Contradictions

Last two weeks were very busy not crafting, but mostly spending quality time with family.


No need to repeat how great it all was, words - even pictures - are nothing to the real thing.


There has been some, minimal knitting. Mostly sock knitting, the mindless thing that you can do without thinking while making jokes with your brothers.


Jet lag hit hard after I came back, and this in fact was the strongest motivation to pick up the sock again. Suddenly I craved the stability of knitting, the promise of fall and a time when handmade socks are actually in use.


Meanwhile, it is still really hot and sticky, so anything that bears the promise of fall is good. Photos of a finished sock soon, hopefully.

Green & Blue

With a three-day weekend ahead, I decided to tackle putting together the top of the green & blue quilt. I am very pleased with both the process, and the progress I made.


The pattern is a 2/3 variation of What a bunch of squares from this book. I enjoyed every step of it, and I found the book's instructions very well written and clear. I learned a lot from working on it. Now remains the back and quilting, which I am hoping to have finished within the next two weeks.


Of course, the kitties were very excited with all the activity. Seven spent a lot of time smoothing the pieces for me.



Sunny helped with arranging the squares. She put a lot of thought in it.


I also finished another little project. I wasn't sure if I wanted to finish it due to the irritating puckering in the sky, but since it was meant to be a learning project in the first place, I decided to give it a try.


The end result is better than what I anticipated. Enough for me to allow it to hang on the wall for a while.


It looks quite happy there. A happy village indeed!

Yoga mat bag etc.

I have been thinking of making a bag for my yoga mat for a while now. Research in what is available to buy gave no interesting results, although I admit I didn't look in the right stores. What I saw was plasticey, rough materials in not so nice colours, with plasticey straps that would swish annoyingly on my clothing. I can get very picky with the sound of clothing and objects.


Come to think of it, the way things sound is one of the least noticed features people seem to consider when buying things. That would explain the swishy overcoats, flappy flip-flops, squeaky bags... Perhaps the most noticed (and popular) is the clicking high heels, on which many people actually have strong opinions, negative and positive. Where am I going with all that?... Anyway, the good news is that my bag is not only soft and to my liking, but it is also very quiet. A stealth bag! hurrah!

I used this lovely tutorial to make it - thanks Myam!


I also made something I 've been wanting to put together for a while. Our bathroom has little (read: none) shelf space, and there are all these things that one uses every day. The cabinet behind the mirror is already full, so lots of things had been hanging on travel pouches, which are very useful but had become an eyesore.


It is just a long base with pouches, using some of the fabrics I find most cheerful. It should help with cheering me up during those difficult moments of pre-coffee mornings ;-)



It hangs by a loop, which also acts as fastening with a button at the back. I also left some space at the top for sliding a hair pin to keep it flat, and it works great.

I also bought some nice fabric squares, and planning to play with them after this, so stay tuned!

Procrastination

I am not sure what I am putting off, but my little projects (read: tiny, fast) of late seem to me like procrastination. Nevertheless, I 'm quite pleased with the way I passed my time.

More coasters:

These come in pairs. There was a third pair, but L snatched it off while it was fresh from the sewing machine, before I had time to take pictures. You get the idea, though..


Another new-curtain action shot. Now all windows in the house have fresh curtains for the summer.


Playing around with fabric collages. This was still a learning project, mostly to work on machine-sewing around little details. Sory for the blurred photo...


Sunny wasn't all that impressed with what I made, but nevertheless she sat next to me all day long. My hard-working kitty...

Intuition

Test-o-rama!
If you 're like me and like taking tests (that usually confirm what you thought already and / or dispute the validity of a test when results don't), you 'd be glad I used my intuition to lead you to this fun site. Quiz away!

You Are 64% Intuitive

You are a very intuitive person. And luckily, your intuition is normally right. You're wise enough to know that relying on intuition alone can be dangerous. When your intuition seems really off, you tend to ignore it - and look at the facts instead.

How Intuitive Are You?

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it's true that you don't talk yourself up... but you're also pretty happy with who you are. You are incredibly cautious. You rather miss out on something than make a mistake. No one would ever call you wild... but they would call you responsible. You are a fairly open minded person with a wide range of tastes. You are quite accepting of unusual ideas and people. You tend to have a one track mind. You prefer not to multitask. You are a serious and contemplative person. You definitely do your own thing in life.

The Ice Cream Personality Test