Bag No.59 - Japanese Cats

When sewing a project, I like working on two pieces simultaneously. The same technique, the same project (bag, pouche, book cover…), but with little differences. The two pieces are like two siblings – both the same but still different.

Some weeks ago, I posted pictures of a „Japanese“ bag with bunnies. Now his sib was born – a bag with Japanese cats.

Like the first one is this bag also made of Yucata fabric collection by Debbie Maddy (the small squares) in combination with the original Japanese indigo fabrics (the lovely cats). The panels for both sides of the bag are machine-sewn and hand-quilted with original Japanese sashiko thread. I was going to quilt it immediately after the bag with bunnies, but I had to take a brake because of aching knuckles on both my hands, so I did not finish quilting until a few weeks later. The assembling of the bag was made quickly and my husband attached the handles at the weekend: an indigo beauty was born.

Here it is: 

Happy stitching!

Michaela

Slow Stitching at the Seaside

It´s here again! Holiday, sunbathing, swimming, and … slow stitching! Sadly, the holiday by the sea was only one week, but it was still great. Like every time we go on holiday I took a hand-sewn project with me, a fabric collage with a small bird. In contrast to the last time I didn´t work completely free. I took a picture of the collage and made a few black-and-white copies of it. During my everyday journeys by train, I sketched some designs which I used later on holiday as inspiration for quilting and stitching. 

I chose some of my dyed cotton threads and some thin silk threads by Oliver Twist´s. One week of hand stitching, it was really beautiful. 

The collage is almost finished, I´m only thinking about some beads or other embellishments. We will see.

Happy stitching! 

Michela 

Baroque Monstrance

As I mentioned before, I´m a member of two clubs. One of them is the local „Ladies Club“, which unites women of different ages, who love sewing, quilting, embroidering, knitting, and simply any kind of handwork.

The other one, the "Bohemia Patchwork klub", seated in Prague, is a patchwork and quilting club consisting of the classical patchwork section and the section of contemporary quilting (don´t ask me please which one I do belong to, I´m somewhere in between…).

At the beginning of 2023, the Bohemia Patchwork klub came up with a challenge for its members called „Baroque“. The quilt collection made within this challenge is going to be exhibited in June in a baroque area near Prague. After long thinking about the topic I finally decided to join the challenge with a quilt called „Baroque Monstrance“, despite the fact that I never sew big wall hangings.

It took longer than expected, but I finished it in due time.

For the background and border I used linen, for the monstrance I used golden curtain fabric and synthetic organza. A silk scarf was sacrificed for making the decorations.

I quite like the result but I'm also really happy to get back to smaller projects. I just don't have enough patience for these big quilts:)

Happy stitching!

Michaela   

Slow Stitched Needle Cases

A true reader of my blog knows that I like working with wool felt. I like touching the natural wool felt and I also like the TrueFelt and colours which offers TrueColours. The A4 sheets are just perfect for small hand stitched projects like my favourite needle cases for example.

Some time ago I was searching something and found two beautiful cats pictures printed on fabric. I bought those years ago from the author Zuzana Honsová.

I had to use them immediately. I spent a happy evening combining materials and threads.

My plan was machine sewing, I used a machine-sewn blanket stitch around the pictures. But then I decided for hand stitching and spent some following evenings stitching and embroidering the collages.

  

And here is how they look inside:

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Bag No.58 - Japanese Bunnies

Five years ago, I made a bag for my colleague and friend Šárka: 

She has carried the bag every day since then and the bag is really „well worn“ already. This march, it was her round birthday again and I decided to make a new bag for her.

I dived into my fabric stash and found some great Japanese bunnies. I also had layer cakes from the Yucata fabric collection by Debbie Maddy, which were perfectly matching with the original Japanese indigo fabrics. 

I must admit, I was a bit lazy to develop a complicated design. I simply chose very ordinary small squares. I had enough fabric squares and pictures, so I created panels for two bags, one with bunnies and the other with Japanese cats (not finished yet). The panels for both bags are machine-sewn and hand-quilted with original Japanese sashiko thread. The bunnies bag for the birthday girl is finished (and given) already.

Here it is!

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Cover for Project Binder

 

My mind is not able to concentrate on one project only. After years endeavours I had to admit it. O.K. not one project a time, there are more. A sewing basket here, a pile of cloth there, sandwiches waiting for hand sewing stacked on the work table. You know what I mean. One of my first attempts to make it manageable was a project binder. An ordinary office binder with sturdy plastic pockets, one for every small hand-sewing project and EPP project. It proved to be a good choice, it is practical, well arranged and easily portable. Nevertheless, it is not really nice. Therefore, I decided to make a fabric cover.

I used my dyed cloth, some vintage fabric scraps, and two amazing pictures from the Old Made fabric collection by J.Wecker Frisch. Also, thread, buttons, and ribbons were dyed by me. I spent several pleasant evenings stitching, quilting, and embroidering.

 

It works very well, but it seems to be too small for all my not-yet-finished projects:) 

I like it anyway!

Happy stitching

Michaela 

Bag No.57 - Raven

The Raven quilt was made in spring 2020 as a combination of machine and hand sewing on natural linen. The tree is made in reverse appliqué with machine quilted raw edges, the raven himself is a nice picture from a commercial cloth. I used fusible appliqué and the bird is machine and hand quilted. The quilt was originally a part of a series of small quilts with bird motifs to be exhibited on Prague Patchwork Meeting 2020. But covid pandemic changed everything and the raven and the other birds had to wait till April 2022, when they were finally shown in my small gallery on PPM Quilt Show Brno 2022. 

 

With my dear friend Hella in Brno, 2022

From all the bird creations I liked the raven the most. Therefore I decided to let him fly with me every day. He became a really nice big bag for my everyday use.

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela