Teddy Bear

I made a wonky teddy for my new nephew Greyson.

Panda Pencil Case

So, I handmade this panda pencil case for my "niece" Clara. (She's my inverted-comma-niece because we are not blood-related, but she's my sister-from-another-mister's daughter). I used this tutorial for help with assembling the case and made the rest of the design up completely. Which is incidentally how I live most of my life...

It's a present for Clara's first day of school, which we Germans celebrate big. I have been informed by a reliable source that "niece" is currently panda-crazy. 

Well, guess what, I am now panda-crazy, too. Just in a completely different way. Because starting to make something with ears and eyes and a zipper and then having your sewing machine give up the ghost in the first quarter of that process does drive you somewhat bonkers... But for a hand-sewn first attempt, it ain't too terribly bad. Even if I say so myself.

Happy First Day Of School, Clara!!!

 

P.S.: Sorry about the cat hair....

  © Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).  

Alright, then.

Seeing as that is the only bit of blue left in the London sky at the moment, I thought I might as well give you those updates on my projects I was talking about yesterday (when I said I did not feel like blogging...). I will just assume that me deciding to wash our pillows and duvet today is just coincidental with the weather deciding to give us some rain. Anything else is just too messed up to think about it! Well, at least I got almost everything dry before the first drops fell.
So, here is update number one, for le sky scarf:

I have arranged all my balls of wool neatly in cups and glasses on a tray. So far, everything has stayed tangle-free. It also lets me easily store the project on the living room cabinet, well out of the way of my darling cats. 

You can see that since I started at the beginning of May, the weather has been pretty grey, except for the last glorious week and a half. I have not yet used any of the deep summer blue, but fortunately also none of the thunderstorm grey. Although today I might have to...

Update number two is for the wedding quilt:

I'm done with cutting out the squares. All 270 of them! Suddenly this project is starting to seem a bit daunting again. But it's been fun so far, and I can see the finished quilt vaguely in my mind. Onwards and upwards, ho! I believe it can be achieved.

Which leaves update number three, my lovely craft room:

The floor turned out beautiful! Whenever I go upstairs now, I need to factor in about 10 minutes of staring at the light wood and the pretty wallpaper. I have not moved in yet, before that happens I will need a trip to Ikea and the hardware store to get supplies to build a desk and shelves. This won't happen until after we're back from Germany. But that's okay, as I have been using the room as a workshop for refurbishing a little cabinet that is going to go next to my side of the bed. Yay! That's another project I will hopefully be able to show you soon!

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Wedding Quilt

I personally thought this day would never come. Nor did the people who kept asking me about the quilt I had told them I would make about two years ago. The back story? I asked everybody at our wedding to bring a piece of fabric that I was going to make into a memory quilt to remind Marco and me of the day and of all the people that shared it with us.
So we got married, people gave me special fabrics, and then this fabric just sat around for nearly 24 months. I was kind of apprehensive to start on the quilt. It is going to be my first one, and I was so afraid of messing it up. But now I will tackle it! It is still daunting, especially as there are quite a few materials like silk and wool that you would probably normally not quilt with. But I have managed a few smaller patchwork projects over the past months, and succeeding with those have given me the confidence to start something bigger. So far, I have only taken photos to catalogue who gave us which fabric, and washed all the pieces so that the finished blanket will not shrink. And yay! All the fabric survived! I will keep you up to date on the progress. Wish me luck!

Canadian friends gave us fabric that they used for their furniture.

My grandparents gave me a piece of corduroy from dungarees I had as a child. 

My friend Saskia made a quilt block especially for us.

My uncle (via my Mama) donated a piece of my old room's curtains.

My colleague and his wife gave us a Chinese silken handkerchief.

This is a fragment of a skirt my Mama made me when I was little.

My friend Susi brought a piece of window decorating fabric from the bookshop that we used to work at together.

Our friend John once made this batique that should have become a cushion but will no go in the quilt.

My aunt surprised us with a fabric remnant of the dress that she wore as a bridesmaid at my parent's wedding.

My friend Abi parted with a whole thoughtful collection that included her son's first hat.

Now I cannot wait to cut squares out of all these!

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Look! I can make curtains!

But hey, at least I finally got around to sewing some curtains for the living room! It was one of those projects that had been on my to-do list forever. It was really quick to do in the end, maybe a couple of hours.
I used a set of old sheets that I got from eBay, and cut in half the yellow sheet was about the right width to cover the window. So I could use the existing hems, which saved me a lot of work. Lengthwise, the sheet did not quite fit, but as I wanted a contrasting bottom anyway, that was not to much of a drawback. I cut strips of the other sheet with a floral pattern in matching colours and sewed them on, using the French seam technique for a neat finish, so that my neighbours don't have to look at untidy sewing when they pass by my house. Again, I made use of the existing hem, and did not have to hem the bottom edge myself.

French Seam

I did not like how, when the light fell through the curtains, you could see where the hem started, so I attached a length of jaquard trim over it. Even though this was not part of my initial plan, I very much liked the look of it.

And here are my new curtains, all done. I like how they are not too dark and still let some of the light shine through. The cats have already started hairing all over them, so I think they approve. And even Marco liked them, despite the floral pattern at the bottom! That has made me think that I might try and be able to sneak some more flowery stuff into our home... Shhhh!

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

A Gift Of Quilts

My friend Christina and I pretty much spent the whole of Saturday at the London edition of the Stitch & Craft Show. Apart from stocking up on material, learning how to do hardanger embroidery, talking to a lot of fellow stitch enthusiasts and meeting Mr X Stitch and Sally Muir, the absolute highlight of the show was the huge exhibition of quilts for the A Gift Of Quilts project. Hundreds of people and organisations have made quilts to be presented as a gift of friendship and peace to each participating country in the London Olympics this summer.
The variety of quilts was astonishing and Christina and I were stunned by some of the skills that have gone into all of them. Unfortunately, I only had my phone to take photographs. I hope a little bit of the beauty and craftsmanship is coming across when you look at the panels below.

If you would like to know more about A Gift Of Quilts, you can visit their website here. 

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated). 

Ah, Oven Mitts!

Do you sew? I have been learning to, and so far my projects have been on the smaller scale. But do you know that immense pleased-with-yourself feeling that you get when you finish off and whatever you're making don't look too bad? 
I felt pleased with myself after I made these oven gloves. They were a birthday present for my friend Christina. They looked a bit wonky. One was bigger than the other. And I realize the two checked fabric scraps I used for binding where not quite the same. 
But I did not know that I could make my own oven mitts, and finding out I could was very, very gratifying. 
To make the mitts, I used this tutorial from Liberty, with a oven glove pattern that I found here. Instead of using store bought wadding, I followed this lady's advice and recycled an old towel. 
This was a pretty straightforward project, and it only took me one evening. The most tedious thing about it all was the quilting. To mark the lines, I had used one of those fabric marker pens that vanish by themselves after a while. My pen chose to start vanishing after about 10 minutes, so the lines were very faint by the time I started sewing over them... Does anybody have any idea what might work better?
Christina, I hope you love your gift for its homemade qualities!

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

A Gift For A Girl

I had to give a little girl a birthday gift the other day.

I made this reversible drawstring pouch for her. I followed a great tutorial to do this. It took less than an hour to put together, but I must say that I cheated a bit and used pre-cut fabric squares.

Inside the pouch, I put a Russian doll. I had found the doll at a flea market and I knew from a good source that the girl would like this.

And inside the doll pieces, I put goodies. A bracelet, a stamp, some hairpins, and chocolates in the big one. I believe opening that was a favourite.

I think the gift was well received, as I got a big hug and a humongous smile from the birthday girl!

© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Cushy Camper

These are two cushions that I made for my Papa's birthday gift at the end of July. I first saw this fabric on Sew Retro and The Vintage Traveler and immediately thought that it was ideal for making something to give to my dad! My Mama and he own a VW camper and that car is like a second home to him. He also loves the old traditional VW models.

I found out the fabric make ('Happy Campers' by Birch) through Lizzie, and after some googling, I also found the brilliant UK online fabric store Seamstar, who had the exact fabric in stock and pretty much delivered the next day. They stock soooo many other pretty designs, too - and loads of notions and haberdashery.

I measured the fabric to fit 50 x 50 cm IKEA cushion pads. I somehow failed to order enough fabric to make a front and back for two cushions, so I had to go through my fabric stash to find a suitably patterned alternative to make up for my bad maths. The vintage checkered fabric I pulled out was the perfect match, the green and white and orange-brown checks complimented the camping design most adequately. I was very lucky!

I made a 4-button closure on the back and sewed the buttonholes by hand. It looks alright, as long as my Papa decides to keep the buttons tightly fastened! I was not there when he unwrapped his present, but I could hear in his phone voice that he was quite pleased with the cushions. And that pleased me!

 P.S.: Have you entered my giveaway? If not, click the button. You know you want to!
 © All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)