Sweets & Tweets

I have been having fun the past few weeks making Cupcake Pincushions for my shop. My huge stash of yummy felt has been asking to be turned into delicious icing! With Claire's new classes through the week and the dark days I am finding it difficult to take photos but I did manage to get a couple shots of some sweet goodness...

I joined my first group swap! All the wonderful bird ornaments on Flickr at Christmas time gave me a neat idea for my tree next year... a tree full of birds with a birdhouse at the top! Having only one bird ornament makes that idea a bit difficult so when I heard about the "Birds of Change" Exchange organized by Regina of Creative Kismet I became very excited! Each person makes five bird ornaments and in return receives five new ones! I believe there are about 350 bird ornaments flying to Regina's house this month!!! For some bird inspiration visit the Birds of Change Exchange Flickr group! I'll be on the search for bird ornaments all year ;o)

I will be giving away one of these little linen birds on my blog on January 20th! ...and because they are so addictive to make there will be a few for my shop too :o)

Speaking of swaps... I received this wonderful parcel from Anne Marie of Life in Yonder all the way from Norway! This cute litle Needlebook was made especially for me and the fabrics are absolutely my style! I love the little tea & sewing charms too! Thank you Anne Marie!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Crocheted, Felted, Trimmed, Woven...

My second felted hat... sort of! It began with beautiful colours from my eye-candy yarn bowl.

It was another just-go-for-it project but I wasn't so lucky this time... only half of the yarns felted! The hat did not shrink in height at all! The rim that I crocheted turned into an hideous ruffle! After the feeling of defeat and frustration subsided, I decided not to toss it but to try to come up with a solution.

I decided to just cut it to the right height at one of the felted parts since I knew that it wouldn't unravel here. The parts that didn't felt were thin and left large holes which left my head cold so I decided to weave in extra yarn.

I am super happy with the results and like it even more because of all the different textures!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Handmade in the Snow

I am finally feeling better after my second cold this winter so now it's time to catch up on some blogging.

I will start way back on Christmas eve when it snowed and snowed and snowed some more! We decided that we would not drive the 8-9 hour journey through the mountains to visit my parents for Christmas. The highways can be treacherous during snow storms with not only black ice but white outs as well in which the front of your car is not even visible. We were practically snowed in and so were all our friends. I was quite bored on Christmas eve without the regular family festivities and had the sudden urge to bake 20 dozen more cookies and two of these delicious Cranberry Yule Logs! I froze a bunch of the cookies and a Yule Log to take to my parents house once the weather is a bit better.

Santa brought what Claire had asked for... a Hello Kitty Sewing Machine! She was so happy!! Her first sewing project was a pillow for her little puppy. As you can guess... I was so proud that she wanted to be just like me! We had fun making the little pillow together and then we went through my fabric and made a new stash for Claire :o)

If that wasn't enough crafty excitement for the day Claire was interested in doing her first embroidery so I provided her with the materials and she focused her heart & soul into every stitch for the next hour! She insisted that it was letters she was embroidering ...A...T...X...Y...

Here are a few pictures on Christmas Day when the snow was at its peak! Cars parked in the street appeared as hills of snow! Quite a sight here in Vancouver! We ended up with a total snowfall of 89cm in December. .7cm short of the record set in 1964!

To give you a better idea of how much snow there was... my daughter and husband turned this 5 foot round table into a giant birthday cake!

With nothing else to do on Christmas afternoon, my husband decided to go out in the backyard and play in the snow. He looked quite busy so I asked him what he was doing and he exclaimed, "I'm building an igloo!". I chuckled and an hour later he had built the bottom row of a giant igloo... After doing some research on how to actually build an igloo we all went out to help. We adjusted the base to make the igloo a more managable size for our first project and we had three rows finished by nightfall.

The next day, we finished building our new home! I carved little indents into the igloo walls for tea lights and we sat in our igloo to admire our handiwork... it was magical! Things started to melt the next day...

For anyone who is interested in handmaking their own igloo, here is a great igloo tutorial ;o)

Enjoy your hot cocoa & quilted crafts :o)

Felted Hats & Snow Boots

In my last post I talked about my adventures in making my first felted hat. Well, here it is finally finished with my first Button Flower pin. I ironed the fabric to the felt with fusible webbing and then cut out the shape. I really like how it turned out. I mentioned in my last post how I prefered the hat BEFORE felting but I have totally changed my mind! I have been wearing it outside every day and have fallen in love with it! It is very warm and keeps my ears nice and toasty... I also get lots of compliments :o)

It has been snowing again for a full 24 hours! Craziness in Vancouver where no one is ever prepared for SNOW! Today we braved the snow to search for much-needed winter boots. We were luckier than most because our Honda CRV has four wheel drive however we still managed to slide a few times turning corners. We didn't get stuck and wore our new boots safely home.

Todays roads were bad and I'm certain the highways are worse. I don't think we will be driving the 8-9 hour trip to my parents' for Christmas this year...

I really like how the colours in my hat are the same as in the snow photos!

I made these tomatoes last week to add to Claire's Grocery basket... I'm afraid that she may only get one carrot and two tomatoes for Christmas because all this snow is making me want to crochet and felt more warm hats! These beautiful colours were calling out to me from my yarn bowl!

However she will be getting this ball that she asked me to make for her. She even chose the fabrics all by herself... not bad for a 4 year old! :o)

Have a safe & happy Christmas!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Adventures in Felting

I have wanted to try felting for some time. I've been inspired by the magic of felted bowls, bags and hats on Flickr. When it snowed the other day, I realized that I do not have a warm winter hat so immediately started planning my first felting project. I was scared about the shrinkage especially since I was using two different yarns! I used Bernat felting wool for the main part which said it would shrink to 80% in width and 95% in height. I tend to be one who just uses my eye for things instead of following patterns so I just decided to go for it... without making test swatches! I knew if it shrunk too much then I could just turn it into a bowl!

I put it in a lingerie bag and threw it in the washing machine with a towel on the longest hot water cycle. It was still too big when it came out so I threw it in again... it came out a bit tight the second time but I managed to stretch it out slightly so that it would fit. It's a good thing I have a small head!

As you can see from the photo it shrunk much more than 5% in height! Thank goodness I added an extra stripe! For the most part I am happy with the way it turned out. The grey wool that I used for the stripes did not felt as well as expected but i like the texture. The felting wool lost its intensity. Overall I think I prefered the non-felted look and feel of the yarn.

It was an exciting project and reminded me of my pottery days because of the suspense and magic of chance! I think all my hat needs now is a fabric button flower :o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Santa, Birds & Angels

This was the first year that Claire has been excited to see Santa. For the last four years, photos with Santa have been family potraits including Mommy & Daddy but this year she decided that she would be okay by herself! She is such a big girl now... so big that I was surprised when I heard her ask Santa for a Hello Kitty Sewing Machine!!! I guess she wants to be just like her Mommy :o) She has been a very good girl this year so I am positive that Santa will bring her what she asked for!

I realized I forgot to add a picture of my Christmas baking in the last post so here is one to torture you! I made Cranberry & White chocolate biscotti, Butter Tarts with Walnut & Orange cream cheese pastry, Whipped shortbread, Ginger Crackles, Almond Roca, and aqua coloured White Chocolate Balls- some rolled in coconut- to match my aqua Christmas theme this year!

I whipped up these new linen bird ornaments last week after being inspired by the many beautiful birds on Flickr. See my Inspiration Mosaic. I adjusted my pattern as I went along and am happy with the final shape. The pink one was the first draft... the tail needed to be fuller. The blue one was next but the bottom needed to be a bit rounder. The rest were made with the adjusted pattern. I will be making a few for my shop throughout the year and filling my shop with them for next Christmas along with the fabric Candy Garlands that I didn't have time to make this year.

It snowed this week! We usually don't see much snow in Vancouver and if it does, it usually comes in February. It was a delightful ans beautiful surprise. Claire had fun yesterday and today making snow angels in our yard. Unforunately, the snow was too powdery for making snowmen. I hope you all have a White Christmas!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Aqua & White Christmas

I had a vision of an aqua & white Christmas. The kind that looks frosty even though there is no snow on the ground. During many failed searches for aqua ornaments, I noticed that all the stores are stocked full of peppermint red & white stripes! Where were these last year for my peppermint-themed Christmas?! Well... I could not find aqua anywhere. My friend told me it is the curse of the designer... next year the stores will be stocked with aqua & white and everyone will have a frosty Christmas!

Here are the aqua ornaments all ready for the tree. Some are old ornaments that I have re-painted and some are newly handmade. Click on the photo above to read the notes.

I made the paper houses last year. I printed out Christmas carols on my printer and glued them to card stock. The roofs were red last year but I re-painted them aqua. I also added the sashing to the windows and a hole in the back to insert a little christmas light so that it looks like there is someone home!

I also made a quilted patchwork version of my tree-topper stars which I adore, and a fabric Candy Garland all in aqua and white!

We had a great time on Sunday choosing our tree from a friend's tree farm! It was the first time that my husband has ever cut his own tree so it was a real treat. With the tree cutting & all the Christmas baking I've done, it has really put us into the Christmas spirit!

This one?

no... THIS ONE!

They were all so cute and bushy! With the help of Claire, we chose one that was only 4 feet tall :o)

Last night we decorated it all in aqua & white and I must say that it looks stunning... my husband was impressed too! And Claire loves all the glitter! My favourite part is the lit up houses but I also love the crocheted snowflakes that I bought from The Looks on Etsy!

I will leave you with a little Christmas card that I made using a photo that I took of the styrofoam snowmen. They were super easy to make! All you have to do is thread a pipe cleaner through the foam balls, stick in twigs for arms and an orange toothpick for a nose, and draw the face and buttons with a permanent black marker. I added fabric strips for scarves :o)

A very Merry Christmas to all my crafty friends all over the world!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)