WIP Wednesday- Rainbow Week Continues and The Tale of Two Crowns

What a wonderful coincidence, it's rainbow week and I can also show off the crown that Matteo is getting for his birthday! Now before you all get excited on me... NO, I didn't make this crown. As I was searching Etsy for ideas and supplies, I came across this gorgeous, breathtaking silk/wool wet felted crown made by the immensely talented Susanna Wallis. Even though, I had already bought supplies for Matteo's crown, even though I was already more than halfway finished with it... I just saw this crown and fell in love (I mean, look at those crystals embroidered in the middle of every star... too precious!).

So, I feel like I am punking out a bit on the original crown. I even spent an evening appliqueing trees on one of the side panels- ripping them out almost immediately because, well they just looked so sad. But this is my solution... stay with me here... Last year my best friend wore 2 dresses for her wedding- a beautiful traditional white ballroom wedding dress for the ceremony and then a gorgeous hot pink silk halter dress for the reception... no reason why Matteo can't have 2 crowns for his birthday, right? The rainbow crown can be the special one to be worn for the family dinner every year and the train one can be his special 4th birthday crown he can wear to the party with his friends and year round for play, which also gives me an excuse to make a crown every year that can reflect his interests (as with the trains this year).

Mr Birthday Boy has a pretty good stash of royal goodies coming his way. We got a copy of Ivan's family's coat of arms and I hoping to make an applique of it to put on Matteo's robe and I will finish off the year round crown


I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco a few weekends ago and picked up some really delectable roving. They both are made with merino wool and silk. The purple/magenta one has pieces of silk sari and the blue/green one has bits of peacock feathers. Inspired by the rainbow crown, I want to make one for my beloved Nico. His birthday isn't until November, but I REALLY wanted to do some wet felting and get my hands on that batting!

I'm still laying down the wool and oh.my.goodness... it is the softest material I have ever laid my hands on! It's like working with gossamer. After some trial and error last week with other pieces, I realized that it takes quite a few layers to get the thickness I want. The mohair roving is going to be embellishments on the crown. I'd like to inlay them into the crown as I wet felt it or I'll needle felt it if the inlay doesn't work.
For those who are interested in trying this at home, the batting (I am working with almost 2 oz) is available from Yeti Yarns and Dry Goods and the mohair roving from Luna Bud Knits. If this works out, I'll post a tutorial... wish me luck :)!

I am very excited to be participating in the the Seasons Round Exchange and have started some of the projects (this is where you, Grace, my swap buddy have to close your eyes if you want to be surprised :) ). Matteo and I needle felted a few acorns.

...more to follow :)

I realize this is probably one the longest posts I've done in ages. Thanks for sticking with me, lovely friends :). Surfing around, there have been some other great projects going on with the WIPsters, go check them out!

WIP Wednesday- A Few Finished Things

"look at my chompers!"

As I was sorting through our MOUNDS of baby clothes, I found this adorable baby bunting that both Matteo and Nico had worn during the cold weather months. Luca was too small to where it this past winter and will be too big for it in a few months, but I hated the thought of letting it go...

So I took it apart at the seams and separated the quilted lining and left the patchwork body intact. I removed the sleeves, learned how to sew the zipper back on, reattached the hood (because don't all baby sun suits need a cute hood?) and now Luca has a new summer outfit!

Matteo's birthday projects were on hold this week since I was waiting for a few notions to arrive (good thing I started this stuff 8 weeks in advance, right?). But a friend of his had a birthday party this weekend and I had an opportunity to sew with PINK! and FLOWERS!

Matteo did some watercolor painting and I had a picture of his friend for a little handmade birthday card goodness :)

Thanks everyone for the support and encouragement yesterday! Matteo ended up getting sick (nothing major, just a fever) and it was a blessing in disguise as we could all spend the day hanging out in PJ's... I appreciated everyone's suggestions and feel like I've been given the OK to just be...

Love and Light, Marina

WIP Wednesday- Crowns, Royal Robes and a Little Selfish Crafting...

Happy Work In Progress Wednesday!

This week I decided to throw in a little crafty something for myself. I fell in love with this trim at the fabric store last week and bought it without anything specific in mind. My new momagenda just arrived and I'm thinking about making a little cover for it. Nothing like making your planner a little prettier to motivate you to use it more :)!

Work on Matteo's birthday crown continues at a glacial pace, which I actually am enjoying quite a bit. It's a real treat to work slowly, meditate over what I'd like to put on there and use the little pockets of time I have to do a little stitching here and there. One morning this week I went over to a friend's house so we could work on our boys crowns together (her son's birthday is coming up as well) and it was SO fun to craft with a friend! I imagine it was like the quilting bees of old where women gathered and crafted in fellowship :). So far, I've just embroidered an "M" and sewed on a few leaf buttons. I'm trying to decide which fabric to use over the elastic on the back of the crown- brown w/red mushrooms or brown with polka dots... what do you all think?

Crazy picture, right? That's me at an old college semi formal 20 (YIKES- Holy Badly Permed Hair Batman!!) years ago! It's here because I found some use for the midnight blue velvet dress I was wearing... a royal cape for Matteo! I ripped the seams out of the bottom half of the dress and used the skirt for the cape. There was some metallic trim and gold braid in my scrap box (Yay me for finally cleaning out my craft area so I could find these treasures!) and I'm adding on a gold braid frog closure for the front. I am LOVING that this dress is getting a second life!

So crafting is moving along happily over here and am hoping that my motivation continues...

Thanks everyone for helping me keep this creativity train a'movin!

WIP Wednesday- Bounty!

Today, my mom and I had one of the best afternoons we've had together in a long time! Now that I've been sewing more, she wanted to share with me some of the bounty of her fabric stash (see above).

My mom has been sewing for over 50 years. When I was a child some of my most vivid memories of my mom was watching her sew in her little corner of the living room while I played with her spools of thread. She used to make all of my clothes which I thought was soooo uncool at the time, but now of course I wish I still had those adorable handmade outfits. I don't remember her ever giving me a formal sewing lesson, but I realize now that I must have picked up a lot from watching her as a lot of the sewing I'm doing seems to come naturally... unlike some other craft hobbies (yes, I am talking to you, darn circular needles!)

...back to her crazy stash... my mom is also a hardcore yard sale shopper. Over the past few months, she has come across 3 yard sales with HUGE amounts of fabrics for sale. It was sad that these fabrics had come up for sale due to the passing away of a family member who sewed. My mom confessed to me that it made her glad that she could share her fabric with me while she is still alive and can see me enjoy and create something with it. Of course, that's not the kind of thing I like to think about, so I just enjoyed the time spent with her today going through boxes and boxes of fabric chatting about what had been made with this and what could be made with that, knowing that this time with her is precious and fleeting.

She also pulled out the boxes of her patterns, and oh my goodness- many of the patterns were from when I was a little girl! It was one of the few times I wished I had a little girl of my own to sew for. Luckily there were a few sailor suits and cowboys shirt patterns that my boys will be hopefully sporting in the future ;}

Anyway, this is WIP Wednesday so I thought I'd share my first completed birthday project! I finished the bunting for Matteo's birthday. I was thrilled that it was so easy to do in the little increments of time that I had to do it.

I cut the birthday crown tonight and am figuring out the designs that I am going to applique and embroider onto it.

Thanks so much everyone for your encouragement and indulgence as I am surfing this crazy crafting wave!
I'd love to hear how you found your crafting calling and what form it takes for you...

Warmly and Craftily Yours,
Marina

WIP Wednesday- Frustration

One of Matteo's teachers told me the other day that her hands were constantly cold and I've been wanting to knit toasties for some time now, so I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to learn how to knit using circular needles. I had some extra brown yarn I thought I'd use as practice.

I have to be honest... I hated it. I was using smaller needles than I'm used to and I felt all thumbs! I know I was probably tense and with more practice it'll flow more naturally, but it was oh-so-frustrating! My beloved scissor happy son, Matteo -of recent hairstyling fame- inadvertantly put me out of misery by cutting the yarn. I know I could just tie the darn yarn OR learn that thing you do when you reach the end of a skein, but I was so fed up that I have given up knitting for a spell (it'll be brief, I promise you, my ravelry kin)... AND have confiscated all sharp objects from the boys.

Matteo's birthday is coming up in 2 months, so hopefully my next check in will be happy sewing birthday prep!

WIP Wednesday

A few weeks ago I joined a group called WIP Wednesday (WIP= Work In Progress) where people share their latest craft projects (Thanks Shellyfish for hosting this and Jumbleberry Jam for introducing me!). I love seeing what other people are working on and it inspires and motivates me to make time to feed my creative needs... so *knock on wood* I will try to do this every week :)

This is my latest project. Honestly, I'm not sure what this is going to be. I bought this yummy yarn the same week that I learned to knit months ago and picked it up again recently to use for practice. Because I am doing a simple knit and purl, the piece is curving inward (if that makes any sense) so it's a little cock-eyed for a scarf. I haven't learned how to increase and decrease yet, I'm just going back and forth 25 stitches (or so). I've fallen in love with this colorway- Ocean by Noro- and I'd like to buy more, but have to figure out what to do with it before I can justify the purchase. After a fitful beginning trying to relearn how to cast on again, I've finally picked up the groove and rhythm of knitting and am totally addicted! So I'm going to keep knitting this little piece until I get to the end of the ball of yarn and hope for some inspiration for it's use. Right now I'm thinking that's almost a good width and length for a toddler sweater sleeve and I can use a solid color for the body and piece it all together... so my experienced knitting gurus, what sayeth you... is it possible?

Clicking happily away...

xoxo, Marina :)