Chocolate Bunny

Chocolate Bunny digital pattern booklet is finally available in my SHOP. My Easter patterns didn't quite make it in time for Easter this year. The good news is that they will be early for next year!

Sometimes it's difficult to create what's in your imagination and these Easter patterns though simple proved to be challenging. My Easter Egg PotHolder/Pincher design although pretty was lacking in function. It ended up being way too small but I decided that it was too cute to chuck and I finished the binding anyway.

So I moved on to my Chocolate Bunny design which took a total of 8 prototypes before I got the shape right. I was thrilled with how it turned out! Then I came down with a nasty sinus/head cold and couldn't work on the illustrations.

Chocolate Bunny is a simple pattern suited to crafters of any skill level! This scrappy bunny is a perfect way to use up your fabric scraps and leftover ribbon. Based on the shape of a traditional solid chocolate bunny, it would make the perfect Easter gift and would last for more than just a day!

Download this digital PDF pattern, print it out, assemble it into a little pattern booklet, and have fun sewing! PatchworkPottery patterns include metric conversion chart, stitches & terms section, illustrated step-by-step instructions, and full size templates.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter filled with chocolate!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Little Bunny

As promised, I would like you to meet the little bunny who is now named Flopsy. Flopsy has spent most of his life as a pile of folded fabric, and a Velveteen Rabbit-loving 4-year old's first doll pattern.

Unfortunately, he was forgotten for the last four years at the bottom of the basket. The velveteen chenille type fabric was a horror to sew. It massively shifted & unravelled even after heavy pinning and using the walking foot.

The huge smile on my daughter's face as I started sewing her long lost friend kept me from giving up. My Janome 7700 decidedly did not like trying to sew through many layers of thick fabric so I switched to my Elna 6005. It sewed through the layers like butter and layers shifted less even without the walking foot.

After many reinforcing stitches, Flopsy still had time to spend the day with me at the studio. He helped me out with some pattern booklet layout but quickly became bored.

I based his shape loosely on these bears I used to make from a Japanese quilting magazine. I enlarged the pattern and changed the shapes of the parts but put him together using the same method. I added quilting fabric because my daughter loves bright colours and patterns. She was thrilled to receive this little bunny on Valentine's Day!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Scandinavian Stitches & Giveaway

Recently, I was given the chance to review Scandinavian Stitches by Finnish designer Kajsa Wikman. I met Kajsa four years ago through Flickr when her whimsical appliqués caught my eye and have been following her blog Syko ever since. I am surrounded by her handmade goodness every day. She has been a huge inspiration to me so I was very excited to talk about her first book!

I was pleasantly surprised to find more than just projects inside Kajsa's book. There are sections about inspiration, organization, choosing fabrics, designing your own appliqués, embellishing, appliqué techniques, and free-motion quilting. My favourite section in the book was "I just don't get it!" which lists problems and solutions to ease our frustration when things go awry! Thank you for reminding us that we're not the only ones who have quilting disasters! I was thrilled to find that the book reflects Kajsa's design style and her creations to the "tea"!!

The simple & playful projects encourage creative freedom making it easy for the quilter to add their own flair. Each pattern is easy to follow and accompanied by clear diagrams paired with full-size templates! I was so excited that I immediately whipped up a few of Kajsa's projects that I have been eyeing on flickr and her blog for years!

The first project that I absolutely had to make was the Syko Teapot pillow of course!!! The colours I used reminded me of the taste of Earl Grey tea so I decided to add some free-motion writing at the top. It looks great on my wicker chair in the tea room! I think the result is a very happy blend of Kajsa and Laurraine!

I have also had my eye on the Tomte Stuffies since last Christmas! A tomte is described in the book as "the Scandinavian relative of Santa’s little helper". My tomte is made using non-traditional Autumn colours! I added a flower to her hat and she happily helps me in my craftroom (an army of these little helpers could come in handy all year round)!

Kajsa's description of Autumn in Finland is also my experience of Autumn here in British Columbia. This quilt will remind me each day that my friend is not so far away! I had a few extra leaves so I added them under the tree. My smaller version of the Ruska quilt now decorates my kitchen table :o)

Here are a few things I asked Kajsa...

What is the proper pronunciation of your first name (for all of us foreigners)?
For all of you English-speakers - if you say Kysa I think you will get it right! (I can hear everyone saying AHA! now) It is a long "i" sound as in KITE!

What was the first thing you ever designed?
I was 15 and it was a sweater. I asked my mum to knit me something and she told me to do it myself! So I learned how to knit! It was very wide and colourful, a one of a kind piece for sure, a pity I didn't save it! I do have pictures of my fist appliqué designs, I did my first appliqué on clothes for my daughter, some 7 years ago now, luckily I now have a digital camera!

Do you belong to any quilting or craft groups?
No quilting groups, but I would love it, I might start my own when the kids are a little older! I do belong to a local craft organization. We are having a show this December.

When did you realize that you wanted to make a business out of your crafts?
I think the seed was planted when I participated in my first Christmas market, but it was Etsy that made me think about my options seriously. Etsy gave me an affordable sales channel for my first creations. All the positive feedback I got on the pictures I posted on flickr was very valuable and also helped me with the decision.

Have you taken any craft business courses and were they helpful?
I took a course for starting businesses when I was starting up and I wouldn't have managed without the things I learned about taxes, book-keeping etc. Right now, I am participating in a project for craft businesses. We meet about once a month to learn about things like pricing and product display. I spoke about social media (blogging) and Etsy for my fellow students last month! It felt great to be able to share my experience and it made me realize how much I have learned along the way!

Have you ever thought about hiring someone to help you sew? (I know I have!)
YES! And it will probably happen soon, I need someone to help me with the sewing. I can't keep up with the demand anymore and with so many different projects the time dedicated to sewing is shrinking all the time!

GIVEAWAY TIME! (now closed)
Stash Books is giving away one copy of Scandinavian Stitches per blog and Kajsa is giving away one set of Syko Design cards per blog. Simply leave a comment on my blog for your chance to win! Giveaway closes on Saturday, November 27 at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time.

Thank you for choosing me to be part of your amazing online book tour! The blog tour will end off tomorrow at Allsorts. Please see the previous post for the complete list of participating blogs.

If you don't win or can't wait to purchase some of Kajsa's work, please visit the Syko Shop.

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

A Can of Inspiration

The walls in my new craftroom have been beige-yellow since we moved in March. I finally realize that yellow is just not my colour. I can't think in it... it gives me no inspiration. It took me weeks to choose a colour for my walls. I already knew that I wanted my favourite colour~ dusty aqua... little did I realize just how many dusty aquas there were at the local hardware store! I finally narrowed it down to 3 paint chips but one stood out above the others...

How could anyone possibly resist a can of paint called "Garden Party"?! I had to have it!!

I took all these photos just after I moved everything back into the room. Of course it will never be this clean again! Here is one of those staged photos with a quilt top I haven't worked on in years...

And here is my computer shelf (not really a desk) with my best friend Mac and my awesome Ikea step stool that I sit on. I know if my bum is numb that I have been sitting at the computer too long and need to get some sewing done!

And here is my lovely built-in looking bookcase! I used 5 Ikea DVD shelves, some moulding to fit between, and some narrow shelves to sit on top. I finished the whole thing off with my super fancy scallop trim I cut from cardstock. Cardstock has never made such a huge impact before! Eventually I would like to replace it with something a bit more durable...

Here is what it looked like before the trim and scallops. I also had to cut a hole in the back of one bookcase for the electrical outlet. That is why one bookcase was pulled away from the wall...

Removing the doors and wire shelving, and painting over the faux clouds, made a huge difference in the closet. The closet has become part of the room now and makes it look much larger too! Too bad that lovely hardwood floor doesn't continue under the carpet...

My craftroom doubles as a guestroom or a place to crash if I have worked much too late! I originally had the couch-bed facing the computer...

This week, I have turned the couch-bed to face the closet. It gives me much more floor room to lay out projects and to sandwich quilts :o)

I finished painting my room 3 weeks ago, just in time for a big interview. Penny & Bill ~world-traveling freelance writers, quilters, artists and storytellers extraordinaire~ drove all the way from the UK to interview me! Okay, I admit I was sort of on their route around the world but they had discovered me on the internet many months back and decided to write a magazine article about me with intentions to pitch it to British Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Let's cross our fingers!

Meet Penny & Bill. We had a lovely visit with them and had fun getting the tour of their traveling home! Visit their blog, Ageing Overlanders and be sure to check out their travel diary!

I'm throwing in a photo of the bird I made for Claire while Penny & Bill were visiting. Claire was so happy that she had a new basket that looked like a nest. She put a few plastic easter eggs in it and sat her bunny stuffy on top. I mentioned that bunnies don't really lays eggs (just the easter bunny of course). OOPS! She threw up her arms in horror and frantically repeated over & over that she didn't have a bird stuffy. Mommy to the rescue...

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Keeping my Sanity

I think this is our biggest move yet... somehow in the last 3 years we have collected a LOT of stuff! Right now I am sitting in a corrugated forest surrounded by more tall towers of boxes. My craftroom is slowly being packed away but not as quickly as the rest of the house... I do need to keep my sanity after all!

Yesterday, Claire wanted to make a doll. She handed me a little drawing and some fabric and yarn that she "found" in my craftroom... I sewed and she helped stuff and even drew the face herself... and in one afternoon Claire had a new friend :o)

While I was packing a few of the trinkets away, I found a handful of acorn caps that Claire had collected in Autumn. I have some little needle-felted acorns from Lisa of Lil Fish Studios, and a few nylon and yarn acorns from Recycle Micol. I have wanted to make my own version of fabric acorns for a while to add to my collection. Thank you my friends for inspiring me!

My husband went to Japan recently and returned home with a Komaneko doll! She is the main character from a very sweet Japanese stop animation film. It is my absolute favourite because she is very crafty!!! However she didn't come with her handmade dolls so I re-created the girl doll upon Claire's request :o)

Expect to see more quick little projects during our move while I struggle to keep my sanity! Read more about our move here.

Here is the first part of Komaneko. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)