Doorstop "Poppy cottage"

The party weekend went well, everyone seemed to have enjoyed it, especially the birthday girl. She received a crafts kit as a present – to sew little bags and purses out of foam sheets. With the help of her sister, all the projects were done in a couple of hours. The next thing I saw was them carefully arranging and taking pictures of each of the pieces they made. I am really happy they are picking up crafts skills – whatever they do in life, it's very satisfying to make things with your own hands!

Now back to my unfinished projects. A friend of mine asked me to make a doorstop for her in a shape of a house. The house was to be with poppies, to match her favourite tea set.

I started with cutting out and machine-stitching together «the walls» and «the floor». 

 After that it was the time for the windows and the door. I really enjoyed making them! I tried different colours of felt for what would be the inside of the house as seen through the window. Black didn't look good, light grey also didn't really create the right impression, so I settled on mousy-grey. Next layer - white curtains, and on top of them – brown window frame, machine-stitched to keep everything in place. The door was made as a real door would be assembled from wooden planks, except instead of wood and nails  I used  strips of brown felt and machine-stitching.

 

Then, of course, there was the turn for poppies: the flowers and leaves were cut out of felt and glued onto the walls,  and the stems were embroidered with a chain stitch. 

Next – the inside. I looked for the cheapest clean sand to buy in reasonable quantities, and the best price I found was from Tesco - £2.26 for 10 kg. The sand in a bag was wet, so it took several days for it to dry before I could place the fabric bag with sand into the doorstop.

Then the roof trouble began. I made it by stitching four triangles of brown felt into the pyramid shape – that didn't take long. But then I couldn't figure out how to attach it to the walls. I thought and thought about it, and looked at it, and turned it this way and that way...

And so the house sat on my table for weeks, waiting for my engineering eureka moment.

This is a lesson I've learnt from several of my previous projects: it's better to let it sit and wait for the right technical solution, then to rush and finish it in a way I am not entirely happy with. 

Finally it struck me (luckily, it always does, eventually!). So today I cut out an additional part for the roof, stitched everything together, stuffed it, and voila – it's finished! 

I am considering using this process to make my first proper tutorial, with patterns and photos of the process, so any feedback on how useful this would be is very welcome!

Georgian cross part 2

 I finally managed to finish the purse with a Georgian Cross motif. 



 Making the lining was infuriating, with threads from fraying edges all over the place. Melting them slightly with a candle helped. Another difficult part was to get the size right for the lining – it came out too large first, so the purse looked like in was stuffed with brown fabric, and nothing else would really fit. But eventually it was all put together, and I am very pleased with the result.

An overexposed photo to show off the lining - my pride and joy!

  Now I really have to keep myself away from any crafting activities and from the computer (which will take some self-restraint) and get on with preparing for Anastasia's 6th birthay party tomorrow. Normally, we draw with the girls as to who makes the most mess in the living room, although I tell them off, but they don't tell me off – life is unfair, really!

                                                                                                                    

Georgian cross

A friend went to Georgia recently, and brought some beautiful souvenirs for his daughters: a bag and a purse made of hessian fabric embroidered with traditional Georgian crosses. The hessian was darker brown than what I've seen for sale here, and the colours of embroidery were also dark and earthy. My first thought was – I want one of those! But then creative process strayed, as usual. I had a piece of plastic canvas lying around, so used that and acrylic yarn in «autumn» colours. Here I found a collection of beautiful patterns of Georgian traditional embroidery – thank you to Natia! http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/natikodiz/album/76500

And this was something to help creative process along

After one pattern was ready, I couldn't decide for some time what to do with it. A coaster? Or a bag? Finally, it progressed into being a purse. I had to make another large side and the three narrow strips to add width. Now I have to dig up leftovers of brown lining fabric, which I know I have somewhere, and find a suitable brown zipper. Will post pictures when it's ready!

Brooch "Life stages"

Inspired by my previous work - the life stages of fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a view under a microscope. A GFP-tagged and, let's say, an mCherry-tagged nuclear proteins - pick your favourites! Some dirt in the field - let's be realistic. Charcoal-grey felt, green and red seed beads and embroidery.

Embroidered jewellery box

I found plastic canvas for sale in the local sewing shop and wanted to give it a try. The embroidery  took ages, but I finally finished it - what a relief! Acrylic thread (dark green, pale yellow, dusky pink and lilac), dusky pink cotton lining, purple glass bead and green ribbon to fasten the lid. The size is 9x9x4.5 cm.

Dark-red "Silver deer" brooch

Silver deer is painted with acrylic paint on the dark-red background, decorated with silver embroidery and seed beads. Diameter 6 cm.

Green, silver and charcoal "Deer" brooch

A third "Silver deer" brooch. A deer is painted with silver acrylic paint on the charcoal-grey felt background. The brooch is decorated with embroidery and seed beads. Diameter 6 cm.