Lixie Makes It: 19 October 2014

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Cat Walk

Sunday saw Pooch and I at the Kagurazaka Bakeneko Cat Parade near Iidabashi (pronounced Ee-der-bashy). I went for the black cat look, complete with ears.

The van is for the most common delivery company in Japan and just happened to be outside when we were leaving. Pooch went for the completely-not-dressed-up look, as per, but coped very well with being accompanied by a wife sporting cat ears as we ate lunch at a pizza restaurant and traversed the metro. When we got there it was like I was finally meeting with My People.

There were probably about 200 people dressed up and another 100 or so there to support them at the start point. All 28 of my photos are here but a few personal favourites...

A running nun cat, catching up with the end of the parade.

Freddie Mercury Cat, accompanied by Batman and friends.

This kitten.

French maid cats.

And of course, traditional dress cat, blowing a conch shell. This guy was about 6 foot tall and very polite and serious when I complimented his outfit. He stopped to bow.

I suppose you could say, he...paws'd.

Oh yeah.

There was also a band, including two bagpipe players, all dressed as cats and possibly not all playing the same tune.

It can be hard to tell when bagpipes are involved...

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Three Little Men in a Flying Saucer

It's finished!

I started this project back at the beginning of the month and finished it yesterday. I am very happy with it for now but we'll have to see how it stands up to play, or if she actually plays with it at all. My sister was saying on our last Skype how she was looking for toys to spark Jasmine's imagination so hopefully this will help with that. I've added little pleather handles so she can carry it around.

It looks like a gnome's briefcase.

Inside there is a zip on the flying saucer for the three little men to sit in.

I was thinking of Ghostbusters when I cut out their hair, hence the one on the right modelling an "Igon Spendler" do.

The numbers were iron on ones I got locally. The stars were from a length of wired ribbon type stuff, detached and dewired. Everything else I just made up.

I have been collecting "quiet book" page ideas on Pinterest (this Board) and if she likes this I'll definitely be making more.

Three little men in a flying saucer
Flew round the moon one day
They looked left and right
But they didn’t like the sight
So one man flew away
Wheeeeeeeee!!

Two little men in a flying saucer...

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Day One on the Black Cat Bloghop! And a Giveaway!

Oooo I had so much trouble deciding what to make with this one. I have had two of the fabrics from the Black Cat Crossing range since the start of September but they were not speaking to me at all. I couldn't think of anything at all so I decided to take a break from them and make something else I'd been thinking of for a while. I took inspiration from the Japanese designs I'd been seeing...

I used some of the lovely woven japanese fabric oddments I've been picking up for all the outside fabrics.

The inside is a thrifted handkerchief. The frame was added with glue which is not strictly the japanese way, but my preferred way. As is traditional, the amount of glue you get on the fabric is related to the amount of trouble you took over decorating it - meaning I got a lot of it everywhere. But I did end up with a pouch to keep nail varnish and a small bottle of remover in.

This still left me with the black cat fabric and no ideas. I went back to flicking through a recent Japanese quilting magazine (my favourite is a bimonthly called Patchwork Tsushin and you can have a good dig around the website using the translate function on a Chrome browser) and saw this.

Aha...I cut five strips roughly 48mm wide across the width of the fabric and got to work with my new bias binding maker, which I picked up in Kyoto.

This gave me a series of 25mm strips ready for weaving. I cut the cream ones into four and left the black ones whole. I ironed thin interfacing onto the back of the whole to keep it in place and whipped up this drawstring bag.

The string is made from a thinner strip of the black fabric.

Phew - I finished this yesterday morning, just in time for the bloghop. Thank goodness inspiration struck at last!

Many thanks to Wicked Wendy and Madame Samm for this hop, and please go to the end of this post to see the full schedule and especially who else is taking part today - go and visit them too!

The Giveaway!

Regular readers might remember this Sew Together bag I made a few months ago?

Despite travelling a few times since then I have never actually used it. Deliberately challenging my usual colour palette is all very well but does tend to leave you with something that is not to your own tastes. Duh! So, would you like it? To win you just have to complete the Rafflecopter below. You get one entry for commenting (about anything) and another if you are a follower. I'll post internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now go and visit today's hoppers!

Monday, October 20

Tuesday, October 21

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Coeur d'Alene Gifts

It Seams To Be Sew…