Alphabet Tuesday: Z is for Zebra

Well there he is, a little zebra to complete my Dick Bruna alphabet panels.

I only started this panel yesterday, I had an "Oh my god, its Monday!" moment and hopped straight to it.  I hadn't had a close look at the illustration before then but did have some half ideas in my head about how it was going to go together.  I realised with some dismay and absolute resignation that it could only be done piece by piece, all 23 of them alternating black and white to hopefully end up with a correct representation of the original.  I cut out all the little pieces yesterday (with a stiff wind blowing though the house = mistake!) and last night spent considerable time shifting the pieces around the backing fabric to get just the right placement.  Yes, I had to move 23 pieces everytime I wanted a slight adjustment up or down, or left or right.  Then hunched over the kitchen bench under the bright halogen lights I started to sew all the pieces down.  I finished this morning (after quitting and going to bed, I didn't sew through the night) with aching shoulders and hopefully not a permanently hunched back from sitting at the kitchen stool.  Looking forward to a good yoga session tomorrow to straighten myself out again.

Next year I have the task of getting all these panels together into a wall hanging for my son's room.  Happily we are moving to a new house next year, finally our own house.  Yes, we will be home owners (gulp!).  The timing couldn't be more perfect for this project.  Don't worry, after setting myself up again after the move I'll be updating how the project is coming along and it will eventually be completed - rectangular? horizontally long? vertically long?  The choices! I'll have to see what fits best in the new house.

Thanks for following along this year, I couldn't have done it without the accountability factor of posting it to the blog!

The finish line

I am looking at the finish line for my alphabet series.  I am aiming to be done before the end of 2010 rolls around.  We will be off to Tasmania at the end of this week, and I really don't fancy taking any sewing with me on this holiday, its time for a break for sure!  So tomorrow is the last Tuesday of the year that I have left to post about this project.

If you've been following along, and even if you haven't, I think you know what the picture for Z is going to be.

Its complicated to recreate in felt though, so lots of little bits of paper template and felt scraps are piling up on the bench.  Its like an ultimate two colour jigsaw puzzle to put together, hopefully it will be all stitched down by tomorrow.

See you then!

Alphabet Tuesday: Y is for Yawn

Does this make you yawn?  Or does just thinking about yawning give you the urge to yawn?

Did you?  Go on, admit it.

Alphabet Tuesday: X is for Xylophone

Have you ever seen an alphabet chart without a xylophone representing the letter X?  Its a bit of a pet hate of mine because the spelling of the word is hard and the sound of the X is really more a Z.

So I wondered today if there was a good alternative.  I looked up X in my pocket dictionary, there were about 25 entries in the X section (none of them X rated).  There were other X things - xenon, x chromosome, x axis, xerox, xylem, X-ray, even Xmas - so no, all very scientific.  I had to concede that xylophone is the most recognisable for children.

X doesn't really mark the spot, does it?

Alphabet Tuesday: W is for Whale

Splish splash, here comes the whale.  Don't get too close, he's watching you, see?

Alphabet Tuesday: V is for Violin

After another hiatus Alphabet Tuesday is back!  With just four letters to go now I am determined to get to the end of the alphabet over the next weeks.

This week our lovely little violin prodigy plays a squeaky tune on her wobbly stringed instrument.  Can you hear it?   Ergh.

Alphabet Tuesday: U is for Umbrella

A very big black one.  With a very pointy spike on top.

This is very apt for this week here as it has been bucketing down rain for a few days now.  Everything is verging on U for Underwater.  I hope it clears up soon as I have party plans for the local park this coming weekend, thank you very much Mr Weather! 

If it doesn't get sunny soon I may as well be pulling out the wet weather boots too.  Cross your fingers for me, will you?

Alphabet Tuesday: T is for Toadstool

I had a few guesses for what the picture for T might be: a turtle? a tomato?

No, a toadstool.  I have been waiting with anticipation to get around to sewing this toadstool - oh so much fun.  I made this one out of felt, I wanted a tactile toadstool.  It certainly looks cute, but definitely not edible.

Alphabet Tuesday : S is for Sailor

Attention! Alphabet Tuesday is back with a salute from this little sailor man.

There's a Dick Bruna book all about him - he goes on a voyage in his smart new ship, ends up in the Arctic where the Eskimos live, has fish stew with them in their igloo, has a snooze and then heads off home again.

If only it was that easy, he doesn't even take a pair of gloves, or a change of underwear...

OK, seven letters left to go, I am slightly afraid of V and really not sure how I am going to do Z, but the next one for T is easy.  Can you guess what it is?

Something missing?

Yes today should have been alphabet Tuesday - the letter S has quite a complicated illustration but with the quilt making goings on this week I made no progress on my alphabet project.

I needed a little break anyway, so I made a softie instead.  I'll be back with the alphabet soon.

Alphabet Tuesday: R is for Rabbit

A Dick Bruna frieze couldn't be complete without a rabbit.
Mr Bruna is after all the creator of Miffy, one of the worlds most loved by kids rabbit.

This is obviously the grey field cousin of the famous white rabbit that wears a dress and lives in a house...

Alphabet Tuesday: Q is for Queen

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl,but she doesn't have a lot to say

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she changes from day to day

I want to tell her that I love her a lot

But I gotta get a bellyful of wine

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl

Someday I'm going to make her mine, oh yeh,

someday I'm going to make her mine.

- Lennon/McCartney 1969

Alphabet Tuesday: P is for Pig

Pink pig, to be exact.

If I was strictly following the colour scheme of the original frieze then this pig should be red. I can't do a red pig.

Last time I was hanging out with a pig, it was sure pink (and ugly and hairy, and it ate whole apples with one chew...)

Alphabet Tuesday: O is for Octopus

This little octopus is one of my favourite critters on the whole Dick Bruna alphabet frieze. My little boy loved watching me trace and cut him out this morning and I loved sewing him up today, so I think Mr. Octopus definitely has the cute factor. I love that he is looking away to the side, slightly worried...perhaps a shark is coming?

I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden, in the shade...

Alphabet Tuesday: N is for Nest

This nest is so full there is no room for mummy bird to sit on those eggs. Perhaps a pesky cuckoo has been in there and added a few while she wasn't looking...

I have to admit that trying to sew the "sticks" of the nest with my machine very quickly lead to boredom. Surely I am not getting fed up with this alphabet malarky! No, just got a lot on my plate at the moment and sewing sticks on a green nest was not at the top of my list of exciting things to do this week. With twelve letters still to go I am going to save my sense of fussyness for some more detailed pictures soon to come.

Stay tuned.

Alphabet Tuesday: M is for Mouse

Pussycat, pussycat where have you been?

I've been to London to visit the Queen.

Pussycat, pussycat what did you do there?

I frightened a little mouse under her chair.

Squeek!

Hope you had a great Queen's birthday long weekend if you reside in Australia.

Alphabet Tuesday: L is for Lion

I've been looking forward to sewing this sad looking little fellow. He doesn't look very scary, does he? I almost feel like giving him a little tickle to cheer him up. But I am not so sure I would actually want to meet him in a dark alley at night (or otherwise). All in all, I don't trust him. Which is why I didn't sew his mane down to the fabric. I thought he looked a bit more rakish that way, and I wanted to get out of his face as quickly as possible. Although if he had bit me I really could have stabbed him with my needle. Roar!

Alphabet Tuesday: K is for Key

I am just emerging from my post trip jet lag haze which this week threatened to make Alphabet Tuesday into a big fat N for Nothing.

I seem to be in the nicest, deepest, coziest and warmest phase of sleep at about 7am and the last two mornings have seen me indulging and sleeping in well close to midday (if its good enough for the three year old its good enough for me). But this morning life at Casa Maika Creations needed to snap back into reality and I was literally pushed out of bed, complaining and mumbling at 7:30am into my 10 degrees warm bathroom. I woke up the three year old at 8:15 because you know, I wouldn't want him to enjoy another sleep in if I wasn't going to have one.

After waving off child and husband to their various Tuesday activities I washed and scrubbed, took a visit from the plumber to get the bathroom sink back in working order and procrastined on the internet before I finally hooked up the sewing machine.

K is also for "kick that jet lag".

Alphabet Tuesday: J is for Jigsaw

OK, lets keep up the excitement and tension that is Alphabet Tuesday. This week is brought to you by the letter J for Jigsaw (not P for Puzzle).

As an added bonus I am going to also include a little bit about how I managed to actually make a fabric jigsaw, because it took some fiddling as a matter of fact.


There were seven pieces on the original panel, and I had two questions so I would know where my starting point with this project was - Do the pieces shown actually make a real connecting jigsaw if you put them together? How big is the completed jigsaw? So I traced all the pieces onto paper and cut them out and "made" the jigsaw. The answers were, "roughly yes" and "about 10cm square".

So I had my jigsaw size and I knew which fabric I was going to raid my stash for. A piece of fun and probably 1970s farmyard print doona cover! And do you think that a 10cm square covered anything interesting on the farmyard design? No not really, the farmyard was too spread out and I was either getting half a cow and a roosters head, or the barn door and the horse's feet in the puddle in front of it or something silly. I finally decided that the best I could do were these two happy children bouncing on their haystack, pitchforks in hand

.

I fused them onto double sided interfacing (being careful not to ignite their haystack) and then traced around the puzzle pieces onto the paper backing of the interfacing. This technique basically formed as a guide and I had to do some freehand drawing over the top to make the pieces look more balanced in size and proportions.

When I was happy with that I cut out the pieces (very carefully!). And then simply peeled off the paper backing to fuse our happy farmers onto their red cotton background.

So you see, this alphabet thing is sometimes not the doddle it looks.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Alphabet Tuesday: I is for Igloo

Phew, I almost raised a sweat thinking I wasn't going to get my igloo sewn before today. I only started putting my ice blocks in place on Sunday, but remaining cool as an Eskimo under pressure it was actually no big deal to make an igloo in an evening.

I did have to put a bit of thought into the construction of my igloo. I ended up fusing on a black background and sewing the wool felt ice blocks over the top of that.

It was only 10 deg in Sofia yesterday so I almost felt like crawling inside!