Fishbone Stitch

Sorry for the lack of embroidery posts lately! I have been busy doing a fun but secret-for-now project which I obviously can't share and I just didn't have time (or energy) to work on the embroidery projects I had been working on before.

There was a tiny bit of progress though. Here's a little detail of the Wolpentinger embroidery. I thought the Fishbone Stitch would be perfect for Wolpentinger's feathers. I got the idea when I saw this embroidery by Annet. I did a little try out using only one thread but that looked too delicate on this chubby Bavarian rodent, so I settled for two threads in a nice 'golden' shade. I had to look up the Fishbone Stitch in my Embroidery Stitch Dictionaries and found it in three of the books. My Fishbone stitch  is clearly not perfect but it will do for the moment.

I'm also working on a second pattern by the way and for a change I won't show or tell before it's completely done. Something which I find extremely difficult to do!

Attack of the Giant Jelly Pudding & winners of Alphabet Glue!

How about these cute little houses?  This is only one of the many awesome projects from the Alphabet Glue magazine  and the girls really enjoyed making these houses. The one on the left is inspired by 'Bear in the Big Blue House' and the one on the right is based on the story cards that can also be found in the magazine. Hope Mr. Giant Jelly Pudding won't ruin the houses, he seems like a gentle character though!

So..without further ado I will now announce the winners of the Alphabet Glue giveaway as chosen by the oh so boring Random Generator. Congratulations to: Elsa, Saricchiella & Pameladawn! Each one of you will receive this wonderful e-zine per email later today!

Thank you Annie from Bird and Little Bird for letting me host this giveaway!

Update: Saricchiela please send me an email at followthewhitebunny [at] e-tropolis [dot] nl , I don't have your email address!

London adventures

Carrot Orange Juice at Leon's

I'm totally exhausted after my three day visit to London with my best friend Caroline, but I had so much fun!  We arrived really early Friday morning and after eating some breakfast in Covent Garden we spent most of the day shopping. In our case that meant mainly looking at things and not exactly buying a lot of stuff. On the second day we planned to go to one of Europe's largest bookstores (Waterstones on Picadilly Circus) and we were quite surprised to find Picadilly Circus and the surrounding streets very much deserted except for lots of police officers.

Being the curious little bunny that I am, I asked a police officer what was happening. Apparently there was a large protest March planned later that morning. As we were more in a book buying than a protesting mood we moved along to have a look around in the bookstore. Lots of choice but I finally settled on this little stack of books:

After a stop at Leon's (a sort of healthy eco-everything-friendly fastfood chain which I can recommend to anyone visiting London, a good tip from my fellow Feeling Stitchy blogger Jo) we visited the Tate Gallery. A visit I thought was a little disappointing. Tate Gallery was located quite far away from the nearest Tube Station and due to all kinds of construction and building activities the entrance was hard to find. I had hoped to see some iconic pieces in the museum too but that didn't really happen either.

Me at Holborn Tube Station hanging out with some Egyptian Peeps of approx. my age

Our visit to the Victoria and Albert museum the next day however was great. The part of the museum I wanted to visit the most, the textiles, was closed but there was much other awesome stuff to see. And we also had a wonderful lunch there. At the museum shop I picked up some pretty reproduction fabric and a cute tea towel.

Repro Sea weed fabric from the V & A

Cute Arts & Crafts Tea towel

I would have loved to visit the Natural History Museum too but sadly we didn't have the time. We were pleasantly surprised that entry to all these museums was free as well.

I will be back again later today, to announce the winners of the Alphabet Glue E-zine!

Post-it Quilt

I never think a lot about a quilt before I start one. Don't want to do calculations of how much yards or fat quarters I need. So I just start and reckon that if I need more fabrics I can always order more, right? Wrong!

I started on this Fat Quarterly Quilt Along Quilt last year intending to make it larger than the 36 by 36 inch it is now. Because I wanted to use a lot of different fabrics (from my stash) I thought the blocks at least needed to have the same center to add a little consistency to the 'design' (beside the colour pink). So I chose a cute yellow with white dot fabric of which I had a quarter yard. That clearly was not enough to cater for a larger quilt.  And I couldn't find any more of this particular fabric either! Also, on second thought (after I already had made several blocks) I thought that the little yellow squares looked a lot like little post-it notes. So I'm calling this the Post-it Quilt. It's also a bit wonky (seams of the blocks don't match in the rows) and I definitely have to re-sew the bottom row to the one above that too. I'm  not really 'Quilter of the Year' material am I? But all in all I think it still looks kind of cute (for a wonky quilt)

Now I also have a question for all of  you that are more experienced quilters.

In quilting 1/4 of an inch is the usual seam allowance when you make blocks etc. This is the foot on my machine. On the front it has these three red marks. Instead of aligning my fabric to the red mark on the right I use the inside of the foot. It works for me but I was wondering if that is the normal thing to do?

Now don't forget to enter my little giveaway of the fabulous e-zine Alphabet Glue. Not many entries yet so please take a look!

Alphabet Glue Giveaway (for book loving families)

These are two books from my youth, in Dutch of course.I loved reading (and still do!) and I think I literally read every book in the Primary School library. I particularly loved books by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton's Famous Five. I was also very impressed by the Heidi trilogy I read, probably because of the dramatic story it tells.  With very little other diversions, such as tv (hardly any shows for kids) or computer games (not invented yet, except maybe Pong) I guess reading was an obvious way to pass the time when I was younger.

So you will understand that I, as a parent and as a book lover, was thrilled to learn that Annie (of Bird and Little Bird fame) was working on an e-zine for 'kids and their grown-ups' about books and reading.  The first issue of Alphabet Glue was launched this week and it's absolutely wonderful! It's packed with fun activities for kids to deepen the wonderful experience of reading and story making. There's a list of Spring reads, a lovely set of story cards to inspire unique tales or even drawings, a library scavenger hunt, some fun craft activities too and much, much more. Perhaps the most special thing of all is that the love for books and reading shines through every page of Alphabet Glue!

a project from Alphabet Glue: tiny box accordion books

Now I have three copies of Alphabet Glue to give away!  So if you'd like the chance to win a copy please leave a comment on this post before noon (Central European Time) the 28th of March and tell me what your favourite children's book is and why!

Be sure to leave your email for me to find, either in your comment or in your profile. If you can't wait to get hold of a copy of Alphabet Glue (which is totally understandable) go here to buy one. Can't wait to find out about your favourite books!

Old tricks

I'm up to my old tricks again and created another furry creature with a kerchief. No more kerchiefs after this little Wolpentinger is done, I promise! Well not for a while anyway... I have no idea how this pattern will end up looking (if it will become a pattern at all). Somehow I'm not able to come up with a finished pattern drawing so I just started stitching and the pattern develops as I go. Or not, in which case this will be the last of this Wolpentinger you see.

Many, many thanks to all my embroidery friends who have purchased the Cherry Blossom Doe pattern to help me raise some money for the survivors of the earthquake in Japan. I'm really touched by your generosity. If you haven't purchased the pattern yet but would like to please do so quickly. It's available until tomorrow.

Oh and don't forget to check out this giveaway. You can win my Princess and the Pea pattern and lots of other fab goodies!

Buy a Cherry Blossom Doe Pattern for Japan!

Remember this pattern? I have been meaning to make a new version of the Cherry Blossom Doe Pattern for a year now but haven't come round to it yet. I am now re introducing the pattern in the shop for the next couple of days to try and raise some money to help survivors of the Earthquake in Japan. If you fancy a copy of this pattern and want to help please visit the shop and buy the Cherry Blossom Doe pattern this weekend! Amy from Magpie patterns has started a fund raising page here, and I will donate the proceeds there. Thanks in advance!

Happy Mail & a sewing session with a five year old

There was much awesomeness in my mailbox yesterday. The very lovely Katy sent me two sewing books! See and Sew is a sewing book for children which is perfect because I have just started to teach Luna a few basic sewing skills (more about that later) It's a lovely book with lots of cute vintage illustrations,  basic (embroidery) stitches and clear instructions how to make simple projects. Most kids will probably need some help from their parents with most of the projects I think. As an extra Katy added Cath Kidston's Sew book with 40 cute and easy projects. Thank you so much Katy!

These are a few strips I made together with Luna on my Husqvarna. We are making a little doll quilt for her toy horse. First she chose some fabrics from my scrap stash. Luna actually requested Heather Ross Unicorn fabric but I only have one little square left and she quite happily settled for a purple and green extravaganza instead. ;)

I then cut the scraps in 3 inch squares and let Luna  'design' the lay out on the floor. The lay out got mixed up again when she brought the squares to the machine but that's o.k. Sitting on my lap,  I let her guide the fabric through the machine, back stitch at beginning and end and raise and lower the foot. I also let her use the pedal while I was sewing to give her a feeling of pressure on the pedal and speed of the machine.

Does that sound like a good first lesson for a 5 (nearly 6) year old in using a sewing machine? Next time we are putting the strips together to finish the quilt top. Do you sew together with your kids? I thought it was fun but I must admit that it definitely helps that she really wants to learn how to sew!

Vintage find: Le livre que j'aime

This illustration is from a French Reading Book from the fifties that I bought recently. It's called Le livre que j'aime and it's just about the level of French I can handle reading so I might even learn a thing or two from the book. For some reason everything sounds better in French doesn't it? I was especially charmed by the fact that French Wolfs apparently say 'Hou!Hou!' and French Ducks say 'Coin,coin,coin'.

And how about this illustration! I bet this snowman is très froid. Wouldn't this image make the cutest embroidery pattern? Au revoir for now, I hope you enjoyed taking a peek in Le livre que j'aime.

Sunday Stash #38 A Fabric I had to buy

There haven't been many Sunday Stash posts lately! Mainly because I joined the Stash Pact 2011 group on Flickr which has made me much more conscious of my fabric buys. But sometimes you need fabric, to finish something you are working on for example. So I needed to buy some fabric and because I already was paying for the shipping I could not resist to add the Tammis Keefe Cat Fabric(by Michael Miller) to the lot. I also bought some solids and the pink dot fabric, which I thought would coordinate nicely with the Cat Fabric. I think the Red and the Pink fabric are a pretty good choice but I'm not sure about the Charcoal. The other fabrics were already in my stash and I think especially the Newspaper print would be awesome to use with the Tammis Keefe fabric.

In my hoop: Wednesday's Vintage Busy Birds

I have such a soft spot for vintage embroidery patterns. The one in my hoop right now is the 'Wednesday' of a Vogart Days of the Week Birdie Pattern which traditionally has a sew, embroider or mend theme. The fabric came from my stash and I think it's soft tones are perfect as a background for these busy birdies! I bought the pattern some time ago on Ebay, it was most probably in a lot of several patterns. Many fun vintage embroidery patterns (but not the Vogart ones) can also be found in the Hoop Love Vintage Transfers Group on Flickr, where collectors very generously share their vintage pattern finds.

P.s. It may not be vintage but do check out the Feeling Stitchy March Stitch Along Pattern. It looks like a fun pattern to stitch!

Not quite what I expected

With a tiny business like mine even the smallest feature or media attention is welcome and appreciated. This month you can find a couple of my embroideries (with 2 patterns) in British sewing magazine Sew Hip. I think the set of embroideries on printed fabrics turned out pretty cute. Normally I would be thrilled about something like that but it's a pity that neither my full name or even the 'Follow the White Bunny' name is mentioned though. So it's not very likely anyone will ever be able to connect me to this feature. Except the peeps reading this post of course. ;)  I've contacted them about it and hopefully things can be straightened out. Anyway, if you are in the UK you can check out the magazine. There is also a pattern in the same issue for a cute 'Dials' bag for little boys by Joey Ramone which is one of the best 'boy' projects I have seen lately!

Later this week I will be reporting about my sewing 'adventures' with my youngest daughter. We are making a doll quilt together for her toy horse  (from the Toy Story 3 movie) Bullseye.

Out and about: about peaks and strange German Creatures

Little Train Station on our way to the top of Germany's highest mountain.

The whole Bunny family went away for a couple of days to the snowy Alps. Husband and kids went out skiing most of the time with the little bunnies in ski classes. They even did some bits of black runs and made so much progress! I mainly played the role of supporter. I did manage to do some embroidery too. A cute vintage DOW pattern which I will show later this week.

How much is that German Antlered Winged Giant Squirrel Thing in the window? I have no idea but I do know he never leaves home without his little jug of Schnapps strapped to his body. ;)

And this is me, in a not very flattering ski jacket with bulky sweater underneath. The view on the top of Germany's highest Mountain, the Zugspitse,  is amazing though and the weather was beautiful as you can see.
It was nice to be away but it's good to be back too. The only mountains I have to face today are those of the dirty laundry but hopefully in between the washing-drying-folding activities I can squeeze in a little sewing time too!