rose hip

my summer harvest...

...this year is a basket full of crocheted flower squares -- my obsession of late! When in Paris, from the corner of my eye, I spotted a beautiful, very boho tote swinging off the shoulder of one of those stylish, well put together women one sees all over the city; the body of the bag was made up of many multicolor crocheted squares similar to the ones above, except done in a finer yarn. It was such a fleeting moment, and I honestly can't remember very well what the bag looked like exactly, but it made an instant impression on me.... I left Paris with thoughts of the bag, itching to recreate my own version of it...

Alexandra, my now 10-year-old daughter, celebrates her birthday in early July, and I decided to surprise her with a shoulder bag version of the Parisian bag; I crocheted frantically over a hot summer weekend and came up with a bag just in time for her birthday... She was very pleased with it and so was I! (photos of the bag to come...) I so enjoyed crocheting the squares, trying out new color schemes with each square, that I kept at it -- all summer... My bag of yarn and hook was with me at all times -- whether at the beach, soccer tournaments, etc... In fact, I'm still at it, pumping out those squares, not tiring of it at all!

So, what to do with all these flower squares... no more bags for now, but instead, I decided that I would sew them up together to make cushion tops. For starters, I think cushions like these will work beautifully with the quilted coverlet that I just finished, and which I will show you as soon as I take some photos of it...

P.S. 'Just a little note to any of you who might be expecting me tomorrow (Sept. 27th) at the Trout Lake Farmer's Market in Vancouver -- I, unfortunately, won't be able to make it, because I have to many activities to get my children to tomorrow on my own as I'm without husband this weekend....Sorry...

bold bedding beginnings...

...little squares, chosen from here and there,

...pieced together to make this,

...and finally, this.

....back-to-school and back-to-our-seemingly-5-million-children-related-extracurricular-
activities are finally back on track after a good two weeks of sorting out, so I am ready to start on some fall projects that I've been meaning to get a move on. First on my list is this little bedding collection: along with the patchwork top above, which will shortly become a coverlet backed by chenille, I will make a duvet cover, a handful of cushions of varying designs and, of course, some pillowcases, all of which will kind of work together, hopefully, in a not too matchy-matchy way! (Phew...what a mouthful!) I think the bulk of my posting in the next little while will relate any progress I make in this direction. Hopefully, I will be posting more often than I have been lately with lots of progress to show for... (Nothing like a little self-imposed blog pressure to get me really moving on this little project of mine!)

Before I run off to finish the coverlet, I want to thank Nathalie, the very talented mama behind Kennedy & friends co. for her sweet mention of my ruffle skirts in this post and for including such adorable photos of cute as a button little Kennedy in one of my ruffle skirts - thanks Nathalie! Nico, my six-year-old, very happily owns one of Nathalie's lovely little tutu creations which you can find here... And lastly, for all you babushka/matryoshka lovers, you must check this out (found via café creativo).








P.S. It seems that I just lost all the e-mails that I've received up until last night...Ugh! Given that I'm so incredibly slow at replying to my e-mails, there is a good chance that I haven't replied to yours if you've sent me one... If you were waiting for a reply, I would so appreciate it if you could send your message out to me again --- THANKS! (written on Sept. 17)

french blue...

...'Just a little note to thank all of you who have popped by my newly-stocked Etsy shop in the last little while -- and thank you especially to those of you who also clicked out of my shop with a new ruffly creation! As always when I try something new with rose hip, whether it be selling at a new venue, selling something totally new and different, etc..., I get nervous -- listing my ruffle skirts was no exception... But your enthusiastic support of my shop and comments about it all have gone a long way in encouraging me to pursue selling on Etsy, and hopefully, stock it more regularly with all sorts of goodies -- my head is bubbling over with new ideas!

Some of you showed interest in the cornflower blue skirts after they sold out; while I had 6 in all, l was only able to list 2 of them because I ran out of the pretty blue velvet ribbon I used to trim them. I have ordered more of it, but because it truly is French ribbon, I will only get it in about a month... As soon as I receive it and trim the remaining skirts, I will load them on Etsy and write a mention here. In the meantime, I will be crocheting, patchworking, appliquéing, etc... 'Show you all very soon....