Little Piece of Heaven...

The other day The Boy mentioned that he was going to head out to a computer store for some little do-hickey that he needed and asked if I'd like to come along.  Not wanting to miss a potential opportunity, I Google mapped 'craft stores' and was disappointed with what came up in the area of the computer place.  Until I saw a tiny little orange dot and ran the cursor over it.  What I found seemed too good to be true.

We headed out, picked up the part The Boy wanted, almost ran over a man crossing the road (in the middle of a busy street, waving his arms and umbrella - oh, Vancouver!) and then parked on a small street.  The object of my interest wasn't opened yet so we decided to have breakfast at a little cafe next door.  This was also a fabulous find but I'll share more about that here.

Breakfast over, we wandered back next door and...oh, my.  LOVE.  Instant, forever, no questions asked, LOVE.  My heart was all a-pitter patter as soon as I walked in the door of Spool of Thread.  I was too overcome with glee to remember that I have a camera on my phone and could have taken pictures but if you go to the website you can see the space.

Now, I'm fairly new to sewing, having only made a few things back in the day but I know that this store was a good find.  For example, they stock all 221 colours of Kona cotton.  Seeing it all displayed is like happening upon a rainbow you can touch.  They also have bolts and bolts of gorgeous cotton prints, some linens and a few other bits and pieces.  I read a number of craft blogs and have some seen some lovely fabrics that I've drooled over - it was so great to see some of those same fabrics right there in front of me.

In addition to the fabric, Spool of Thread also carries a number of patterns including this one:

Tiny elephants!

I bought this pattern after a failed attempt to leave the store.  Little 4" high elephants for pin cushions, or a  toy for a small person, or maybe just to have around because...tiny elephants!  The pattern is by Heather Bailey.  I haven't checked out her other patterns yet because I know that will be very dangerous territory for my bank balance.  Since I don't actually have a pin cushion, and I don't want the standard tomato, I had to have this pattern.  Now I just have to decide on a fabric - I have four set aside.  Maybe I'll just make four elephants.  Anyone need a pin cushion?  Oh, and the tape in the photo didn't come from the fabric store.  I was just excited to have found some washi tape the other day and wanted to share.

I didn't walk out of Spool of Thread without some fabric.  These were also purchased after trying to leave the store the first time:

Wiener dogs and chevron stripes!

No idea what I'll be using these for yet but they were so colourful and begging to be plucked from the offcuts basket.

As I said, all 221 colours of Kona cotton were available to me so what colours did I walk out with?

Black and grey, of course!  The grey and the dots are for a particular project (that I will reveal more about later) and the black was just because it seemed like a good idea.

So, that was my adventure and I know that I will be heading back to Spool of Thread in the future.  One of the owners was running the shop the day I was there and he was super friendly (and possibly a little frightened when I said I wanted to move in).  They also offer classes for various projects and I'm sure I'll be signing up for a few of those at some point as well.  I'm just so happy to know this is available to me only a bus ride away (or a car ride, if The Boy is willing).

Bit of this, bit of that...

As promised, here are a couple of things that I've been working on, have finished or have added to my stash of supplies.  I'll probably add a few things over the next few days, as I pull out some long forgotten works in progress (or WIP).  I'm hoping as I begin to do this, the creative vibe will come back to me in a big way, and that I'll improve my photography skills.

The Granny Square Mountains

 First up is a handful of the one-colour granny squares I've made.  Ultimately, they'll all be joined together in a yet to be determined pattern to form a blanket.  I'm not sure how long this particular project is going to remain unfinished and for once, that's not because I'm lazy!  Every single time I've gone to the store to pick up more of the royal purple wool, there has been nary a skein to be found!  I'm planning a trip to Ikea in the next couple of weeks and that will take me near another store that I can try for the wool.

  

Before I began these squares, it had probably been over a decade since I had done any crocheting.  I had forgotten how much fun it can be.  I need to re-learn how to do a lot of stitches, and how to do many that I'd never tried before.

I've also got a few ideas in mind for some small pieces using fine thread.  I'm thinking accessories and jewelry (minus the jewels).  I dug up an old set of hooks that I forgot I had.  I think my mum might have found it in some relatives old stash.  It's a little red, zippered case and holds some of the tiniest hooks.  I probably should have taken a photo of that.  I'll make a note to do that because it really is quite a neat little tool kit.

This little guy is a paper tree that I made one night when I had nothing to do and there wasn't much on television.  I don't have individual sources for all of the papers I used but I believe that most of it came from either Opus or Island Blueprint.  I cut out each of those leaves and glued them on one at a time.  It didn't really take all that long.  It's hard to tell scale from the photo's but the finished piece is 2x3 inches.  Whack it in a frame from Ikea and voila!  Homemade art.

My most recent addition to my (rather large) collection of materials and tools is a set of Winsor & Newton drawing inks.  I've never used these particular inks before but I have used W&N oil and acrylic paints and have always been happy with those.  I've yet to put these to use but they will be unleashed over the next couple of days.  I don't want to say on what just yet, but I will post pictures when I'm done.  In the meantime, look at how lovely these boxes are.  How could I possibly resist?

Pot of Blood.  Awesome.

Oh, dear.

Not surprisingly, a lot of things have happened since I last posted....in 2009. Yikes. I think TLC should have a show called 'Procrastinators' and I should be on the first episode.

Tomorrow I will be whipping out my camera and photographing pieces and projects that I've worked on and am working on. I will then post those to this blog and tell you about them. Won't that be terribly novel?

I'm thinking I might even add a blog roll of all the crafty blogs I read by the people that inspire me. Okay, they also make me a little jealous because they're so damn productive. Time to remedy that...and not in a September, 2009 kind of way.

2011! The year of getting sh*t done!