Red knitted scarf

It

It was my youngest boy's birthday (7) and I asked the oldest one (9) if he had an idea for a present he wanted to give him.  He delighted in pulling out of his pocket a red woollen scarf that he had knitted at school for his brother's toy  "moufflon".  How cool is that!

More Christmas

Since I was not posting for so long, I have many photos of little things I made 

up to and during the Christmas holidays:

 I found some plain cut-out angels like these when I unpacked the ornaments

I thought I was pretty clever having cut them out last year...

...but thought myself even more clever to carve stamps this year

and stamp wings and faces on new cut-out angels.

With those stamps, I stamped a bunch of cards and sold them at a Holiday Faire.

I also sent some out, but, though I had intended to send them ALL out,

that did NOT happen..... sigh.......

Still, I hope all holidays were good and that you are ALL

as excited about the New Year as I am.

BTW, I am teaching at Briancon (!) this summer

and we will be carving some of our own rubber stamps

along with LOTS of other things.

August 13 thru 19

click HERE for more info

xo

home for the holidays

Here is our kitchen mantel during

the holidays:

I guess this photo doesn't really show all the details,

but it does make me smile.

(you can click on it to make it bigger)

Hope everyone's holidays were great...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

xo

Pearl's Birthday

Back in October, my friend, Pearl turned 18

I made her a little bag with

THIS embroidered on it.

It is SO nice to be back to blogging.

I think the break has given me some perspective.

Happy New Year!

xo

Do you feel lucky????

The lovely Sue at The Mercerie has asked if anyone at Pantry Violets may like to enter her competition to win one of her gorgeous felted bags.

She has just started her business, and is selling the kits to make them - they are really beautifully presented and the perfect present.  I got one for my stepdaughter now the nights are drawing in, and she was thrilled.  Hope you are all well - it's been a bit quiet here at Pantry Violets - presume you're all being very industrious!

You can find out how to enter at http://themercerie.net/competition/

.. move along little inchies.....

Just finished my contribution to the "inchies" (a lot more work than I had imagined) and have passed them along to Carol - so no blaming me for the delay now.

Carol, Susie and I will be taking a stall at the Selvedge Fair in November at the Chelsea Town Hall, London to promote Les Soeurs.  More about that later, but we have started making little promotional items for the stall - nice stocking fillers we think - as well as some of our aprons.  What do you think?.....

julie arkell workshop and exhibition :: a little preview

Just a little look at the window at Petite Violette right now - not long to go till our Julie Arkell workshop (Sept 23) and exhibition (Sept 29 - Oct 26). Wish you all could be here!

Our Last Full Day

On Sunday afternoon, we had to take Di to the airport in Bergerac.

It was drizzly, but we got her there safely.

Here is a photo of three of the four of us

(click HERE for the others)

and this is a little page from a book Di bought

The images are soooo yummy!

xoxo

The Gang's All Here

Well, not exactly, as they've left now; but Oolie, Jone, Becky and Diane made it over for a few days last week.  I was so flattered to be invited, and fortunate to be able to join them for a couple of days for a few precious hours and I was overwhelmed by their generosity, kindness and creativity.  And, boy, did I learn some tricks.    Also joined them for a visit to our "secret brocante" - which frankly, isn't such a big secret anymore - where I managed to find some very useful vintage, but rather grubby, dear little deck chairs and, oddly, some American wooden cotton reels.  The question now is should I recover them (the deck chairs, not the cotton reels);  would love to hear your views?

Anyway, a Big Thank You ladies for letting for me join the gang for a moment or two - you were, it goes without saying, a huge pleasure to be have around.

If you are interested in seeing some of the beautiful things they made during their visit, I have posted one or two photos on Les Soeurs Anglaises blog and I am sure they will be posting many of their own images before too long.

It was a fab week and L'Espace seemed to work perfectly as a venue for the self-supervising group - may there be many more!

To think, we used to just throw these away when we'd finished the thread!!

ahhhhhh....

We DID it!

We got on the planes and trains and in our little rental car and spent the week at Briancon.

It was magnificent!

For a day-by-day account, please go to

polkadotponie.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Di's birdie

Hi Di, here's where your birdie is.  With a mate and some 2D friends at the back.  Would you like him to fly home to you for a spell?  He can come visit and then you can pass him on to the next geographic location.  What do you think?

BON JOUR MES AMIS

Hello Violets!

Sorry for the long delay - yet again in blogging. 

You may remember when Jo was doing her bird project I made this little birdie, the Lesser Spotted Tattered, with the crazy red eyes .......

Does it still sit on your desk Jo?

Last week, from Tuesday to Sunday I was at Les Soeurs Anglaises with Becky, Jone and Oolie for a few heavenly days of R&R.  More posts will follow from us all about our makes and the fun we had - it was a truly uplifting, inspiring few days that we shared in the lovely studio L'Espace - many, many thanks to Katie and Mike letting us have the use of the studio and rooms for our stay.

Amongst some things I took to finish off was a donkey brooch I made whilst on the second Hens Teeth workshop at Weston Park, near Stafford - I cant recommend Viv's workshops enough,
its such a great day out, sewing in a lovely 'hice' in lovely 'grinds' with a great bunch of women each time - and as if thats not enough, theres cake!  Here is the finished brooch ....

I just posted my second lot of haberdashery brooches and another little paper mache donkey -  on tinkeringbythesea.blogspot.com - please take a look.

Hope everyone is well and happy!  Taylor, sorry not to have been in touch since West Dean, its been a crazy busy time as you can imagine but I did enjoy the time spent with you on Julie's course.  Im getting back on track and have sent a bijou treat for you home with Jone so expect mail soon.

As soon as I have sorted out pictures will post my french finds and the things I made last week and Im sure Becky, Jone and Oolie will be doing the same.  We thought of you in France.

Love to All

xx Di

Hello again! I have completed my inchies, and have used my spoonflower printed collaged russian dolls, so everyone has a different face...you might want to allocate the right face for the right pantry violet Jone!!! I am posting them off today, otherwise they will get buried under all the stuff that is clogging up my sewing room. Such therapy sewing these little inchies, was initially daunted by the splendour of all the completed ones and the number,( Sam...those stitches!!! ) but then was quite sad when I finished them!xx

inchies have arrived in surrey!

Hello dear Pantry Violets, the Inchies have arrived with me this morning...Thank you Linda...I was going to take a photo of them but I thought it might spoil the surprise! I am still as manic as ever, but the second shipment of new Ragtales designs are arriving in the country in August, making it 22 toys in the range, just hope we can sell them all! Hope that you are all having a lovely summer despite the appalling weather, will try to do my inchies as quickly as possible..you are next on the list Joanna!

INCHIES: make a noise!

Please let us know where the Inchie Project is currently on vacation!  We need to get this project completed so......who ever has it, please post something to that effect.  If anyone feels the need to "drop out", now is the time to do that so we can rearrange the list of where to send it next.  Please follow Jone's instructions included in the package.....and all will be well in Inchie Land!

Summer bag making

 It's the end of year and time to thank teachers, so what better than a bag. Hope they like them.

an invitation: julie arkell workshop and exhibition

Hello dear Pantry Violets! Hope each and every one of you is having a wonderful summer so far (all except our southern hemisphere violets of course - hope you are staying warm and cozy) and that there is great weather and exciting vacation plans still to come! The summer weather is yet to hit Malmö, but we live in hope!

There is a lot going on at Petite Violette over the summer, including some buying trips to France, England and Denmark, lots of work behind the scenes organising a few workshops and, most exciting of all, a Julie Arkell exhibition. Petite Violette is so incredibly lucky to be able to hold a month long solo exhibition of Julie's work, called "Making Up Poems", starting September 29 2012. 

Julie will visit Malmö the weekend before to set up the exhibition and to hold a one day textiles workshop at Petite Violette on Sunday September 23. Exact details are not yet finalised, but you are all welcome! If you've been thinking about a trip to Malmö/Copenhagen, this could be the time to do it!

Once again, hope you are all enjoying your summer, miss you all and think of you often!

Basking in sunshine

A friend recently said that she wanted to show me a piece her mother had drawn and sewn sometime in the 1930/40s. And showed me this.  A gorgeous long legged vixen sunny her self in a little pool under the shade of a willow.  I just loved they way that she also included painted finger and toe nails.  Such  a lovely piece, as usual scrunched in a plastic bag hiding in a box under the bed.
Joanna

boxes with birds

 I have finally done some more little 

"Bird Boxes" for Curiosa

 Sometimes I wonder where the ideas flow from

Generally, I just begin and things seem to take root, somehow

Nothing wrong with that, as long as there is a final result.

more BOXES, if you are curious...

ok, am showing off my youngest son...he's 15 now and has always been our social experiment, and has the least attention in our family, but has miraculously managed to emerge as a brilliant artist....found this painting in his art sketch book.....Nick and I are hoping he will keep us in our retirement!!! Love to you all dear Pantry Violets....xx