Some rest at last

Hello, my dear friends!

Here we are, two more days till Christmas!

How are you, how is your crafting going on? Are you freaking out? Oh,I hope that, whatever is your business right now, you are having great time!

I managed to craft all the gifts I planned to and here are some random shots…

I embroidered two Russian nesting dolls, one for the lovely lady who owns my fav yarn store in Parma and the other for my MIL, to add to her gift since she copied some of my ideas and I wanted her to have something special though… Both were turned into lavender bags….

The pressie for my Big man is wrapped….

… and put under the tree…

…we still have the same tiny tree from Parma… maybe there a change should be made… oh and yeah, my BM will have a new pair of socks soon 🙂 …. Isn’t the above yarn just lovely…? 🙂 🙂 🙂

I made some fabric hearts for some friends…

…. and crocheted some of them too…

The candy bags are filled and some of them were already given to the children…

I knitted some cowls, the one from the below photo is for one of my SILs…

And I wrapped the gifts for my friends…

I took the photos of the embroideries and I will show them to you after the holidays.

My dear friends I wish you a very merry Christmas and I hope that the new year will bring you smiles, happiness and love! Thank you for being there!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

Candy Bags for Girls

The below two are my favourites…

I followed a simple but very lovely pattern found here 🙂

Love

xxx

Tajana

FOs and WIPs

Hello my dear friends!

Another post about Christmas gifts! Oh,please,try to stand me if you can… but this is that part of the year… the final crafty rush !!!

I start with the gift for the most important person of my life, my Big man…

Following this tutorial I made to my Big man an apron to add to the previously sewed messenger bag… Since he didn’t want me to knit him a sweater I had to find a solution for his Christmas gift and decided to make something he won’t never imagine to receive. I added a personal note to the apron….

Oh,he don’t like garments with writings so I had to camouflage my message 😀 😀 😀 and,no, we are not married but ‘I have the best companion on earth’ didn’t sound me good so I opted for ‘wife’ …. well, there’s a clear desire expressed in my words too and I hope that he will understand…. ( 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 I’m laughting because I know he wont…. ).

He has already received two pairs of socks and the cable scarf…. and under the three there will be the below goodies…. not bad… What do you think? Would your husbands like to have those goodies for Christmas?

🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m so happy that I can show you one of the embroideries I’m making for my friends since the receiver doesn’t have neither a FB nor an IG account… 🙂 And since I like poppies….

My friends can do with their embroideries whatever they want…. a bag, a frame, a pillow…. The others will be shown after the holidays 🙂

My FIL has his first sock ready ….

…. Rowan’s Fine Art is so soft…. thank you, Magliuomini!!!!

I’m so happy because I will finish Christmas my list soon, in a two weeks all the items should be ready…. well, at least the biggest ones… there’s a scarf for my brother to be finished off, now on my needles, the blanket for my younger nephew and the second sock for my FIL… I feel quite ok about, the buntings for the blanket are cut out, the scarf is made on 8 mm gauge needles and the second sock is going to be started tomorrow during a knit café organized by me here in Peschiera (I hope someone will come tomorrow….) .

My BM asked me to make something for his colleagues’ children so I made yesterday two small bags to fill with candies…

As you can imagine, the bird is for the girls and the dog for the boys! Well,I have to change the fabric for girls since the black colour isn’t the best choice I could eventually make but all in all the idea is nice. Quite quick too 🙂

That’s it for now, my friends! I have to run to the supermarket and pick up some groceries so…

I wish you a happy weekend and a lot of happy craft!! ❤ ❤ ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: More Christmas Gifts

Hello, my dear friends!

What to say…? Upseting events are occuring around Europe lately and it seems so stupid writing about crafting in these days but I’m strongly covinced that a way to fight those who are hurting us so badly is to not stop living our every day life! We can sit down and talk about the political situation which had brought us to have terrorism in Europe all day and night long but I do not see a solution in that now!It seems too late to me…  Instead, I suggest to respect more ourselves, to love our family and friends, to try to protect them in the best way we are capable of and hope that our politicians will find a way to face and solve the terror threat as soon as possible. God, we are living in the 21st century and still fight each other!! How stupid this is!!!

But, please!!! Let’s go back to craft now!

I have finished off three more Christmas gifts.

I asked my Big man if he would like me to sew a blanket like this for his nephew too but he wasn’t sure if his sister would like it… so I sat down at my computer and find on Ravelry this nice pattern…. I’m not a big owl fan but I liked this one and,after have been given the blessing by my BM, I knitted it…

I will let you know after the winter holidays if this creature will be appreciated or not. In the meantime, the owl is continuing to sleep in my crafting den 🙂

Another scarf is ready!!! Yippee!!! This one is for my SIL husband 🙂

Not bad… I like this scarf, the garter stitch is so simple and versatile and so beautiful!! The yarn is a nice washable merino and this dark blue shade is so manly! Even my Big man likes it 😀 😀 😀 But my favourite is still this one… 🙂 🙂 🙂 Maybe because it fits so well my companion….

The last thing I’d like to show you is the below one…

….a detail of an embroidery…. And that’s all for now… I will not talk about embroideries until Cristmas…. because my friends will receive embroideries for Christmas,that’s why… I will just show a detail from time to time ….

So… now it’s time to wish you a nice and peaceful day! There’s one more scarf to knit, as also a pair of socks and another blanket to sew… and more more more… better if I go beck to work!!

Love

xxx

Tajana

Back From Holiday

Hello, my friends!

How are you? Is everything ok?? I hope it is and I hope that you are having a great end of this crazy summer! My Big man is back to work and I’m back to my crafting after having spent four days in Croatia. There is a lot of things to talk about and I was wondering which photos share with you first. There are many of them to be shown, in particular those from our holidays are quite interesting, but I decided to start with the craft done before leaving, to put some order in the last week happenings. Both because I’d like to do justice to a great crochet designer and a friend and because I’d like to show you my first Xmas scarf FO yesterday night 🙂

As first, let start with the second bag I sewed for the family girls. I have found a tutorial for a really nice bag. I have simply fell in love with it and decided to try myself with, even if it looked a bit tricky…. well, it wasn’t so difficult to sew but I have had some problems with the union of the top and the bottom since the main fabric and the lining have to be attached in the same time…. oh,my version of it isn’t so bad at all, since I use jute and it looks quite cozy, but if I want to sew an elegant version, like the one from the tutorial, I have to be more careful…. here are the photos of my bag…

I find it so suitable for my artistic SIL! Very simple, made out from some natural fabric as jute and with one beautiful flower to adorn it. I hope she will like it 🙂 What do you think about my versione of the Canvas Slim Bag? Do you like it and, in particular, do you like the crocheted flower? I’m so very happy to introduce this ornament to you because its pattern was written by my friend Jennifer whose blog, Squirrel Picnic, I simply adore. This lovely lady is writing a crochet book, The Big Acorn Race, and asked me to be a tester for her pattern for this lovely flower named Tall ‘n’ Fast!

Can you imagine how happy and honoured I was and am to have taken part to her beautiful project!!! I highly recommend you to have a look at her blog,you’ll find there a lot of inspiration, and follow her during the book writing! She’s a genious indeed!! Can’t wait to see the book! Hi, Jennifer, hugs are crossing the ocean!! ❤

The first Xmas scarf is done! YIPPEE!!! I have started it a while ago and since I worked only during evenings I’m happy that it is FO 🙂 Since today it is quite cloudy I was lucky to have caught some sunshine during the photo session 😀

A simple seed stitch and some nice soft yarn, a mixture of cotton and merino wool, in a nice dark brown shade. So manly,don’t you think? 😉

I’ll be back soon with my holiday photos.

Love

xxx

Tajana

WIPs and Wandering Around…

Hello,my friends!

I’m a bit away from blogland in these days but that is because my Big man has some days off and we are spending them wandering aroun a bit… Two days spent in the Apennines and tomorrow we are travelling to Croatia for a three days trip. I’m still crafting a lot and have some projects to share with you but they are not FO yet. More about when we are back home. For now just a photo of one of them, the gift excange with Sewchet.

I’m knitting a Crescent Shawl for Sheila but wanted to add something more to my parcel to be so I tried myself with some embroidery 🙂 Well,I’m satisfied….. 🙂 🙂 🙂

….and a close up to the yarn for the shawl, brought home last night 🙂 🙂 🙂

Sorry for being so short but have to go and wash my clothes for tomorrow!

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: the Button Sanctuary tote bag

Hello, my friends!

The credit for the name of my last FO project goes to Helen from BeastieBlog whose sweet comment on my last post made me smile, she indeed understood so well what I had in my mind !! I have a lot of old and old fashioned and unwanted bottons at mine given to me by my Mother in Law something like ages ago (…..because you never know…. ) and with which I didn’t know what to do at all… then, one day, I saw this on Pinterest….

What a lovely tote bag, don’t you think?

So,at last, all those buttons laying useless in my drawer have found a place “where they can live out their days in peace and contentment”, as Helen said 🙂 🙂 🙂 .

So I went to buy some fabric…

…. and this time I tried, for the first time ever, to use some interfacing to give consistency to the bag…

To be honest I don’t like it much…. not only I had problems in attaching it because it did not glue as I wanted it to, but the tote does not have the solid look I imagined it would have… I was looking for some answers online and saw that there esxist some fleece interfacing….. unfortunately, they don’t have it in the store I always go so I have to be satisfied with what I can eventually find… I hope that the messenger bag I want to sew for my Big man will turn out as I imagine it…. I have the FO image in my head and I do hope that I will be able to recreate it exactly as I see it…. but let’s go back to the Button Sanctuary tote bag! I sewed the lining and I added a pocket too….

….. oops… I forgot to turn twice the upper hem…  😮 I hope that it will not cause troubles….

I sewed on the buttons….

… and voilà….

It is a yarn shopping bag… this because it is meant for a yarn lover…. 🙂 🙂 🙂

…. and it looks good in a crafting den …

This was a kind of a testing bag…. I tested my lately discovered embroider skill, the frame in the front is embroidered with a split stitch, I tested the use of the interfacing and its effect on the overall look of a bag, I tested my button sewing skill since I used buttons of different shapes, and, finally, I tested my top stitching skill…. hard task indeed….

I want to sew eight tote bags for Christmas as gift for the ladies from family and friends and, as said above, a messenger bag for my BM… I hope indeed that I will improve the use of the interfacing but before I’ll sew a quilted bag…. I want to sew a bag for my Mum and give it a solid look… Since I have some wadding left from my quilted blanket project I’ll use it to make a more puffed bag…. I cross my fingers and hope that it turns out good and nice…

Love

xxx

Tajana

I’m Insane Indeed

Why…? Well, look at the following photos…

Try to guess what I’m crafting and why I feel madness has started to rule in my life …..

Love

xxx

Tajana

Embroidery

Hello,my friends!

I still can’t believe that I made this last night…

A felt heart embellished with embroidery…. Me!!! Embroidery and me!!! How,for God’s sake, did that happen?!

My first embroidered heart key ring…. I’m still speechless!!

I was able to do that thanks to two tutorials found on You tube….

Do not ask me why because I don’t know…. The only explanation I have is that, unconsciously, I knew that I was able to embroider, I just had to wait for right the time. And the greatest inspiration came from two blogs, Squirrel Picnic and Beastie Blog, run by two great girls!!! Thank you,dear ladies, for sharing your work! You rock!!

Now I can’t wait to embroider more!

Oh,I almost forgot,except the stuffing, my key ring has some dries lavander flowers to give it a unique scent… This is a gift and I do hope that the recipient will love it since it was she and her work who made me wish to try something new….

Love

xxx

Tajana