Book with sharp content

This needle book is made of small piece of printed corduroy and black felt. Some flowers on the fabric are outlined with seed beads - it is very convenient to embroider when a template is already provided.




The book cover is padded with felt sheet and another layer of felt is sewn to the inside, so that needles can feel safe and comfortable.




The backstrip is made of grey blue lace, suggesting a romantic sewing story.

When out of yarn...

When I was a child, old ladies used to crochet bathroom floor mats out of strips of white plastic milk bags. I found these really ugly. Nowadays the selection of plastic bags has increased tremendously, all sorts of colours and qualities are available, even bags with colour blends.




I cut some bags to spiral strips 10-15 mm wide and used 4 mm metallic needles for knitting. Not hard at all. The most useful know-how learned, was to hold the strip folded in double, if the bag's inside colour would not fit the project. Some sample swatches:








Floor mats for bathroom or mud room would probably still be the best usage for plastic knits. Perhaps a shopping tote or swimsuit bag for a hiking trip? But seriously, nothing really pretty and cosy can hardly be brought about.

Shades of grey

When there are many small things to keep organised, there is a need for many small drawers! Those antique cabinets with lots of drawers are just perfect, but really hard to find. Now I discovered a line of these small drawer cabinets in a local hardware store, adopted one at once and dressed it in shades of grey.




Only a few days ago this was just an unfinished birch wood cabinet manufactured by Zeller Present.




After dusting and wiping, a coat of dark grey paint was applied. That was a mix of beige and blue interior paint leftovers with some black acrylic art paint added to make it darker.




The next treatment was painting the exterior surfaces intentionally unevenly with lighter shades of grey and beige using both brush and sponge for a distressed look.




Last but not least - some stampings with rubber stamp and that darker grey paint again.




Further decorations and varnishing I had had in mind, seemed redundant now. The surface was really nicely and chalkpaintly matte, so this piece was declared finished. Poor thing looks so much older now.

Crazy colours against cold

In the midst of white snow, ice and cold, even tiniest colour splashes can feel like a warm Southern breeze. Hot weather is brought to you today by a ribbon embellished pincushion from Bollywood and a miniature crocheted thread basket from the Caribbean: