Messy studio

My old magazines and clippings and paper mess were starting to pile up, so I decided to clean up a bit in my studio.

And then I stumbled upon these books with paper dolls.
That's my problem when tidying up... discovering fun things and forgetting all about the mess around me!





Here are a few paper dolls you can download and print, and loads of other paper toys.

A splash of colour

I finally finished my striped sweater! It's a lot more colourful than the clothes I usually wear, but it's what I need after the bleak, long winter.


It was a long time ago, but I made another mosaic, and I think you can tell the theme: COLOURS!

1. Vintage Quilt, 2. tea for three, 3. For Now . . ., 4. NOEL fairytale dreamcatcher, 5. What My Daughter Sees When She First Wakes Up, 6. pink, 7. Storage, 8. PinkYarn, 9. Selina Lake -shelf, 10. strawberries, 11. ...in one kiss, you'll know all I haven't said, 12. Half Dresser, 13. Needled Color, 14. oct05 003, 15. Bonito...um projeto, 16. Cat among the cherry blossoms 2

A bit of spring

Today is a very, very gloomy day and I feel a bad cold coming up. Yugh...
But yesterday was a day full of promises.
I finished my yellow socks, it's still cold enough to wear woollen socks.

I discovered the first flowers of 2009 in my garden.

And this picture makes me happy, just by looking at it. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun!

Self binding

For my little cat's quilt, I decided not to use bias binding, but the system of self binding instead. Quilt back must be at least 2,5 cm/1 inch wider at each edge than quilt top to use this system. First of all, you have to trim quilt top and padding evenly.

On the wrong side of quilt back, mark a line 2,5cm/1 inch away from trimmed quilt top all around, then cut along line.

At each corner, fold quilt back so corner point of back touches corner point of quilt top and padding. Cut off corner as shown.

Fold trimmed corner onto quilt top diagonally.

Now fold raw edges of quilt back 6mm/o,25inch in to wrong side. Fold quilt back onto quilt top along one side, pin to secure. Fold adjacent corner onto quilt top, forming a diagonal mitre at the corner.
Now sew folded edge of binding to quilt top using a matching thread. Remove pins as you go along. Slipstitch mitred edges together at corners (2).



And this is the result: a happy cat. I took this photo a few minutes after I finished the quilt.

Tutorial was taken from this book.