Family pieces

Little kids grow up. Last week we got back the toddler duvet covers that we gave to our cousin (when our kids grew out of them) a few years ago. She also got a larger bed and these blankets were too small. I turned the duvet covers into pillow cases, like I did before. Although sewing them is pretty boring, it feels very good to do so. First, it's sustainable, we don't need to buy new pillow cases for a while. Two, they look pretty good on our bed. And three, who doesn't like to sleep on a pillow case with lovely memories?

Fluo

These and these pillow cases are now replaced by the ones above. They are the first products made from my recently screen printed fabric. I really love how the cases turned out, with the duo coloured background and piping around. The pictures are not showing them off very well. They colours are better in real life. Here's a tutorial for sewing a pillow case with piping.

Old, new, borrowed & blue

I offered my cousin to make a ringpillow for her wedding. I had this tutorial in mind. For the pillow I used old silk curtains. The flower was made of the new fabric of her dress. I embroidered something on the back in blue. And here you can see the borrowed part: a golden cross I inherited from my deceased grandmother. It's the brides grandma too. So, I sewed it on the pillow, under the flower. In that way grandma was also present in our minds during the ceremony.

Sunny summer stuff

Today I put this wonderful linen with crochet runner on the table for lunch. And that was the moment I suddenly started to doubt whether I had wrote a post about the gifts I got from Jacqui. I knew I prepared the pictures... How could I forget? The presents were so beautiful! The table runner and the patchwork pillow case really were the best. So much work in it. The girls loved their sweets, writing paper en handcrafted lights. Jacqui, thanks for this great swap!

Just half an hour

About 15 years ago my mother followed a patchwork course. They did a colour-study and everyone had to bring small pieces of fabric to swap. My mother kept those pieces (I'm so lucky with a mum who doesn't throw anything away). Half a year ago I set myself a goal to make a nice pillow with just those pieces. I even made a second one. Since then the pieces of patchwork were lying around without back. Last week I finally finished them. Thanks Marry, for the necessary fabric to pick up the project again.

Comfort for the dolls

After being ill with a stomach-flu this weekend I managed to do some sewing again yesterday-evening. The girls got this vintage doll-chair from my sister in law. I sewed this little pillow for it. From small fabric-scraps. A piece of an old shirt of my husband, a piece of my mothers old liberty shawl, some remnants of fabric from Kristen Doran and a piece of ribbon from Rosa Pomar.

Winner

I've received a lot of great mail these days. Like this perfect detailed little felt ornament of Else and the gocco-printed bag and lavender-pillow with 'the girl who knitted love' from Ana. And some more gifts that I will be mentioning later. Now it is time for giving. I want to thank all of you who entered my give-away, for the friendly comments. And the winner is: Victoria from 13mimosa! And to all the others, you could order a set of custommade stamps like these...

Left over love

Another item for the future teen lounge corner in our living. A simple pillow. Made out of re-used filling, an old zipper and scraps of my handprinted geo fabric. Just enough for this project. Maybe not the prettiest combination, but I love it anyway!

One step at a time

Third cushion for the lounge corner. It's another part of N's old mattress. Upholstered with just one pillow case from the Ikea sale corner. The pattern and colours are family from the fabric of the first cushion. Slowly the teen hangout is growing.

To make you envious

Here are some of the presents I got last sunday. The jartops (royal VKB) can be used on standard glas jars, to make any jar into a useful can or castor. Hetty knit a beautiful pillow and made an embroidered button for me. Better pictures here and here. Floortje really spoiled me. She made a beautiful apron, accompanied by two plates of Donna Wilson and a cute postcard (ttable-office), bought at Tas-ka. Floor gave me a healing-cuddle-stone. From a book-gift-certificate I bought the cookbook Bill's basics. Saskia made my daughters happy with the knit Barbie-dress. Am I lucky to have friends with such good taste and skills!

Eye pillows

Here they are, sleep masks for the daughters. The girls were so happy when they found them on their pillow in the evening. For the fabric I was inspired by this beautiful dress, made by H.

Rainy days

When I was cleaning out my fabric-stock yesterday, I had to admit that it is too much. I gave myself two options throw some out or use it. And since I planned to buy some new pillowcases I changed that into making myself some new ones. This lightbluegrey pillow is the first result. I took some leftover pieces of embroidery and covered the ugliest big buttons I had to finish the piece.

Another present

The blue felt pillow wasn't right for our interior, but I could think of a house where it would fit perfectly. So I sewed another pillowcover in the same colours and we gave the set to our friends who had invited us to a fabulous party ('we are 40 but feel like 20').

New decor

A new pillow in our house, made from a large piece of embroidery I bought in the second hand store today. One side is figurative ('the witch' as the girls call her), the other is more or less abstract. It literally took €2,- and 15 min to make it.