My Creative Space - A Celebration (and giveaway)

Today I celebrate my first blogiversary and decided to have a little party in my messy studio, so you are all invited to come for a visit and have some cake. Put a party hat on and please don't look too much at all the stuff lying around the place.

I am surrounded with Keri Beyer fabrics these days, what with the quilt I am making with the Proud collection, and some Urban Farm just turned into some pillowcases. So I thought it would make sense to share my love of Keri Beyer fabrics with you on this special occasion.

So, here it is, I've put together a little bundle of three fat quarters of Proud in teal and orange.

If you would like a chance to go home with these lovelies, it will be quite simple, because who wants to make things complicated and risk ruining the party?

Here are the rules:

1. Giveaway will be opened until midnight, EDT, on March 31st, 2010.

2. Everyone can enter, international visitors welcome.

3. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, but to make it interesting for me to read, I ask that you tell me what is your favorite sign that spring is finally here (or fall, depending on which hemisphere you call home).

4. You need to leave a way to contact you, either an email address or a link to your blog. If I don't have any way to reach you, I will have to draw another name, and that would be too bad, wouldn't it?

5. Winner will be randomly selected and I will post the result sometime on April 1st, 2010 (no April's Fool, I promise!).

Thanks for coming to the party, and best of luck to everyone!

Don't forget to visit all the other great spaces here!

Sylvie

Pillowcase Frenzy

I don't know when or how, but I've become a little obsessed with pillowcases lately. I am still patiently working on Cassie's On The Edge Crochet Along, and we're getting closer and closer to the most dreaded - yet fascinating - part: the crochet border. I have sewn the pillowcase "with flap" without any trouble and I am very pleased with the result, but I won't show it here until is is complete (or ruined, haha) with the crochet border.

However, I've been working on another pillowcase project of my own, pictured above. I used a very quick and easy technique, the tube method, shown on AllPeopleQuilt, which I discovered thanks to my big sister.

All you need is too yards of coordinating fabrics to make two matching pillowcases in no time. My boyfriend likes cows (please don't ask why) and I, well, love Keri Beyer fabrics, as The Quilt shows without any doubt, so I had to get some Urban Farm as the main fabric for his pillowcase, and I matched it with lovely dots in light blue for mine.

I am sure I'll be making some more of these in the near future.

Sylvie

Crochet Study

I learned the basis of crochet from my mom, when I was a kid, but I had not given it much of a thought for over twenty years.

Recently, I couldn't help falling in love with these pillowcases made by Beata, and when Cassie annonced her project, I knew I had to join in and make my very own. I knew just which fabric to use and could already picture the final result.

Then I thought I'd better give a try to crochet before the time came to actually make the pillowcase border. I unearthed the only hook I've ever owned, bought a couple of yarn balls, looked at some directions on the internet and was ready to crochet away...

Until I realised that this whole crochet business, which seemed simple enough when I was twelve, just got a lot more complicated with the years. It took me forever to understand how to make the double crochet, and even after I got the hang of it, I still can't figure out how not to lose any stitch as I change rows.

Last night I crocheted a piece that could have become a nice triangle, had I kept going, and I thought it was pretty funny too, but then I was also very tired. I know it is just a matter of making "spare" stitches when I switch from simple to double crochet, but the answer still eludes me.

Hopefully I can find it in time to crochet a border to my pillowcase. I am off to once again undo my almost-triangle piece and start over again. They say practice makes perfect, but what I actually wonder is just how much practice will get me anywhere near good enough...

Have a good week!