Day thirty six: favourite things

A friend of mine brought me a pair of jeans. She told me they are her favourite ones, which unfortunately have served their time and now are just taking up space in the wardrobe as she doesn't have a heart to throw them out. I'm quite familiar with the concept of sentimental attachment to all kinds of things and letting go of those has always been an issue for me. Therefore I sometimes come up with alternative uses for my favourite things, so I shouldn't part with them. I guess, this puts me on the same page with my friend and that is why her request didn't surprise me. "Maybe you have an idea for a project," she said. And I did, dear emf :)

Day thirty five: here to stay

When I was 5 or 6, I wanted to become a painter. Teaching seemed like fun, too, but drawing was the one and only path I was willing to pursue (right until my first drawing class at school when I was suddenly told what I was supposed to depict in my artwork. Gosh! A tree bark? Seriously?) Anyway, while I was still into art, I once drew a greeting card featuring a rather decent hill, some jumping/flying animals, gigantic flowers and a sun with a huge smile on its face (I can’t believe I still remember this). I was supposed to bring the card with me to a friend’s birthday party, but I was so overwhelmed by the success of my creation I just couldn't part with it. I might have even cried a little over it, when my mum finally suggested that I could draw another picture for my friend and keep the first one if it's so precious to me (mums rock!) 

Yet 25 years later it happened again. I made this green linen zip-pouch for the Christmas market and fell hopelessly in love with it the very instant it was finished. Somehow I managed to convince myself I'm not a child anymore (oh yeah?) and placed the pouch in a box with other things for sale thinking to myself that it would be a bit sad to let it go, so I should hope I will like the person who gets it. Imagine my surprise when people were browsing through the basket of purses, some buying a thing or two, but nobody - not a single person - even touched the green linen pouch. So this is how mental earmarking works! Finally, I gave in to my inner child: YES, I love the things I make, so why not celebrate it? The green pouch stays with me : ) 

Day thirty four: heart of Scandinavia

I'm in love! With linen :) What a remarkable material it is: so classy and sturdy, decent and predictable, just like a perfect gentleman :) I ordered 1.4x2.2 m of Avignon Linen in October and it's all gone. Working with this material is a pure pleasure since it's very neat, easy to cut and irons really well. Sounds like a dream, right? To make things even better, the same kind of fabric comes in different colourful prints. For example, the one with heart pattern I used for this project is among my favourites: it is called 'Scandic Love' and looks really lovely. This particular name is another reason why I chose this fabric for a present to a very dear and special friend of mine who is now residing in Scandinavia (Moi, moi, Anda!) She is a fantastic lady, such a brave and generous soul with terrific sense of humour and a real knack for crafting: she's making amazing things using just a crochet hook, a thread and handful of teeny-tiny pearls. I hope my parcel reaches Anda soon and I can finally tell her about this blog without risking to spoil the surprise :) 

Christmas market: two days in Dragontown

After a whole month of intensive sewing, stitching, baking and planning I finally made my debut as an elf in the Christmas market in a nearby town guarded by the loveliest dragon I've ever seen. The market itself was a two-day event that took place outdoors (yep, long hours in freezing temperatures certainly calls for more than one glass of Glühwein if you plan to survive :)) and it was a fantastic experience for a newbie like myself. The choice of the event could have been better though, since two thirds of the stands were filled with foods and drinks and people were clearly in party mood, meeting friends and having good time, not thinking much about shopping. Also the tradition of gift-giving for Christmas apparently is not very popular in Luxembourg. From what I've seen, people don't exaggerate with these things and don't regard this custom as a must. Being aware of all the above-mentioned, I kept an open mind and did a great deal of observing and learning. It's only fair to admit that not all of the conclusions I made were the most flattering ones, but I really see no reason to dwell on those, because there were far too many beautiful and special moments I experienced and those are the ones I will be carrying in my heart. 

  

While watching my work through eyes of my friends and loved ones, all the grannies who smiled the warmest smiles and children who dragged their parents to my stand to show them the colourful Christmas stockings, this event quickly transformed into my personal thanksgiving. And I do have so many things to be thankful for: this time in life I am given to explore sewing, the chance to work well with my hands, my mum who has taught me so much, my wonderful and supportive husband who was out with me in the cold for most of the time and helped with all the logistics and spoke German with customers and for my fantastic friends who lent me tables and baskets and showed up just in time to cheer me up and did some Christmas shopping themselves :) 

Finally, despite the cold and all the Glühwein (and the fact that all my things smell of smoke from fireplaces) I am glad I gave this a try. Sure, the overall sales could have been better, but as far as the first attempts go, I'm happy with my trading experience and I might actually try this again.

Day thirty three: steady heartbeat

I know. Judging from the frequency of my posts it may seem that I have given up on the whole sewing idea when in fact it's the exact opposite. I've been sewing like a maniac for the past few weeks :) My creative frenzy has resulted in many nice things and it will probably take me two days to take photos of each and every item I've finished so far. The reason for this bustle is the upcoming Christmas market, which will be my first attempt to sell my creations. That means running a stand for the whole weekend with a very vague idea on how it might go, but it's certainly keeping my hands busy and mind bursting with new projects, and I must say I'm enjoying this process immensely. My living room looks like Santa's workshop with fabrics, bells and ribbons all over the place and happy me in the middle :)

Day thirty two: 96th birthday

Today is the National Day of the Republic of Latvia: the 96th birthday of my country. Lately, I think quite a lot about my home country, the place I come from and places I might be going to, the importance of culture I understand and feel part of and general sense of belonging on top of it all. I feel how these topics become more essential with every year I spend abroad and I might be coming closer to the point where I figure it all out. Or not :) 
While waiting for this moral epiphany to occur, I'm taking part in the birthday celebrations from a distance by sending my love and sewing this lovely make-up bag in the colours of Latvian flag. Cheers!
Daudz baltu dieniņu, Laimiņa, dodi...

Day thirty one: summer breeze

 
So I sat down one morning to make a tiny gift for a very dear friend of mine [ciao, Aija!] to remind her of summer during the dark ages we're stuck in until March and to say grazie mille for her creative support :) Love towards nature and a dream of owning a garden one day is among the many things we have in common, that's why I chose the plant theme for this little project. The pouch was quickly done, no hiccups whatsoever. After measuring the rest of the fabric (yes, leftovers is my sweet spot, what can I do...) I realised that it was just enough to make another purse. Of course, I couldn't resist.

Day thirty: red cheeks and air balloons

I made this zip-pouch a while ago, only didn't have a chance to post any photos. In fact, this was the very first scrap bag I made: the apple fabric is just too lively and juicy to let any bit go unnoticed. Since we were blessed with yet another sunny afternoon, I immediately took the bag out on the balcony to make a couple of photos. After spending a quarter of an hour stretching, turning, bending, and kneeling I suddenly heard a strange puffing noise. Instinctively I glanced up and there it was: a hot air balloon just above my head! What a beautiful world... full of wonders, apples and balloons :)

Day twenty nine: Venetian sunset

 

For the last couple of days I'm chasing daylight and keeping myself busy with my hands on the fabric and my mind all over the place. Despite being completely predictable, not to mention inevitable, change to winter time annoys me every year - what a silly custom it is to fiddle with time like this. The shorter the days and the gloomier it gets outside the stronger is my need for colours, so on one particularly grey afternoon I went through my precious collection of scraps and put together this splash of colours. It was indeed enough to regain hope of an early spring :)

Day twenty eight: come play with me

So this is where I used the last scrap of the fabric with a giraffe pattern. I'm getting very fond of these striped cosmetics bags: they don't require a lot of fabric, so I can easily use up all the leftovers from other projects, plus they are quite easy to make, still the result looks both, pretty and smart. The basis is the same wonderful easy cosmetics bag pattern I've been using all this time, it just takes a bit more time and hustle to cut the main fabric pieces into strips and to stitch them back together. Nevertheless, I like this technique a lot and there are more scrap bags on the way.

Day twenty seven: giraffe in the wind

I know people sometimes complain about all the fabric leftovers and have hard time figuring out what to do with the scraps filling up their drawers, shelves and corners. Well, I'm not one of them (so far) - 'my scraps' inspire me. For instance, two tiny pieces of the giraffe fabric in my mind suddenly materialised into a tote and a make-up bag. I started with the tote, as I was impatient to try out the window concept and to see the result.

When the bag was ready and all the windows closed, I invited Mr Giraffe to accompany me on the balcony for a quick windy photo-shoot. He even wore his fancy tie for this occasion :)

Day twenty six: cute and cuddly

After spending half a day choosing Christmas fabrics (and then doing it all over again after my virtual shopping cart magically emptied itself) I'm ready to admit: having no choice sometimes can be easier than having too many options. If we lived in a world where there is just one kind of Christmas print, I'm sure we would all just take it and make the best of it. But instead we can (and we do!) spend hours and hours browsing and wondering until some of us just end up overwhelmed and overinspired and/or broke :] Anyway, I have done my best to scrap a bit from everything: I'll have my trees, my hearts, my candles, some dwarfs and an occasional reindeer, so I should be all set for seasonal sewing. While I'm waiting for all that to arrive (oh my) I spend my days creating these cute zip pouches and dreaming of all those friendly-looking forest creatures entering our home. 

Day twenty five: an apple a day

Yes, I'm back to sewing Deby's makeup bags since I really like making those and I also got incredibly inspired by the bunch of colourful zippers I received as a gift from my mother-in-law. Apparently, she found them on sale in a small shop in Latvia for EUR 0.14 a piece which is simply a dream come true for me who otherwise would have to buy them for 2 euros or more.

In other news: autumn is here and so are the local apples and pears - juicy, healthy and lovely. One of the [extremely few] reasons to wait for autumn every year. Fruit and colours... how lucky we are, the autumn package includes these two items :)

Day twenty four: two cups of tea

I always start my day with a cup of tea and I like to end it with one as well. Sometimes it's just fascinating to look back on the day and realise how many different and amazing things have happened in between the two cups. Holding the warm mug just filled with sweet-scented infusion brings me joy and promise of a new morning and helps to regain the peace of mind at the end of a long day. I need this more in the dark months of the year - that's time when the tea shelf in our kitchen cupboard suddenly gets really packed  :) 
However, if you are not much of a teaholic yourself, but still would like to keep a small tea collection just in case one of your teaholic friends comes over, I guess you could easily store it (the tea collection, not your friend!) in a sweet bag like this one. 

Day twenty three: owls and foxes

How about two birthdays every year? Yes, please :) Since we do celebrate our name days, I feel like having a 1.5 birthdays every year, but I still wouldn't mind having one more day to embrace all the love and joy in the world (oh yeah, I'm a birthday spirit, a huge fan of flowers, gifts and surprises, both give and take). But these things happen! For instance, one of my friends is officially entitled to celebrate her birthday two days in a row since she was born on one day, but her birth certificate states it was the next one - as unbelievable as it may seem, a  bureaucratic mix-up can eventually lead to something good. This friend of mine has a soft spot for owls and foxes. Since the 'double birthday' is coming up, I went into the fabric shop hoping to find something foxy or owly there and imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this adorable fabric featuring both animals and an occasional hedgehog :) Splendid! And after sewing a cosmetics bag I still have enough fabric left over to make a smaller bag or a pencil case for the birthday girl's daughter.