Showing posts with label star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 October 2014

A little baby gift

A friend of mine had a baby girl recently. She has always liked my creations so I thought I could surprise her with a little stitched up gift.
My first idea was to make a little baby dress. But then.... I remembered how tiny newborns were. How on earth I was going to sew such a tiny outfit. And the fact that babies grew so quickly meant that it would probably end up being worn once or twice.
For these reasons I decided to go for something more practical - fabric storage bin. Who doesn't need one?!


In the past I had made one fabric bin with baby feet applique in blue (here) so this time I could make one in pink (or coral in fact) for a girl.


I wanted to add something else to the present so I stitched up a hanging ornament for the baby room. The idea about this came when I saw a hanging moon ornament from An from Straight Grain.


To make the ornaments, I laid two layers of fabric with some polyester waddling in between and followed the shapes I had drawn on the fabric with a decorative machine stitch. Then I trimmed the excess fabric and waddling. It worked better than I thought it would.





I attached strings and some beads. I added the beads in an attempt to take the attention away from the little knots I had to make on the strings. I hope that they are not so noticeable.


Baby gift mission completed!

Now I am in a process of sewing a duvet cover and a pillowcase for my son's bed. Half an year ago I bought some cotton fabric(I wrote about it here) with the clear idea to make it into a bedding set and I finally got to do that. But I do it with a really slow pace. Today, all I managed to do was to machine stitch the buttonholes. Tomorrow I hope to get the chance to sew the buttons.

And before finishing the post I would like to share with you some beautiful words I read tonight in a book given to my son at school for home reading. It is about a mummy monster who goes to the little monster's bed and thinking it was sleeping whispered to him :
 " I love you my darling,
     I love you my Small,
       But there's so much to do in the day
  That it's hard to sit down and to make enough time
       To say all of the things I should say.
  And it's funny, but now that you're sleeping
       And everything's quiet and calm
  The words seem to be much more easy to speak.
       You're everything I always dreamed of
         You've got so much beauty inside
  The way that you smile, that you laugh, that you dance
      Makes my heart want to sing out with pride.
  You live as though life's one huge present
       Unwrapping a bit every day
  That's just how we should be living, my love
      And look at you showing the way!
  And sometimes I know when I scold you
       You feel that I'm being unfair
  But please understand that it's just out of love.
    There are things in this life that can hurt you
         They come to us all - that I know.
  But they all give us chances to learn, darling Small
        And they all give us chances to grow.
  So when you get knocked down, my sweetheart
       Look up at the sky without fear
  For sometimes we need to be flat on our backs
        Before starlight begins to appear.
     And please, above all else remember
      Keep love in your heart, little one
  Reach out to the world like a beautiful flower
      Stretches out to the warmth of the sun.
  It's the only sure way to be happy
        The only sure way to be free.
  Believe in yourself and believe in your dreams
    And you'll be what you dream you can be.
  My beautiful, wonderful, glorious child
  You light up my world. "
The little monster heard it all and drifted to sleep with a big smile.

Very touching and heart-warming tale (at least for me). Unfortunatelly, my son who is four and a half couldn't get to the point of it. Partly because english is not his first language and partly because it probably sounds boring to him. He was more interested in the illustrations and kept interrupting my reading asking me other questions.

By the way the book is called "I love you, little monster" by Giles Andreae and Jess Mikhail.








 


















 












 
 







Thursday 26 December 2013

Christmas time

Christmas has always been special time for me. There is something very exciting about the whole preparation for it- taking out the decorations, choosing the dominant colour to decorate around the house, buying presents and wrapping them..
Then it comes Christmas Eve and it's time to set the table. In my native country of Bulgaria certain traditions are followed when setting the table. The number of dishes on the table should be uneven number, ideally seven or nine. There are foods like cooked beans and rice, dried fruits, nuts, garlic, honey, wine and bread which should be present on the table as it is believed that this would bring health,  luck and profusion in the home. The bread should be with round shape and a coin is hidden inside it. The person who gets the chunk of bread with the coin would be the luckiest in the house.
When the meal comes to an end, the whole family should leave the table at the same time, which is believed to keep them united and close in the new year. The table shouldn't be cleaned but left like this for the whole night. I especially like that part as all you have to do is toss down the last of the wine and head straight to bed for a well-earned rest. Of course the next morning you wouldn't want to get out of bed knowing what a mess you have left.


                          
But let me get back to Christmas decorations and gifts.
Last year I decided to make some felt ornaments for my parents' Christmas tree. My mom has always loved everything I have handmade, so i love making things for her. Here you can see some of them. The funny thing was that once they were ready, I put them aside, ready to be sent (unfortunately we couldn't spend the festive days with my parents so I had to send them by post). Half an hour later they were nowhere to be seen. After spending almost half an hour looking for them, I finnaly spotted them crammed in one of my son's trucks, ready to be "delivered" to his granny (at that time he was 2 years and 8 months).