Easter cards

In this house we have plenty of colours in different pens. These were enough for my needs now. I started to make Easter cards for my personal use. It is very simply idea. When I use stamps for card making I stamp the pictures before and let them dry for a good time; meaning weeks or months. :) Then when it is time to make the cards I color the stamped pictures and "build up" the cards.

These stamps are old and I have used them before in Easter cards but that is just fine. Again the result looks different. It is just the fact that despite the stamps are the same you can mix them and make the back grounds different.

Earth Hour Day!

Today the morning started very early again; at 5.13 am. Well, there's one good thing about it -more craft! At the early hours I was stitching my Project eternity. The light was bright and I hardly needed the electric lights.

 

It is Earth Hour day but at this time of the year being so close to both Arctic Circle and North Pole we anyway need so little electric light that having Earth Hour at home feels just ridiculous. Because of our location we hardly use lights during the summer season. And still around here the biggest problem is heating up the buildings. That's why I turned off the heating system at the veranda today. 

When I had the heating on at veranda the green house effect and basic electric heating system together raised the temperature to +22 Celcius degrees during the last 5-7 days. It felt heavenly after the coldest season temperatures (12-15 Celsius degrees). 

Turning off the electirc heating system means return to cooler basic temperatures, but that's 100% solar energy. On the winter time we hardly see the sun at all because of the polar nights but we always get it replaced. Already the sun shines more than 12 hours per day. And very soon -despite of turning off the heating system- I can bring my crafts back to veranda!

 

I started to knit for Miss N her 1st birthday gift. It is my own design especially for her from the left over yarn which actually has travelled all the way from Makedonia via Kosovo to me. I am not going to tell what it is going to be but you'll see more photo's of it later because little Miss Hertta doesn't know how to use the computer yet. :)

Today I also was taking inspiration pictures for my designs. I photographed around the horse stables. When I am going around, travelling and visiting places I carry my camera with me to get memo photos and inspiration pics. I may record the items, ideas, colours, feelings etc. Later they can be very useful. I may keep them for years before going back to the moments I recorded.

Mail day

Despite it has been very busy day I had some time to sit down and crochet a bit. It was very early morning before the day turned out busy. This is still my carry on project.

She knows she is not allowed to touch it, not even a little bit... Still she did and wanted some more. That running yarn must be like a  mouse tail. To be honest she is afraid of all kind of mice. So I see no point why everything "tail like" is so fascinating....

And later on the evening I finally had time to sit down and enjoy about the fresh knitting magazine the postman brought me today. Cup of tea, some chocolate and feet on sofa under warm woollen blanket...

Craft in spring

Today I have done all my daily duties but still had some time to do a bit of craft. Could it be any better?

So, I was on a walk with my dog. During the walk I went to check out something that is connected to my woolly secret. Can you guess what's going on?

After the walk we came home and I started to stitch a bit. It is a picture of my dog. Now you can see the figure of it better. There's snowy background and a bit of winter sky.

After finishing stitching I started to design new big project. It is called Arctic Dream -at least so far it is called that. :)

 

And she helped me all the time. In my opinion she could have kept her paws somewhere else but this was the best place in her opinion. Well, she would rater sit on my stitching but because she is not allowed to and she needs to be far enough to keep her hair away; she agreed this -or made me to agree....

Busy day

Today I've been at the work but also been a good house wife as usual. :) We had gluten free home made pizza as dinner. And at the same time making the pizza I baked some gluten free corn breads. And because I was so hard working I am going to publish a photo of it what else I did. I know it must be illegal shoving pictures like below but I tell you we shared that 100g with four so that's ok I guess.

 

Here's how my carry on project goes on. Not very succesfully but I have plenty of time to finish it. It is good carry on project because it is just a boring basic crocheting before I start to finish it. So if I am disturbed I won't get confused with it. I neither need to carry many shades with me -just this one.

I also had happy woolly news. I am so excited and can hardly wait. Because I need to be patient I am naughty and won't tell you anything about it yet. I will share the secret later.

And here's what I stitched today. Well, I didn't stitch that all today but where I am going on with my latest stitching project.

New crocheting project

Today I started new crochet project. It is my own design again.I am not going to tell you what it will be. But later on you will notice. I use Novita's Nalle woollen yarn. It is going to be such a carry on project. I can take it with me where ever I go and need to wait. Waiting is boring so I always have these carry on projects going on.

Today I also finished one more scarf of my own design which you can see here. For this scarf I used different yarn for the scarf itself but Novita's pampula for the edge. It's lighter material in this time than the original yellow one and also the colours are different. I can't picture it here because it is a gift for someone. :)

And my stitching too is progressing. Slowly but still progressing. Unfortunately it got too dark to get proper picture of it with good light before I stopped stitching today. It has many light/pale shades so natural light makes good to get it all pictured out well.

Project eternity

Oh, I've been such a good girl. I have fixed the zipper, re-fasten few buttons and fixed few shirts around their armpits.

I have started new stitching project. It is one more picture to my Project eternity. I really have to do something to finish my Project eternity faster. If I do it this speed I'll be 80 years old before it's ready. I have already few more ideas for it but they are just ideas and I am not sure how to make them true.

My fabric

Here it is. I got it yesterday. The fabric I talked about before . All the prints can't be seen on the picture but it gives an idea of it what it all is about.

Water Soluble Canvas -tutorial

This heart is a part of a bigger art project. More pictures about that you can see at Heart hanging tutorial . 

I used DMC's Water Soluble Canvas. The canvas feels plastic and a bit sticky. It reminded me of plastic canvas -this just is thinner and more flexible. Because I used it on a piece of felt fabric; instead of  tacking it on by stitching I used just two pins. I placed the pins on the edges so that the holes they make won't damage the heart shaped area at all.

This is my own free stitching design. Which means I had no pattern -just the idea.

Fasten the canvas by tacking it with large stitches around the area or use pins. No matter which way you use make sure the stitched area stays free. It gets easier when few stitches are done.

Stitch the design as planned. If you use pins you can remove them when you can be sure the canvas stays on there where wanted. If you have used stitches to tack the canvas remove the stitches when the design is finished. This is only because the pins can hurt your fingers so it's resonable to remove them as soon as possible.

Cut the extra canvas away. Be careful not to damage your work. That would be a shame after hours of stitching.

Use 40-50 Celsius degrees soapy water. Make sure there's enough water. The work needs to be soak for about 5-10 minutes. Time to time stir it gently. The fabric feels slimy when you touch it. At the end the canvas mets and dissapears. You need to rinse the work with plenty of hot water to get the soap and remindings of the canvas slime away. Hot water doesn't need to be so hot that it burns your hands.

To get the extra water out don't twist the fabric. Place it on a towel on a flat surface (floor for example). Fold the towel so that it is under and on the fabric (the work is hidden between the folds). Press the towel gently everywhere so that the towel absorbs the extra water away.

Hang the work to dry. When it is dry you can keep on working and make it to become what you desired it to be.

First Kiss

So here it finally is. The picture of my own design First Kiss -inspired by the cutest pony ever; Pin Rock's Ariel. I finished it on the last Friday. I had not planned to finish it yet but I was given a challenge so I had to. It was a resting project because I had a crisis about it how to finish it. I needed to add some back stitches but I didn't know exactly where. I tried it on the computer and paper too. At the end I just took it in my hands. I went to sofa with it and let the nature light come in. Stitch by stitch I managed it. I made some outlining to the arm, face and the head of the pony. Below you can see the video of the First Kiss project.

Case for my Magnetic Board

This is what I made yesterday. 

It is a case for my DMC 7" x 10" Magnetic Board. 

To make it I used my own pattern which I did for Tabcase. They both happen to be same size! I used cotton wool to make it softer and stand hits better. (I will need to carry it with me in the future.)'

At the fabric shop

Today I went to a fabric shop to buy a zipper. Well, I found the zipper but have not used it yet. I should replace a broken one with it. That is always soooo boring and should be banned by the law.

I didn't plan to buy anything else. But I found something. The garden fabric I used immediately so I have been spending the day by sewing. Later you will see what I did. The horse and star themed fabrics I put aside for later use. 

Naughty me

Today I was very extremely naughty. If you look at the picture above you may notice what I mean. I wrote on a pages of a book!!!! This is Lucinda Ganderton's Stitch Dictionary which I bought from ebay some time ago. Yesterday I was at the library and found (again) the Finnish version of it. I borrowed it once again. I wrote the Finnish names of the stitches on the book. I did it to avoid confusion and to make my job easier. Now I don't need to seek matching names anymore. It's all written down there. :) The book of our library I will return as neat as I borrowed it. From now on I will be holding it less.

This book above is my project from the art college times. It was dated on 1997. In Finland we don't have very strong embroidery culture. If you want to make something else than the basic stitches you really need to investigate how to do it. The situation is better now on 2014 but not as much has happen as it could have. I use internet and English sources a lot. Basic things are in Finnish but there's a lot I know only in English. In my native language there still is not names for everything what comes to stitching and ebroidering; materials, methods and features still have unknown untranslated terms.

On 1997 at the art college we were allowed to pick up a theme which we wanted to investigate and learn. Nobody else but me wanted to do it all about stitching. My aim was to make a guide book for myself about the different stitches, learn them and -in future- to be easier to use them again. I collected the information from many sources. Internet was not that common yet and there was hardly nothing on it about it in Finnish. It was hard to find the information but at the end the book was finished and so useful. I have been using it a lot and some of my friends have borrowed it. It includes two books -the samples and instructions. Despite I now have Lucinda's book I still find this project work useful.