear it on his way back home from the clinic! The little hat features a tiny bit of grass for the bunny to jump in!

For orders you can visit my Etsy shop here or just leave a post comment with your email address and I will get in touch to get it sorted out for you! Many more designs are available, just have a look at some orders custom made for other clients in our Facebook page and the shop section of the blog above (or here). 

I ship internationally with tracked delivery, that usually takes about 1 week to arrive. 

Puppy travelling kit

A few days ago I introduced the new member of my family to you all. Felipe has been playing and adapting to life with us just fine... but living in snowy cold Luxembourg means that mummy didn't want Felipe to get cold outside... so she made him a travelling kit.

A cushion for the car and its matching coat!



The cushion is a 50cm square pre-made filling. The only adaptation I did was to tie a knot in the middle of it... to make space for Felipe to curl arround it.

Then I simply made an envelope cover for it. The fabric I used measured 120cm by 50cm and I used 1cm (1/2 inch) seams.

And then I started making the coat. I found this tutorial on Pinterest. Unfortunately the link to the printable pattern didn't work... so I decided to try my own version of this pattern. You can dowload and print it here.

I made my pattern using an A4 sheet of paper, so if you print to 100% this will be perfect for a very small dog, bearing in mind that it fits my 4 months old Yorkie. But you can scale it in your printer and it should work for bigger (or smaller) dogs.

You will need:
- Pattern (link here)
- A fat quarter of the outer fabric (matching your travelling cushion)
- A fat quarter of fleece or any other warm fabric
- Batting (I used polyester batting as I expect to wash this quite a bit)
- 10cm (or even less) of velcro

Instructions

Step 1: Transfer the pattern to your fabric, note the pattern does not include seam allowance, so cut 1/2inch away from the mark. Cut outer and lining fabirc. Cut your batting to the pattern (without seam allowance).

Step 2: Put the outer and lining fabrics right sides together, pin and sew along the marked lines. Leave an opening at the bottom for turning inside out.

Step 3: Trim the seams and make small cuts along the curved lines, trim also the corners. Turn inside out.

Step 4: Insert the batting. You may need to help yourself with the back of a knitting needle, make sure the batting is straight. If desired add some pins, but the batting should fit tight and not shift.

Step 5: Sew along the border of the coat 1/4inch from the seam. When you get to the opening, make sure you fold the edges in and sew along closing the opening.

Step 6: Attach the Velcro to the collar and belly straps. Using the pattern as a guidance make a buttonhole 1/3 from the collar down in the back. This will be used to insert the lead if your dog uses a harness rather than a collar (like mine does), if your puppy wears a collar no need for this step.



And voilà, you have a warm and comfortable travelling kit for you puppy.

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(not too many) WIP Wednesdays

Shall I just say, nothing to report and publish this post as a one liner? Probably, but I can't do that to you all, so I will tell you what happened this week...

I started quilting my bedspread... had a lot of shifting, some puckering... and so a lot of umpicking... it now sits half quilting waiting for some more unpicking when I am not feeling too frustrated.

In the meantime I finished the embroidery I was working on... it looks lovely and fits its frame perfectly... only that I bought white frames...and we are not very sure about them... so it may take a while until that project gets finished as well.

And then we picked up Felipe, our new little Yorkshire Terrierr puppy, from the breeder, and have been in love, playing with him, and cleaning after him! but not too much sewing. Apart from some little projects for him that I will be showing you soon. Here is a sneak peak anyway:

Linking up to Freshly Pieced today.

Hope you are having a more productive week!

Pinwheel cushions

As you may recall I am working on a few projects for the master bedroom at home, it was looking a bit dull and in need of some colour... so I am making cushions, bedspread, some art for the wall, headboard, and so on... And here is the first finished item, the Pinwheel cushions.

The solid fabric is Moda Simply solids, but I did not take note of the colour code (sorry!) and the fabric used for the pinwheel is Dutch Love. I won these fabrics, along with other coordinating ones (that are used in the bedspread and the piping) from Celtic Fusion Fabrics.

They were super easy to make (in pairs) using the drawn line method HST technique. There is a great tutorial  for these in the Craftsy Block of the Month 2012 (here).

It has some simple sashing to get to 40cm square! The gorgeous piping was made using my Scrappy Piping tutorial (link here or in the tutorial section in the menu bar). I also used the same piping for a little binding to finish up the back.

Look forward to showing you the bedspread and hopefully soon all the other items...

Fresh sewing day!

It is unbelievable that it is March already... and as every first of March I start my day by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my lovely and wonderful mother, who has taught me the love of craft and has many many times cleaned after my crafty mess, appraised me and even displayed some doubtfully good looking items! I have sent her a little crafty gift on the post myself to help her organise her sewing (I really don't know why I keep trying to get my mum to be more organised, I have been failing for 32 years!)

Back to today's post then, and I love doing this monthly recaps and being able to tell you all, in case you missed it, what I have been up to... and since I forgot to post for February a few more pictures may pop in this post as well. Just click on the pictures if you are interested in the original posts!

Modern love counted cross stitch, the pattern is available!

Scrappy piping free tutorial - A new and creative way to not waste your tiny little scraps.

In Love pincushion and matching needle case for Riley Blake designs

Free embroidery pattern, my husband lets me have all the fabric I can HIDE! 

And now the embroidery pattern is also available for yarn lovers!

A lovely big pouch for a dear friend of mine...

Custom order for the Sopley Village WI to be displayed in their main table.

 Pretty cross stitch cards as part of our 5 minute craft series

 And of course, there has been a great thing for me this first two months... my new shop. I make hand decorated baby and toddler clothes, sets and baby gifts. And I am so proud to have added new very happy clients!

And these are just my finishes, I have a ton of work in progress but I am sure you had enough already! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out what the other bloggers have been up to following the link to Fresh Sewing Day.