{ Mu'Mu }

Back home

We've been back home a little while now, and it's been more than a few days of unpacking and defunking the house (let me say this :: a guy in a house on his own, friends around the corner and a cement mixer thrown in for good measure, and perhaps some of you will understand the devastation that met me on returning home. Needless to say that I feel like I need a holiday after this holiday).

The house is still funky, so moving briskly on I will show you something pretty instead::

This is the quilt I made my Mother for Christmas last year. I alluded to it in several posts and there were little glimpses of it here and there, but honestly the deadline was so tight and I didn't want to ruin the surprise by posting pictures here before the big day, and, well, I just plain forgot to take pictures of it.

Some people have asked to see it, and so I thought I'd share for all - taken  whilst we were back at my mother's house. I couldn't get a good shot, and the colours really are a lot more sumptuous in the flesh.

I chose every single colour knowing exactly what colours my mother loves - lilacs and lavenders and pinks and pastels and everything in between. I am happy to say she really, genuinely loves it and actually has it on her bed. Which speaks volumes. I had no idea when I was making this whether she would like it or merely tolerate it, but knowing that it makes her happy and puts her in a good mood every day when she wakes to all these colours is really satisfying.

Put a Hex on You

It happened by accident.

One minute I was minding my own business, and the next thing I know I had pieced one hexagon.

Then another.

And another.

And, well, it just went on and on.

And now I think I might be a lil deranged. I just can't stop and I'm enjoying it so much, and it kind of took over. 

I'm thinking maybe a charm quilt.

In hexagons.

By accident.

...

Nurse!

Back from Memory Lane :: Sew where were we...

OK, I hope you all enjoyed the ramble down memory lane for the past couple weeks? The old blog is closed now and I'm sufficiently refreshed from the blog break to get back to it.

Quilts. The orange, hand pieced, hand sewn, hand quilted thing I started for my Firstborn when he was almost seven is STILL sitting there, not even halfway done. But progress has been made - a bit of inspiration on the inspiration board is getting me piecing the bits little by little, giving me the push to keep going.

Weirdly enough, it is the prospect of making the midget's hand sewn quilt which is making me want to get this one out of the way! I have ideas of a log cabin in vintage fabrics for him. With eldest it had to be orange, and with midget a variety of colour I think. Plus I love log cabin quilts.

Hopefully a show and tell when a little more piecing has gone on insha'allah?

Wishing you all a peaceful weekend!

xx

Sew Storm

A few ideas brewing in my head; some things that are halfway into reality. Some new colours and themes for a spring opening of shop Mu'Mu in the upcoming week insha'allah.

Feels good to be sewing again.

Getting Re-acquainted

I don't like unfinished objects hanging around my house. It niggles me. I can't settle happily into any new project knowing there is one waiting to be finished. I suppose I am result-orientated, which until I started crafting, I never knew I was.

I have actually only one UFO in my stash - and if you have been reading me a while you will recognise this as the handsewn quilt I pledged to make for my eldest son. It has been sitting mocking me for over a year. A year. This is simply terrible, but given that every stitch is handsewn I think totally understandable, right?

But I cannot stand it any longer. This quilt must be worked on!

I have taken it out of the dark corner I tried to hide it in, and am flaunting it provocatively within eyeshot, hoping that at least the very sight of it will remind me to at least keep at it.

Here's hoping. And do keep nudging me on this occasionally will you?

Tooled up

The first day the midget fell sick he spent all day whimpering in pain, wheezing, and basically trying to break my heart with his hound dog eyes. It was pitiful. After putting him to bed whimpering, and wanting to do something to make him happy, I set about making something I've had in mind for a couple of weeks now after a friend gave me some wonderful bits of fabric - a tool belt.

This little one loves powertools, and Bob the Builder, and screwdrivers, drills, and anything manly like that. He already has a toolbag which I made some time ago, and which he takes everywhere, so I thought that there might be a good chance that this handyman belt would be another dressing up hit.

It was a relatively straight-forward make; facing was cool tool fabric, corduroy backing and batting for extra sturdiness, with a strip of elastic sewn at serveral intervals for tools to go through, finished with a thick elastic band for the waist.

And yes, he loves it masha'allah. He has only taken it off to goto bed, and seems proud of the fact that his Mummy made it especially for him at night when he was sick to make him happy (he keeps telling people this fact over and over again).

It's a  simple make which reminds me once again why I make the effort to make things for my babes - nothing gives you a feel-good factor like seeing your child happy because of something you have done. A tangible object which symbolises so much unspoken love.

Orla

About a month ago I was pretty sure that the new-to-me-sofa of my dreams was just around the corner, just waiting for me ever-so patiently to find it. I was so sure about this that I fretted that my new-to-me sofa needed some new things to make it look just 'right'.

I ummed and ahhed and then aha-ed, and immediately, for I am prone to sudden movements when endowed with a good idea, purchased a set of Orla Kiely pillowcases in the multicoloured stem print.

'Why did you buy pillowcases for a sofa, you nutter?' I hear you ponder. Well, dear reader, it was because my brainwave was to use the fabric to make myself a couple of cushions and a lap quilt for the new-to-me sofa of my dreams. Anybody who has actually set about buying a ready-made Orla Kiely cushion will appreciate what a hefty gap in the finances such a purchase leaves, and whilst each to his own, I am not that stupid. Or maybe I am. Or maybe I'm just a wannabe with little or no taste. Or a little taste and no money. Or both. Who knows. And by now, who the hell cares. Short story - Orla Kiely fabric into something beautiful for my new-to-me sofa at a reasonable cost.

But the sofa of my dreams wasn't there. She is playing hard to get. In fact she is playing SO hard to get, that we may have moved into a new game of Don't Get. This is irksome. I have great plans for the Sofa of My Dreams which involves a lot of feet up and snuggles and cups of tea and cold rice pudding and Orla Kiely lap quilts.

So, whilst I patiently wait for her to tire of her silly game I have piled up the lovely presents waiting to adorn her in my bedroom, out of the grubby reach of my menfolk, because They of the Chromosone Disadvantage will not appreciate the beauty of the Orla-ness of the new goodies. No, they will simply not understand, and will say things like 'HOW much did this cost??' and 'Can't we just make covers out of Tesco carrier bags??!' and 'Stop fussing, it's only mud'.

So we wait, the Orla goodies and I, and really hope that she is worth waiting for...

And another lady with good taste and good sense is Karen over at Blueberry Park! Great minds, and all that...

Pockets of Happiness

 After a crappy few days I hold on to the smallest of things that give me hope. The ability to see colour and beauty and friendship and possibilities, and dream that someday on every level I will be truly happy.

Patchwork blanket

In one mad afternoon last week sometime I sewed together these six inch patches to form the top of a new throw/blanket for our bed.

The yellow quilt top blanket I made at the begining of 2009 has served us very well and looks really very attractive, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest, and well, I just fancied something new...

There is a mixture of floral prints, some I can't remember who by, but some Cath Kidston, Anna Marie Horner and Windham classics to name a few.

I have yet to finish it - I'm still waiting to find just the right sheet in a thrifting adventure for the backing, and insha'allah if I do then hopefully it won't take an hour to finish the backing and binding with perhaps ties to bind it together. As it won't have batting, it really doesn't need quilting.

So something new to keep the interior bright in these oh so grey days...

The last few days....

As I try to counter the grey of the outside with some colour on the inside.

Fabric Makes Life Worth Living

I have this ritual to receiving fabric, a kind of appreciation that suffuses my whole psyche. It doesn't matter how much of a bitch the day is being, when I see that blue and white parcel bulging with fabric on the doorstep, everything melts away, my heart beats a little faster, and I am suddenly feeling a low end of a high.

I smuggle the parcel to my room, away from the 'what IS IT Mama?', and I take my time opening the sleeve and letting the goodness pour out, ready for first sight.

I may actually gasp at this point. Like I did today.

Then I touch each piece, placing it next to others for comparison and co-ordination. I feast my weary eyes on the colours and textures, feel my soul rejuvenate with inspiration and ideas and the crafting mo-jo.

As one last pleasure before I am dragged back to the fighting downstairs, and the need for food and invigilation, I take my scissors and very precisely I cut the selvedge into strips.

I love those little colour circles, the hint of the fabric beyond. And after I have finished rolling them neatly I place them with all the other selvedge pieces I have collected, looking at the rainbow before me, the unnatural clashes of teals and oranges, yellows and laser blues, and I am wholly centred again. The grey skies, the iron earth, the locked ground has had a brief respite in this crafter's corner as reality gives over to imagination.

Fabric can be so calming....

What Fabric Samples are REALLY for....

... for keeping your pet cat warm in your suitcase as you chit-chat with your knitting Mama on her bed. Naturally.

Ramadan 11th :: Minds turn towards Eid crafting

Which may or may not include some of these bits of loveliness in them:

Some Japanese fabric and trim in linen blends from Kokka

And this cotton yarn. I'm a bit doubtful about knitting winter woolens in cotton - Winter Cottons?? Doesn't sound right, does it?  And there is a bit too much pink in there for any of these testosterone-driven MEN, so, oh hardship, perhaps this Eid offering will have to be mine.

I think I can live with that...

What are your plans for Eid crafting?

Ramadan 3rd :: Lounge Pants Revisited

Well done. Some of you spotted in the last post I was wearing unusual pants. Yes they are rather, um, jazzy aren't they?

Well, that's because they are a new twist on the Lounge Pants phenomenon that blew around craftblog world a year or so ago, based on a pattern by Amy Butler.

Last week I scored some vintage sheets whilst thrifting, and I also picked up some pillowcases that were, for the want of a better expression, waaaay past their use by date. Really, man, they were wasted.

Not sure of what to make with them, it just hit me: lounge pants out of pillowcases!, and after a little soiree with my sewing machine these were born.

Lounge pants.

For lounging in.

Because, really, with jazz like that you couldn't do anything else in them, could you?

Adventures in Thrifting

Vintage blankets, sheets and pillowcases.

Chintzy ceramic.

Vintage vanity case.

Plus various bits of fabric for under a pound already ear-marked for crafty things for the babes.

I love treasure-hunting!

Mustard & Teal

You might recall me posting recently that I am still being inspired by the mustard colourway. It doesn't seem to be abating in the slightest. I think it has been a solid year now and I haven't lost my love for this colour one little bit.

But as well as loving it up with greys and marigolds, I have discovered a new colour combo that's doing it for me :: Mustard and Teal. Just crazy, dizzy loving this combo. So much so, that I have been including it in my work.

This latest addition to the store reflects the sucky weather thing going on over here, and hinting towards the coming autumn - ooh berry picking in woolens, walks with scarves and mittens. Summer may have been a complete wash-out, but here's really hoping that Autumn is going to rock insha'allah (pleeeeeeeeeease!!). And who could have an Autumn walk with the babes in the woods without something to keep the neck warm? It would be a veritable sin not to accessorize in Autumn colours in Fall!

I have made a really extra long one for myself, because I like to wind scarves around and around; and I love the way these colours dance together masha'allah. The eye is drawn from one patch to the next, and it adds such an extra dash of vibrancy to my usual dowdy attire.

Mustard and teal; I don't think I can get enough right now...

Simple Pleasures :: Colour in my Life

Etsy Finds

Dandylion Sky Yarn

Rubber Stamps

Fabric

Vinyl Decal

Aunty Cookie Trim

Ink + Wit Poster

Japanese Linen Tape

Stash Building

Illness has stopped play in this little house; kids and Mama under the weather, but brightening our day? Well, a little love from the mailman. He rushes sweetness from the other side of the Atlantic to me as fast as he can (be bothered). Observe:

A couple of 'whatthehellwasithinking's and some scores. Altogether a nice bundle for the shelves.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go lie down... blergh.

The type of mail I like

It's good to wake to parcels like this. It puts a whole new boing in your step!

Angie Lewin

Angie Lewin is where it's at for me right now. Another jaw-dropping genius of stellar talent the magnitude of which you see once in a lifetime.

In the same vein I am enjoying St Judes, 'All Things Considered' blog and am wondering how I've lived my life so long without it. A bit melodramatic, but true. And pretty things (FABRIC!!) for sale? I always need a new excuse to abandon my money..

Which brings me neatly onto a new fave shop specialising in paperie, Paper Grain which also happens to stock, yep, Angie Lewis cards. This whole store has such beautiful things - unique cards and notesets etc - they really are worth a bit of your time to have a slow amble around. Oh and they are superfast at delivery too.

And for the real deal, I'm oohing and ahhing over this lot and settling for googling her work.

*Fans self* Gorgeous innit

Fabric Love

Sometimes I just sit and stare at colour and texture and contrast. I can't explain it. It makes me happy...

This indie fabric is making my very happy - giddy, in fact. I know I say that a lot, but just check out some of these prints by Laurie Wisbrun over at Scarlet Fig.

I tracked her down (hm, that sounds quite sinister...) after seeing her prints in the Spoonflower Flickr Group, 'Spoonflower Fabric Designs'.

I think I actually *gasped* when I saw this one::

And this one might be coming to live with me::

In fact, they are all so gorgeous in such clever retro designs and beautifully modern colours that my biggest headache this week might be just how much to order...

She's a clever girl, no? People like this inspire me and crush me at the same time. On the one hand I am psyched and want to log onto spoonflower myself and start making things just as amazing. And at the same time I feel like I am already beaten by genius whilst all I can do is stand and watch.

But lucky for me, I can never get tired of looking at fabric, nor the legal high it gives me. And this little lot? I'd say it should be making me smile for a while yet...