Orange slugs and lots of reading

A non-crafty post this time! One of the great things about traveling surely is experiencing new things and doing things a little differently than you would do when you stay at home. We just returned from France and near the cottage where we stayed there was a forest with these HUGE orange slugs. It was quite impossible to walk casually through the forest because the path was littered with slugs. We  named this particular path through the forest the 'Snail Trail' although technically these weren't snails of course ;)

Without the distraction of my laptop and the internet I also did a lot more reading than I usually do. I finished reading Lustrum by Robert Harris which was an interesting read about the life and politics of the Roman statesman Cicero seen through the eyes of his slave and secretary Tiro.  Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs was a last minute buy recommended by my friend and I really enjoyed it a lot. It's a magical story about a boy who is trying to find out what happened to his grandfather (who passed away) and he only has some strange old photos of peculiar children as a lead.  Chris Priestley's The Dead of Winter should really be read in snowy and cold conditions not in sunny France. It's a very enjoyable Poe-esque (as in Edgar Allen) ghost story. Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough was a real page turner. Two sisters are sent to stay with their aunt in a village were some tragic and mysterious things happened in the past. The story, set in rural England some years after the second World War, is very well written and proper scary! And then I ran out of books...luckily my husband was able to upload another book to my e-reader: London by Edward Rutherfurd (which I'm still reading it's over a 1000 pages) Lives of fictional characters are woven into the eventful history of the city of London. From a Celtic fisherman to (where I am now in the book) nasty medieval merchants.

Next time I promise to share some the crafty things I did in the past few weeks!

Hexa go-go

I pre-ordered Hexa go-go pretty soon after I came back from the Fat Quarterly retreat in London last month. I knew it was a book I would enjoy not just because of the subject but also because it is written by Tacha who tried to teach me English Paper Piecing at the Retreat.

Detail of the Cat tails Quilt

The first part of the book covers the basics of English Paper Piecing, what materials to use, how to baste, sewing techniques etc. You can use various shapes with EPP but, as the title already suggests, it's all about hexies in this book. I happen to love hexies so I'm not complaining. Photos like the one above make my heart sing. :)

There are 16 quilted projects in the book, 9 of them larger sized quilts. This (huge!) Union Jack Quilt is one of my favourite projects from the book.

And this is what pieced together in the past few weeks. Still not sure what I will do with these but I'm sure to find some inspiration in Tacha's book. :)

Easy

School's out for summer so the Bunny Household is shifting to a lower gear again and taking it easy for a while. Just like Tijger does....all of the time! ;)  There will be a little less frequent blogging and the Etsy shop will be closed for a wee bit as well. You can still get your patterns here though where you can download my patterns yourself (easier for you) so I don't have to send them to you (easier for me)!

Get some Oriental Inspiration!

Just a quick post to let you all know that the new issue of &Stitches is available now. The theme of this issue is 'Oriental Inspirations' and it was such a fun theme to explore!

Maneki Neko is my pattern contribution to this issue (remember the sneak peek I showed you last week?) and I think it turned out rather cute! And how about that oh so appropriate Cherry Blossom background? It's actually the new wallpaper I have in my craft room. :)

Check out all the details about the zine in the post I wrote on the &Stitches blog and don't forget to use the discount code at the end of that post if you are going to purchase your copy!

From my sketchbook

For some reason I always end up sketching bears and hedgehogs and other critters but not today...(although there *is* a little reluctant bear lurking there on the left side of the sketch) I'd like to think that this is a little brave girl going on an enormously exciting (and perhaps slightly scary) adventure that involves meeting talkative squirrels and lonely sailor bears. And a happy end of course! I must admit that the thing she's holding there was supposed to be a torch but it looks more like a flower bud and I possibly even like that more than the initial torch-idea! Imagine petals falling off as they go, to leave a trail so they can find their way home...

Winter Forest Quilt nearly done!

I'm nearly done with what I call my Winter Forest Quilt. I started this quilt sometime last autumn, tried FMQ it in the beginning of this year (or maybe the end of 2011 I don't remember) but was a bit disappointed with my FMQ skills (non existent) and left it with only 5% of the quilting done... until last week! I would show more of the quilt but the weather is not cooperating to make a nice photo. This is what the quilt top looked like before it was quilted):

I had read so many positive reviews of the Aurifil quilt threads in the past year that I had to try it as well. I kind of hoped it had magical powers so I would instantly be a fantastic Free Motion Quilter! Of course that is not quite what happened but I do like the Aurifil thread. Also I had a whole quilt to practice on and some parts (see top picture) were not as bad as others. I made a crazy loopy design and despite some puckering (and even  a bit of un picking at some point) some odd angular loops, stitches that differ significantly in length etc etc I'm not unhappy with the result.  Now I need to decide on the binding. I think either a dark shade of blue or a mid-orange maybe? Any thoughts/advice on the issue is more than welcome!

Satin dots

Carina and I are working hard to put the finishing touches to the new issue of &Stitches. As you probably know each Issue has it's own theme and I love how the theme of Issue 3 made me explore new techniques and subjects which definitely will leave a mark on some of my future patterns! Pictured above is a tiny sneak peek of the embroidery pattern I have contributed for the upcoming issue. Any ideas what it could be?