Overcoming the Fear of Squareness

Suffering from Quadratumphobia might not be that bad, you say? Well, it does cause a bit of discomfort if you live in a perfectly square house and also when trying to make square objects of any kind. The house thing is no longer an issue since we moved into this old house of ours, where everything is very off-level. Like very. Lego isn't an option at all, but I can live with that. But sometimes a woman can have the need for creating square things, like a purse, for instance. I've worked with this phobia of mine, and made a few square things:

All fabric: natural dyed, of course and using re-used fabrics. The purse on the top is made from the trousers my husband wore when we were married. Romantic, eh? Batting: old linens. Zippers: from second hand stores. I have a thing with old zippers. Embroidery yarn: second hand too.
Dragonfly: (deceased) found by little S under a pallet in a pet shop. He has a thing with bugs & insects. (He does not suffer from Acarophobia). 
I found an on-line phobia list - it's kind of funny. How about Barophobia- Fear of gravity? Or Disposophobia- Fear of throwing stuff out ... – DANG! I just realised I've got another phobia!! Well, never mind about that - that's one of the good phobias!
If the Quadratumphobia doesn't prevent me from making more square things like these – do you think I could sell them?

Peacefully Stitching

This embroidery box was a gift for a friend. It's an old cigar box covered in natural dyed cotton fabric with a bit of embroidery. The embroidery yarn is thrifted, and so is the scissors.

I so like reusing and repurposing. While making this I recollected memories of Inga, who smoked the cigars from the box. She was a friend of my mother and a very dramatic and choleric woman with a cigar hanging from her lip. I remembered, how I as a child collected tiny dutch tiles with blue printing on them, which was scattered amongst the pebbles, in their impressively large courtyard.

Everything in this little box has its own story to tell, and I hope it will whisper to the receiver and make her want to stitch a story of her own.

illuminating

The absence of light seems to make me a bit preoccupied with it. I thought I'd better do something about it - something better than complaining. So I bought a couple of second hand lamps and made some new shades for them. The lamps are from Søholm and made in the 60ies, I think. I found them in a local secondhand shop for practically nothing. I love the blue glaze on both . The shades was yellowed plastic, so I got rid of them, but kept the wire frame for redecorating.

For this lamp I sacrificed a childrens book about animals. It has the lovely muted, soft colours of old fashioned printing which I like very much. We have tons of old childrens books, so I felt ok butchering it. (I did save a few goodies though, like the owl above the lamp. And the rest won't go to waste, the children are cutting it all up and are going to use it for various projects). When the light's on, you can see the backside of the paper, but I really don't mind about that (my little one doesn't agree, he says I ought to make another one). It's a bit tricky to make a perfect fit with the circles - so I didn't (it would probably involve some math skills I'm not blessed with). I've decided noone will notice any minor inaccuracies ...

 

 

Making this was easy peasy, just folding a length of vintage wallpaper, making holes near the top and string it. I folded without measuring, next time I'll bother to locate a ruler. Or then again, perhaps I won't. If you prefer straight lines and everything in order you should use a ruler if you want to make a lampshade. I really liked making these, even though untill recently I'd thought this kind of lamp was totally out. But now it's definitely in! Must try to find more lamps, I would like to try to make one with fabric too. Does anyone have some ideas for lampshades they'd like to share, please do!

Recycling: from matchbox to gift box

I made these gift boxes some weeks ago, but would like to share with you now, since they'd be great for small gifts. The idea isn't mine, I saw it in a magazine, but have forgotten which one. It was so much fun making a forest floor on the small boxes.

Perhaps it's obvious, but here is a few guidelines:

You'll need some matchboxes (and what about old cigar boxes) and some fabric scraps. I had some old cotton velour curtains (remember Rogers, Therese?)
Cut fabric and glue onto the box, except from the bottom.
Find some twigs, acorns, moss, cones, leaf skeletons, bark with lichens etc, and glue on top of the box using a glue gun. I used the moss as filling and as a make over to hide the glue, a match is a good tool to poke the moss in place.

Another piece of fabric is glued into the sides of the "drawer", I used a tuft of wool underneath to make it soft looking.

Cut a piece of cardboard, using scalloped scissors or any decorative edge scissors and glue onto the bottom. Find some vintage buttons, jewelry or pretty crystals, and you're ready to go gifting.

Remember to save those matchboxes, I'll post more ideas for recycling!

5 ting jeg kan li' lige nu

· At sy kroner. Og at de åbenbart vil have fugle på! Her Nat med Ugle.


· At lave små årstidsdukker, jeg er ikke helt klar over hvad hende her er: æble- eller kirsebærblomst?

· At spise de sidste krummer af påskehare småkagerne …

· Alle de farver mine børn plukker i haven.

· Dette lille kortspil som A fandt i gratiskassen i genbrugsbutikken, da jeg købte en stor krukke til korn

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 things I like right now:

· Sewing crowns, and the fact that they want to have birds on them. Here Night with Owl.
· Making flower fairies for the seasonal table, I don't know if this one is an apple- or cherry blossom?
· Eating the last crumbles of the easter hare cookies.
· All the colors the children is picking in the garden.
· Theese playing cards A found in the Free Box at the secondhand store, while I bought a large pot for grain.

Nyt liv

Jeg holder så meget af gamle ting, ting som er brugt, repareret, elsket, genbrugt, arvet og genanvendt. Måske har de været en tur omkring et pulterkammer, et loft eller en lade - og så frem af glemslen og støvet af og brugt endnu en gang. Sådan er det med de fleste af de ting jeg har. De er ofte slidte, skæve, skrammede og mangler måske en kantliste eller et hjørne er knækket af. Men det er præcis sådan jeg kan lide det!

Når jeg putter ungerne i slagbænken, tænker jeg på dét eller de andre køkkener hvor den har stået, og hvem der mon har sovet i den i årenes løb. Det giver sådan en god følelse af kontinuitet og tryghed med gamle møbler (og jeg tænker ikke på fine antikke skrøbeligheder) - og jeg tror også dé glæder sig over at få et nyt lag linoliemaling og komme til ære og værdighed igen.

Jeg fandt nogle af ungernes uldne babyundertrøjer som jeg havde gemt, selvom de havde både pletter og et par huller og ikke ligefrem indbød til genbrug. Men en tur i gryden med nogle plantefarver samt lidt broderi hist og pist - og ta daa: nyt liv!

En lille silkehue røg med i gryden og kan fint bruges til endnu et lille dunet hovede.

Denne fantastiske svenske bog handler om netop dét jeg forsøger at beskrive. Den er en guldgrube af fine billeder af gemte ting, især baby-, børne- og dukketøj. Og kan man lide at strikke, er der masser af opskrifter så de gamle modeller kan få et helt nyt liv.
Den er desværre udgået fra forlaget, men kan lånes på biblioteket her.

Tjek lige disse reparationer på albuerne!