A new start

I didn't touch one single needle last week... But yesterday evening, I started working on a birthday present for my Mum. Her birthday is Feb. 19, but as my brother is on duty that weekend, we'll be celebrating a week earlier, on Feb 12.

I wanted to make her a skirt at first, and since I was at my parents' this weekend, I showed her a few patterns that she might like; but she insisted that I sewed for me instead, after all my "heavy-duty" Christmas sewing! I thought that really sweet of her.
However, I can't help adding a handmade gift to the purchased gifts... And I'm sure she'd be a tad disappointed if I didn't.

Now this may seem as weird to some, but I chose to stitch her the January Needleroll by the Victoria Sampler.

Stitched on 28-ct Confederate Grey Quaker Cloth

Why the January needleroll instead of the February one? Well, I don't really care about the flower and colour symbolism, and neither does my Mum. I know she won't mind about this at all! I happened to have purchased the January kit for a friend; but it later turned out that she would definitely not appreciate a stitched gift. Stitching this for her would have been a complete waste! I did find the design lovely, though, so I decided to stitch it for my Mum instead. I stitched the central medallion yesterday (except for the few backstitches). Thea Dueck's designs are always such a delight to stitch!

Tagged again - answering at last

Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed your weekend!
San tagged me last week, and I'm finally finding the time to reply... So here goes!

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was 14... I was in high school! I had just broken my little toe, and the doctor had prescribed crutches for 3 weeks. More important, I had started taking singing lessons and it was a revelation.

Five snacks you enjoy.
1 - All Bran chocolate bites
2 - yogurt
3 - a bit of baguette with salted butter

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics off your head right now.
This is going to be pretty eclectic

1 - Schubert - Ave Maria
2 - Georges Brassens - most of his songs
2 - Ella Fitzgerald Is it a crime (and others I can't think of right now! )
3 - Puccini's Tosca - "Vissi d'arte"
4 - Verdi's La Traviata - "E strano"
5 - Tok tok tok - Spooky

Five things you would do if you had one million dollars.
1 - Leave Paris, work part-time (I love my work too much to wish to retire completely!), have a baby, and spend lots of time sewing and stitching;
2 - Set up a French charity association that would finally accept handmade donations (which is very hard to find in France)
3 - Visit England more often ; and go to the States to visit my friends there (those I met when I lived in NC, and those I met through the Internet!)
4 - Buy a flat, instead of renting one
5- Have a flat that would be actually large enough for my sewing activies (especially large enough to have a dressform!!)

Five bad habits.
1 - I don't clean up my sewing mess right after I'm done
2 - I tend to accumulate little things, thinking it may always be of use - or that it is a memory... (not a good habit in a 45-m² flat)
3 - I can get flooded very easily by insecurity
4 - It can take me a long time to answer emails, if I'm really busy or sad (or both!)
5 - I don't react quickly and strongly enough when someone hurts me

Five things you like doing.
1 - Cross-stitching and sewing
2 - Reading
3 - Cuddling (including with Violette!!)
4 - Singing
5 - Reading blogs

Five things you would never buy, wear or get new again.
I have no idea on this one.

Five favourite toys.
1 - my sewing machine!!
2 - my cat - no, I don't reify her, but she loves to play (hey, maybe I'm her toy?)
3 - softies
Can't think of anything else!

There! Sorry for the delay, San...

Two projects from last week, which I forgot to show!

Hi friends,

Here are two projects I finished on Sunday 15th, but since those few weeks have been very... eventful, I forgot to show them to you!

First, this is a little pillow I made for Annemiek, that was part of her first "Adopt a Stitcher" parcel... Annemiek received her goodies a week ago.

The ends of the scarf are fringed.

And this is the square I stitched on Namuelle's Cattitudes Round Robin fabric:

That's all for now... I'm exhausted today.
Everyone has a great weekend!

And finally... my little black blue dress!

Thank you all for your birthday wishes to Violette. She's been getting plenty of cuddles today, including yours. But then she does get a whole lot of cuddles every day! She loves cuddles, I love cuddles - so everybody's happy!

I am currently alone at home, so it was not too easy finding someone to photograph me... But I finally found a photographer.
Before I show you my dress, however, let me explain where the design comes from:

I ordered that book at the very end of December, and received it with great excitement last week. I'd seen it referenced on Crafting Japanese, and it was all that I was hoping for - and even more. (I also ordered another of those fantastic Japanese sewing books - I'll tell you more about it when I start sewing from it, as it's Spring clothes). For those of you who may be interested, I bought it from www.yesasia.com and its ISBN is 4579109619.

There are several patterns that I fell in love with; I especially had to sew that dress:

So last Friday morning, a little depressed after a sleepless night, I decided to hop to one of my favourite fabric stores and check out their sales, hoping to find some woolen fabric to make that dress. I did find some blue tweed at 50% off! And there's at least one advantage to being so small - I need 50 cms less than the pattern requires, which is quite economical

After scratching my head a few times at all the Japanese instructions, and not-so-clear pattern sheets, and thinking extra carefully, as this was the first time I made a lined winter dress - I finally figured it out.

Here's the result:

I'm a bit bummed, as I realized while wearing it tonight that I need to take in a couple of inches at the waist, in the back... It looked fine when I did the last fitting! Ah well, adding two more darts to the back should do the trick. Way less tricky than if it'd proved too tight and I had to "invent" some fabric! LOL. I'll try to show you when I've done the final fitting...

I do love the dress though. Love the colour, the ruffle, and the ribbon at the neckline!
But what do you think, friends? Do you like it? Honestly?

Happy Birthday, my Precious!

Violette is 3 today!

Although you didn't enter my life until last March, it feels like you've always been there. As soon as I saw you, I knew it had to be you - you were so scared and miserable, but when the adoption lady put you in my arms, you just stopped wiggling and trembling.

I haven't got used yet to how beautiful you are... You are such a bundle of fluffiness and softness, such a bundle of love and sweetness. How did I use to do without you?

You're there even when times are hard, you know when I'm sad and need a cuddle... You sleep all day right next to me while I'm working - and are so jealous when I sit at the sewing machine!

You're my precious, and no matter what happens, no matter where life takes me, I know that you and I - it's for life.

I love you, Lil' Cutie!

Petal Fairy basking in the sun

It is such a sunny (but coooold!) day in Paris today - I had to take a break between two chapters and lay the Petal Fairy in the sunlight, to finally show you her real colours:

She's definitely taking shape, isn't she?
(again... Sorry for the crumpled fabric... I stitch in hand!)

Consequently, I didn't work on my dress yesterday night... But it's almost done - just needs a few finishing touches (hemming + a trim at the neckline). I love it! I was told she's completely in my style... Which I confess, I quite agree with. That's the beauty of self-made clothes: they're custom-made, in every sense of the word!

The meme of Fours

I've been tagged by Jenna!

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life
French teacher in a UK uni
French teacher in a US college
English teacher in a French uni
English Lit researcher

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over Again
BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice (OK, not a movie, but just as good as one - and way better than any other movie adaptation of a Jane Austen novel!)
Howard's End (so obvious that I forgot it at first!)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail , or any of their Flying Circus episodes for that matter (yep, Jenna and Christine! me too )
Le Magnifique

Four Places I Have Lived
Lille, Northern France
Canterbury, England
Durham, NC, USA
Paris

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch
Don't have a TV!

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation
Herly, Straights of Dover (near Montreuil; my most frequent vacation spot)
Other places in France (Atlantic Coast, Auvergne, Chamonix, Vercors)
San Francisco (3 days, but what a fantastic trip!)
Ireland

Four Websites I Visit Daily
Bloglines
a dictionary or reference website (I love words!)
the yahoo sewing group I moderate
my.yahoo.com

Four of My Favorite Foods
Soup (yeah, I'm weird)
Bread
Cheese
Chocolate

Four Albums singers I Can't Live Without (I changed to "singers" cause it's better tuned to what I listen to)
Ella Fitzgerald
Maria Callas
Roberto Alagna
Tok Tok Tok

Four Places I'd Rather Be
Herly, my haven of peace
Some cosy and friendly place in England, just to be able to talk in and listen to English
NC again, I have such wonderful memories there
Florence, I've always dreamed to go there (yep Bea! )

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging
Zoanna
Bea
Carol
Julie

~*~*~

After a whole Saturday morning (9 am-1pm ) spent at a conference on the author my PhD is about, I've been busy sewing a dress for the rest of the weekend. So happy to be sewing again! And for myself too. I'm looking forward to seeing it all finished and to telling you about it.
Besides, it has helped me sleep better last night... A good night's sleep is such a relief. Thank you all so much for your comforting messages! I can't believe how caring you are. If only I could hug each one of you!

Petal Fairy WIP

Here's how far I got on the Petal Fairy since the last update:

I filled in more of her skirt and as you can see, she's growing wings now!

The colours are nowhere near reality, as the sun is not out yet; so you can't see the Kreinik braid too well... I hope the next picture will show the real colours better.

Here's where I was last time:

The Jenna Purse - pattern & explanations

Hi friends!

Here's the pattern I drafted for Jenna's purse, with the cutting instructions:

Click to get the pattern. I am not 100% sure it'll come out in real size on your monitors. Please make a test printout and make sure you're happy with the size before cutting your fabric!

Also, don't forget to add seam allowances

Instructions to attach a stitched piece to the front:

You'll have to do so after you've cut out your fabric and before you start assembling the bag.
This is simply appliqué with a satin stitch.
- Cut your stitched piece to the desired size (no seam allowances needed).
- Since I had a hardanger piece, I first lined it with white cotton, so that the cutwork would come out. I then pinned it onto one of the two outer pieces, sewed it into place with a straight stitch.
- I then used machine embroidery thread to do the satin stitch (which is a wide and very short zigzag stitch: you set the stitch width to a large number (that number changes according to your machine; on my Brother, I think it was 5) and set the lentgh of the stitch to the smallest possible (0.1 mm in my case). Depending on the fabric, it is not always easy to achieve a neat result with such a short stitch. In that case, make the stitch a bit longer, and go over the edges twice.

Instructions for making the bag:

N.B.: I chose to interface the outer pieces, to give the purse more body.
- Once your outer layer and lining are cut (in my case, from the same fabric), you basically make up two similar "bags", joining their sides and bottoms, and boxing bottoms' corners for each "bag". (I learned how to box corners here, when I first made a bag. They call it "mitered bottom corners". Scroll down the end of the page to see a diagram and explanations)
- Turn one of the bags inside out and insert it into the other, so that their right sides are together. Be careful to line up the side seams (pin the layers together at the seams).
- Then make a strap (or take cording, or ribbon, or whatever takes your fancy!).
Position it between both layers, upside down: the end must line up with the bag's raw edges, and the rest of the handle must be inside the bag.
I chose to position the straps on the side seams.
- Then sew the two layers together, catching the strap into the seam. Leave an opening.
- Turn the bag inside out, sew the opening closed. Press.

Et voilà !

Jenna's purse

My dear friend Jenna emailed me on Saturday that she'd received her gift! So I can now share it with you.

It all started with an attempt at Hardanger. Since Jenna's exquisite work truly inspired me to start Hardanger, it was only fair that she should receive my first little Hardanger piece! (although I was scared of her judgment!)

This is an Anchor design, from a leaflet I got at the London Stitch show last April. It was stitched with Anchor pearl cotton 1335 and 108.

From then on I decided to incorporate it into a little bag. As I wanted something cute and unique for dear Jenna, I designed a pattern for a trapezoidal purse :

Jenna's happy, so all is fine. And I discovered that I LOVED Hardanger!

The fabric was a gift from a French sewing friend... I love it! She did insist on my using it for myself, but it looked so perfect with the Hardanger's colours! And there's some left for me anyway .

I had such a blast stitching and then sewing that purse. With Jenna's permission, I am calling it the "Jenna Purse", since her personality inspired me to create it (I did try to match her taste and style in making up the pattern).

Would you like the pattern and explanations on how I made it?

I had a productive day, so tonight (right after I'm done writing that post!) I'm allowing myself a full evening with the Petal Fairy.

Tomorrow morning, I'll mail out Namuelle's Round Robin fabric and Annemiek's packages... Yes Annemiek, you'll get two, because one of the gifts couldn't fit into the first box !

Hugs everyone and have a good week!

I'm back :)

Friends, it seems that my computer is finally fixed for good! It wasn't for free, obviously, but it's not as if I'd had to replace the whole computer either, so I'm quite relieved. Plus the repairman was super sweet and charged me only for the component part he replaced and not for the whole hour he spent on the computer. It always feels good to know there are such sweet people out there.

I've missed you all!! I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up on everyone's blogs as this is the end of the semester for my students and there's so much grading to do... On top of my own research work!
Thank you so very, very much on all your good wishes and notes of concern. Whenever I could reach my email inbox and read them, they truly brought me comfort! I also got sweet, sweet cards from some of my French friends who wanted to cheer me up.
Thank you all for being such great friends!

Things are getting better, although my feelings are still all over the place. I am sooo very tired... But it'll all get better.

Otherwise this week, I finished making a gift for Jenna, who should receive it any day. The same goes for dear Ann in Belgium, whose comments are always so supportive and kind, and who sent me a Christmas card and Stoney Creek book just before Christmas.

And I'm only left with the backstitching on Namuelle's RR fabric. I put the final cross-stitches in yesterday evening. Her fabric is just gorgeous, and so cheerful!

I'm nearly done putting together a first parcel of goodies to Annemiek, my Adoptee stitcher. It'll go out on the same day as I mail Namuelle's fabric to Southern France. I do hope you'll like it, Annemiek - it is quite eclectic. I hope to make you another little gift today.

Well friends, I wish you all a wonderful weekend! Hugs to you all!

Computer crash

Friends,

My laptop crashed on Thursday and as a result I can only spend a very limited time online. I'm not sure when it'll get fixed. I haven't lost any data, but this is still a BIG and worrying problem as my laptop is my work tool. :( I am borrowing Seb's computer to write this but he also needs his to work...

I'm sorry I won't be able to check out your blogs - and I might be very slow to answer emails :( I miss you!

Anyway, this has been a very emotional time, so it may be just as well that I can't blog - my blog has to remain a serene place. :) My blog title is fully relevant right now! :)

In stitching news, I've been working on the last round of our Margaret Sherry RR - I'm tackling it a month early so that Namuelle can get her fabric back ASAP. I won't show you a picture: Namuelle wants a surprise; I'm a bit more than halfway through and should have finished it over the week.
I've also been stitching a gift for a friend, and sewing a couple of gifts for other friends. Not sure though when I'll finish and get all this in the mail as this is truly a busy time... On top of everything else.
I'm also getting a first package of goodies ready for my Adoptee in the Adopt a Stitcher program :) My Adoptee for 2006 is Annemiek from Holland, and I'm having a blast thinking of goodies to make and get her all year long. :) This will be a GREAT, cheerful activity throughout the year to come! :) I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do, Annemiek :) Hopefully I'll get your first package in the mail next week!


I'm looking forward to having my computer fixed and getting back in touch with everyone! In the meanwhile, have a wonderful Sunday and a great week! :)

I received the most adorable card...

From my friend Mandy in Northern England!

Thank you so much Mandy, it's so sweet!

And since several of you friends wanted an update picture on the Petal Fairy (plus, I am stitching this along with Mandy, and now also in the Mirabilia SAL!), here she is:

I filled in more of the pale yellow in her skirt.

Mandy, I'd love to see an update picture of your Feather Fairy!