Pseudo stockings

Stockings are a big part of my family's Christmas eve tradition, even though we're all now adults. My parents look after my sister's and my stockings and we stuff theirs.

A new part of the stocking tradition is putting all the gifts in something reusable - driven in part by the fact very little fits in the small crocheted stockings from our childhood. Lately my mom sews us pillow cases to fill with goodies. This year I decided to make my parents big drawstring bags that can later serve as handy travel bags. Travel is so much more civilized with nice fabric bags rather than the usual plastic one! My mom was especially grateful for the bags when on a recent trip she needed to pull something out of her overweight luggage. Too bad what she grabbed quickly was the bag of dirty laundry. That could have been all sorts of embarrassing.


I also whipped up a drawstring pouch (the smaller yellow one in the front) for my mom to use for knitting projects. I think that puts me up to a total of making five so far, with a couple more planned to hold Christmas presents.

Santa's on the way

I've been working like a Christmas elf in my craft room to sew presents for friends and family. These drawstring pouches were sewn with specially chosen fabric for each friend - including a certain friend with a fondness for squirrels. Amazingly my crafty friend (CFF) Tara and I made pouches with the exact same orange and blue for the same person. Such crafting serendipity!


These zippered pouches accompanied the drawstring bags. Now there are just a few scraps of my Italian sheep fabric left. I am still surprised that sewing the zippers went smoothly, and involved no swearing whatsoever. Progress!


Like with just about every crafting endeavour, I did run out of time so one friend is holding an IOU for a sheep pouch. Hmm . . . I should really stop blogging and get sewing.

A shout out to my crafty and wonderful friends who gave me so many great presents, including awesome mitts in my favourite teal inspired by my secret movie soft spot (anyone else on Team Jacob?), a zippered pouch made with lovely and confusing fabric (is that a sheep? deer? or some crazy cute sheep-deer hybrid?) and a fabric-covered notebook to record crafting inspiration, ideas and shopping lists.

For those who are also abashed Twihards, you may recognize this building and door. While I was in Italy this fall I visited Montepulciano, aka Volterra. I'm the teeny speck in front - about as close as I like to get for a photo. The town is beautiful in its own right, but I must admit I was excited to follow the special New Moon map marking all the shooting spots. Embarrassing, I know.

Details

I have been busy crafting, but most of the projects are Christmas related. So stay tuned for posts when there's not a spoiler alert needed.

For now enjoy these pictures from my recent trip to Italy. St. Mark's in Venice was such an amazing place. Every inch was covered with mosaics made with the most teeny little pieces. Really it was overwhelming. While most people were straining their necks looking up, I couldn't take my eyes of the floor. The patterns were so intricate, many like quilt blocks. Really there was quilting inspiration just about everywhere we turned.


Imagine all that work for people to walk over! Astounding. Looking around the cathedral, I could imagine the people painstakingly putting each bit of stone into place. The place was made all the more charming by the waves in the floor caused by the repeated flooding. Luckily St. Mark's square was sitting high and dry while we were there.

I am forever getting distracted by patterns and neat little details when I'm on vacation. How many people do you see taking photos of the floor? Well, I've got plenty. The first is Siena and the second in Florence, I think.




And ceilings, too. Here's in the Vatican museum.


And roads . . .


Looking through my Italy photos makes me want to go back. I can almost picture myself sitting in the square of a quaint old stone town, at a little cafe sipping an espresso. Just like this spot, where my parents and I stopped for a quick coffee.

Almost there

Reluctantly I took a weekend away from crafting to paint my living room. I've been putting this off for a long time because it's a big job and I think I was worried about my colour choice. It certainly was a lot of work, but I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.


Called embellished blue, it's a lot like Tiffany blue - which is a trademarked colour if you can believe it. I picked the green for the dining room and kitchen (in the background) to complement the blue. They're bright and surely not for the colour shy, but I love how cheery the main floor looks now.

Just one more room to go - a small bathroom - and then the whole house is painted! I did it all myself, except for the two-storey foyer and stairs. I'm an accident prone painter likely to fall off a stepping stool (and have), so I left that to a professional with a sturdy ladder. My best painting oopsy was in the living room when I stepped in the paint tray and then had to hop on one foot to the sink. Even at the time I thought it was funny. But not so much later when the dog stepped in the tray and then onto the carpet.

Little kitties

This cute print of kittens playing with yarn turned up in the sale bin at a recent visit to my favourite fabric shop. How could I resist? I made this lined drawstring pouch, thanks to a tutorial my crafty friend Tara found. The pouch came together easily and quickly. I can see myself making this again as a good use for fat quarters.


I lined it with another vintage-looking fabric with small playing kittens in blue, then made the ties with the same pattern in pink. For a sweet little detail, I stitched on a few teeny crocheted flowers.

Christmas is coming

This necklace was made as a last minute addition to a parcel my mom was sending to relatives in the Netherlands. I started with nifty lampwork beads with an irregular shape. I put a crystal and metal spacer around the focal beads, then a blend of teal beads between.

Pizza, espresso, gelato and fabric

I recently enjoyed three glorious weeks in Italy, the first two relaxing in Tuscany and then a more hectic week in Rome. Of course we managed to fit in a bit of crafty shopping between all the sight-seeing, eating and eating. We did a lot of eating.

A bit of research before the trip pointed us to a big old fabric shop in Rome. It did not disappoint! Fabric was stacked wall to wall, floor to ceiling. And there was room after room after room. It was overwhelming.


I picked up a few half-metres of sweet little prints. Just getting the fabric was a whole procedure. I told the woman what I wanted and, not speaking much English, she wrote down the price and amount for me. She cut each piece, asking first, then carefully counting the fabric and writing up a list of what I got. She gave the fabric to another woman and the receipt to the cashier. Only after paying could I actually touch the fabric.

While in Tuscany we stumbled on a fabric shop in Lucca, a great old walled town. The owner didn't speak much English and was super excited to have a chance to chat with us. It was especially fun when he was trying to tell us about the animal prints he sold out. He stretched his arms out, and leaned down to mime a dachshund. I got this cute sheep print on heavy cotton. The fabric was 2.8 metres wide! I figured just half a metre would be more than enough.


He cut the fabric, neatly folded it and then wrapped it up in special waxed paper with his shop's name. How lovely. I was hesitant to unwrap it when I got home. But I had a project in mind - make drawstring bags to fill with some Tuscan goodies for my friends. I bought olive oil soap that smells amazing and panforte, a traditional Tuscan fruit cake, in San Gimignano - the scenic old town just minutes from our villa.


The trip was just wonderful and I'll be reminded of Italy when I see the fabric. Amazingly I spotted the fabric shop in Rome while we were on one of those hop-on, hop-off buses. Talk about a keen crafting radar!