Small awesome owl

Audrey over on the fabulous handcraft blog HGK was looking for pattern testers for her very cute owl medallions.

Audrey's owl medallion. Picture taken by her. 

I have always loved owls. I love how they symbolize knowledge, and I love them a little bit extra since they remind me of my mother and her owl collection. So of course I wanted to test her pattern!

I got the pattern as pdf file and could just print it. 

The pattern was really easy to follow with detailed instructions. Audrey recommends that you use felt and will be selling the pattern as a package together with the materials needed for it. I decided to make use of some fabric I already had at home and made the owl out of jeans fabric.

Cutting the pattern, then cutting the fabric. The pieces fit perfectly together.

I did make it a little hard on myself by using jeans fabric instead of felt, but that had all to do with my own stupidity (yes, 3 layers of jeans fabric is hard to hand stitch) and nothing to do with Audrey's pattern.

Small stitches for the eyes, gluing the ribbon, stitching the front and back together,
filling the medallion and then closing it. 

Without any major accident (only once did I stitch myself with the needle so hard I started to bleed) I finished the medallion in around an hour and now it hangs on my favorite hand bag to bring me luck.

It is perfect on my bag! 

You should all hurry over to HGK and check out all the other cool things Audrey is doing!

Small creations

I don't think I just talk for myself when I say that Pinterest is a great source for both inspiration and procrastination. "I'm just going to have a quick look on Pinterest" has a tendency of turning into a whole evening filled with pinning. Most of the time I just pin it and forget it, but there was something with this tutorial that I tumbled upon on Pinterest that I found especially appealing. Before I forgot it again...

...until I found a bag of something called "doll clay" in my local crafts store. It is very light and it doesn't require baking, it will just dry in room temperature. I don't have a picture of the clay because this happened long long time (a couple of months) ago.

I had a great time playing with the different kind of effects you can make. My favorites are these two bowls I use to store some of my jewelry in.

The pattern is made by a crocheted doily.
I painted the pattern in two different shades of purple.

In addition to the two bowls with the doily pattern, I also made some with a pattern from a little bush branch I found in the garden.

I just used a rolling pin to make the pattern. 

The bowls with the branch pattern has just been standing in a cabinet the last couple of months, waiting for me to do something with them. I finally got around to it here the other night.

I used the colors Green Light, Sap Green and Burnt Sienna.

The paint I used is a cheap acrylic paint that is mainly meant to be used on canvas, but it seems to have dried very well on the clay, and with a layer of lacquer over it I don't anticipate any problems.

I think the pattern is nice in itself, but the paint makes it really stand out. 

I don't think the clay is very strong, and the bowls are very thin and light. They work very well for my jewelry, but I wouldn't use them for anything heavy. And even with a layer of lacquer, I don't think they would survive much time in water. That being said, I think they are very decorative and I'm really happy with the result!

Bunad

We were so privileged as to be invited to a beautiful christening last weekend. Even though I am not personally believing in an omnipotent god, I still feel there is something sacred about welcoming a new child into this world. I also love the fact that it gave me an occasion to wear my Bunad - my Norwegian national costume.

The Bunad's origin lies in the national romantic movement in the 19th century, but most of the Bunads you see today were designed in the 20th century based on rural clothes worn in the 18th century. In Norway the Bunad is considered formal clothes and you wear it at big occasions like weddings, christenings and our national holiday on May 17th.

The big children's parade in Oslo on the Norwegian National Holiday.
Photo by Morten Johnsen.

The design of the Bunads vary from place to place. My Bunad is from the lower part of Buskerud, the county my mother's family is from. All the embroideries are done by my grandmother.

There is love in every stitch. 

I am so impressed with the handwork put into it. A professional seamstress did the montage of the dress. The hand sewn stitches are so even!

This is something I will never have the patience to do. 

I got my Bunad for my confirmation when I was 15. Luckily it was made with the intention of being something I can wear for a long time, so there were a certain amount of extra fabric left around the waist and in the torso of the dress, because let's face it - my body today at 29 is not the same as it was at 15.

This is me a few years ago. 

Even though I only get to wear it a couple of times a year, I think my Bunad is my absolute favorite piece of clothing. The fact that my grandmother embroidered it and that it will probably last longer than my life time makes it even more precious.

Do you have a piece of clothing or something else precious to you for the same reasons?

Small work in progress

I am not a particularly creative person, but I do like to create. This manifests itself generally as an interest in cooking, a basic knowledge in how to use a sewing machine, and occasional waves of need for crocheting or knitting. This time the trigger was my husband's uttering of a wish for kind of a cardigan.

This is the jacket my husband wants. 

I love this greyish blue color and the softness of the wool-cotton mix. And I love how the bamboo needles don't make any sound when I knit!

The needles are so quiet, I just call them my ninja needles. 

The start of my knitting project coincided with a wonderful warm weekend, so most of my Saturday was spent relaxing with my ninja needles, the soft-as-baby's-butt-yarn, and a glass of wine. 

While knitting I could rest my eyes on the best view in the world - my husband! 

Since I don't know any vocabulary for knitting in English, I don't know what to call the pattern or style of knitting that this jacket calls for, but I like it because it feels very light and airy, not so dense as your standard wool sweater usually is. 

I might fight my husband for it after I've finished it. 

What are you creating at the moment?

Make-do and Mend

I spent a few, intense days in London this summer. 3 days filled with sightseeing and a little bit of shopping. Among others, I visited Churchill War Rooms. The place is like frozen in time - the rooms look the same as they did when the war ended in 1945.

I bought this poster in their excellent museum shop. Clothing rationing was introduced in June 1941 in Britain, and this was part of a campaign to offer innovative ways of making the best of people's clothes. 

I do my fair share of shopping (with a special weakness for shoes), but there is something very appealing with the re-use and mending of old items. Which made me totally fall in love with this little doily I found at the market in Covent Garden. 

You never see this any more! Someone carefully mended this little doily instead of throwing it away. I wonder who this person was, but I imagine that after making the beautiful laces around the doily, the owner did not want to throw away the doily. 

I have no idea yet as to what to do with the little doily, so if anyone has a suggestion, I am open minded!