W.I.P. Wednesday : Randoms

Happy Wednesday, kids! I want to sincerely thank all of you for your comments on my article over at The Daring Kitchen. You’re all too cool for school, and that’s the truth. So there. Now, onto W.I.P. Wednesdayness!

I was able to get a little work done on this month’s Stitch-Along. I think these are the perfect size for my 6 month-old niece’s hands to hold, so I’ll be sending them off to her for Easter (meaning, I’d better get rocking on them if they are going to be finished and sent in time).

In-progress Bunny. Note the terribly sloppy outline. I did get a “D” in neatness in the First Grade. Scarred for life, I tell ya.

Finished little Bear

If all goes well, I’m going to put some tinkley-bells in one, and hopefully some crinkly-sounding plastic in the other for some added fun. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m also trying to finish up some cupcakes for more notebooks like these. I’ve still got a few notebooks left, but I’ve got the materials together to make my own and I’m really excited about it! I’ll have camera in hand to get you a proper tute when the moment arrives. For now, here’s the in-progress cuppers :

Did you notice those gorgeous French knots/sprinkles? I’m going French Knot crazy, and not just because I’m a Francophile. Honestly, I couldn’t figure them out until very recently (ie: bane of my embroidery existence). I started to think it was a seriously lost cause, but then I checked out Jenny Hart’s tutorial and it changed my life. Well, it changed my embroidery. Thing is, I’m not sure if I like the French Knot sprinkles, or the longer seed stitch ones I did before. Thoughts?

Before the holidays I promised a tutorial to show you how to make a pair of child’s pants sans pattern. Ture to my word, I had the opportunity to take some photos while making these :

Sorry for the wonky color-scheme here – these are orange and white striped pants for Guppy, who seemingly overnight grew 3 centimeters (yet to be confirmed with our highly-scientific measuring in-the-doorway method later today) and is in major need of longer pants (or higher socks). I’d started working on her dress, but have put that aside for the more serious and practical business of pants. Please forgive my slapdash sticking pants on wall with a piece of painter’s tape mise en scène here (would have been more professional to actually get the legs and stripes to line up before I snapped the shot, hey?).

This is the most lovely fabric, which is a sailcloth-ish cotton twill (I’m not fluent in fabric yet, sorry) that I bought nearly a year ago at Ikea never dreaming I’d have the skillz to make pants! Had I known I would have bought more because I would love to have a pair of loungy pants like these – they look like acrobat pants and orange popcicles all at once. To me, anyway. I ended up having to slim the legs a little bit on these because Guppy wasn’t into the baggy look, but that wasn’t too difficult to pull off. If I can get over this sludge which had me bed-ridden all weekend (and up until today) and get all productive-organized-crawl out from under my pile of backlogged behindness, I’ll get the tutorial for next Wednesday. Maybe. I hope.

Have a crafty week, and don’t forget to see what the other Wipsters are up to, and to check out our W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool, too.

W.I.P. Wednesday : The finished, the planned and the in-progress…

This is an extra-large serving of W.I.P.ness, so grab a little cup of tea and here we go!

The finished : Staring here is good, helps me to feel like I’ve accomplished something!

Here are the carp I told you about here. Love them. I hope my nephew does, too.

He’s quite a sketcher (I sent him the watercolour-pencil roll for Christmas) so I thought a blank notebook would suit him. I also made him a black denim pouch to slip the notebook and some pencils in, in case he wants to do a little field work (ok, this is a bad inside joke because he lives on a farm. Sorry.)

It’s also my niece’s birthday soon, so here are her goodies :

The little dude’s antenna/hat isn’t sewn on yet in this photo, but I assure you, it has since been sewn on and they are on their way to the U.S. along with this :

…a little felty pouch (decorated with ribbon on the other side) and a heart pin because they are so cute I’m making them for everyone! I used this felt, and for the butterflies I used this adorable pattern from Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls fame. I just noticed she’s having a doll giveaway today – go throw your name in the virtual hat!.

This was one of the first patterns I ever ordered (about 9 months ago), but this is the first time I’ve used it. I have a feeling I’ll be making more of these in the future they are so sweet. And springy.

Oh, and a new pincushion, because I just love making these little cuties!

and the other side, so you can see my wonky stitching.

Now, the in-progress :

Another one of these dolls. This is for a “new” baby (she’s already 3 weeks old – aak!). She’s mostly done – just need to sew her hair ribbon on and get her limbs attached. Have you ever noticed the less you have to do to finish a project, the more difficult it is psychologically to get it done? Or is it just me?

I started this last night for the talented Tacha :

Lucky me gets to test another pattern for her! This is going to be adorable – I’ll hopefully have it ready for show & tell by Friday! She has the best stuff in her shop – go check it out!

The planned :

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely heard of the terrible fires in Australia, killing so many – humans and animals – and destroying everything in sight. I wanted to so something, so I donated what I could, but still felt like I wasn’t doing anything. Then, the aforementioned Tacha told me about The Bushfire Quilt Project. Tia Curtis, an American quilter living in Australia, is rounding-up quilt blocks from all over the globe and with the help of local quilters, they are creating quilts for families who lost everything in this tragedy. If your life has ever been touched by fire, you know the devastation of completely starting over. These quilts may not be much, but they are a start, and a great way to show some global solidarity to our Australian friends.

That’s great, Shellyfish, but I don’t know how to quilt. Well, guess what? Neither do I! But I’m committing to making at least a few of these Wonky Stars thanks to the tutorial. My biggest obstacle is an anemic fabric stash, but I’m hoping to get some scraps organized Friday. Here’s The Bushfire Quilt Project Flickr Group if you want to be inspired. Doing what you can makes such a big difference, be it 2 or 50 squares. Others are sending quilting supplies to help out. Just wanted to spread the word, and thanks to Tacha for sharing the links with me!

And to finish, behold! Guppy’s new dress, er, dress fabric :

Ok, this fabric is just dreamy. It has such a great feel and weight to it. Yum. We don’t have a fabric store in town, but there is a vendor who comes to the marché twice a week. The up-side is he often has designer remnants at great prices. The down-side is that you can’t buy the amount you’d like – you’re stuck with whatever size the remnant is – be it a half meter or 3 meters. It’s a good thing in this case because I got nearly 3 meters for 10E which is just super exciting!

I wish I were only 4 and could have a dress, too. Ok, no, when I was 4 I wouldn’t be caught dead in a dress. But Guppy is rather excited about it, probably because she doesn’t have any cold-weather dresses so it seems special. I’m excited because I’ve never made a dress before. So much excitement.

Speaking of excitement, next week’s W.I.P. will have our Wipster of the Month interview and we’ll also have our March Stitch-Along – I bet you just can’t wait! Try to satisfy your curiosity by visitng the other Wipsters to see what they are up to this week, and don’t forget the W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Group, too!

The Bunny!

I woke up and wanted to hurry to get out for my run, when I heard squeals of joy emanating from the living room…

The Guppy knew that today was “Bunny Day”, and she was up and in the living room standing before her basket, repeating excitedly, “Mumma, Mumma, look!”

How exciting! Baby felt bunnies hatching from vegan chocolate eggs!

Madame & Monsieur Lapin (Monsieur is easily recognizable by his little French moustache and pink attire…because male-folk do wear pink!) were my first attempts at sewing with a machine (more on that another day…). I followed the free Wee Bunny pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. Monsieur Rabbit was my first attempt (er, pas terrible or not-so-great as we say in French), but Madame Rabbit is much cooler (and looks darn good for just having a brood of felt bunnies!). The little felt bunnies are from the cutest book in the world which I want to blog about when I get the time so I won’t steal the thunder from a future post.

The Bunny of Spring didn’t forget me, as I found this beautiful book in my basket and cannot wait to start a billion projects…