Zippered pouch in progress

Owl zippered pouch
The results of today's time in my studio are a few more flags for my bunting and most of a zippered pouch. Also I did some boring repairs on pyjamas. This was my first go at a zippered pouch and my first go with the zipper foot on this sewing machine. It was much less of an ordeal than I'd been expecting. Why do all us amateur sewists have such an irrational fear of the zipper? I've only used them a couple times, but both instances have been pretty easy in the end.

I am following this advice for making a zip pouch with neat corners, so I still have some hand sewing to finish it off. This zipper end finishing bit is rather more fiddly than fun. I am tempted to make one the quickie way (just sewing all the way around in one go) and see how it turns out for comparison. If I do, I'll post side-by-side pics of the two pouches.

Today's other accomplishments include making and eating (with some help) a rhubarb-strawberry-apple cobbler. Yum!

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Studio Sunday

Today was my first "Studio Sunday", also known as "Daddy-Daughter Day". My two sweeties went out to the park and grocery store while I got to have some time on my own to create.


Beginnings of Bunting
I started a project that I've been thinking about since before the Wee Lass was born.... Some pretty bunting. I originally planned to put it in her room, but I think it may end up in the living room. One of the things we couldn't reasonably bring with us overseas was our art, and our plain white walls are looking especially bare since I took down the star garland after New Year's.

I still have several more flags to make before I assemble the bunting. It was a glorious couple hours playing with my fabric. The plan is to have Studio Sunday every other week, and I'm looking forward to that time especially reserved for creative pursuits. Laundry is to be strictly ignored!

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Sea Monster Puppet

Sea Monster
I ran across a washcloth puppet tutorial recently and having just seen some super cheap and fun polka-dot towels at the Zeeman, I had to make one. I ended up scaling up the pattern quite a bit or I don't think it would have fit over an adult hand. This may have been partly due to printing on A4 rather than Letter size paper, but I ended up roughly drawing the pattern again with the paper in "landscape" orientation.

If/when I make another one, I will probably switch the seam to run down the side rather than the middle of the head (the dorsal fin could easily be attached in a slit like the other fins). Overall this was a great (i.e. quick, easy, and pleasing) project. I got most of it done while the Wee Lass emptied a bag of clothespegs and happily tried to pry them apart.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Easter Science

Natural Dye Easter Eggs

On Easter morning, I threw together some jars of natural dyes for hard-boiled eggs. If I'd planned ahead, I would have done it the night before and stocked up on some white eggs, instead of brown. I used cranberry juice, purple cabbage, and turmeric. I got ideas from here and here.

Next time, I think I need to scrub off the eggs before dyeing though, since the dye seems very prone to rubbing off. I think the colours would have come out much better on white eggs. The dark ones are actually a forest green sort of colour, but would probably be a bright blue on white eggs.

This was so much fun that I may have to do more kitchen science experiments before next year.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Sea stripes in spring

After finishing the Spring Cloud blanket I had lots of little leftovers, so I started crocheting a simple striped cushion cover. I have to admit that I was seriously tempted to start another blanket right away, but I resisted (for the moment).


Sea stripes

We had about 2 weeks of "winter" here in Amsterdam, with snow and canals that actually froze over, but now it's definitely spring. I saw these lovely crocuses covering a hillside on Sunday.


Field of Crocuses

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Spring Cloud Ta-Da!

spring cloud blanket

I started the Spring Cloud Blanket just under a year ago, while expecting the Wee Lass. I recently finished it and I'm so pleased with the pretty and cozy result. The Wee Lass likes poking her fingers in the holes. It was a great pattern for a new Mum to work on as it was simple to pick up just for a moment or two.


Wee Lass and her cozy

For the edging, I did a row of double crochet clusters all the way around, plus a row of single crochet in grey. Then I did a row of double crochet in pale blue, followed by a single crochet row in aqua and one in turquoise, then I finished it with a purple picot trim.


cozy with picot trim

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

At the Edge

Working on the edge

I'm on the last bit of the Spring Cloud Blanket ... the purple picot trim around the very edge of the border. There's something so exciting about that final round.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.