Souvenirs of the Past

When I go to flea markets I like to look at old black and white photos. And for some reason, I'm usually drawn to the ones with vacation or backyard scenes. Here are some favorites...

Sun, sand, and striped parasols

La Baule, France 1931

Maman ! 1932

:-:-:-:-:-:

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments.
Merci mille fois pour vos commentaires sympas.

A Second Little Linen House

When I sewed the little house that's shown in the last post, my son liked it (it's just his size), so I made this one especially for him. I used vintage materials again, sewed the number two on it because he's turning two soon, and added the R because it's his initial.*

Just an idea -- these houses look cute when hanging from the knob on a child's bedroom door.

* If you make one of these houses for a small child, you might want to replace the button with something like felt if the child will be unsupervised when playing with it.

A Little House Made of Linen

This is a little house that I made thanks to a great tutorial by au Fil rouge. It was so fun to sew (it even has a chimney) and these houses overflow with character!

:-: The fabric is vintage. For the main part of the house and the window, I used a vintage linen tea towel.
:-: The ribbons/tape/trim are vintage, except for the red rickrack - it's new.
:-: The wooden button is from Panduro.

A bientôt !

Finding Inspiration

A number of talented and creative women in my family -- my grandmother, mother, aunt, cousin -- sewed and embroidered as I was growing up. So I had plenty of inspiration and should have been eager to follow in their footsteps. But it always seemed more like work to me than fun and they probably started to lose hope that I would ever pick up a needle and thread.

Then I moved to France and discovered vintage French fabrics and notions (like the ones in this photo). And, more recently, so many amazing blogs. Now, not a day goes by that I'm not inspired to try a new project. Sewing and embroidery have finally become fun and that's why I started this blog - to share an interest with others who find it fun, too.

The "Three B's" Bag

Or, hmm...I guess that should be three B's (a bear, a block, a boy) -and- an R (very important, as that's my son's initial :). He'll be two years old soon and I made this little linen bag for his birthday.

Besides the fact that I thought it was cute and my son might like it, I decided to make it because it was different from anything I've done before, a little bag can be convenient, and framing cross-stitch projects can get expensive. It's from the charming book that I posted about here, though I made a few changes:

:-: stitched the initial in red rather than blue
:-: made two handles rather than one
:-: lined it with red and white gingham rather than solid blue fabric

There's one other thing that I did differently -- since the gingham showed through the linen, I sewed a plain white fabric (part of a vintage sheet that I had in my stash) onto the back of the linen. So there are actually three layers of fabric: the linen, the plain white fabric, and the gingham. That way, the red and white fabric can't be seen from the outside and it adds a little thickness to the bag, which is nice.

Have a great week! :-: Très bonne semaine !

The Give-Away Winner!

Thank you so much to everybody who participated and for your kind, thoughtful, and encouraging comments! It was fun and I plan on doing more give-aways in the future.

For this give-away, the winner is...

:-: annax :-:

Congratulations, annax! Please send your mailing address to me in an e-mail.

:-:-:-:-:-:

Merci beaucoup à tous les participants et pour vos commentaires sympas, attentionés et motivants ! C'était un plaisir de faire ce cadeau et je compte en faire d'autres prochainement.

Et c'est annax qui a gagné ce tirage au sort. Félicitations !

:-:-:-:-:-:

Here is what I used to draw the random number:

Another Lavender Sachet

These little lavender sachets are really fun to sew. Here's another one -- every room in our little apartment is beginning to smell like lavender now. And thoughts of Provence are filling my head. :)

This one is made with vintage fabric, along with old linen trim instead of a ribbon. The rose looks off-center, but that's because there's a stem that's hard to see in the photos.

If you'd like to participate in the give-away (see my previous post below), there's still one more day left. Thank you to everyone who has already left a comment for it!

:-: A January Give-Away! :-:

This give-away is for the lavender sachet and vintage labels and ribbon below. You can enter for a chance to win them (scroll down for details).

Ce cadeau est composé d'un petit coussin de lavande, d'étiquettes et de rubans anciens. Vous pouvez participer au tirage au sort (voir ci-dessous comment).

The lavender sachet is based on a pattern from the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts. It's made from vintage French fabric and ribbon and is filled with organic lavender. The little ribbon tag has the letters VO, for version originale.

Ce petit coussin de lavande a été conçu à partir d'un modèle provenant du livre Denyse Schmidt Quilts. Il est composé d'anciens tissus et rubans et est rempli de lavande bio. La petite étiquette a l'inscription VO comme version originale.

It could also be used as a pin cushion, giving a nice scent of lavender each time a pin is inserted or removed. It measures 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches. The back is made from pink and white floral fabric.

Il peut aussi être utilisé comme pique-épingles, donnant un parfum agréable à chaque ajout ou retrait d'une épingle. Il mesure 11,5 cm par 11,5 cm. Le dos est fait à partir d'un tissu fleuri blanc et rose.

Included in the give-away are 10 vintage labels and old monogrammed ribbon from France. Some examples of how the ribbon can be used are here and here.

42, as in 1942.
42, as in 42 years old.
42, as in 42, avenue des Champs-Elysées.
(just a few ideas)

BB, as in bébé, the French word for baby.
(in French, bébé and BB sound alike)
BB, as in Brigitte Bardot.
Or, just two pretty B's side by side.

Inclus dans le cadeau, il y a 10 étiquettes anciennes et un ruban ancien monogrammé. Des exemples se trouvent ci-dessus de comment utiliser le ruban ancien.

How do I enter?
Just leave a comment -- anyone can enter, no matter where you live in the world, whether you've left a comment here before or not, and whether you have a blog or not.

If you would like to leave a comment but don't have a Google account, just 1) choose the "Name/URL" option in the "Comment as" dropdown menu, 2) enter a name, and 3) leave the "URL" field blank (unless you have a blog, in which case you can enter your blog's address).

When does the give-away end?
It begins today and ends on Thursday January 15 at 9 pm Central European Time (CET). The winner will be selected randomly and will be announced in a blog post shortly after that.

Comment y participer ?
Il suffit de déposer un commentaire -- tout le monde peut participer sans restriction, où que vous habitiez dans le monde, que vous ayez laissé un commentaire ou pas sur ce blog avant, que vous ayez un blog ou non.

Si vous souhaitez déposer un commentaire mais que vous n'avez pas de compte Google, il suffit 1) de choisir l'option "Name/URL" dans le menu déroulant "Comment as", 2) de mettre votre pseudo et 3) de laisser le champs "URL" vide (sauf si vous avez un blog).

Quand sera effectué le tirage au sort ?
Vous pouvez laisser un commetaire dès maintenant et ce jusqu'au tirage au sort qui aura lieu jeudi 15 janvier à 21h Central European Time (CET). Le pseudo du gagnant sera annoncé sur ce blog peu de temps après le tirage au sort.

This give-away has ended and comments are closed

Paris on a Sunny Winter Morning

the sun above and snow below

a bright blue sky

a courageous cycliste

a still, calm, quiet, peaceful Paris

These are photos taken this morning of the Champ-de-Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

A Give-Away Soon + Quilt Inspiration

Thank you et merci for visiting my blog!
What would this blog be without you? I really appreciate all of your visits and comments (those in French as well as those in English).

As a way to say thanks, I'm planning a give-away for next Monday (January 12th) -- I hope you'll be able to stop by!

I'm not usually very good at making (or keeping) new year's resolutions. This year, though, I'd really like to make a patchwork quilt. I've wanted to make one for a looong time. I even started one for my son's crib, but when he was delivered several months earlier than expected, I never managed to complete it. Thankfully, my (very thoughtful) mom came to France for a visit, took the unfinished quilt with her to the US, finished it, and then sent it back to me.

Among the many beautiful blogs that have inspired me to finally make a quilt are Thimbleanna, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Simplify. Even if you never intend to do any quilting, these blogs are so fun to visit.

As a start toward making a quilt this year, I went through my stash last night and chose these fabrics. They are all vintage/thrifted and a quilt seems like a nice way to give them new life and yet preserve them, too. The other thing I should work on in 2009 is taking better photos, but that's another story!

A Bag to Hold Notions

I hope the new year has started well for you. For people in and around Paris, 2009 has gotten off to a c-o-l-d (brrr) start and below freezing temperatures have seemed to settle in for awhile. As a matter of fact, we woke up to fluffy white snow on the ground this morning (a pretty rare occurrence around here).

Here's a small bag that I made to hold notions. The fabrics and monogrammed ribbon* are vintage and the inside is lined.

* PD = petits détails :)

:-: Bon week-end ! :-:
:-: Have a nice weekend! :-: