Pages

Thursday, May 22, 2008

A long lost friend....

Wow. As I was unpacking, in order to repack (yes... I have not yet unpacked all the way from the move here.), I found my favorite and first owned Japanese craft book. This is still my favorite, it's filled with Scandinavian themed embroidery designs, and other patterns and such. The best part is a few pages of Moomintroll patterns.

My dad's side of the family is Swedish, my grandmother moved here when she was 3 or so. My great-grandmother left her jerk of a husband in Sweden and moved herself and my grandmother to New York City on her own. Can I just say that this woman still, to this day, rocks my world? I called my great-grandmother Mormor, which actually means mother's mother, but I suppose Farmormor is too much of a mouthful. Mormor was always very old in my eyes. She died when she was 99, when I was in my late teens/early 20s. She was an amazing woman, and a wonderful cook, seamstress and needleworker. I would eat meat again, if I could have her back for one day and she'd make swedish meatballs for me. : ) I've been working for years to veganize her recipe, and I am getting closer. My last batch, for my friend Randi's baby shower, were very good.

Anyway... growing up in a Swedish-y family, I grew up with Moomintroll books. I still have most all of them. I have a mild obsession with them and do lots of swaps on postcrossing and Gimme Your Stuff for Moomintrolly goodies. So this Japanese book is one of my favorites. And I am happy to be reunited with it again. It's ISBN is 4-8347-2480-8.

So, here's the front cover....









And here's a Moomintroll pattern example. The little girl sliding down a hill is my favorite character and totem. Her name is Little My. She's a brat.


The rest of the book is fabulous too, but these pages of patterns make it for me. And now that I am becoming way into needlework, they are even more of an inspiration. My mom says I have Mormor's touch when it comes to needlework. This is nice to hear.

On another nice note, I just got a call this afternoon that my friend Randi had her baby today! So she'll be able to snuggle up in the blankie I made her soon! Hurray for babies!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Little Zippered Pouch- purpleone- No Peeking!!!!

the bag
the lining

So... this is the zippered pouch I made for a recent craftster swap. It's lined, the first little pouch I've lined. My partner likes seals, hence the seal image. I am stuffing it full of sewing goodies. The chain stitch on the inside looks very nice, yeah? It's actually hiding the fact that my tension was wonky and there were some loose threads popping up. I love embroidery... so forgiving.

I used the instructions located here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=22875.0

Moving again!!

Yikes. So.... I am moving back to the Boston area next month. Woohoo. So, posting will be sporadic (it's not called Fits and Starts for nothin'!). No job yet, but I'm trying. I am very much looking forward to having a bigger space to craft and sew in, Winmill Fabrics, Boomerangs, and just plain city living again.

I have some pictures of a little pouch I made for a swap on craftster... I'll get them up tonight.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

I Love Book-Off!!

I finally got a chance to visit Book-Off a few weekends ago. Now I know I am behind the trend in my love of Japanese crafting books, but I really do love them.

Book-Off is awesome!!!!!! I found oodles of books for $1 each and a new to me Handmade Zakka book for $6. I love it, and can't wait to go back. It had a dizzying selection of books, which were organized in some fashion, but I am a non-speaker of Japanese so I just kind of pawed through them.

It's at 14 E 41st Street in Manhattan. They're open at 10am-8pm.

That is my rave for the day.