BearSoul 's creativity urges

pincushion

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 02:44:00 +0000

une escarcelle pour une belle femme

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:00:00 +0000

As everytime I do something for someone I love....I freak out. I want it to be as pretty as can be , to show them how much I care. Usually in the process I really go crazy.This belt pouch was no exception.

First things first, I imagine how I want the pouch to look like, tolors, form and materials. Lately my favorite pouches are felted medieval-inspired ones and as this gift was ment for a re-enactor well, it fitted perfectly.

Nooow the tricky thing here is that I'm just learning to make my own crochet patterns and usually after felting I end up with weird forms ooor not exactly what I expected. Once again, this was the case jajaja. I was getting angry wheeeen a lovely bear told me he couldn't understand what was wrong with it "c'est jolie" he said. So after this, I realized I actually liked it even if it wasn't exactly as I'd imagined jeje, sooo from here on, everything was a breeze. Loved the result, hope Laetitia did too.

Voici some pics, let me know what you like or what could be improved.

just out of the washer

felt detail

adding the cord ( I looove making cord je ne sais pas pq)

Hand painted buttons, and twisted cord details

the closure, braided cord and hand painted button

hand cross-stitched linnen lining (tongue twister)

Voilà l'escarcelle que j'adore ^^

my fave till now

Voilà, Camille

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:21:00 +0000

After taking forever, je vous présent Camille my sweet bear. Why Camille? I have no idea whatsoever, it just felt right for her...her? jajaja Yeah I give name and gender to stuffed animals, thankfully, lots of other people do that, otherwise I might start thinking I've got issues..jajaja

Today I had class at the airport, so I seized this opportunity to visit Vic and gift her to him, chose a nice baby gift bag, took some quick shots and off I went to class.

Calabaza en tacha

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Pumpkins are one of my favorites things of autumn. They've got this huge range of forms, colours and flavours!!! They're just sooo pretty aaand yummy too. You can prepare all sort of dishes, a nice creamy spicy soup, a luxurious pumpkin-orange bread even bodybutter if you mix the flesh with a bit of coconut cream and almond oil, they are just amazing.

Here in México, we prepare "calabaza en tacha" by boiling it with Piloncillo ( sort of double molasses) cinnamon and some people add aniseed (I even add a bit of ginger) till a thick syrup is formed and pumpkin is tender.

Piloncillo

piloncillo + cinnamon+ aniseed+water +pumpkin

= calabaza en tacha

habemus ursus....almost

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:45:00 +0000

Remember the bear I'm working on, well, it seems that getting the ball's size right was trickier than I thought. Yesterday I ended up with a ball 1 inch bigger than it should....so now I have to down size it in order to give my lovely bear a decent body :-p

Mr Google found a very nice tutorial for sewing balls on the internet database for jugglers. I chose a 3 pannel ball and doubled the pattern's size before printing. Mine is made out of 6 diferent fabrics. Here´s my choice:

Wonder which one's my fave? I love this one soooo much? It's adorable!!!

This cutie is not sawn up just yet, look how weird the body looks with the big ball inside..jajaja

And in the mean time, Hanna was awaiting for her own ball session ^^

more on baby stuff

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:09:00 +0000

As I've mentioned in former posts, one of the things I enjoy making the most is baby stuff, the fabrics, crocheting, sewing you name it, baby stuff. So when Vic told me about his newborn...well I was thrilled. I decided to give stuffed animals a try.

As you may guess, I chose a Bear..jaja couldn't help myself :p When Ximena was born, I bought a pattern from e-patterncentral that I didn't crochet, hence this was my opportunity to do so ^^ It's a "bear blanket hide-out" this means it has an opening to well, hide a blankie in there, jajaja as Im nooot crocheting a blankie I decided to sew a fabric ball instead ^^

I'm almost through the hole body now, and will be joining this gorgeous little bear, I hope, this afternoon. Can you see it already?

new pics on the same embroidery

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:18:00 +0000

I took new pics of the embroidery pattern as I had to redo it. The first one is kindda small for the towel...jeje

Here, Im trying to show you how the color and stitch sequence,changes the texture and look of the embroidery

First layer: burnt orange

Second layer: Very light burnt orange

Third layer: light green

Forth layer: violet blue

latest embroidery

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:55:00 +0000

Im kindda wordles today...I'll leave ya with the pics of my latest embroidery.

wordless

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:11:00 +0000

German relic pouches,late 14th C.

I cant wait to get started: burnt orange, yellow and blue

I'll give details later :D

My workshop

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:22:00 +0000

Yesterday Dad decided to give me and my workshop an opportunity to show that I'm on my way, by giving me a "new" 30 year-old cupboard for my stuff :) This was a cupboard my parents had when they got married 33 yrs ago. Its not pretty at all, and I dont have time nor money to renew it buuuut it makes wonders to my piles and piles of boxes of fabric, yarn, paints ....all over the room. Other nice thing is that I'm allowed to use a small cabinet from an old Oma's bookcase, I've always loooved this cabinet :) Its now the place for my notebook materials and craftbooks

Im happy

Now everything's gonna be handy and ordered....or so I hope...I'll take some pics later..

it's exciting

new books and yarn :D

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:14:00 +0000

Last friday mom and I found this magnifiscent crochet book from leisure arts at our local yarn store.....°_° It was a must so we bought it.

It wasn't really expensive (round 260MXN), and is worth every single cent of it. InsideI found a treasure of new posibilities for my bags and stuff in general. There's a small chapter about the history of crochet, all the techniques, how to's of main stiches aaaand....

Look! There's even a stitch pattern gallery along with pictures, steno and explanations :D makes me sooo happy :D

The real objective of our visit was to get some yarn for a nice baggy mom's been wanting to crochet for some time now. We chose cotton ease from Lion Brand. As if the book wasn't enough, there were some italian yarns on sale, 50% sale!!! linen-cotton-silk blend yarn....Yummy!! It was a must... jejeje Ya know Im an addict and so is mom....as mother as daughter I guess.

Here, I took some pics of the yarns:

I managed to get 300g of this beautiful beige silky cotton

Got 150g of both orange and red

and my color choice for the baggy...I have just the right fabric for the lining

On other crafty news, my parents gave a really nice present: a brand new sewing book called "Coser en casa" (sewing at home)....it's a sewing bible that lingers from basics to home decor and such :D missa happy....

Everything comes clearly illustrated step by step. I've already learnt a couple of new tricks for my bag linings :)

sweet!!

Pincushion

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:05:00 +0000

long time no see....buuut I just finished my new pincushion. Felt, little bit o' embroidery. Didnt want to take too long on this proyect as I have tons ( by tons I mean a hell lot) of bags to finish up....So came up with this.

I think I might be a bit addicted to paisleys, jajaja. I may use the extra felt to make a nice pencil or cosmetics baggy, what ya think?

love this color combination.

coconut button.

a closer look XD

Crafts Fair....

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:46:00 +0000

Today my parents and I visited the Crafts and stationery Fair at the WTC in Mexico city.

OMG!!

Soooooooooooo many people..tooooo crowded....to much pushing, heat, hunger, tacky crafts, lack of oxygen...but also many pretty fabrics, yarns and such to pick from! ...

Here in Mexico is hard to get pretty cotton fabrics, so the quilting stands were my target. Dunno if it's cause quilting is "in" now or what, but there were like 6 or 8 different fabrics stands, and believe me, that´s a looot here..jejeje.
Some time ago, I discovered this mexican yarn company that has really really nice yarn at quite affordable prices, so Filati was my other target. Oh yeah 600MXN in yarn. That'll make some nice bags: one brownish-pinkish cotton-wool one, a blue cotton with fancy tape...nice pink-orange tape maybe with leather or fabric and a nice light scarf with a very fancy metallic blue w/ black tape.

Another treat for me was Olfa's stand. I've longed a cutting compas for ages now and at laaast I was able to buy it along with a pkg of blades, a bit cheaper than in regular stores. Ah! and I got a cutting board too Yipee!

I was going mental, had to restrain myself soo much, I already owe a big deal to my dad... but hey! It's an investment right? let's see how many things can come out from all these :D

Now I'm into planning so I can get the right number and color of zippers, brooches, snaps, etc, needed.

These are yummy colors! I'm missing more blues, though.

I bought some felt and beads some time ago but I still wanted to show them, hehehe. The aqua and the wine ones are specially nice. The beads were on discount, very good one indead: 10 beads for less than a dollar and they're somewhat big, more or less 2cm wide.

Mom's pillows

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:46:00 +0000

Till last week this was one more element in my UFO bag. I finished the embroidery some years ago (sic), and as I was going through my stash..well i just decided to finish 'em up. Why not?
So here are mom's new bed pillows.

St James cross belt pouch

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:37:00 +0000

I know this lovely minstrel who looves medieval stuff and above all Santiago de Compostela, (Santiafo-St James, same person) so last year (OMG time flies....) I decided to make a special belt pouch for him. Fave yarn shop, some nice woolen yarn, leather, red woollen cloth and off-white linen and off I went...jejeje

It's a simple bag a bit wider at the bottom and rounded on the corners...simple but pretty :) The effect I wanted on the bottom couldn't be achieve by crocheting in circles, well I couldnt't, sooo I had to do a front and back parts. After putting it all together, felting came along so the bag can endure the hard use a mistrel could give to it. When felting crochet, I always try to remeber that it'll shrink more horizontally than vertically...or ...how was it?

While the washing machine did her work, I marked and cut out the St James cross ( Cruz de Santiago) from beautiful red woollen cloth (dunno why but M'm head over heels for the texture in it)

I'd never done this before, so..well..my stitching didn't look as pretty as I thought it would, actually it's quite dreadful, soooo.....

I used those uneven horrible looking stitches to embroider a more even endging..better looking doesnt it?

The lining was something that took me a while. For some reason (dunno why????), I coudn't get it to be the right size...at the end it turned just fine buuut the first atempt ended up being a lavender sachet jejeje.

For the leather straps I got some help from the above mentioned mistrel. He lendt me waxwed cotton and the tools needed for making the holes (dunno how those are called), he even explained how to do it...hehehe of course he had no idea of what I was doing...or so I think ¬_¬

My fave is the little leather button, my mom's idea. She has a bag from morocco with that type of closure, so when I told here I hated how my store-bought button looked with the leather strap, she suggested I make this other instead....and It worked! ^_^

So, here's the finished pouch. It's has no synthetic materials in it.

my special proyect

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:04:00 +0000

I've been wanting a special wallet for myself for I dont know how long now. A wallet with enough room for all my credit cards, id, license etc. As a special treat for myself, I decidede to sew one.
Everything started with a: I want it felted. Bought some black wool and knitted a large enough rectangle to do the trick. The first idea was to make this pretty simple wallet with some ladybug buttons I love and some simple embroidery work, afterall I'm just a rookie. Keep it simple I thought.

As my mind worked on the idea..paisleys began to appear and ladybugs were sent into the button tin until further notice. grabbed some embroidery cotton...then some seed beads...metallic thread...till...well, I'm up to here:

the circular bag

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Not posting bout it, doesnt mean I'm not into crafting....I can't go without crafting....I've got to do it, even if its only inside my mind...jaja

Last winter I knitted a lot of scarves, so my knitting is more even now. Practice makes the master. My next proyect is an easy lace scarf from lion brand patterns, or sothey say "easy" lets see how "easy" it turns out to be...jejeje

I crocheted a circular woolen bag...and felted it! Felting was a troubling issue cause I really liked the texture of the wool and how one dc looked next to the other...

still I planned to "half" felt it. My lack of experience...ended up with a small, pretty fully felted bag...jajaja While inside the machine it slipped out of the pillowcase and the pompons ended up messed all over the bag and the towel i tossed in for felting jajajaja I'm learning...jaja
Nonetheless I love my bag :D

So pretty it looked...oooh

Double crochet detail

before felting with its lovely pompons

After felting with its lovely beads ;-p

Bead detail

The wolf revisited

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:52:00 +0000

I had already forgotten bout this entrance, till...someone out there asked for the rest of the pics and story of this wolf stitchery... its been some time now hum?..well...I took pics of the everyday advances, though they turned out pretty bad..hehe.

Anyway, the thing is, back then I was looking for a project that could be challenging enough to fulfill my stitching urgency as well as easy to finish in a few days. So, while into that I found this long kept kit between my aida fabric...a wolf totem. Around those days, I met this guy who calls the wolf his totem...By then he had already become a very special person in my life, his sole appearance in it is special so, it was well worth the stitching as a present...

First day...

beginning of second

I think I'm getting better and better

detail of finishes stitchery

just an hour before finishing it

Totem: the wolf

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:39:00 +0000

The other day I was looking for something to satisfy my urge for stitching....took me 5 days to finish it all!!! Gosh..jejeje anyway Ill soon post the advances day by day. And the whole story, today I just wanted to show off with this deep eyed wolf n_n

moms fave sweater....new pics here!!

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:18:00 +0000

My mom is one of the pickiest persons I know when it comes to clothing. The other day she burnt one of her favorite sweaters, the first time in I dont know how many years of smoking...and it had to happen on this one in particular. So Mom came to me and asked if i could please embroider something on it.

Can you see there the loose stitches?

(sorry for the lack of sharpness, cellphone pic)

Gosh Mom! look at the size of that hole?! jajaja Well...as good a daughter as I can be (lol) I took up the task seriously.

Grabbed a hook and started stabilizing the fabric

Then using a couple of strads of embroidery cotton I weaved a mesh to cover the hole. As some stitches remained complete I just picked them up with the needle and passed the thread through them so theu wouldnt unravel. Turned out pretty good for my firts time.

After that, I used some termofusible knitted linning to make it even more stable and started to embroider a nice flower so the hole looked more like an embelishement and not as much as a repair jeje. Voilá...not thaat bad isnt it? jejeje Taking in consideration I'm just starting to learn embroidery....

what is it with me and baby projects?

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:13:00 +0000

baby coloured fabric, threads, patterns.....and a year I finished the patchwork blanket for Ximena.... Felt like forever jajaja.

First I cross-stitched 5 blocks with really cute animals, then I did the rest. Bunch o little squares, sew them together and try to match them as good as I was able to. Though I'm aware its my very first attempt on this kind of projects and mistakes happen, the colour matches are a bit dreadfull... maybe im being too hard on me, I like the whole thing buuut the fabric matches are really weird. Dunno what to say but I enjoyed a lot doing this blankie, hope Ximena likes it too.

Ill let the images speak for me, ya guys tell me what you think bout it.

bunny's detail

duckling detail

bear's detail

perfect 1/4 " seams buuut all weirdly ironed jajaja

Middleseason crisis....

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Last weekend I took some time to visit my favorite supply stores downtown... My guess is that half the city did the same ...jajaja Went all the way to my fave stores to pick up some nice fabrics, threads and maybe a pattern or two... just to find myself inmerse in a some sort of middle season crisis!! It was like christmas in october jajaja Never before have i seen so many ladies alltogether in the same craftstore before nov. Living in Mexico city makes me quite used to crowded spaces, buuuut this was just too much for me. Imagine entering a suply store, take the #74 turn when currently they're round #50. Mom's in urgent need of new blouses that fit her menopausic body (or so she said..jejeje) I get to be in charge, so I had to endure the crowd...(sight)

Besides all, I found a very tasty Moda dea yarn sale at Guaida's. It's one of my favorite yarn and notions store, small and nice ... nightmare, last weekend. Nevertheless, a 50% off, made waiting in line for more than 20 mins worth it. The sad part was that everything had been picked over, making it hard to find similar balls. I just grabbed a couple of balls for a scarf and ran away..well I paid for them before...jeje Moda dea's Caché and Kickx in reds. Caché is a bulky wool-acrylic-poliester yarn with subtle metalic flashes, and Kickx is a nylon-acrylic furry yarn; both together feel soooo soft and warm. Im knitting them with moss stitch into a nice sassy scarf for the not so sassy girl, me. jajaja. Ill tell you later about the fabric and its future jajaja

Yet another baby cross-stich

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:49:00 +0000

I've gone through a lot of projects since june buuuuuut I had no camera and no time to blog them.... maybe Ill be able to catch up.

Another cross-stitch on knits. I cant help it, just looove to stitch baby stuff..jejeje Baby boy born last weekend, Mona's little one. I havent officially met him, oohi just hope it does fit!

welcome Ximena!!

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:45:00 +0000

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

Eda J. Le Shan quotes

Been so busy I didnt have time to photograph this proyect before handling it to it's rightfull owner jeje.
Loved stitching this little tortoise but far beyond that, I loved how it fits on little Ximena.

This is the very first time I stitch on knits....not so cool..jajaja really they are soo unstable and delicate. Took me a while to get into the rightway of introducing the needle without distorting the fabric; I wanted neither the design nor the bodysuit to be missshaped. As it should be done, I used some stabilizing fabric for the stitching process and ended up with this little lilac tortoise.

Sadly the shoes I crocheted were too small for her. Maybe if I use double yarn strands or a heavier yarn.

Picture taken by the proud father of this little girl

First steps

noreply@blogger.com (EärwenElórë) — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:49:00 +0000

The other day I found a small doily I cross-stiched for Oma some 13 yrs ago... Cant remeber why I didnt give it to her. When I saw it, I couldnt but smile...gosh what a mess jajaja you can tell I was just learning. Gave me a weird feeling of accomplishment...

In the begining I didnt know how exactly the stitch was supposed to look like. Time passed and eventually I learned, with some advice here and there, but mainly by following an embroidery booklet my Oma gave me.

Just look at the size of those knots! Knots! hehe Some stitches to one side, some to the other...I only had my intuition and my little sewing knowledge so a knot seemed perfectly normal.. ;P