Holiday fever! Already????!!!!

Hello, my dear friends!

Those of you who knows me best know very well my obsession with handmade Christmas gifts….  There’s no need to talk about that much… but did I tell you that I want to have a nice Christmas tree this year… ? Since I’m so insane, I’m not only crafting gifts, I’m making tree ornaments too….

I have a precise idea about how my tree should look like and I’m playing a lot with the hook and different kind of yarn. I’d like to have sparkling garlands, nice white snowflakes, macarons and some felted embroidered hearts…. Let’s see if I’ll be able to finish off all the ornaments in time…

In the meantime I have finished off, blocked and stored the stole I was making for one of my sisters in law…

This is Luule pattern by Susanne Visch and I love it a lot! The yarn I used wasn’t the best one I have ever knitted with but it was worth the effort. The colors of this stole are too bright, in my opinion, but are perfect for the lady it is meant to. And I’m happy I was able to store it at last!!

As you can imagine, a new project is on my needles which should be finished off in three or four days… The Stone Tulip Shawl for my Mother in law ….

What can I say… I can’t wait to have it finished off and blocked!!!!!

My Mother in law is going to have a small pressie before Christmas, though… three pot holders…

I’m not satisfied with the finishing of those, however. Sewing is still my weak spot which has to be improved a lot… Sometimes it happens that my projects turn out nice but sometimes they do not…. I have to work a lot on appliqués….

At last, I knitted myself a hat! It was a while that I wanted to make this for me, a pattern I saw for the first time on Sewchet’s blog…

This hat is perfect! I love this pattern very much and I love to wear it during our waks… By the way, we spent a few hours outdoors this weekend and here are some photos of the Lake seen from above!

I hope that you will enjoy this views!

I have to go now and have lunch ready!!

(Breathe, Tajana, breathe….)

Love

xxx

Tajana

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Popping out again

Hello, my dear friends!

It has been a while since my last post here on the blog. What had happened….? Well… It is hard to say but let it put that way… I have a compulsive need to create and hold in my hands the result of this compulsive activity. Around Christmas last year I found so hard to spend time both online and crafting and I discovered Instagram, a quick and easy way to share photos, exactly what I needed in that very moment. So you can easily imagine what had occured. I was able to show you my WIPs and FO projects and follow and be followed by all my blog friends. Well, to be frank it is much easier to find me on my personal Facebook profile and on Instagram than here or on Pinterest…. So I totally neglected my blog and all that beautiful people who are my ultimate inspiration. As I always say that there wouldn’t be any crafted goodie at mine if there weren’t you, my friends, who inspired me.

I have to thank Roma for bringing me down from the moon. With few lovely words she made me think about the goal I gave to this blog and I understood that writing always  calmed down that crafty urge I have and always made me collect my thoughts. For a new beginning. Maybe I’ll not be present so often as I used to be but i promise I’ll start sharing again my projects here in blogland. All the photos you’ll find on Instagram first…. Sorry for that!! But my musing will be written here.

I’d like to start with sharing one of the Christmas gifts I finished off lately. I knitted a stole for one of my SILs ….

It has taken me a while to knit this stole but it is totally worth the effort. The pattern is a simple one, I just replicated a lace chart from Elisabeth Lovic’s book. 🙂

I have knitted two shawls too… the Stone Tulip Shawl! What a beautiful pattern!

The first one is for a friend of mine while the second one is meant for another SIL (there are three of them… the gift for the third one is in progress… ).

A friend of mine asked me to crochet her a Mermaid tail blanket.

 

If you like to make one of these you can find a pattern here.

My Big man and I were away for a holiday in the mountains this summer and having a break under a glacier eating a sandwich with home made bread and wearing hand made socks was great!

Alost the same feeling as in the moment i found this book in my mailbox!

I had fun with little sewing projects…

…. and I crocheted a Sleepy Bear following a pattern by Jennifer Olivarez.

This was a very busy summer because I discovered the joy of fruit…

….and made a lot of jam!

I hope that I was able to illustrate a bit of what had happened here down in Italy during my absence. Now I have to say bye and hurry to knead my flat bread with the yeast starter (…who is yelling for some attention down in the kitchen… ).

Stay tuned and have a nice day, lovely people out there!

Love

xxx

Tajana

Salva

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

Back Again!

Hello, my friends!

It was about time to be back blogging again! Oh, I was quite busy with my Christmas crafting but I also had some health issues, nothing serious, I’m on my way solving my troubles, but all that kept me away from my blog. Well,to be honest, I hope that I can be online more often but I’m not sure… Life has become busy lately and I kindly ask you to not judge me too hard for my absence… Oh,I almost forgot to tell that I have started to attend German language lessons too, I need to know German if I want to work here around and learning it is taking a great part of my free time…

But I don’t want to bother you with my troubles, I want to share my last FO projects! Crafting is great and creating is still the best antidepressant for me 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 And sweet lovely things are worth sharing!!

The scarf I knitted for my FIL suits better my Big man so I decided to keep it at ours! (My FIL will have a new pair of socks instead!)

You can find the pattern here 🙂 It is so simple to knit and it turns out so beautifully!! Yeah, I’m so pleased with this scarf 🙂

I made myself a slouchy hat following this pattern…

I have taken some photos from the back but they had turned out very badly…. Well,have a look to the pattern, my hat is so very alike the original photos. Oh and I have used the yarn I had bought at Abilmente. 🙂

My MIL has her Christmas gift ready too…

Three fabric baskets for her stash…. I followed the tutorial found here and I do hope that she will like them…

The first of three blankets for the family children is FO too…

I have followed several tutorials foun on Pinterest to sew this blanket and I like to see my handwriting embroidered…. 😛 😛 😛

And last but not least, a detail….

I can’t tell you what it is but I had to show you this dragonfly…. A nice gift from Uncinetto e mille fili colorati ❤ ❤ ❤

I made more little sweet things but I still can’t show them to you! I promise to make a lot of photos before giving my pressies away!!

I wish you a great day and hope that I’ll be back as soon as possible!!

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: The Messenger Bag for my SIL

Hello, my friends!

After the great excitement and the fever felt during Abilmente, I’m back to my everyday life (but with some interesting events on my schedule… in case they occur I’ll write about for sure 🙂 ) and to my Christmas gift list… I was able to finish off the bag for my SIL which was approved by my Big man…. he didn’t like the flap I embroidered some time ago …

….. so I had to change my initial project…

Well, the new bag looks like that….

I have to tell you that I sweated a lot to finish off it… It is true, sewing is not my favourite crafting method but it allows me to make items faster than crochet or knit…. but I had a devil in my hands yesterday…. I hardly align the handles with the bag, in some points the fabric was too thick and the bag glided slowly and it even stopped to glide in some moments… Well, I think there are tips which are useful in those cases but since I’m a beginner I simply can’t know them and my nerves suffer…. All in all, the bag is finished off, I can be happy about moreover because I put on some slides for the first time ever and which give a more refined look to it.

I almost forgot to tell that I used my selfhealing mat and the rotary cutter for the first time ever…

The cutting of the fabric was faster indeed!! Great purchase for real!!

I have to go back to my gifts now! Have a great day, kind and lovely people out there, and enjoy yourself 🙂 ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

PS: here you can find the tutorial I have followed for the bag. It’s a nice tutorial indeed!

Mission Accomplished :: I Sewed my First Skirt Ever

That thanks to my friend Monica who made the paper pattern for me 🙂

And it fits!!! 😀 😀 😀

Sheila, I owed you the photo 🙂

Have a nice weekend, lovely people!!!

My first messenger bag and my first appliqué

Oh,yeah,I did it! I sewed the messenger bag for my Big man and started a new one for his sister…

I bought a nice fabric a while ago and I thought it perfect for a men’s bag…. oh, there was enough of it for another one and I thought it would be nice make a second one for my SIL but more girly, of course 🙂 . I find nice to use the same fabric for the sibilings and highlight this kin relationship in that way.

While my Big man’s bag is almost FO….

…. I have only cut out the outer part of the flap for my SIL’s bag and sewed on an appliqué…

Well, I’m pleased with how this two projects have turned out. I was worried about the flat sewing and application but everything went well. I didn’t sew the strap on my BM’s bag yet because I’d like to make it adjustable and I need some rectangle rings for that…. So when the second bag will be FO I’ll be heading to the shop with both and try to find something suitable… 🙂

Before I run away to craft (my God,I’m always in a kind of hurry lately…. ) without mention them, here are the links to the tutorials I followed to sew my messenger bags…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D7vYZI9bh8

http://bluebirdbaby.typepad.com/photos/messanger_bag_tutorial/dsc_0406—version-2.html

I wish you all a great day ❤ ❤ ❤

Love

xxx

Tajana

FO :: my Mum’s Bag

I did it, I sewed it today…. and decided to do it as I always do… a tote bag with a slightly modified bottom …. that because I tried to quilt a phone case and the result was that….

😮 😮 😮 😮 😮

So to avoid ruining the nice fibric I have at mine I decided to experiment quilting with some more suitable wadding for bags which I still have to buy…. In the meantime I couldn’t stay still and I sewed my Mum’s bag and decided that this will be her Xmas present….

I added some lining and a zipper too…

…. and fixed some last minute discovered flaws….

Maybe I’ll have to crochet another Columbine in a different shade…. well,I’ll think about next week…. now I’m off to get ready for tonight…

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