KissKus

Matroyshka/babushka help

A while back I decided on a theme for baby's room: the main colour will be turquoise and I want to add matroyshka/babushka elements.

From Tiel.

So far I collected some illustrations that I want to frame and I'm building up a small stash of turquoise fabrics for the quilt and other decorations.
What I would really like, however, is to buy some matroyshka-fabric as well (I already have the Heather Ross print, but that's the wrong colour unfortunately) and I'm hoping that you guys can help me out a little.

Do you know of any links to the fabric I'm looking for? As I said the main colour of the quilt will be turquoise, but any kind of blue, or red, will do. Do you know any good (bonafide) and preferably affordable online fabric stores? I only ever once twice bought from Reprodepot, which I was very happy about.

I hope you've got some helpful tips for me!

By the way, while surfing the net I came across this fabulous site. I'm now trying to determine which set(s) I'm going to buy.

Ack, have a look at this blog... such lovely things on there!

And this fabric is just the best!

Does anyone know where it comes from?

This is me: Amber

September 2006: our house, zucchini in the garden

I'm not really good at keeping a record of my children's development. Simon still has no baby-album. In fact, he doesn't even have one proper photo of himself, because we never print any photos from our digital camera... I haven't been keeping a baby-diary with Simon either. Also most drawings that Amber made through the years have somehow gone missing.
This is why I'm grateful for:

• this blog
• Amber's teachers

Amber came home last week with a booklet full of drawings that she made this year. Included were several techniques like folding, tearing, gluing etc.
However, my favourite part were the drawings that she had been making of herself in this schoolyear. Some highlights:

August 2006: Don't you love the bellybutton and nipples that show through her clothes?!

February 2007: I like how she has drawn the little ponytail that she wore that day

March 2007: Look at that pose! Do you see Michel/me and Simon in the background?

August 2006: Summer vacation, spending time with her aunt from England (my sister)

December 2006: Sinterklaas, that creature on the left is a horse!

June 2007: Celebration at school, picture of her on a camel in the rain

Thank you, Amber's teachers, for making this wonderful booklet and for making me feel a little less like a slob!

Check out some more (older) drawings here.

A golden frame

Sorry to go on and on about Amber's birthday... this is the last post on it, I promise!
I just want to share with you another thing that I came up with for her party.
I liked Amber to give out a small present to all her guests and I came up with a frame that would contain a photo of Amber and her friends. I thought it would be fun if the children would be involved in making their own present.

So I bought cheap wooden frames from IKEA and small wooden cut-outs from Hema.

All children were given a frame that they could decorate the way they wanted. We helped them gluing it all together.

After spray-painting the frames golden, I jumped on my bike to get the photos printed.

I wrapped them up and added a thank you-card that I had made previously.

Both children and parents were very happy with this framed memory :)

Pre-party crafting

The days before Amber's birthday I spent many hours working on projects for her party.
I'm happy to say that I finished everything that I had planned beforehand!

First up were the treats she would hand out at school. I used the scrappy flowers that I made a little while back. There were still a lot of buttons to be sewn, but luckily my MIL's helped me with that. We then put the flowers on sticks. I bought small cakes and stuck the flowers in them.

The result was pretty and colourful.  Amber was very pleased with them and so were the children in her class... pfeeew!

Next up was the birthday outfit. This is an annual tradition (for myself!). From experience I know that sewing an outfit at the last moment can be an extremely stressful thing to do, so I was smart and bought a sweet dress from H&M. Nonetheless I did finish the outfit in time!

I'd been looking at all the lovely smocks that were appearing everywhere in blogland... I knew that that was what I wanted to make for Amber. This was the pattern I found. It looked much too small for Amber, so I just made it larger. I could only hope that it would fit, since trying it on would spoil the surprise. I made trousers to match.

The whole outfit was made from red gingham, blue polkadots and a little blue flower print. It all looked wonderful together (unfortunately the photos aren't great). The smock is completely reversible, something Amber really liked. I was so pleased that the outfit not only fit her, but also turned out exactly the way I had imagined!

I had also made two smocks for Vita, Amber's doll, from Kirsten's pattern. It worked very well, Kirsten, thank you!

Well, I have one more crafty thing to show, but I think I'll save that for another post... otherwise this one will get ridiculously long!

Kaffe Fassett exhibition Part Deux

As promised more photos of the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition I went to in Hasselt, Belgium.
The quilts were the main focus for me there, but there were so many more wonderful things to see. I had expected to see quilts and knitted jumpers, but there were also many embroidered pieces (cushions, slippers, whole chairs) and lots of beautiful mosaic pieces. I really knew so little about Kaffe Fassett (I must get my hands on his books), but I definitely didn't appreciate his work any less because of it!

The quality of the photos isn't great since I had to make do with sparse artificial lighting, but they do give you a clue as to what was on show.

Like this amazing embroidered cushion:

or this one:

Look at this fantastic tapestry:

Whole decors were set up in the same style...quilts, embroidered pieces, wallpaper, paintings and mosaics

What a gorgeous table!

With matching vase

I think I might have to improve my own mosaic skills a little... although with mosaics you can't really go wrong, can you? I can't wait to get started on that again... come out sun!

*I might upload some more photos tomorrow*

A whole lot of flowers

The other day I started making fabric flowers.
The reason is that I'm so attached to my scraps that I want to use up every last bit of them, so *even* the pieces that are too small to use for tissueholders. These flowers are perfect for that.

I initially thought of using them as decoration on a present and I still think that they are great for that. However, today I suddenly thought that I could turn these flowers into really nice treats for Amber's upcoming birthday. I was thinking of putting these flowers onto a small stick/straw and then either put them in a tiny cake or -even better I think- in a little flowerpot filled with liquorice.
Amber thought this was a really good idea. Of course this means that I have to make about 40 of these flowers... But they're all cut now, I just have to sew on the buttons.

Amber made all the fabric combinations and picked out the buttons; we had a lot of fun. The house is still an indescribable mess, but who cares... I've been making scrappy flowers with my daughter!

Happy mother

On this Sunday that's dedicated to all mothers, I'm happy that my little birds are back at the nest after six days with their oma's. They had a great time, and so did we, but I'm so glad to be able to stroke their sweet sleeping heads again tonight.

This is what Amber made for me at school. She knew the accompanying poem by heart, even after 2,5 weeks of vacation and not having practiced it... I'm so proud!

And this the other present I got, an Oilily bag and perfume. Even though I don't like the mad commerciality around days like this, I must say that I'm *pretty* pleased with that cute bag ;)

On Friday evening we visited our friends who had just become parents. Here I'm getting acquainted to little Pien. Babies rule!!

Happy Mothersday to all you mothers!

Kaffe Fassett exhibition

My parents' birthday present to me was a trip to Hasselt (Belgium) to the Kaffe Fassett exhibition in The Fashion Museum.
It was fabulous!
Exhibited were quilts, jumpers, mosaics, embroidered cushions and so much more. I just can't believe how multi-talented this man is!

Since it's late and I have to work early tomorrow, I'll just show you some photos of the quilts I liked best loved.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take really good photos because of the sparse lighting, but you get the idea, don't you?! Look at that explosion of colours!

This one is much more subdued, but I love the simplicity and the pattern. See how he used the stripy fabric to create the pattern as well? Simple, but so effective.

This was one of my absolute favourites. Yellow, pink & orange just are my colours.

Genius. Love everything about this. Must try something like this.

Mum (quilter, knitter & allround crafty girl) and I (just crafty girl) got so inspired on so many levels by just looking at his work. The choice of fabric, colours, patterns... I can't wait to get started!
And I didn't leave empty-handed either. Mum & Dad were sweet enough to contribute this to my stash:)

I'm so happy just to look at it. I do believe it's the prettiest (and most expensive) fabric I've ever had!

Next post I'll show you photos of the other items that were on show.

Hanging out with the bunnies

Look at the latest batch of freshly graduated students from Easter Bunny College. Don't they look eager?! They just can't wait to collect their basket of eggs and start hiding!

Actually, this is only half of the group that I'm working on, but I'm taking so long to finish them that I just didn't want to wait any more. Sometimes you just have to be realistic, Easter may be over before I've finished the rest of them (hope not).

Hmmm, I wonder whether I'll be able to change my banner... it will give my blog a nice seasonal touch ;)

I also want to give a big thank you to Kirsten. A couple of days ago a cute little package arrived, in it were this beautiful brooch (currently proudly displayed on my bag):

And this wonderful rocket patch:

It was immediately confiscated by Simon and I think I'm going to use it on a bag for him. Thanks again, Kirsten!

Labels: miscellaneous crafting, sewing

Egg flowers

May I present to you... egg flowers!
The other day when I was digging through my scrapbasket, just itching to make more tissueholders, I suddenly had an idea for a new scrappy project. Eggwarmers...hurray! Don't you love it when a new idea just pops into your head? It all went so smooth too. Sorting fabrics, cutting, sewing and the result was as I had hoped.

I made the coordinating eggholders from wool felt. Later I realised that these can also be used to hold napkins... multi-purpose holders, wow  :)

They are super easy to make. All you need is two pieces of fabric and a bit of elastic for the eggwarmers, and a piece of wool felt and fabric for the eggholder. Don't you think they will brighten up the Easter breakfast table?

I just came across this, which is also a wonderful way to use up your scraps.