Теперь моя красота - Patchwork for me

 Hello! Привет!

Look at this beauty! I did not make it, so I can say it is a beauty :) A firend of mine made it for exchange of Gordei. She spent hours and hours making this tea-warmer, practically all by hand. She started it at least twice. But the result worth it. I envy myself :)

Этя замечательная вещь моя. Не то, чтобы я ее сделала, но она сделана для меня и по моей просьбе. В обмен на Гордея. Ну то есть моя.  

Я ее ждала и подозревала, что будет-что-то очаровательное. Каша (это имя такое, польское :) иначе не может.   
И вот у меня есть теперь замечательная грелка на чайник. Очень нужная, так как с малышом у меня постоянно остывает чай. А теперь не остывает :)

Там все так тоненько и изыскано. Так по-японски. Кстати это именно Каша открыла Йоко Сайто (Yoko Saitо), что у меня в ссылках.

А вот ткани, как и моем коврике, с историей. Тут и старые платья и брюки и блузки. И даже кусочек дочкиного сарафана пригодился (кто найдет?).

И все практически вручную!
Вот какую красоту можно сделать из масюхоньких лоскутков. Кстати еще раз подтверждется, что эффект и ценность рукодельной работы, не столько в материалах, сколько в... работе, то есть в потраченных часах, ну и во вкусе. 

Красота! 

Спасибо, моя милая, за работу! Если же она не налезет на икеевский чайник, то я к ней приделую ручки и буду носить как сумку!

Куклики 

How to make economies with your husband - Как сэкономить на своем муже

Hey all!   Привет!

Резюме  Этот плед из старых шерстяных пижаков мужа я начала за месяц до рождения сына, а закончила три месяца - после. Полтора месяца сшивания + два месяца стежки (часто ночами, новоиспеченные мамы меня поймут)  и мой плед, наконец закончен ! На фото - моя гордость в разных ракурсах и идея из журнала, которая меня вдохновила. Из такой ткани могло бы получиться отличное пальто, но старых пиджаков  больше нет - придется подождать несколько лет :)  

    I have to show off :)
I think, this was a major project this year.
It got started in February with a pile of scraps. The scraps are in their turn coming from my husband's old jackets. You know those business people, wearing good quality woollen jackets to office and producing holes after a couple of years in the arm elbows ;)

In my mood of upcycling, no way I could throw away such a nice and good quality textile. So I washed the jackets on a hot program to felt the wool a bit and to give it an antic noble look.

I used some scraps for my Loukerias (you can try to recognise it :) sarafans and for my Russian dress embellishment but still many pieces were left.
 
Around that time I discovered the whole concept of scrap quilting and Russian patchwork. The essence of both is that authentic things come from real scraps and not from specially cut new fabrics. I made a colourful playmat and after seeing this nice picture in a deco magazine somewhere in a waiting room, the idea of a plaid for cottage was born.




Now, four months later I have finally finished my project.

The pieces are sewn together with a machine but the quilting with a thick cotton threads, a la Japanese, was all done by hand. This was of course the longest part requiring patience.

The work started well, but then, half-way through, I discovered that ... I do not have enough pieces. I could have made it shorter, but my husband's special wish was to have it as long as possible (he is on a tall side :).  So that is why on both sides of plaid there are lines made with especially small pieces :)

For the reverse side i used a fabric bought for a couple of euro, because it was damaged. Another 6 euro - for the cotton to quilt. My beast costs me small 10 euro + few months of work :)

These are more pictures of the face and reverse sides.

I also thought that it could make a nice coat (this is btw, the picture with most real colours). But I do not have old jackets anymore... should wait for few years...

And btw, next time we buy a new jacket for my husband, I should keep in mind if its colour fits my patchwork ideas :)

Your
Kukliki

Participating in:

Patchwork playmat - Лоскуты! Лоскутки! Лоскуточки!

Резюме В этом покрывале намешаны поколения, люди, деятельность. На английском квилтовом жаргоне такое покрывало называется "Памятное". Каждый кусочек - история и часть жизни. Я сделаю из этого коврик, и садись-ка ты, Мирок, на все эти истории своей голой попой! Они для этого, в общем-то, и случились.

    I have prepared a colour explosion for you!

This is my so-called Memory quilt, a quilt made of pieces that each has a story to tell, at least to the maker. It has scraps pieces of new and old clothes: shirts, skirts, mine (of all ages, as of childhood), husband's, grandmother's, mother-in-law's, aunt's ...  just to name few :)

Such cover a fantastic icebreaker for women of all generations and families to talk together:

- Oh! This is a shirt I bought in Paris fourty years ago just after meeing your father

- Ah! This is a piece of your dress when you were two year's old cute baby

- Sweet! You husband wore this shorts when he went for a school for the first time. He was so lovely!

- Mmmm, i think this is a working dress of you aunt, when she found her first job

- I remember this curtain in my child room!

- Ah! Oh! Wow! Hey! A! Yes! Eh?

Myron, this will be a playmat for you, my dear.
Because all THESE STORIES has happened just for you to BE HERE ... and to sit on them with your naked bottom. Enjoy!

Yours
Kukliki

Submitted to:

April First

Hello all,

today is a special day, it is a birthday of my beloved grandmother. I will never say enough how wise, knowledgeable, soft and tolerant she is. We are living few hours by plane and clearly do not see each other often enough. But I hope that our relation is just a proof that love does not have a distance, either you love in time ans space, or do not. I know, we do.

For her, I share today the work we did together... with participation of other family women. So truly collective, cross-border and cross-generation work.

It starter with grandma's complaint three or four years ago about too many tissue pieces in her room that she feels sorry to throw away. To keep her busy, I suggested that she makes a patchwork base the way she feels. So she did.

 I loved this authentic "grandmother's" approach to patchwork. Without thoughts of aesthetics, but because of that so natural and so ... her :)

I decided to make a kid's cover with this nice base. More, to keep this authentic original recycling approach, I asked my mother-in-low to find in her attic or in a cave an old woollen cover.
(Those two places in her house is just a paradise for flea-market lovers as I am. And I definitely should tell one day you about few findings I've got here )

To fit the cover nicely, I had to make small additions of my pieces, that my grandma has immediately spotted even through poor Skype resolution!

My mom helped me to assemble together cover and patchwork piece and it has ended like this:

 Finally, I quilted the cover lightly by hand.
 
Indeed it does not have this "finesse" of the modern well-thought quilts, but for me it smells family history and roots.

С днем рождения, бабушка!

Yours Kukliki

Patchwork pot-holders

Sun is still in Brussels!

After grey winter this sparkling air outside gives ideas and makes me doing something new.

The latest weeks I was into patchwork. But not that accurate and well-thought creation that is growing from aesthetics but the one inspired by my grand mother and that comes from economy and is a bit irrational from design point of view.
This fits perfectly the principles of traditional Russian dolls, btw :)

I will tell you later about a cover we did with grandma.
But inspired by her work, I do the spring cleaning in my tissue left-overs. I take tiniest shapeless pieces and try to attach them together. Often to throw the result away.

This week I tried to make pot-holders.  I made two pairs.

The one for a friend of mine to give her a bit of primary colours in life :)

     

And this one is for myself to fit the cottage style:

   

So, now it is cooking time ;)

Your Kukliki