rose hip

lying low...

 

...since Christmas and getting over a cold, that's what I've been up to... Perhaps my holidays have been a bit low-key to date, but I'm not really complaining as I've spent my waking hours leafing through my new favourite crafty books, hooking a few pillowcase trims, watching movies at home with warm mugs of yummy salted caramel cocoa and bowls of popcorn, eating lots of Christmas sweets (much too many, I'm sure!), enjoying the company of my kids and husband by the fire and, since yesterday, figuring out what to do with a lovely thrifted loot of vintage heather grey wool which still has its original tags saying that it was made in Canada (Wow!) and distributed by the Bay, Canada's oldest department store (double Wow! -- how many of you remember the days when department stores sold yarn?)...  

And how about you?... I hope you have also been enjoying your holidays and, well, since we are on the brink of a new year, I hope you will...


Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and heartwarming visits to my little blog throughout all of last year, and I do hope you will keep popping by in the new year because I can't wait to share a whole load of new handspun goodies with you!...

 

'wishing you all a very...

 

 

dashing about...

 

...'cause Christmas is nearly here and I still have a ton do do! How about you? Every year at about this time, I tell myself that in the coming year I will start my Christmas preps earlier, but then when November rolls around, it always seems too early for me to start... Perhaps I feel a bit under the gun at the moment because, instead of decking the halls at home last weekend, I was away in Portland, Oregon, to watch our oldest, Stefania, play in a soccer tournament; it was all great fun and, while we didn't do a lot of shopping (too many people and queues for me!), I did pick up the snow globe you see above... What do you think? I love snow globes, but this is the first one I've ever bought because I always find the ones I see around a bit "over the top"; perhaps I should just make one... Hmmm, maybe next year!

 

I thought I would be able to post more often in this leadup to Christmas but, as usual, I've underestimated how much time it takes me to get ready for the big event! I do have a fair amount of food still to prepare as we have our close friends over for Wigilia, which is the traditional Christmas Eve vigil supper in Poland when we eat yummy things like barszcz (beetroot soup) with uszki (mushroom ravioli), pierogi, herring, makowiec (poppy cake), and then I also make a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings on Christmas day for our family. Of course, there are still lots of cookies to bake which I'm off to do as soon as I finish writing this little post and, while our tree is up, we still have the rest of the house "to deck" and, yes, there are gifts to wrap... Speaking of gifts, what do you think of the vintage Christmas wrap I picked up recently at a local thrift shop?... I bought it because it brought back memories of Christmas pasts for me, but I still have to figure out how I'll use it because I do think it's too precious to wrap gifts in!

I was hoping to show you a few new pillowcases before Christmas, but I don't think I will have them done in time; more than likely, I'll share them with you right after Christmas and before the New Year, one of my favourite weeks of the year because it feels so re-e-e-estful compared to the pre-Christmas frenzy... I did however have time to make up a few pillowcases in a style I made two Christmases ago (definitely one of my all-time favourites) and I've listed them in my Etsy shop. In case you may also be wondering, I am also still working on my patterns and I'll update you on my progress right after Christmas.

I do have to run now because I can hear my oven timer going off, so thanks for popping by and I do hope you are enjoying this time of year, albeit a bit crazy for some of us!...

 

look, what I found...

 

 

...while looking for some photos in my photo folders; a few posts back, I showed you photos from "Mollie Makes Crochet" including this photo of my crochet-edged baby blankets which are in the book:

from "Mollie Makes Crochet"

Well, these are my own photos of the six prototype blankets I made to go along with the edging patterns; I was asked to make three, one "boy" one, one "girl" one and one neutral one, but, well, I made six and then I had a hard time choosing, so I sent all of them off for the book's photo shoot!

I have to admit that I had a hard time narrowing down my fabric choices, no doubt because there always seems to be so much fabric to choose from; however, I did end up choosing all the fabric from my stash and didn't run out and buy some (pat on my back!)...

The lovely large-scale floral print is vintage sheeting, while the smaller-scaled one and the minky polka dot one (which I have made pillowcases with) is quilting weight cotton which I had lying around.

The two turquoise plaids are flannels and I was quite pleased with how their softness combined with the soft cotton chenille backing and the soft fine milk cotton yarn I used for the edging.

The top fabric in the photo above with the greenish floral stripes is one of my all-time favourite thrift shop finds -- you know, one of those fabrics that you have a hard time cutting into!

All the cotton chenille that I used for the backing was also from my stash (another pat on my back!) and I finally settled on lavender, pink and ivory chenille. I say "finally" because it took me a lot of humming and hawing and several false starts before I settled on my final choices...

 

I especially like the way the vintage-floral-pink-chenille-lavender-edged blankie turned out because I think there is a certain kitschiness about it...

As you can see, I used three different edging motifs (patterns for all three are included in the book) and, while I knew right away that I would use the scallop and lattice ones, it did take me a little while to come up with the picot one which edges the two bottom blankets in the photo below. It all ended up being a fair amount of work but, as I look at these photos now a year later after making them, I feel rather pleased with how they turned out... I do hope you enjoyed this little "photo album" and thank you so much for visiting!

yes, it's December...

 

...and I have definitely been bitten by the Christmas bug!... When I think back at some years where my Christmas preps were all very last minute, this may seem a bit early for me but not surprising this year because I live with two Christmas elves, my daughters Eva (13) and Nico (11)! They decided early on that it would be a DIY crafty kind of Christmas, so since at least mid-November they have been busy crafting Christmas decorations and gifts for everyone; all I do is help them with getting supplies and then off they go into Eva's room (door closed, of course!) crafting away sweet little surprises for all of us... With their Christmas spirit being so infectious and their excitement about the big day when they will finally gift everyone with all their handmade goodies so very special, how can I not be bitten by the Christmas bug?!...

So what else have I been doing aside from making sure our Christmas workshop is well-supplied?... Well, in between making pillowcases, I had been working on my pillowcase edging pattern and making some good progress with it when, as it often happens with me, I got side-tracked by another project idea which involved crocheting all the flowers you see above. (Now, don't get me wrong: crocheting all these flowers was not a chore as I can go on forever doing it, having great fun by trying out new yarn colours with each flower I make!) Because I was initially hoping to share this new project with you in December, I've decided to focus all my attention on it for the next little while and am delaying getting my pillowcase edging pattern out until after Christmas. ('Sorry about that to those of you who have been so patiently waiting for the edging pattern...) 

 

As this new idea, which I'm rather excited about, involves putting together a kit with a pattern, I'm spending most of my time now on writing up the pattern; however, the scope of the pattern has broadened a bit since I started and since, as you can see below, I've decided to make it a visual one with photos, it has been a bit slow-going... Nevertheless, I am enjoying doing it and so looking forward to sharing it with it!

So, the day being bright today, I must run now and take some more photos for my pattern asap... I do hope your December is starting up nicely and I will be back very soon -- Thanks for popping by!