My Creative Space_Colour Therapy

 

We've finally got snow here, after quite many sunny and snowless days. And even though I grew up in a climate giving you -30°C winters, I'm not a fan of cold and am pretty content with the climate I have in my current place of residence. So, while outside it was looking like this:

I was working on this:

A crochet pillow cover, in cool cotton and bright summer colours. My boy loves to fall down on big soft pillows, especially face down, and I've realized that there are not that many covers to change. In fact, there's only one (before the pillow was just for decoration, simply lying around, and one cover was more than enough, who knew it would get such a workout?).  I've added some neutral, to calm down my inner colour freak, but you've got to start somewhere, right? All those colour really make me think of summer (oh, summer, where are thee?) and all the good edible things associated with it. The back will be fabric, with a zipper, I have some IKEA red and green fabric with funny hippos.

The only thing that bugs me about this cover, is the fugly 'seam' running on one side, typical of those granny squares. Mine is not even straight... Unfortunatelly, I've came across the granny square crocheted from the corner a bit too late, and didn't want to rip it all out. But if you are bothered by the seam, spoiling all your granny beauty, check this out and start making grannies from the corner!

And when I got some 15 minutes of quite time (it was more, in fact, but the other 45 min were used for something else), I've picked up this:

Have you ever read Gerald Durrell? If not, I highly recommend it, especially for children! His writing is highly entertaining and well-structured, it's simply a pleasure to read! Anyway, taking place at heat-infused and fragrant Corfu, this book will certainly make you forget about all the cold and snow outside. I've read some of his books as a teenager, and now want to relive those long gone days of my life, I guess... Now, where's that chocolate I've stashed away?????

More creative spaces you find here.

First patchwork attempt_Complete

I’ve finished my very first patchwork pillows yesterday night! Since I’m not very mathematically gifted, the process involved quite a lot of trimming, but the end result is not too lame, if I may say so myself. The idea of colour arrangement is my own (to say I DESIGNED them is far too much, I think – they are so simple, after all, but still a pat on the shoulder).To stabilize the fronts a bit (the pillows are somewhat wobbly) I used the iron-on interfacing, it does help. I would have LOVED to quilt them, but I have no walking foot (yet), and I didn’t want to do the first-time quilting with the regular foot. Well, there will be more pillows in the future!The back of the pillows are dark grey, with simple envelope closure.
I’m only wondering now how long it will take before some spot appears on this white sashing… There’s already some amount of cat hair adhered, in any case. Selma seems to like the pillows, she’s slept close to one with the checkerboard pattern (my favourite too!) all night.

Cutting and Sewing

Gatto has started sewing! It’s been so hot here recently, that handling any kind knitting has become impossible, even with cotton. I’ve been interested in patchwork for quite some time now, but it never went further than drooling  over all the beautiful quilts one can find on the Internet. Somehow, I was afraid that I’d fail (big time, too) and just cut up lots of fabric for nothing. Well, wise people say you just have to try. I did. Lots of planning, calculating (not always correctly) and cursing over my non-existing mathematical abilities – and I have two pillow fronts! Actually, three, but the last one suffered somewhat from the larger than life confidence in my knowledge  of IKEA products. I was so very sure that the pillow measured 40x40 cm. While pressing the seams on the finished pillow front, a light bulb went on in my head and I decided to measure the pillow. That was an Oh, crap! kind of experience. The pillow mysteriously fattened up to 50x50 cm. After all, not too bad, as I can add a white border just as on the other two.

Lesson learned: don’t think. Check.

One more lesson learned: Patchwork is like chocolate (or coffee, as far as I am concerned), i.e. addictive.