Simple Beans

stockings and ornaments

2011-12-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

Last year, my sister saw a picture of the stocking I made Jane. She loved it and wanted me to make her, my niece, and nephew one. My sister isn't that into handmade so whenever she asks for something that is handmade, my mom and I jump all over the chance to make her the requested item. They requested the colors and design. My nephew wanted a bmx bike on his (yeah right). I started making these in August or September. I didn't want to stress myself out with the finishing. Of course, the knitting was done but I took forever to get the linings in so she just got them a few days before Christmas. But that's before Christmas eve, right?!

I like the linings in these, the stockings are so much sturdier. I am going to add one to Jane's stocking (that became mine because it was not very strong).

Lilly made popsicle stick snowflake ornaments. I made a bunch of these quilted tree ornaments. I also made this little house ornament for a friend (tutorial here I loved her idea for the roof ledge). Then I made a "house car" ornament for my parents who are addicted to RVing and their cat, Mr. B. We are giving out our ornaments this year with some granola. This granola is so so so so good. I have made 4 batches so far because we keep eating so much I don't have enough for gifts. It's a cycle! We made ours with almonds, pumpkin seeds, and cran-cherries. I might eat some right now.

This is pretty much all I have this year for handmade Christmas gifts. I am working on a blanket for Jane that did not make it under the tree. Everything I was thinking of making for Lills, I gave up long ago and decided that making and giving them for her birthday was definitely the way to go. I am starting a part time teaching job in January and the prep work for the class has been taking up most of my crafting time. Plus, being a mom can be exhausting, it feels good to sit at the end of the day. I hope you had/have a good holiday!

rudolph shirts

2011-12-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

Nicole and I have been excited to craft together but with our girls and busy husbands, crafting is hard to do. We decided to just pick a project and see how much we could get done in an afternoon. Nicole saw this super cute Rudolph shirt idea. With a chubby baby sleeping in her fav moby wrap position, a my little pony Christmas movie, popcorn, and a toddler about, we got a great start to the shirts! Then we each finished them up at a quieter time. Lilly really wanted a sparkly nose so we used some glitter fabric paint, we used a lot!

Simplicity 2574

2011-12-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

Lilly is really into dresses and tights right now. And anything that is her idea. I showed her this pattern and said we should go to the fabric store so she can pick out fabric. She was sold and I love what she picked out! She also put herself in charge of button picking.

This pattern was a project runway simplicity pattern. I didn't understand what that meant until I went to buy fabric and cut out the pieces. There was not a set dress to be made with this pattern, you pick out all the design elements and make your dress how you want. It seemed really confusing because I found it hard to know what the name of each element was. But it all got figured out and it looks great. Lilly loves the rainbow fabric that she picked out and that corduroy is so very soft. She wears this about once a week, which is awesome. I have no idea why I made her two pairs of pants recently. One pair has gotten the lucky pick two times but the other none at all. But let's face it, I sewed them for fun for me!

Fabric: corduroy from JoAnns

Pattern: Simplicity 2574, size 6.

the cats pajamas (McCalls 6428)

2011-11-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

Jane loves dogs and cats. We don't have pets but the neighbors cats are always out and tons of people walk their dogs by our house. I always think Jane is going to have a heart attack when she sees dogs and cats, oh the excitement! I picked up a pj pattern for the girls at the last pattern sale at JoAnns. I was not intending to buy any pj fabric but when Lilly and I saw this cat knit fabric, we got very excited. Then we showed Jane. Well, we had to buy it after that reaction.

I was worried about making Jane a size 1 (which I was thinking would be a 12 month size) but based on the measurements and now seeing the final product on Jane it is actually quite big. Jane is petite for weight but I think this pattern runs big. Also, a BIG, ANNOYING PROBLEM that this pattern ended up having some mistakes. First the neck ribbing was supposed to have one cut and instead it said to cut two but then the sewing directions made it clear that only one was supposed to be cut. But the biggest mistake was the directions on how to sew the pants up. They were flat out wrong and made no sense! After 30 minutes of sitting there trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to do and ripping the first seam out, I realized they were just wrong. If I had never sewn a pair of pants before I would have been crying in the corner. Also if I had paid more than a dollar, I would have been emailing McCalls.

Pattern: McCalls 6428, view A and C

Fabric: cat knit and rib knit from JoAnn's

This is the best I could get of Jane wearing them, we have to fold up the knit ribbing on both the legs and the arms to make it fit her better. but man she sure is cute!

I bought the same pattern in Lilly's size too. I am thinking some Christmas/winter pajamas are definitely in need.

Simplicity 2147

2011-11-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have been picking up so many patterns at the dollar sales at JoAnns. I was very excited about making this pattern up. I love how the yoke and the sleeves are one piece. It ended up being very easy to put together and I gotta tell you that yoke fits me perfect. I love wearing this tunic!

I am still loving using a twin needle. I think it looks less homemade.

Pattern: Simplicity 2147, view B; only mod was to add a pocket.

Fabric: a linen/rayon blend from JoAnns

I really want to make some tops both long and short sleeves in this pattern and there is a great belt pattern in there too. Currently, I have a ton of girl clothes in the works. I am also planning what handmade gift to make each of them for Christmas. I love sewing for those girls.

hitchhiker

2011-10-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yet, another selfish knit for me. I like this little shawlette/scarf. It was very simple to knit but did take sometime.

pattern: hitchhiker, pattern on ravelry for a small price

yarn: ella rae lace merino (love this yarn)

KCWC: days 3,4, and 5

2011-10-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

I spent most of day 3 and 4 sewing flannel pajamas for Jane. I just had to finish them up on day 5. So I decided to make her a second pj top, since I often feed Jane breakfast in her pj's, she could always use extra tops. I decided to do a 90 minute top with the flannel, so I knew I had to cut it a bit big because of using flannel. So that worked but then I went and did a huge seam allowance and that ruined the top. It would fit on Jane but it was a struggle to get on and off, I knew it just wasn't going to be worth the trouble. So KCWC day 5 was a bust. But I did learn. Day 6 and 7 were an even bigger bust. I had no time to sew during the day and when I got the girls in bed each night, I was too pooped to sew. I feel good though that Jane got her last pair of leggings, some doctored up tops, and a set of pj's! Looking forward to the challenge again in the spring.

pattern: top pattern, McCall's 6152, I did not do the interfacing or facing, just used bias tape; pants pattern, traced from another pair

fabric: flannel from Joann's bought a few years ago

Kids Clothes Week Challenge Days 1 and 2

2011-10-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

I have never felt I had the time to join in on the Kid's Clothes Week Challenge. Now that I am a stay at home mom, I was hoping to have the time. Jane has been taking some amazing hour plus naps so completing the challenge each day has been pretty good so far. I had another pair of leggings cut for Jane for a few weeks so I decided to use Day 1 of the KCWC to sew the leggings up (using the same tutorial as these leggings).

For Day 2 of KCWC, I made Jane another 90 minute shirt. I cut this shirt a little big so I added a gather to the middle front but I think it should have been bigger. It looks a little messy.

Jane actually needs more shirts. I am so over onesies. So also for day 2 and part of day 3, I cut some of her onesies off and hemmed the bottoms to become shirts. The shirt below, I used the rolled hem on my serger and stretched the knit to make it ruffle. I like the length on this, I was worried if I did a turned up hem the shirt would be too short. I made 3 other shirts from onesies. I am happy that now I won't skip over these clothes in her closet.

can you be in love with a twin needle?

2011-10-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

I hope so, because I am. I can't stop using it. The hem looks so much better then using a single needle and sewing twice. I was doing that forever thinking the twin needle was intimidating. It's not. I made a batch of Jane pants with the twin needle.

The ever faithful big butt baby pants.

Then I saw this leggings tutorial on pinterest. It was one of those ideas that you see where everything else is instantly dropped (including Jane ha!) and these were cut and sewn. Seriously easy and cute.

Really happy with the stripe matching, who knew it would be as simple as Made described?! Sometimes common sense is not one of my attributes.

I made these for new little baby, Edrie.

The ruffles killed me on Edrie's bum so I made Jane a pair with some. Kills me on her too!

Craft Hope: Christmas stockings!

2011-09-27T11:47:00.001-07:00

It has been awhile since I devoted some craft time to help others. I had a blast making Christmas stockings for Craft Hope's last project, stockings for tornado victims. The stockings will be filled with goodies and brought to families that lost their homes to a tornado. I can't imagine what that is like to loose everything to a natural disaster.

I used sewing instructions for the stockings in Ready, Set, Serge. When I first got my serger, I was able to watch a video of the author making a few things with her serger. I absolutely loved the way she layered the fabric prior to sewing. For the stockings, the lining and the main fabric are each layered right sides together and then placed together and sewn. Then the cuff is sewn into a circle and sewn to the top of the stocking...taking 3 seams total! I would have made two different stockings then stuffed the lining inside the main stocking. Thanks to this author too, I figured out why I couldn't fix the tension on my serger...life changing.

McCall's 5843

2011-09-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

I got this dress pattern last summer thinking it would be great for maternity as well as normal Jenni size. I never got around to it while I still had the Jane belly and then I realized it had a side zipper which would make nursing Jane a bit of a chore. Even though I am still nursing Jane, it's obviously not as often as a newborn and I just really wanted to make this dress. I love it! It is so comfortable and relaxed. But I was right it is a pain to nurse in. Next summer, this dress will be worn often!

I have been loving using my serger for clothes sewing and I got a twin needle for my sewing machine. It's SO FUN!

Pattern: McCall's 5843, View B.

Fabric: 100% cotton from JoAnn's

Mods: I realized I was supposed to buy 60" wide fabric but only got 48" so I didn't have enough for the full skirt pattern. I had to reduce the middle of the pattern (center fold) by 15 inches. There is a lot of fabric in the skirt so I don't think it made much difference. If I were to make this pattern again, I would definitely add an inch or two to the length of the bodice.

It's supposed to cool down this week and be rainy. I don't mind the rain but I have so many green tomatoes still, I just want a little more sun so they ripen.

MADE sewing

2011-09-23T10:44:00.002-07:00

I pretty much am in awe of everything that Dana of Made sews. It's insane what she busts out, with no pattern!! I have made a few skirts from her tutorials, the market skirt, simple skirt, and the circle skirt. I have been longing to try her 90 minute shirt and the flat front pants.

90 minute shirt. This was fun to make and sort of challenging to try. But it wasn't as hard as it looked and I do want to make more as I gained confidence from this first shirt for Jane. I used one of her onesies that fit her well now for my pattern and then added on a bit to the pattern to make it bigger. I ended up adding on too much and it is too big for now. I still really liked this technique and would like to try more shirts. In our move to Oregon, we had to get rid of a lot of surplus so we have no old clothes for me to doctor up. But I am thinking I could try with some fabric and do the hems myself.

Flat front shorts! I am a huge fan of this technique, HUGE! It was not hard at all and again I gained even more confidence for sewing clothes that don't scream homemade. Lilly is not a fan of jeans, anything that she can't bend down easily in to play or pants that fall off her hips and bum. After making these flat front shorts, I am feeling very confident that I can make her some "jeans" in a light weight denim. Those are on my ever growing sewing list.

Elastic dress. There are so many people who rave about elastic thread. I have tried a few projects with it and it is nice but it is not as easy as some of these tutorials rave about. I usually end up having to pull and gather the thread to get as much ruching as I want. But then I usually end up pulling too hard and break some of the gather stitch. I still haven't figured out what I am doing wrong or if it is the way my bobbin fits in my machine. But here is a dress for Lilly. It has some issues but I do love the braiding for the straps. I want to make myself a shirt like this.

McCall's 5613

2011-09-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of sewing going on over here. A LOT. I got this McCalls pattern awhile back at one of Joann's 99 cent sales. Lilly and I picked out the main fabric but then we decided that it needed more color so Lilly picked out some more fabrics. I love how she deems anything "so beautiful" that has a rainbow in it.

I really liked this pattern. It was so easy to construct and didn't need any special notions. Plus Lilly loves it! I think it will work for the the cooler months too with some layering.

Pattern: McCall's 5613, view D, size 6

Fabric: main floral fabric and blue pocket fabric, bought at Joann's; yellow and green solids, kona cotton; pink floral, given to me

Freezer paper stenciling and a skirt

2011-09-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

I know that freezer paper stenciling has been done over and over but thanks to this Mama, I got to try freezer paper stenciling with the Circuit cutting my stencil! Such fun!! I could still use some more practice and I got paint off the stencil on the purple shirt which looks horrible now in these photos, I hope it doesn't look that bad after its washed, I didn't set the paint like the rest of the shirt.

Some shirts were gifts and I still have a few more to work on:

dad's high school football number, baby's dad loves his old number

a new big sister and her new little sister

Jane wanted one.

Lilly designed her own shirt. "Rarity" is her newest My Little Pony and she is in LOVE with it. obviously. She also designed that skirt. I was going to make her a 3 tier skirt but as I was getting the iron set up, Lilly positioned all the fabric and declared the skirt fabric so beautiful. So I made it as she requested, plus she wanted a super stretchy pocket so "Rarity" could come with her everywhere.

striped smock top

2011-09-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of yarn to use up from Lilly's rainbow sweater...red, purple, light blue, green, yellow. Thanks to a new vest for Jane, the yellow is all used up!

pattern: striped smock top (free on ravelry!), size 18 month, my ravelry project page

yarn: berroco vintage, yellow and light blue

Jane's birthday party!

2011-08-25T09:51:00.001-07:00

We got to have a simple family birthday party for Jane. A family birthday party?!?! what a big deal for all of us! This was our first one ever. We sure love it here in Portland! I didn't get to crazy with the decor. I needed to print a bunch of pictures for Jane's baby book and our walls but I first used them to make a watch me grow banner for the party. Lilly thought Jane would want a lot of color at her party, "J's", and "1's". I also made her a birthday crown, much like Lilly's.

As a part of her birthday presents, I wanted to give her decorations for her room (don't you love how you can give a one year old presents that you want?). The girls are sharing a room and I am trying to keep each side as their own theme. Not sure if it is working too well but at least Lilly likes her side. Here is Jane's wall:

embroidered name: Alicia Paulson's alphabet pattern in a spray painted oval quilting hoop, I didn't use crewel wool, but random needlepoint threads and yarn from my grandma's stash.

"J": a wire J, wrapped in fabric and other doo dads

doily: a purchased doily from Michaels in a spray painted embroidery hoop

blanket: grammie made

butterfly mobile: blogged about here (looking at that post, it seems surreal that our lives are so different from a year ago)

****

On a side note, I just read about the blog Peas and Thank You. I just subscribed to the Oregonian newspaper and we get the Sunday and Food day papers (perfect combo!). The food day paper had an article about the author of Peas and Thank you and her new vegan cookbook that is also kid friendly. The recipes shared in the paper looked really good, so I am curious about getting this book. Lilly has been a great eater but now I am having trouble getting her to eat fruit. And Jane is just not interested in food more than one meal a day and refuses cow milk, ugghhh! Does anyone read her blog or have her cookbook?

Jane is ONE!

2011-08-13T20:43:00.002-07:00

It seems a little surreal that it has been a whole year since she came. We are having a party to celebrate her tomorrow and for the past few weeks I have been trying to squeeze in projects for her.

The lucky lady ended up with two birthday shirts. She wore the purple one today and the pink one tomorrow at her party!

Bergen Street.

2011-08-06T10:39:00.005-07:00

I bought the yarn for this sweater right around Christmas. I think I may have cast on for it around then too. I did put this down a lot to work on other projects and then there was the whole move. So I may have missed wearing this for winter and spring as I had planned but here is looking forward to an Oregon fall!

Pattern: Bergen street (bought on ravelry) size 35.

Yarn: knit picks city tweed dk in habenero and tahitian pearl

mods: none. (ravelry project page)

Great sweater to knit and the yoke details were a fun change although all the little yarn balls were a bit much at times. I love the way this fits, although if I were to do another I think some pockets would be a must.

out west.

2011-07-11T19:18:00.007-07:00

We made the trek out west sometime ago but we just now moved into a place of our own. Oh the housing woes, I won't even get into but finally we have a cute little Portland house that we are loving. It has a completely finished basement that is mostly carpeted except a little laminated flooring nook that is perfect for a...wait for it...wait...sewing area! I am still getting it set up, but I have been able to get the machine and serger out to take in a maternity shirt into something I can wear not pregnant. It felt great to sew! The house also has a backyard with a raised gardening bed so I have been studying up on how to be a gardener. The previous tenants planted spinach, kale, zucchini, and peas! whoot whoot! I added in some tomatoes and bell peppers. And then for fall plantings we are trying swiss chard, cauliflower, carrots, and more spinach. crossing fingers...now! Lills and I are really enjoying this new venture. I just wish I had appreciated the huge garden my mom had growing up. I remember being so annoyed when I would have to go out there and weed or water...sorry Mom! Anyways, so now that we have stuff out of boxes, Gregg started work, and the girls and I are trying to establish our new lives and routines together, I am hoping to get back to taking pictures and journaling here in this space.

Oregon strawberries finally came! Here it is July and I think the strawberries just peaked. We have eaten so many and made many batches of strawberry freezer jam. We also tried this unique recipe for a thai chicken strawberry salad. I omitted the fish sauce, that stuff smells AWFUL, I am sure it tastes fine in recipes but I just couldn't get over that smell so I threw out the first dressing I made and the salad is seriously fantastic!

also here is the prettiest cornbread ever! A friend of mine sells Demarle bakeware and I have been eying the sunflower mold for forever. You want one right?! Even Gregg was impressed with this presentation, although he just loves cornbread too.

McCalls 5794

2011-05-11T03:03:00.001-07:00

woowzaa! I guess I took a blogging break! Things have been happening here, Gregg graduates from medical school this Sunday!! I still can't believe it! We are also moving back to Oregon next week. The house is a mess and my sewing machine and serger are packed. It will be awhile before I will be able to pull them out again. But for Mother's day I asked for sewing time and I was finally able to finish my last sewing work in progress before the move...a dress for Lills.

I made a size 6 for Lills, it is a bit big in the bodice and the shoulders kept falling off so I put a safety pin in the back to help (I already packed the sewing machine so I can't fix it for awhile). She really likes this dress and requested one in blue next!

pattern: McCalls 5794 view B

fabric: a lightweight knit (hand-me-down fabric so I am not really sure of the type of knit)

I wish I had more time to sew. I really enjoy yarny projects at night but they do take awhile! I do hope that next time I can participate in the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Something always comes up that prevents me from participating.

a rainbow sweater

2011-03-24T04:14:00.001-07:00

I think Lilly caught on to all the knitting and sewing going on for a certain baby and momma around here. She asked in the saddest voice ever if she would get a new sweater soon. I just had to make her one. We discussed what she wanted, a sweater that opens down the front with lots of buttons. She also requested green, blue and purple colors but then she added on red and yellow. (Pink was also added on when I got back from the yarn store with her said colors and some additional yarn in pink for Jane, Jane won't mind sharing). Lilly put herself in charge of selecting buttons.

She declared it "so beautiful."

This pattern was fun to knit and it went by fast...not sure if it was the size, the pattern, or the constant yarn changes. I was regretting the seven different colors when it came time to weave in ends. So far this sweater gets a lot of use so I know the recipient likes it. I am wondering how the yarn will hold up over time. Its beginning to show wear already.

Pattern: drive thru sweater
Mods: minimal changes, see ravelry page
Yarn: all berocco vintage except some random dark blue acrylic

quant and a tea leaves update

2011-03-10T16:16:00.001-08:00

Thanks for all the nice comments about Jane's new sweater and Jane herself. I sure like her.

A new headband for me. This keeps my ears so so warm, I might like it better than hats. I loved the colors of this yarn. I saw this knit up at my local yarn shop and fell head over heels! It was a fun knit too.

Pattern: quant (free!)
Yarn: crystal palace mochi plus, color 603

back to my tea leaves. After having this in my closet for sometime, I must say I LOVE this! I love how the yoke fits. I hope I make another one.

Jane's Manda Ruth

2011-03-02T17:26:00.001-08:00

I wanted to make a Jane a super snuggly warm sweater/light weight jacket. So I bought a little pattern, Manda Ruth.

Such a cute and soft little sweater (we match when I wear my tea leaves, awww).

The only thing that I am bummed about is the sizing, it came out a bit small and it fits her really perfect now, I was hoping it would last until it was warmer spring weather. I highly recommend that pattern though, it was very clearly written!

Yarn: berroco ultra alpaca in split pea mix and berroco vintage in purple
Pattern: Manda Ruth rav link, size 12 month
Notes and mods on ravelry

birthdays!

2011-02-22T17:20:00.003-08:00

February is birthday month around these parts.

Lilly turned 4! We had a pirate birthday party for her and she wanted another candle birthday shirt like last years.

It was my birthday too and my mom made me socks!! (I was secretly hoping she was going to make me a pair) I love them! I had no desire to knit socks ever but after this pair, I may be changing my mind. Plus, my local yarn shop had a big sale last weekend and some pretty pretty pretty sock yarn came home with me.

It was also my sister's birthday. I made her a pair of fingerless gloves to keep her warm while she works away on the computer.

pattern: cold turkey (free ravelry download, link here)
yarn: berroco vintage in purple

serger projects

2011-01-31T16:12:00.000-08:00

Owning a serger is pretty awesome. I have a little set up on one end of the dining room table where all I have to do is swing my body 90 degrees to sew or serge away. It's awesome.

To start me off gently learning the machine, I made some rolled hem napkins. Just an 18" square piece of fabric that is serged all the way around with some bulky nylon thread. In this first project I realized that you can't back track a serged stitch, so no reinforcing. It took me back a bit for some reason that all serged edges have to have a little fray check on them or tuck the serged tail into the seam. I did both on these napkins and fray check was the way to go. These napkins have been washed many times and the fray check is still holding strong. I made a Christmas set too but they got packed away.

Next another circle skirt for Lills but this time with serged raw edges. Even faster than the first circle skirt but I should have increased the hem allowance because I only did 1/4" and the serged edge easily flips up showing to the outside (because I don't iron after its washed). Maybe I should have just left it as a serged edge too.

More Big Butt Baby Pants (previous versions here)! I love love love this pattern. and now with a serger?!!! This was my first project serging with both needles so that I was sewing the seam and serging the edges at the same time. The only problem was that on the pink pair my tension was off so that the seam was not that strong and could be pulled open a bit. So I had to sew over it with the regular machine to strengthen. I have put a halt on all more big butt baby pants for Jane. She is so set with pants in the 6 month size and I decreased the seam allowance in these last 3 while adding length so these should last her into the spring. So once she outgrows the other 5 pairs I will make her some more!

hearts hem: just pulled the knit fabric while I sewed to give it a slight ruffle, probably should have pulled it much more
purple and pink hems: have an added cuff to flip up

And probably for my favorite serger project so far are these twirly skirts for Lills.

this was my inspiration skirt. Lills loves this skirt and she loves shaking her stuff in it but its now getting a bit too small.

I started working on a tutorial for these skirts. I hope it won't take me forever. In the meantime, I have been enjoying a bunch of new recipes:

chicken tikka masala amazing! and according to a co-worker of Gregg's totally authentic.
chicken teriyaki We all liked this much better than our usual recipe.
chickpea veggie curry we all loved this one too
three sisters stew I loved the changes they made to the moosewood recipe. so much easier and tastier!
spiced sweet potatoes and chickpeas We had this tonight and it was really good, we added some braised kale on the side.

by the way my new favorite food blog is The Sprouted Kitchen. seriously? the photos are insane and the recipes?! I have several of the recipes on the planner this month.

Christmas gifts

2011-01-17T17:21:00.003-08:00

I really didn't get to crazy on the handmade front this year. Gregg was gone a bit in November and December so it was nice to not also have to worry about making gifts. I put together a few calendars for the grandparents and made my mom a mixer cover. I didn't get a picture before I sent it although I could take a picture of the one I made for myself (Merry Christmas to me!) The girls did a get a few things...

Lills got a superhero outfit! To be honest she didn't seem that impressed with it on Christmas. I kinda suggested she wear it for these pictures and then it came right off and stayed off. And then just last week as cute as can be is my girl giggling in the hallway in her superhero outfit and she added her cape (crazy how I used the same colors, I forgot about the red on the cape).

Pattern: McCall's 5727
Fabric: a red crushed panne for the top, aqua sequin for the skirt, and a silver metallic for the belt

I made Jane a mooshy belly bunny (tutorial here) and Santa brought her a sock monkey (made like this one). Both pretty good at taking a good chewing session from her.

knitting knitting knitting

2011-01-06T17:16:00.001-08:00

I feel like all I have energy to do lately is knitting, we know blogging hasn't been happening (!). I have been playing with my serger when I can find the time...it's awesome. Here are some recent knitting projects...

some aviator hats! the cuteness!! I made one for a friends baby boy and then just had to make one for Jane. This is a perfect hat to keep them firmly on the baby head. It's been so cold here too.

pattern: aviatrix hat (free ravelry download)
Yarn: berroco vintage and elle rae lace merino doubled for the ear flaps

tea leaves cardi

ups and two big down to this sweater. I love the 3/4 length sleeves. I don't love the button band. I wanted to have buttons all the way down instead of just the top but I should have added in waste shaping and I should have done 7 buttons instead of 5. I love the top portion. I love the color! So many reviews of this pattern exclaimed what a great pattern it was to work with, I so did not feel that way. There were several portions of the pattern that I felt were missing and I had to scratch my head to figure it out but then the pattern would explain in detail how to knit in garter stitch (really?). Perhaps some knitters like that room to make the sweater your own but I thought because I had purchased this pattern it should be flawless. I would make this again though! I have been waiting to show this sweater for pictures with me wearing it but apparently that is never going to happen.

pattern: tea leaves
yarn: berroco ultra alpaca in pea soup mix

and my newest big project has just begun...bergen street (rav link)

ornaments 2010

2010-12-15T17:45:00.001-08:00

memory ball ornament!

I LOVE this! I wrote down good special memories for the past year on little slips of paper then slathered a clear glass ornament ball in mod podge and placed the memories on top. Then slathered much more mod modge on top. 12 hours later it was on the tree with a year tag. I hope to do this ever year.

crochet baubles!

I had planned to make the girls daycare teachers some quilted ball ornaments until I saw this little gem. Not only are they so so so pretty they take no time at all and I was able to use up some yarn I wasn't sure what to do with. (my yarn was a bit thinner than the tutorial yarn so I did an extra round before dropping my ball in)

family ornament

The girls (still can't get over that there are two girls now!) put their thumb prints into a flattened ball of bakeable clay. Then Lills jazzed them up with paint and I sealed them with modpodge.

Here is our activity advent. Envelopes made from cardstock holding each day's activity. We are having so much fun with this and Lilly has been practicing recognizing double digit numbers, bonus!

big butt baby pants

2010-12-08T16:55:00.001-08:00

I'm addicted, it is an easy, fast, cute pattern. That always makes me giddy with how cute the finished pair is!

Two pairs of that pile my friend Jess made for Jane and included matching onesies!

(m is for our last name)

Thanks again Jess!

I have plans for many many many more baby pants for Jane, I have a new stack of fabric AND a NEW SERGER!!!!! Gregg got me a SERGER for Christmas!! A SERGER!! big big big points. He did all the research and surprised me with it on Monday! (imagine picture of me hugging said serger here)

Jane's Stocking

2010-12-02T17:22:00.002-08:00

Well this stocking was supposed to be for Jane but now it is mine and she get's my green one from last year. I had planned to make her a red stocking but I didn't like any of the reds at the yarn shop and Lilly was driving the yarn shop owner mad with her touching all the yarn (I can see her point of not wanting the yarn to get messed up but Lills was touching the yarn much like we all do when in a yarn shop!) So I felt extremely rushed to get the stocking yarn and get out. I love orange, forgetting Jane might not be such a fan for her Christmas stocking. Then the finished stocking turned out to be a bit smaller and weaker than Lilly's stocking and my green one. I think the two girls should have the biggest baddest stockings...thus the switch.

This is my 2nd time knitting from a purchased pattern (the first I have yet to show) and I must say I was expecting purchased patterns to be flawless. Neither of them were, mistakes, and/or poorly written instructions. I really was disappointed to pay for something that I had to think extra hard about what the heck to do next.

Pattern: Snowflake stocking from Ann Norling #1020 ( I bought mine from my local yarn shop)

Yarn: berroco vintage (such nice soft washable yarn!) cream is patons wool

(look how nice that yarn is!!)

Oh, Happy December! We started up our advent calender yesterday! We also added in a new calendar where we get to do a Christmas related activity every day. Such fun so far!

McCall's 5925

2010-11-07T15:10:00.001-08:00

McCall's 5925

I set out to make version B with short sleeves. But then I realized that making myself a dress while I am nursing didn't sound very convenient. So I skipped the pockets and shortened the hem to more of a tunic length. This is a very loose fitting pattern and I felt that that combined with the brown/orange fabric just wasn't a good look. So I brought in the sides and added a fabric belt and I love the result. I still have to take the belt off to nurse but at least I am not hiking up my dress. I have worn this out and about twice now and I love it! It looks great with my farmer's market cardi too. The pattern also has lots of nice finishing techniques that hide most of the raw edges. This fabric frays like crazy. I found it in the shirting aisle at Joann's but after I got home I noticed it has some stretch to it and was heavier than I thought so really I have no idea what fabric this is other than that it is a polyester/rayon blend. Next time I go to Joann's I will have to hunt it down. But this fabric doesn't seem to wrinkle which is a huge plus to a lazy girl like me. I should be able to wear this tunic to work too...maternity leave is over tomorrow...oh the highs and lows of a working mom...

catch up

2010-10-20T04:50:00.010-07:00

holy moly, it's been awhile! Two kids are a lot of work! I have been sneaking in some crafting here and there. I also figured out how to knit during some nursings. I am working on another sweater for me, a tea leaves cardigan. I really don't know why I am making myself another sweater. All I want to wear is my farmers market cardi...those pockets! I am trying to prepare myself to get spit up and snotty nose drippings on it, it's going to happen. I am also glad Gregg knows me so well, I asked him if he was sick of my farmers market cardi yet (he even knows the name), he said he was fully aware he would see it often this year.

Anyway, I was in the middle of binding off Jane's little sister dress when I went into labor. So it needed minimal finishing after she was here. I made it shorter than the pattern called for so I think its more of a tunic or shirt sweater. She should be able to fit into it soon! (see rav page for details)

I sewed Lills a circle skirt from Made's tutorial. It was so fast and I was so happy to have everything for it on hand. It seriously took a half hour. Lills and I have big plans for a light weight denim skirt next.

Here is Jane at 5 weeks wearing one of her dresses.

and she got some baby legs, the tutorial I used before is no longer and I tried to remember but I think I made the bottom cuff too tight so not sure how long she can wear them but these are so easy for diaper changes. Gregg thought they were all style and no function until he changed a diaper then he was a huge fan.

but currently I am addicted to sewing big butt baby pants, more on that later!

Jane's Grammie Blanket!

2010-09-10T08:17:00.002-07:00

Thank you for all the nice wishes about Jane! We have been settling in as a family of four. Jane has been my little dress up baby, trying on all of the handmades on her! I am happy with most of them. I ended up not liking the fleece and wool diaper covers. They leaked pretty quick, as cute as they are I will stick with store bought PUL covers.

sweater described here

sweater described here

sweater described here

After the much anticipated Jane, I was very much anticipating seeing Jane's Grammie blanket!

My mom also made Jane's crib bumper. We chose different fabrics and I am in love with the two we chose and it still matches her blanket but not matchy matchy.

Thanks mom! We sure love them both!

Jane!

2010-08-18T04:58:00.002-07:00

Jane arrived last Friday! Yay for Jane! and us, she is a pretty rockin' baby to have around!

August 13, 2010
1:52am
7 lbs 12 ozs
20.5 in

Lills is so proud to be a big sister. We made this freezer paper stencil shirt a few weeks back.

farmers market cardi

2010-08-09T18:10:00.004-07:00

I am so incredibly happy with this knit. This sweater was a challenge for me! Many things about the pattern were 1st time attempts for me and that shawl collar!! Oh man, was that a doosey to figure out how to knit. But several rip outs and try agains later I got it right and I am so so so happy.

Last November, I scored the Patons yarn for this sweater from Micheals for $2.oo a skein! The sweater used exactly 6 skeins. And I mean exactly 6 skeins, I had to go buy a 7th for seaming! Can you believe that!?! so in total this sweater cost me about 16 bucks! This was my first time using Patons wool so I am a bit curious to see how it holds up with wear. This sweater was so much work that I should have thought about my yarn choice a bit more before diving in. I also wanted to knit this in a pretty pretty mustard color but made myself branch out a bit and pick this plumy color. A nice little addition of color to my wardrobe and I think my mustard crochet earrings would look really nice with it.

I do love it and am very much looking forward to some cool weather to wear it...while holding Jane in my arms!

Pattern: Farmers market cardigan, printed pattern in Interweave Knits Fall 2009; size 36 chest. (no mods; listed some suggestions/frustrations on my rav page)

Yarn: Patons classic wool in plum heather (6.2 skeins)

McCalls 6512

2010-08-03T08:36:00.007-07:00

I didn't end up sewing myself any dresses like I had planned now that we are just days away from Jane (!!!), I decided to wait and make dresses that fit me without the Jane belly. But I sure had fun getting back into pattern sewing for Jane. Two versions of McCalls 6512. This dress has a wrap top with so many ways to finish the bottom skirt.

corduroy with bottom ruffle version

simple red cotton version

There will be more many more! I made these two in the small size which is supposed to be 13-18 pounds. I was hoping the red cotton one would shrink in the wash so as Jane could wear it a bit sooner but I don't think it did at all. So I am trying my hardest to not make any more versions until we see if Jane is a chunk or a skinny minny. I would hate to make her the jean version that won't fit until next summer. but oh I can't wait to make that one! or the brown butterfly one! or the mix matched yellow one! or the cute little diaper covers to match!

butterfly mobile

2010-07-14T17:02:00.001-07:00

Jane isn't getting her own room for a bit. She is going to sleep in our room for the first few months. I think Lills stayed with us for 5 months and then she got the boot. Although she was sleeping through the night about 11 weeks, we just liked her near us. We used to wake up all the time to make sure Lilly was still breathing. I am guessing Jane might get the boot a bit earlier, that allure and nervousness of being first time parents might be gone. Waking up to all those sweet baby sleeping sounds in the night this time around might not be so sweet! Poor Jane, no room for now and already talking about her moving out! But she has an area carved out of our room for her stuff. Her changing table and clothes will be in this corner and she has a butterfly mobile to gaze at while getting her diapers changed. So I think she has it pretty good!

I used some of the same fabrics in her much anticipated Grammie quilt and added in a few others that seemed to go. I followed this tutorial but after trying to match up two butterflies and then iron them, I got smart and ironed the two fabrics together first before cutting once. Then I used my sewing machine to stitch down the group of them.

At first I liked the look of the hoop hanging slanted off the hanger (like in the tutorial) but I didn't like how the butterflies didn't have as much room as when the hoop was centered or maybe because I wrapped the hoop in muslin? So I might rehang the hoop off of the hanger but for now I am lazy so it will stay. But I do think that brick wall might be in need of some sort of decoration? perhaps a wall hanging?

ps. i keep getting these spam comments that make no sense and are basically directing to some not so nice websites, how can I stop this? I keep deleting them as they come in but that is getting really old. ideas?

pss. i watched Julie & Julia the other night. I so wanted to cook like crazy after that movie, kinda like the need for wine after Sideways, or chocolate after Chocolat. After the movie I checked out the Julie/Julia project blog, I wonder how many blogs there were in 2002 and now in 2010? I wonder what that blog would be like today, pretty pictures or no? She seemed to have been quite the entertaining writer, well I imagine you would have to be to get a book deal!

baby Jane's blanket

2010-07-12T16:44:00.003-07:00

a knitted comfy blanket for this baby in my belly. 6 weeks until we can wrap her up in it!

Pattern: baby love diagonal baby blanket, I went a few increases beyond the pattern to make it a bit bigger (rav notes)

Yarn: lionbrand cotton-ease in maize, azalea, and stone

Size: 39" x 39"

Her quilt made by Grammie is done but we won't have a chance to see that one until we see Jane herself. I can't wait to see both! August 22nd is sure coming fast this year!

matching ruffles

2010-07-07T03:48:00.001-07:00

I bought a couple yards of jersey knit fabric back in February thinking they would make great maternity skirts and pants. I saw this cute skirt on Cluck Cluck Sew and was so happy I was dragging my feet sewing up the jersey. Also, Lills was really into dresses and skirts and if they had pockets well that just made her day. So I asked her which material she would like and if she wanted me to make her a dress with pockets. She picked the coral fabric and I spent the weekend sewing a new skirt for me and a dress with pockets for her. (Truth be told, I made my skirt first, is that really selfish of me or what?) But Lills loved the ruffle on my skirt so I added that to her dress. Much to my surprise she loved her dress right away and when I tried it on her she didn't want to take it off even though the straps were way to long and the top of her dress was not covering up her chest, it looked more like a high skirt with suspenders. She didn't care and spent the rest of the day happily filling her pockets and twirling. When she went to bed, I fixed the straps and she has yet to wear it again! I can't get the sucker on her now, it has been a month but I will keep trying! Oh well! I didn't use a pattern for her dress, I measured her chest and then 2x the chest width for the skirt so it had proper twirling abilities.

As for my skirt, I LOVE it! It is so cool and comfy to wear. I did a knit stretchy band for the waist but it is a bit too big and skirt slips down or I have to wear it super high on the Jane belly so I might open it up and throw some elastic in it but other than that I just love it and that ruffle. Such a good idea to give the skirt something fun.

Last weekend, I hit up Joann's 4th of July sale and got some fun McCall patterns for Lills, Jane, and myself. Have you seen the movie Away We Go? Such a good movie and I loved all her maternity sun dresses (here is one and this one, not great pictures but you get the idea). Hopefully, I will get some fabric and make myself some dresses soon, only 7ish weeks left and my wardrobe is getting a tad thin and depressing.

addiction: cloth diaper covers!

2010-06-21T17:40:00.007-07:00

holy moly, this is an addiction. I am trying so hard not to head to goodwill and make this addiction really serious. I want to see how well these wool and fleece covers work with my diapers (and of course Jane) before I go crazy though. So I just used an old sweater of mine, a sad end to a nice sweater of Gregg's (accidental trip in the dryer), and some leftover fleece.

After I made the fleece ones, I was a bit concerned the fleece isn't of high enough quality to stop leaks. I read somewhere it is best to get polar fleece, like the stuff Northface jackets are made out of. The fleece I used is some cheap stuff from Joann's I got to make Lill's robe. So one cover has the extra soaker panel (see pattern link) sewed in and the other has a double layer of fleece for the whole body of the diaper.

I can't wait to see Jane's little chubby legs sticking through these holes!

The wool covers are off the charts cute! I was a bit confused on which way the grain of a knit garment would go. So I may have messed up there. I had to recut some of the waist and leg bands for what seemed to be a more stretchier band going against the grain or what I thought would be the grain. Does anybody know which direction the grain is in? I also didn't felt the grey sweater, remembering after the sewing was finished, that I had read that a small amount of felting is helpful. So I am wondering how the felted vs non-felted covers will fair.

Pattern: found here. genius, genius, genius!! what a fast and simple way to make a wool diaper cover! If you do this, make sure to read all the comments, there was some very helpful information in there.

Size: all newborn. I am waiting to make more in bigger sizes to see if I like what I did with these ones. I have just used diaper covers that are made out of PUL so I am very curious about using wool and fleece and making them for so cheap! Does anyone have experience with wool or fleece covers?

Just in case anyone asks, when Jane first comes, we got some kissaluv fitted diapers (pictured in the background above). We used these with Lilly and they worked so well for us. Easy to care for and excellent at containment! They do need a cover so hopefully these covers will work but we will buy some small PUL covers too just in case, those sure work great. When Jane gets older, we have a large stack of all in ones and chinese pre-folds. The all in ones were sort of a bummer to me, they leaked with Lills and I had to use a PUL cover with them, unless of course you changed them every hour which seemed completely crazy. The chinese pre-folds were my favorite from 3 to 6 months. We stopped cloth diapering Lills at 6 months because that is when she started daycare (not a cloth diaper friendly place) and solid food poo! yikes!!! Jane will start daycare at about 3 months, so we will have to wait and see what happens this time around. But we are hoping to go a bit longer this time, if it works for us. I do get asked why we like cloth diapering and I really can't answer it. I just like it!

baby saskia

2010-06-07T17:32:00.003-07:00

I have been loving all the crochet baby dresses that Alicia Paulson has been making up. Actually, all the dresses, she has been sewing up too. So when she put up a call to have some pattern testers, I signed up for any dress, any size, please count me in! I ended up with her Saskia dress in a 6 month size! Yahoo! a hippy dress for Janey!

It was such a nice break from knitting Jane's blanket, which has been a pretty long process but I just started on the 6th (out of 6) skein last night! So I hoping by the end of the week that project will be done, because several little things are waiting patiently. Working on this dress though, I did forget how quick crochet is compared to knitting, plus wee sized baby things = fast fast fast!

Pattern: Saskia dress; coming soon from Alicia Paulson

Yarn: Summer Linen DK in five colors: natural, taupe, kiwi, sky blue, steel blue

I tried the dress on a 9 month old neighbor. It was a bit long on her so I folded up the bottom and created a little hem with some slip stitches, a nice little border of color.

I really like this dress but I am wondering how the sleeves will work on Jane. They are super cute and wide just not sure how little Jane's arms will fair in there. I am guessing Jane will wear this in winter with a long sleeve onesie and tights! I can't wait! I wonder which sweater she will choose to wear with it??

carter's onesies

2010-05-26T04:11:00.001-07:00

I love Carter's onesies. They were my favorite for Lilly, favorite for gifts, and I am going a teeny bit crazy with them for Jane. They are so soft, thick, true to size, and the plain white are incredibly fun to decorate up. Recently, I have been loving dyeing the onesies before decorating. I use this simple method from Made (btw don't be lazy like me, I have found while the first onesie gets a pretty uniform dye job, trying to use the same dye water for a 2nd onesie usually creates a less than perfect dye job).

These orange ones (sunburst orange RIT powder dye) got their decorations from a paint brush and bleach. The "J" one has an "M" on the back for our last name.

I saw this idea from One Pretty Thing, decorating a onesie with a doily. I think that pink onesie might be my favorite! (pink dye is fuchsia and the brown dye is chocolate brown)

I let Lilly go to town on these two with fabric paint and a paint brush. The white one in the back she went crazy with and when it was covered to her satisfaction, she still wanted to paint. So I used freezer paper to protect most of the brown one. She mostly painted the freezer paper though so when she was done I just outlined the heart stencil so it would be clear what she was painting in.

I know I should probably love the ones that Lilly decorated for Jane the most but I can't get away from that pink one, I love it!

I just finished a super cute crochet dress for Jane. Lilly and I both agree, Jane will love it, it's blocking now!

Jane's feather and fan

2010-05-21T03:32:00.003-07:00

Holy moly, I can't believe I left this space quiet for a month. There has been lots keeping me busy and I just really haven't made time to be here. But crafting for Baby Jane has been non-stop, including her baby quilt being made by Grammie! My parents came for a visit last week and my mom and I went fabric shopping for Jane and oh my gosh, we LOVE it! Her quilt top is being constructed now, I can't wait to see it all done! Meanwhile, here is her new cardigan.

Pattern: Lille's baby cardigan see mods on my ravelry page

Yarn: berroco comfort

Do you like our new chair? This time of the year is the best around our apartment complex because we live in medical student, post-doctoral, and graduate student housing. So come mid-May all the graduates move out and leave their unwanteds next to the dumpster. The rest of us with time left all scour to see what we can save! One year we scored a stair climber! This year was the chair! I am in love. There is a spring coming out the bottom and some of the upholstery got too much love but nothing we can't work with. Plus, we can always give it back to the dumpster if we change our minds.

brown baby Jane

2010-04-15T16:47:00.006-07:00

Thank you for your well wishes on Baby Jane! Baby Jane got another sweater last week.

Pattern: raglan sleeve easy baby sweater (pattern here but I just went there and it seems to be a reported attack site now? so maybe enter at your own risk, yikes!; see mods on my ravelry page)

Yarn: less than one skein berroco comfort in brown

Baby Jane's pile of handmades is getting larger. I didn't craft too much for Lills as a baby especially because I had never attempted any crochet projects or a non rectangle knitted project, so I think I have every right to go baby crazy now.

Jenni: Gregg, what do you think of Jane's new sweater? (jumping up and down!)
Gregg: another sweater? really? You know she will be here in August right? It is really hot in August.
Jenni: But this one has short sleeves. Besides they all won't fit right away, some are for the fall. Plus, babies in sweaters = CUTE!
Gregg: well maybe you should stop now.
Jenni: too late...look how cute this next one is going to be!!!

So I keep going back and forth on the best way to sew buttons on a knitted or crochet project. I was trying to use the same yarn I knitted with but sometimes that is too think to get through the buttonholes more than once so lately I have been using embroidery floss that matches the buttons or project, what do you use?

Button shopping for this new blue sweater will have to wait though because Lilly and I are off to California on Monday! Yay! my sister! Disneyland! old friends! jiggity jig!

wondering, if she will like it

2010-04-05T03:42:00.009-07:00

I made a sweater for a certain baby girl. (great pattern (ravelry link to pattern) too, my first sweater pattern that I have worked in the round from the bottom up)

I also added some yellow buttons to the baby sophisticate, made quite some time ago will now be for that same little girl. I got that little sunny one piece to go with it.

This little onesie got embellished recently. I like it with the new sweater.

I sure hope Baby Jane likes them. She is coming in August, I guess we will just have to wait to ask her then!

ps. This is Lilly's favorite outfit so far for Jane.

pss. Let the baby Jane crafting begin!

Easter things

2010-04-02T17:04:00.002-07:00

Thank you for all you nice words on my clapotis! I have worn it everyday even in 70 degree sunnyness because well I just love it!

We have been working on a few Easter projects.

Lilly made this bird's nest (idea here) for our table top! (that springy table topper was made by my mom, it's her favorite new table topper pattern, I think I have 3 now all for different holidays!)

I had to make some Peeps bunting from Made. I really don't like to eat Peeps but that bunting kills me!

I absolutely loved LollyChops Wall of Flowers week. I have made a bunch of the flowers trying to do something fun in a frame with them but for now butterfly earrings! Such an easy crochet butterfly pattern, I made these for my co-workers birthday who actually asked me awhile back if I could make rainbow butterflies, thanks to LollyChops and her mom, I can now! I used a multi-color crochet thread size 10.

I hope you have a wonderful springy weekend. It is supposed to be the 80s here! Here's to popsicles, sun, and easter candy!

my gor-or-or-or-or-geous clapotis!

2010-03-29T16:57:00.002-07:00

That yummy yarn turned into my clapotis last week! Well it has been turning into it for awhile but I got it done last week. I feel like I haven't been making very many things lately but I guess it has just been some big projects taking up my time. I love this scarf/shawl. I really wanted to make a shawl, I love when other people wear shawls, they look so comfortable and cool (as in stylish, obviously they are rather warm and cozy). I am not sure how I look in a shawl though, I feel funny or like a fraud (no one has ever accused me of being cool, or maybe no one else thinks that people that wear shawls are cool, in which case I should fit right in!) Anywho, I can wear this as a scarf or a shawl so I am very happy I picked this pattern!

(sorry Auntie Joan, my posture is horrid, I will practice)

Pattern: Clapotis (see my mods on my rav project page)

Yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino

I love this yarn, LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I have about 200 yds left over, I have no idea what to do with that amount, any suggestions?

brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

2010-03-16T04:58:00.002-07:00

a baby quilt!

I knew I wanted to make my friend (whose baby popped yesterday!!) a unique baby quilt. (Well, unique for me in that I have never made something like this before.) They also weren't going to find out the sex of the baby so I wanted something very neutral. I came across the brown bear, brown bear fabric line...jiggty jig! I devised a quilt plan and ordered the fabrics accordingly. Then 5 months later, I got everything out, all happy I had a plan. But then I didn't like my plan and wanted something that looked more like a puzzle. So I came up with a new plan and added the yellow and green from my stash.

yes indeed, JIGGTY JIG!

I am not sure which animal is my favorite.

maybe the frog, he looks down right happy to be apart of the quilt, even though his bum is cut off

fabrics: all purchased from fabric.com: one brown bear panel, big animal brown bear fabric, orange and brown brown bear fabric, purple is from the hungry caterpillar line, multi color striped brown bear fabric line and finally yellow and green kona cotton

size: after washing 38" x 52"

pattern: 4 different quilt blocks, randomly placed around.

But I have fabric left over...OH NO! should I make another? um, yes please!

linky links

2010-03-08T16:28:00.002-08:00

hello knitting in the sunshine outside, I've missed you.

Nothing finished to share. I am dying to show you what is almost finished, crossing fingers to finish before bed tonight. I seriously can't wait but I need to ship it off to my friend before her baby pops. I don't think she checks this blog but just in case I want it to be a surprise for them. So I thought I would share some goodies that I have been enjoying...

for the belly! I am finally out of my cooking rut and have been loving these new recipes.
:: Indian butter chicken (AWESOME, Gregg absolutely loved this dish, it his new favorite indian dish I have made)
:: chana masala (we added bell peppers, can of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and coconut milk; no cayenne; this was my new favorite and Gregg's second fav, Lilly loved both new dishes)
:: maple butter granola (no sesame or sunflowers, extra almonds and pumpkin seeds with almond butter)
:: bombshell brownies, enough said
:: black bean soup, this was so good and quick, annoyed with myself for taking over a year to make it. Gregg was sick the night I made this, I still feel bad for him for missing out but I got extra leftovers for many happy lunches. Highly recommend the avocados on top, by the way.
:: mac and cheese, I made this for Lilly's birthday dinner. so worth all the fat and calories. (I didn't do the onion, bacon topping though)

for the ears!
:: Nicole first told me about This American Life. I fell for it, hard. I listen to the most recent episode on their website every week at work. A few weeks ago the story included an excerpt from RadioLab, this is hands down my new favorite show. It covers all sides of stories from a science perspective. Some shows have philosophy, statistics, biology, human experience and some stick to just one or two science aspects. But they all rock! I think my two favorite episodes so far are Parasites and Diagnosis. I have many more to listen to though! YAY!
:: Wait, Wait Don't Tell me, such good entertainment!

Do you have any radio programs you are addicted too? I need to know about them!

Lilly loves blue quilt

2010-02-26T04:53:00.001-08:00

(Nonni, do you see the clock?!)

Lilly asked me waaayyy back in September to make her a blue quilt. She has 3 very special blankets all made by very special people but none of them are blue. That is a big problem in Lilly's world. So when she asked for a blue quilt, I responded well let's ask Grammie to make it! but she said no no I want my momma to make it. Okay then! I wanted to make this quilt big so she could use it as her bed comforter (for some reason this chick keeps growing and has outgrown sleeping with her crib quilt from Grammie). I got her the first round (the first of many rounds) of blue fabric in September. It sat and sat. I couldn't decide on a quilt pattern. With some input from Grammie herself, I decided on this block pattern (pattern found from this flickr photo). But I didn't make the first block until Grammie was here at end of October. I made it and it was the most frustrating thing I have ever made. I gave up. Those blocks are too hard, the instructions aren't matching up to what I need to do. But Grammie was here! She thought about it for 2.2 seconds and said well just cut a smaller block. so I did and it worked! Lilly patiently waited for this quilt all through the fall and holidays. She helped me sew other quilts, quietly asking where her blue quilt was. Now here at the end of February, Lilly loves blue quilt is finished!!

Now this quilt wasn't necessarily hard but for some reason it just took all of my mental abilities to work through it. I kept not buying enough fabric, so before the 3rd trip to the store, I finally sat down and figured out the math on how much I would need (this took a whole night in itself and I had to go back again for the backing and the binding, durr!). I am so happy my mom was here to help me through that first block. I would have never continued with this pattern, I love how the top turned out. I kept learning with this quilt too. On the last 6 blocks, I finally realized the easiest way to cut the final block and have perfect matching middles. The other 29 block middles have issues but oh well, Lilly is 3, she won't notice for awhile.

I used kona cotton in aqua for the binding and leftover square fabric from the front for a nice line across the back. I really like the back.

I quilted it with straightish diagonal lines in both directions. Four lines down through each white section. I love how the quilting matches the design of the quilt top, I sure didn't plan that out, a very happy coincidence!

Do you want to know what Lilly said as I was tucking her in that first night with her new blue bed blanket? I asked her if she was comfortable and warm and she said yes my blue blanket is just so beautiful! I think that was the nicest thank you, I could have heard.

finished size: 51" x 72"; a bit big for her toddler bed but bigger is better.

oh that blue pillow on her bed? Grammie made that for her birthday!

the yellow one? my great grandma made for my sister and I. (and I have 5 more of those sunbonnet sues to use for just the right project)

It is crazy for me to think that when Lilly was born she had a pink and green room (my choice was green but Gregg insisted she have pink too, after all she is a girl, he said) and now she is old enough her room is really becoming her own. Her own colors, her own special things to sleep with, her own handmade mess...I wonder what her room will look like in another 3 years.

heart heart and a wiiiiinnnnnneeerrrrr!!

2010-02-19T03:54:00.005-08:00

Lills made some sweet hearts for her family's valentines. We followed this tutorial. Super easy and she just loved sticking her thumb in the clay. That one on the right below she did all by herself and we decided it was a wonderful little butterfly instead of a heart. The painting was equal happiness for Lills, success!!

Okay on to the giveaway winner! I used random.org generator. I couldn't believe the number it spit out...

1!?? For some reason the first and last numbers just don't seem to have equal chances to me, so to see a 1 made me believe that generator really is random!

and the winner is... Jennifer! She is actually my neighbor and one of the nicest people you can meet.

you can tell that by her answer, she really has nothing bad to say about anyone or anything including seasons! Congrats Jennifer, you crack me up!

Thank you for playing along with my little giveaway, it was FUN! Thank you Elena for letting me give your sweet calendar away, get your own here if you need one (and you sure do)!

gor-or-or-or-or-or-geous!!

2010-02-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love fate? Last week was my birthday and my mom surprised me with a gift certificate to my local yarn shop. I was ecstatic about having money to spend there and she said I had to only buy yarn to make something for myself, woot woot. I wasn't sure when I was going to spend the money though, I wanted to do research and really think about what I was going to make with this special yarn purchase. BUT then I received an email from the yarn shop reminding me of their BIG sale coming on Saturday. This BIG sale just happened to be postponed from the Saturday before my birthday due to the 1st huge snow storm we had. So I decided that the smartest thing would be to go on Saturday and get my money's worth. I narrowed down my yarn want list to a two sweater patterns that called for the same weight of yarn and same amount and I also really wanted some sock yarn to make a shawl. I made it to the shop and squeezed into a parking space, it was packed! as I am sure you know sales at quilt and yarn shops NEVER happen! I walk in but I can't remember what the sale is exactly. So I ask a fellow yarn lover and she said everything is 40%!!!!!!! off except the yellow tag items (mostly just noro and dream in classy were not on sale). ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!! (jiggity-jig) I was able to get some delicious yarn for some special projects. First my sweater yarn, berroco ultra alpaca in the most beautiful pea soupy green color,

hello future sweater, I already love you.

Then, THEN, I got the most gorgeous yarn ever!!
hello, lover...

I can't stand how pretty, soft, and wonderful this yarn is. And it was all 40% off!! If it hadn't been my birthday AND more importantly if that ~~nasty~~ wonderful snowstorm hadn't have postponed that BIG sale. I would have only been able to get one of these projects but that good old fate got me two projects instead!

I have now tossed that annoying sweater aside (I have no idea why I am annoyed with it, but I am just not enjoying it)

and casted on that gorgeous yarn for the clapotis scarf. I really like this pattern because I can wear it around my shoulders or my neck but I will probably use the neck way more.

ps. you can still enter my little giveaway until Thursday night!

pss. sorry I was a little long winded about my exciting yarn shopping, Gregg clearly didn't understand how exciting getting all that yarn was and I knew you would. I know you know what I am talking about...the sale and the lack of spouse excitement.

This Calendar Could Be Yours!!!....

2010-02-11T16:41:00.004-08:00

I have to admit this is my first giveaway here at Simplebeans. I remember when I first started reading crafty blogs, I just couldn't get enough of the giveaways. But then it just seemed like so many blogs turned into giveaway blogs and I missed old craft talk. So I decided I would stay away from giveaways here BUT a little post office mishap is going enable me to share with you, so a giveaway it is!

Early in January, I went on the hunt for a pocket calendar. I just love them for keeping appointments straight. (I have never gotten used to using my phone for my calendar although clearly this would make sense). I used to get a nice little calendar as a holiday present from work but I think cutbacks did away with those, so I turned to Etsy. I found Elena's Nature's Cubbyhole shop. She had tiny little calendars with all sorts of customizations to make the calendar mine. AND it was completely affordable! So I ordered mine up with all sorts of pretty details. Elena was incredible at communicating with me for the last details on my calendar and then let me know when she shipped it off. So I eagerly awaited my calendar. and waited. I thought it got lost in the mail so I just kept waiting to be sure it wouldn't show up the moment I emailed Elena. Well, 2.5 weeks later, I still didn't have my calendar. I emailed Elena and she immediately worked on a 2nd calendar. She emailed me to say it was off and wouldn't you know the very next day I got the first calendar!! darn postal service!! Needless to say I have two calendars, and Elena was so nice to allow me to share the 2nd one with one of you! Because it is customized for me, I hope you like fallish colors and pretty stamped trees on the front!

I am showing you the details of mine because I wanted to keep Elena's pretty packaging in place for you.

each month is a different color and has plenty of room to write

This Calendar could be yours or (yours to give to a loved one in desperate need of a pocket calendar)!

Isn't that nice?!! The calendar is perfectly little, it fits right in my wallet. Thank you so much Elena!

Ok, the goods. Please leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite season of the year is, mine is FALL! I will leave the comments open until next Thursday (February 18th, hey that is my sis's birthday!) night and randomly pick a winner on Friday. If your email is not hooked up with your comment, please leave someway I can contact you, (a blog or whatever just don't make me work too hard).

Oh, and let me know if you have a little girl in your life because I might throw in a surprise gift!

happy commenting!! But if you don't win be sure to go check out Elena's shop for your own calendar or these cute gift cards, or this sweet card, or any of her art work....

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering!!

heart bread stamping

2010-02-10T17:40:00.003-08:00

OH MY GOSH! The snow around these parts is just INSANE! We still had snow from last weekend and we got another foot today but this time the wind came too and the weatherman said we had "blizzard-like" conditions. nice. Secretly, I have always been interested to experience a blizzard because of reading about them in Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Although, my experience looking out from my warm house into not really a blizzard compared to what she experienced was clearly not the same, it was nonetheless completely romantic to think about. I hope you don't think I am nuts, but I just loved those Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

Speaking of love, Lilly made valentines for her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I wanted to do some heart sponge stamping but eeeek! we didn't have any sponges. Lills was pumped to do some painting so we came up with cutting a heart out of a heel piece of bread. To make it easier for Lills to handle, we hot glued the cap from our laundry detergent container to the back of the bread heart.

This actually worked so much better than I thought it would. She got a solid 10-15 minutes of painting before the bread starting to break down and leave chunks on the paper, I think that was also her attention span time so we were all good!

We took advantage of our snowed in day, today, and worked on her valentines for her friends and classmates, she choose these turtles and bee ones. cute and free!

THREE

2010-02-08T17:27:00.001-08:00

Lilly's last handmade present was a birthday shirt!

THREE appliqued candles. She really liked wearing her shirt and celebrating her birthday in general. However, the cape didn't go over so well. She put it on for 2 seconds once but I am guessing one day she will like it. Oh well, considering the amount of presents she got, they all can't be winners, now can they?

We had a small party for her this past weekend. She asked for a blue party, the kid loves blue. At first I thought oh, wow, that is such a unique idea and then as I went shopping for it, I thought how easy is this??!!

We hung up balloons and tissue paper pom poms along side the celebration bunting (she was a little upset about the lack of blue in the bunting). For the tissue paper pom poms, I followed the directions but I made them much smaller by cutting the tissue paper in half for two of them and in a quarter for one of them. So I had 8 sheets per pom pom but I only used 10 full sheets of tissue paper total. I had grand plans to sew take home bags for the kiddos to fill up with party goodies and then later use to store their special trinkets and treasures but time got away from me and I surrendered to boring ol' brown gift bags. oh well.

For activities, we played with slime which ended up being more like gak but equally as awesome. I used this recipe. Super simple and the party goers enjoyed it. We gave it all out as party favors at the end too.

We also made candy bracelets from twizzler tubes and any ring candy I could find. I wanted it all to be blue but no luck. I think the kids were a little confused on if they were supposed to eat it or wear it. I would have ate mine though.

A successful birthday!

3 year old preps

2010-02-03T17:03:00.001-08:00

Lilly is turning THREE on Friday. I am so dang excited! I have been looking forward to celebrating her birthday for weeks. However, I am not going too crazy on the homemade front for gifts. I think just three homemade gifts, one of which I already gave her.

balloon hair clips! after she saw this blue balloon she asked for a green one too. Then she made me chase her around for pictures.

She hasn't seen this gift yet but she told me she wanted a blue cape, thus Superhero Lilly!

I have made this cape a couple times for gifts and it really is a great little gift to make. pattern here. The last little gift I still need to go make!

happy garland

2010-01-28T17:19:00.002-08:00

All the pretty stars strung across my living room makes me happy! And as I look around my living room now, I see this garland, a pom-pom wreath, and some circles! Together they make me insanely happy!

*twinkle granny stars made from this pattern*
*the gorgeous quilt made by mom*

amazed

2010-01-21T17:09:00.000-08:00

Aren't you all amazed by all the giving that blogland, craftiness, and technology can create? Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop has been doing just incredible, over $20,000 so far. When Morgan Moore ran the NieNie Benefit Sale Etsy shop last last fall, I remember being so amazed then. But this Haiti effort has been just phenomenal! I can't imagine all the time that the ladies behind the scenes must have spent and even with such attention to detail. Beki, who listed my donations, was so nice. She emailed me to let me know when my tutorial was listed and kept relisting more and more as it sold and let me know when those were up. I just couldn't believe that she would take the time to tell me when it was up. I figured I would just see it listed myself. I purchased a "charm bracelet" quilt pattern. I just love that design, actually all of Kate's designs look amazing. How generous is she?, she must have donated at least 100 quilt patterns to the shop. Her patterns kept selling and they kept relisting them like crazy!

I am not sure when I will get to make a quilt from her pattern though. I think I mentioned I have two big projects in the works, a sweater for me and a quilt for Lills. The sweater is getting insanely boring. It was too the point that I was getting mad at it while knitting. and well that poor quilt has been in the works since October. I think I finally have all the fabric I need for it and now I just need the motivation. So ignoring these big projects, I have been having the best time crocheting!

Dani got me hooked (haha) on making some earrings.

I used this pattern and a mustard colored embroidery floss. I have an obscene about of crochet thread (from all those socks) but I was craving this mustard color. and no joke I have worn these for almost two weeks straight (they're on now)!

Dani mentioned to look on Rav for more patterns, hello, that is a great idea! so I did. I made a pair like this (rav link) in purple for my sister's birthday. I am unsure now if she will like them, so I think I will take a picture and just ask her. I wanted to make a bunch more but I ran out of old lame earrings to swipe the earring wires from. BUT I just bought a big bag of earring wires from Joann's last weekend so I will be able to get busy with that soon.

In the meantime I have been decorating. I was so proud of myself for actually getting the silhouettes hung but then I was bummed because the wall looked boring...well no more!

this picture by LolaNova and this one inspired me to no end!

I used Lucy's flat circle pattern and this potholder pattern just with less rounds.

and now I am addicted to making granny stars again!

...Although I must say, I feel a bit guilty being so fortunate in having "problems" like a boring wall or a knitting project that I really just want to stomp on...

for mom

2010-01-07T17:07:00.001-08:00

I am glad I have some Christmas crafting saved up to share because I have been moooving s o o o s l o w. I started a new sweater for myself with some patons wool that I scored in November for 2 bucks a skein!! But I really haven't been in the mood to craft much and I even have been watching tv and just sitting there...nothing in my hands. crraazy. Gregg is slightly freaked out.

Anyway, I made two small gifts for my mom.

a cowl.

my mom doesn't like the feel of wool at all even the softest most wonderful wool will feel like velcro against her skin. I branched out a bit with the color for my mom because my dad is obsessed with the color blue (even more than Lills) so I usually stay away from blue for my mom so she can get a break from it. But I thought this bright blue with her signature yellow would be nice for her.

pattern: Ilean (rav link)
yarn: Araucania Nature Cotton

and Hazel the Hedgehog

hedgehogs remind me of my mom because Rigger (her dog that passed away last spring) used to love playing with his hedgehog toy, the toy's name was Hoggie. She still had a brand new Hoggie that she hadn't given to Rigger yet. I thought Hoggie and Hazel could sit together and watch over my mom while she sewed. Hazel also has my grandma's favorite colors on her.

Pattern: pieces here
Decorations: I liked the look of Lollychops girl hedgehog but didn't have those flowers she used so I used a simple crochet flower pattern to decorate her. The flowers were made mostly with crochet thread, the cream flowers were made with berroco alpaca light.

steggie!

2010-01-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

I have a couple more Christmas handmade gifts but I just had to show you what I finished. Lilly's Steggie!

I got to do some new techniques with this sweater and it was really challenging. A zipper into a knitting garment, new for me. I like what I did but it could be a lot better with a longer zipper and less stretch to the sweater. But it works great. I got the zipper from zipperstop.com, and I sure will again! they have tons of colors in all kinds of zippers. Joanns was seriously lacking in the plastic separating zipper department.

I have never done sleeves like this pattern called for before, it seemed very backwards and it was complicated keeping all the yarn untangled. But it was okay until I seamed up the sleeve. It looks terrible! not at all like the pattern picture showed. I think it may have been my poor skills though because looking at other sweaters made with this pattern didn't seem to look as poor as mine. I did like adding the scales after the fact to the hood. That to me looks crisp and well done. So if I ever made this sweater again, I would try and figure out how to make the sleeve look like the hood.

Despite my issues, Lilly LOVES her sweater. I have never seen her so gaga over something I have made her before. She was straight up yelling at me to get the zipper in place. (She couldn't understand that I needed to look up how to do that). This sweater is really thick which probably isn't a good thing with how sweaty she gets (takes after her dad for sure). She wore it to school today which made me bust my buttons because she got a lot of new sweatshirts for Christmas and I let her pick her own clothes in the morning.

rarrrr! (I love looking at the finished steggie projects in Ravelry, most of the kids are acting like dinosaurs and generally being awesome in their sweaters!)

Pattern: Steggie
Yarn: impeccable loops and solids in aqua and vanna's choice in eggplant and burnt orange (i think)

for Gregg

2010-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! We were super dull last night but we did mange to stay up until 1130. I know, woot woot. We watched the movie Funny People. loved it!

This was a super secret undercover gift project. As I am sure you know, making a quilt is pretty time consuming and trying to do this without the recipient knowing who also happens to live in your house is pretty darn complicated. Luckily, Gregg works a lot and he had a couple of on-call nights. A couple of the on call nights he got off earlier than expected, I was trying to sound excited when he called saying he was coming home, but really I was frantically hiding all the evidence. There was also one Saturday morning when he went off to study and I shamelessly stuck Lilly in front of the TV with breakfast then ran back to my sewing machine. All of that sneaking around paid off. On Christmas morning, he had NO idea!

Gregg did almost all of his undergrad and then stayed on to receive his masters at University of Oregon. He is in love with Oregon. He will always be a Duck fan at heart.

He is now a med student at Penn State. He loves med school here. I thought it would be fun for his blanket to have a little bit of both.

Details: He loved this blanket so much that I did the Oregon side much like it with big random rectangles of fabric. I quilted it long lines that are not straight at all in gray thread and binded it in kona cotton in coal. I really like how the gray looks with both sides.

Size: 48 x 62

What a great day to snuggle with his blanket too as both teams have their bowl games today!

Santa's present

2009-12-29T14:04:00.001-08:00

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. It was our first one as a family at home. Well I guess Gregg and I spent Christmas alone when I was pregnant with Lills on bedrest, but as you can imagine it was less than exciting. This year was so much fun! I had wanted to make tamales on Christmas Eve but I couldn't find any of the essentials at the grocery stores so we ended up with a mexican feast featuring tacos. It was really good and I am guessing a lot less work. Then for Christmas my dad sent us a turkey from the honey baked ham company. It was amazing and again a lot less work because it was already precooked, we just had to heat it up and make some sides. Lilly and I made gingerbread cookies for Santa, this gingerbread recipe is amazing.

Santa brought Lilly a garden!

When I started asking Lilly what she wanted to ask Santa for for Christmas. She had no idea really what or who Santa was so I started making suggestions of things she might like from him. She seemed most excited when I mentioned expanding her play kitchen with a garden.

Santa was utterly and jaw dropperly inspired by Homemade by Jill's felt playhouse. That playhouse is something else, all the details she used, I can see why Santa was so inspired by her. Fortunately for me, Santa knew that our dining room table also serves as my sewing table so making a whole playhouse would mean I would have to share and he knew that was not going to happen. So he decided on a single panel garden to place next to her kitchen.

When Lilly and I were working on her letter to Santa, we were drawing what the garden might contain some things I suggested and others she suggested, a pumpkin, green beans, and a yellow "baby" (spaghetti squash) were a must in her book.

(the veggies and flowers are in pockets)

(the fruit, birds, and butterfly are all attached with velcro)

One day when Lilly and I were in the real kitchen we both had our aprons on she noticed that I had a hook to hang my apron on and she did not. She asked me if Santa might bring her a hanger for her apron too. um, an organized play area? yes, Santa please bring one! That darn guy also thought having two bags to hold all her plates, cups and play food would be a good idea too.

Santa had the BEST time making her garden. Each part was so much fun to work on. And even though he barely finished it before heading out on Christmas Eve it was just not a stressful project.

So far Lilly seems to really enjoy it. She is very into telling stories so Gregg and I have used the garden and the new play food in our stories. She likes to cook for us and now will go to the garden to pick us food!

our stockings are hung

2009-12-21T17:54:00.002-08:00

(yay! I was able to use the stocking hanger from last year!)

now to make it through until Christmas! I don't know who is more excited in our house. Gregg and I have never made it until Christmas to exchange presents and while a few have slipped out (all by accident) we each have surprises still! Of course that little girl that lives around here is pretty pumped and hoping for a "garden" from Santa!

Only one more day of work then I am off to enjoy the holidays! see you after the festivities. Happy Holidays to you!

friendly knits

2009-12-18T15:17:00.001-08:00

I had two friends ask me recently to knit them each an item. They were both looking to buy something and then thought of asking me instead. Isn't that nice? I was really touched that they would think of and trust me. I had a great time knitting their requests, especially because I got to try out some new fun yarn!

Request #1:

Kristina asked me knit her son a hat. She saw the ones I was obsessed with recently and asked for one like that. I ended up not using that hat pattern because I had such a hard time making the hat big enough in the first place and Kristina said her son's head was a BIG one. So I went with the large adult size hat in Last Minute Knitted gifts, Kim's hats (rav link). I made it with just as many stitches cast on but just knit it an inch or two short of the adult length because well he has a big head and my yarn was worsted instead of aran or bulky. It fits him!

yarn: berroco comfort

Request #2:
Kristin asked me to knit her a cowl/neck warmer (btw, she makes gorgeous baby stuff and well just about everything really, she just expanded her line, go see!). She wanted something that she could keep on all day and not get in her way. Kristin and I have very similar tastes when it comes to colors so the yarn was pretty easy to pick out and oh man this stuff is so soft and luscious. I loved knitting with it (and taking the pictures). I modified this pattern to account for my bulky yarn choice (see rav for mods). All this needs is a button. Kristin is going to go button shopping(!) and decide where she wants to place it.

Pattern: Dear
Yarn: alpaca with a twist big baby

Knitting this for Kristin made me realize I need to make myself a cowl that is super warm. My scarf just isn't cutting it most days. That wind chill can find its way right down to my neck. I have some left over malabrigo chunky yarn from my stocking and I do love that green.

Thanks for the requests ladies!

Don't worry I did both of these projects in the past few weeks so currently I am working away in Santa's workshop. The big man is pleased with my progress!

mountain baby blanket round 2!

2009-12-15T17:47:00.004-08:00

a boy version. I won that pack of I-spy quilt blocks from Lyanna, after sorting them into boy, girl and neutral, I was able to use just over 50 of them in this quilt for a boy.

I think almost every quilt I work on I think to myself during construction, oh man this is not going well, those seams are crooked, those colors are silly, why can't you cut a straight line, the self talk goes on and on. And then when it is all said and done, I am always pleased with the final quilt. All that stress about design and unevenness just don't bother me after the quilt has a nice trip in the wash. This quilt was no exception, I was so hating it but after quilting and binding I was in love.

I think I had such a hard time liking this one from the beginning because this is my first quilt using I-spy fabrics, the randomness of the colors was really hard for me to deal with. It just looked so messy but like I said I really like the finished product. I used a brown sheet for the backing and gray thread to quilt wide random vertical lines. So this and the girly quilt are off to warm some babies in the mountain baby project! yay!

finished size: 49" x 49"

so now I can focus on a little project for Lills. Santa sent word from the workshop that I am way behind schedule! yikes!

a robe and the mountain baby blanket project

2009-12-10T03:47:00.001-08:00

One present checked off Lill's list! And it was something she has been asking for for months. a blue robe. I wear a robe all the time, they are just so cozy and warm, Lilly decided she wanted to be cozy and warm too and she is really into matching outfits.

pattern: see and sew 4635
material: plain old blue fleece

It is a little big on her, I ended up having to try it on her, but I think it should be okay after I took in the top around the front band and shortened the sleeves. I will probably let her open this a few days early. I am a bit worried that she is going to be overwhelmed with all the presents she is going to get and I want her to really enjoy each one as she opens so we are thinking of giving her our gifts spread out in the few days before Christmas. But maybe that is part of the fun for kids on Christmas being completely overwhelmed with presents!

Another thing completed, a blanket for the mountain baby blanket project! Nicole and I worked on this one together. We choose to do a rag time quilt so we could each complete squares and sew them into strips long distance then I sewed all of our strips into a real live blanket and cut up the seam allowances for the raginess. I think it is quite pretty. The colors really pop and it is such a nice cuddly blanket. Nicole choose the color palette and she used all the really fun prints. Who cares if our seams don't match so that the last row had to be cut off to make it all match, as Nicole said "I am proud of us!"

back:

Pattern: this tutorial, we cut our fabric squares 8", batting 6", 80 blocks
Size: 60" x 48"

I have been slooooowly working on another mountain baby blanket. I really want both of these quilts to be sent in time for the babies to be warm at Christmas so hopefully I can bust a move on it this weekend.

joy

2009-12-07T17:03:00.002-08:00

We put up our Christmas decorations this weekend. such fun thinking of the memories of each treasured ornament. In decorating, I came across this wall hanging:

I completely forgot I had made this. I think I forgot because I wanted to improve on the next one I did but clearly now I am not going to make another one. I was inspired by this wall hanging, frankly I am inspired by everything she makes. I used heat and bond to seal the squares of the wreath to the backing fabric and then stitched two circles around the squares to give it a wreath feel. I also stitched "joy" with my machine. I think next time I will use thicker thread, like quilting cotton or maybe go over it a couple times, just so the letters stand out more. I really like the idea of these little decorative quilt pieces or even just a fun block pattern to try out but not make a whole quilt.

I finished a present for Lilly this weekend, hopefully the weather will perk up to get a photo to share!

granny stars and an anniversary

2009-12-02T21:10:00.001-08:00

granny stars!

(tutorial here and used her "edit") aren't they awesome?!?! I have big plans for these, BIG. But first these will go on our tree. I did spray starch them so my points would be proper star points. I just can't get enough of granny crochet lately. I have all these wants but I need to hold off until after Christmas. I will say I figured out how to spice up our silhouettes and I am excited to get to it!

So two good friends of mine met in graduate school. They fell in LOVE. big time love and got married last September! The Mrs. is extremely crafty and she did SO MUCH of the details for the wedding herself. A total DIY wedding. Sadly, we couldn't attend the wedding but she posted on her blog most of the projects she did for the wedding. It was almost like we were there. If you are planning a wedding, I HIGHLY recommend you go to Nicole's blog and look at her wedding crafts (her wedding was also featured on style me pretty), like I said she did a lot and she has a great style. One of the projects she wanted to do was a wedding quilt as a form of a guest book. She had all the guests sign a piece of muslin and then one of her good friends and bridesmaids sewed them into a gorgeous quilt top. Well I will just let you read about the project here but that good friend of the new Mrs. asked ME to help! I was so excited that she asked me. Like I said I am still sad we couldn't attend the wedding or really help in anyway with all the DIYness, so I was extremely happy I could help with this wedding project. Thus an anniversary quilt was born...

Jess made a gorgeous quilt top and then I quilted it up. I was very nervous to quilt it, I really thought and thought how to go about it and how not to mess it up! Go read on Nicole's blog about the quilt and see more pictures. Happy Anniversary Nicole and Grant!!

if you are getting married you should do a wedding quilt too!

p.s. I think there were 5 couples that are married now but when each of us started grad school in the University of Oregon's physiology department we were single. We all found a fellow graduate student or even an undergrad that sparked that little something in us. (in my case it was a very hunky undergrad) If you are into physiology and are single, I highly recommend University of Oregon's grad program!

Happy Advent Day!!

2009-12-01T14:24:00.001-08:00

I am so excited to start the advent calendar today! Last fall my big project was this advent calendar. I am still really happy with how it turned out and Lills is going to be even more into it as compared to last year. She might even get that we only do one ornament a day, last year I remember she wanted to keep putting one up after the other. If I have time I would like to put up a border around the whole thing and redo one or two ornaments but I have so much other things I want to do I will probably never do those things (such as life with a craft addiction).

I feel a little bad that I ripped on my ornament wreath the other day. I got so many nice compliments on it. I felt I should expand on why I don't love it. Basically, the tutorial called for 80 ornaments, I only had 40. So I needed to make my wire hanger circle smaller which was super hard to do. I couldn't get the wire hanger to close tight enough, in comes Gregg with muscles. He got it closed but also broke two ornaments off. I didn't want either of us to try to get it to close tighter, in case of more broken ornaments, so there is a silly looking gap at the top. Also because the circle is smaller, the hanger is off to one side (looks like a decoration from whoville). If I could make a good, big, proper bow the gap wouldn't be a big deal but my bow making skills are so sad. I can just do a regular bow so I did that and wrapped ribbon to hide the hanger. And since the hanger is off to the side I hung it up just under the bow. I do love the actual wreath just not what I did to the top. Anywho, this is a great project and for those of you who loved it, you should really make one. It is super simple aside from my problems. And like I said Lilly loved helping me with it, so it is kid friendly too.

(those two blue ornaments are killing me, Lilly wanted it like that...kid, ever heard of symmetry?)

Happy Advent Day!

want to make list: christmas crafts

2009-11-29T18:48:00.004-08:00

A nice long weekend with cooking, eating, shopping (Joanns was everything I was hoping for on Friday!), playing, and crafting! It is official...Christmas crafting has begun!

(she really was having fun, that is her concentration face)

Lills and I worked on this ornament ball wreath. The tutorial is great but I don't love our final product. I needed more ornaments, I only got half as many as the tutorial suggested (I didn't see that before I went to the store) but it was fun for Lills and I to do this together and we got all the ornaments from the dollar store which it made it cheap.

This list will grow and grow with all the new ideas around blogland for the season...Yay!!

for the tree

wooden ornaments
stuffed house ornaments
felted tree ornaments
snowflakes
crochet birdies
felt birds
granny stars (done!)
granny trees (done!)
polaroid ornament

for the wall

ball ornament wreath (done)
pom pom wreath (done and just for everyday!)
framed trees
crochet garland

for the table

table runner (no need my mom made me one!)

I hope you had a long weekend too!

turkey cards

2009-11-25T05:21:00.001-08:00

Not too much to share in the way of finished crafts for me this week. I am knitting away on a sweet sweater for Lills. We sat together looking at possible sweater candidates and she died with excitement for this steggie sweater. I have the back and two fronts done, next up are the sleeves but I need to get some yarn for the scales. A few more blanket blocks are also in the works for the Schuyler Blanket Project. I am also planning my attack on Joanns and possibly Michaels for Friday. I have had my wish list ready for weeks, now to sit down and see what is actually on sale!

Lills made some turkey cards to send to our family but of course we are late and they are just getting mailed out today. She was such a little rock star with this project. We got the idea here but instead of that cool painting technique, we were lazy and cut circles(ish) from past art projects for the turkey body. We showed her how the turkey needed feathers, a head, and legs and she took it from there. Is it wrong that I wrote in the card that the crazy looking thing on the front was in fact a turkey?

wishing you a happy Thanksgiving! I think the Christmas craft season is officially ON on Friday, don't you?

sophisticate and pom poms

2009-11-20T05:09:00.004-08:00

I was itchin' for a cute quick baby knit. the baby sophisticate!

so wonderful this little pattern (Rav download link) and quick quick quick I tell you! I started last Friday and it was blocking by early Sunday. and nope I didn't even ignore my family to get it done that quick. I am not going to add buttons for awhile, I have no idea what sweet baby will be gifted with this so I will hold off on the buttons. Lilly wants one for her baby doll, "my baby not have a sweater, you make her one?" yeah right kid.

(I bound off too tight! dang it, I am always too loose and the one time loose is good...)

The yarn (cascade eco yarn) came from the flower shirt I was working on for Lilly. It was first going to be a flower baby dress, then I realized that the dress would be way too big for a baby so I made it a shirt for Lill's but no way that was going to fit her for like 10 years so I decided to make myself a shirt (yes that is how big it was!) but then I was going to run out of yarn. So I decided to find another project for this yarn. I still have a bit left not sure what it will be enough for though. I still want to make that cute little baby dress just cast on less stitches. I got gauge for the project I just need to be better about measuring my project and thinking about who it is for.

okay on to the pom poms!! I think there are about 40 or so pom poms on this thing. I stopped counting and I am SICK of making pom poms and the fuzz oh all the fuzz that is around my house. I have been too lazy to vacuum and that fuzz is everywhere! As soon as a vacuum and I feel like making pom poms again, I am going to do this with them. Isn't that the prettiest?! We are sending all our Christmas presents home this year since we aren't traveling, and I think those pom poms would hold up so well to shipping not like big ribbon bows. okay anyway back to the real pom pom project...

doesn't it have a lovely 80s log cabin feel? I think all those shaggy pom poms and those wonderful colors give off that vibe. (I am serious about those colors, I love them). I still like it, even more than me though is Gregg. He freakin' loves it. I really like when he likes what I make. At first I added a few pom poms in different spots around the wreath and I really liked the look of a few bright pom poms with the soft muslin wrapped wreath. I might try another one with less pom poms. I used almost 5 skeins for vanna's choice in brick, olive, kelly green, terracotta, and pea green. I think mustard would have been really nice in there too. Actually, I had planned on making this for Christmas but when I got to the store I just couldn't help get wonderful everyday colors. anyway, tutorial here!

Have a good weekend! Are you doing what we are?: Thanksgiving grocery shopping! Lilly's daycare is having a Thanksgiving party today with ALL the fixin's, we are bringing yams covered in butter and brown sugar. The cook started roasting the turkeys in the wee morning hours, I bet it is going to smell really good in there when I drop her off!

coziness

2009-11-17T02:29:00.004-08:00

a few cozy knitting projects

:: mittens for my girl in her signature blue color.

She loves them. She really likes that they match her hat. Whew, she wears both now! I think there is something penquiny about her thumbs. I think next year I might try a different pattern for her.

Pattern: family of mittens from Holiday Knits
Size: smallest child size
Yarn: lion brand pound of love in denim

::Flip Top mittens for me!

I love these babies. See the mods on my raverly page.

Pattern: bulky flip top mittens
Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky Tweeds in earthy brown

::and finally an apple cozy!

I really love my apple cozy. I wash and dry my apple at home and then at work my apple is ready to go and bruise free! I think this would make a great gift but I can't think of anyone that I know for sure packs apples around. Gregg does and but I already asked and he declined an apple cozy.

Pattern: apple/pear cozy
Yarn: noro kureyon

I am knee deep in a pom pom project now. I can't wait until its done, so excited!

Crochet Heart Ornament Pattern: UPDATE

2009-11-12T16:09:00.002-08:00

I had a few requests for the heart ornament pattern to be written in a chart format. I can barely read crochet chart patterns let alone write one. After months of putting it off I finally did it and I think it will make a heart! I hope it will make you hearts and it is not just made up jibberish. All you expert chart readers please let me know if I can improve it at all.

other views of this chart can be found here. I should say that the large circle the stitches surround is indeed the 4th chain from the hook I just made it huge to write all the stitches around it. Geez I hope this makes sense!

Again, as stated in the original post with the pattern, the beginning of this heart is not my pattern it comes from Suzie's Crochet, post here. I made sure to ask her if it was okay to post the pattern here and lucky for us she agreed! Yay! happy crocheting!

this heart is going on our Christmas tree, I have so many plans for ornaments this year. But I am not doing any supply shopping until Black Friday. I get just giddy thinking about all the deals that Joanns and Michaels will have. I can't wait for the sale flyers to come in the mail!

my stocking!

2009-11-09T16:21:00.001-08:00

I did a snowflake pattern around the top. Although my idea of the snowflake did not get into my chart pattern. I forgot to add two rows in for the horizontal middle. Lilly said they look like spiders. Nothing screams Christmas like little white spiders!

Pattern: Traditional Christmas Stocking in Holiday Knits

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Chunky in lettuce and natural

Mods: detailed on my Rav page.

I am so glad I started these stockings last summer. All three are done and waiting for December 3rd to decorate, the official green light for Christmas decorating.

Schuyler Blanket Project

2009-11-08T17:17:00.001-08:00

apple pattern (the music note pattern is on that same site)

I just became apart of the following group on ravelry. I heard about this group by total coincidence. I had a nice comment from a blogger whose name I hadn't seen before. I tried to email her back to say thank you for her comment but her email wasn't linked up to her comment so then I went to her blog to leave her a comment. At her blog I came upon her own sad story and learned about the Schuyler Blanket Project (rav link):

“The Schuyler Blanket Project:

Group to make blankets for parents who have lost their children in childbirth or early infancy, and to provide them with a tangible symbol of support and love.

The Schuyler Blanket Project began life as The Tammany Blanket Project, as a group of Ravelers came together to provide support for Tammany, a fellow Raveler who lost her baby girl less than an hour after she was born. Members of this group created a blanket for Tammany by making individual squares, providing her with a warm soft hug that she can wrap up in on the bad days.

The original Tammany Blanket is complete, and Tammany herself requested that we carry that mission forward in baby Schuyler’s memory to create blankets for other bereaved families and to provide them with comfort and love. Do you have the time and heart to make a few squares for a blanket that can change a family’s life? Please join us and see how a few hours on your part can bring light and love to a family who is experiencing their darkest hours.”

My heart goes out to these other woman and families that have lost their babies. We found out our baby had died at 13.5 weeks into the pregnancy but some of these women just have awful stories...loosing babies after 40 weeks of pregnancy, miscarrying their first baby, finishing the pregnancy knowing their baby wouldn't be able to survive outside the womb, loosing teenager children...stories that are just awful. I just can't imagine how great their heart ache must be.

I haven't talked much here about my own sad miscarriage just a few short months ago. I felt kinda silly having mentioned the pregnancy possibly too early here but I had been to the doctor, I had seen that precious heart beat, I thought we were well on our way to a sweet baby in February. Plus it is so hard to keep exciting news like that a secret. I have never been one for secrets, especially babies, it is just SO exciting. But then the 2nd baby appointment came on August 3rd and all that excitement was to stay in the past. To help keep my mind busy while healing I did a lot of crafting. Could you tell? I did a lot! It kept my mind busy. If I stopped I could get sad and I am soooo tired of being sad. So to help me continue to heal and look forward to the future I made these blanket squares.

two regular old granny squares, yellow one is butterfly garden square, blue and daisy pattern

I hope this post is not too heavy, I like to keep this place happy and journal my ups and downs of different projects (mostly so I can remember what the heck I did and why). I debated for awhile on this post but this is a big UP and I wanted to share especially if anybody was looking for a project such as this to contribute too.

I will be back soon to share my FINISHED stocking!

craft hope

2009-11-03T04:24:00.001-08:00

Boy was I frantic when Craft Hope posted last week that project #5: quilts for Margaret's Hope Chest was in need of boy quilts. I hadn't made my quilt for them yet but my plan was for a nice girl quilt. So this weekend after playing around with some red and blue, I went to my green fabric drawer. That baby is PACKED. Last year my mom went through her green fabric and gave me a ton. So I figured green might work...

a real live boy quilt from my drawers!! who knew all these would work. I like the fact too that it is not juvenile at all so it could go to any age boy. Gregg and I decided it had a real jungle or swampy feel to it so I tried to quilt some long bamboo shoots. I am not sure how they turned out. I think I should have done more of them. or made them more even.

I used invisible thread for the top and cream thread in the bobbin. The backing is mostly cream cotton with 3 large solid rectangles.

This thing took me NO TIME to make. I started playing around at Lilly's naptime on Saturday where the fabrics and the pattern just made itself. Most of these pieces just needed a little straightening trim and went in as is. The brown I cut to fit in. After Lilly woke, I left the fabrics spread out and didn't go back to them until after dinner. By 10:30pm, I had the fabric top and backing sewed, and the whole darn thing pinned ready for quilting! I was even taking breaks because OREGON was stomping the crap out of USC. I guess that is what happens working with those big pieces of fabric. I have never made a quilt like this before. Only one thing I would change is the binding. I wanted to try machine sewing the binding. EEEEK! I don't like it. It is just a tad too messy and there is something about hand sewing that binding.

Gregg was so excited about this quilt. He wants it BAD. I told him who it was for and he didn't ask again for it but when I was whining about how bad I didn't like the binding and how I felt bad that some poor kid was going to be stuck with crappy binding, he did say well give it to me and make another one! I am sure if I mentioned I would have to go to the fabric store in order to make another one he would have changed his tune. man is he cute!

So now on to the next blanket project. I have one barely in the works for Lilly, she requested a blue blanket. But more importantly, I want to make a few blankets for the Mountain Baby Blankets project. Andrea suggested this project to me, so I finally took the time to read about where and why these blankets are needed, SO SAD! I am giving myself until mid December to get a few out to their organization.

fit for a real garden artist

2009-11-01T16:20:00.007-08:00

Gregg's mom celebrated her birthday today. She loves to spend time in her garden. Thus, this garden artist apron was perfect for her.

(geez iron much?)

This project is in Simple Sewing with a French Twist. The book requires you to take all small pattern pieces found in the back pages and enlarge them at a place like Kinkos, no thanks what a pain, but I found this pattern that gave measurements to make the apron instead. So I did that but followed the books instructions the rest of the way. It just needed a brooch to dress it up a bit.

We grouped it with some new gloves and tulip bulbs.

Happy Birthday Karen! I think Lilly said it best after we got off the phone with you this evening "we all love Nonni!"

how to make silhouettes with photoshop

2009-10-30T04:23:00.001-07:00

(I feel like this wall needs something else, ideas?)

Finally these are off my want to make list. I had the silhouettes done since May but I kept spending my craft budget on other stuff and never had enough left for the frames. Then this month I just told Gregg that the frames were not a crafty item and therefore would not come out of my crafting budget. and now I am happy to saw the project is DONE!

I love the look of silhouettes and I wanted to do make these for our living room. But really I fell in love with the idea of these as Mother's day presents (yes it took that long to share them with you). I sent one of our girl to Gregg's Mom and my mom got one of each of her 3 grandkids. I know a lot of people make silhouettes by cutting out the picture with a scalpel and paint over the picture with black. I knew this would not be a good idea for me, I would have done a hack job. So I found a couple tutorials using photoshop to make silhouettes but their techniques would just not make a black enough silhouette. This is what I ended up doing. PS. Photoshop seriously rocks and I only understand like 2% of all it can do.

How to Make Silhouettes with Photoshop

Open up picture in photoshop (I used adobe photoshop version CS3).

Make a background copy of the photo. Keep this highlighted. We will be editing this picture but if we make any mistakes that are too hard to correct we can easily delete this copy and go back to the original photo.

Click on the "Paths" tab. Then on the lower right corner select "create a new path." The pen tool should automatically be selected or just click on it to select.

Use the Zoom slide bar to make it easier to see the details of the outline you want to make.

Decide where you want to start selecting your outline. Using the pen tool, click on your starting point. The pen tool makes straight lines between two clicks (dots). Decide where your next click or dot should go. Click spots close together around delicate parts of the outline or click spots further apart when straight lines are reasonable for the outline.

If you mess up a placement of a line, CTRL-Z will remove it but if you decide that you messed up 2 lines ago, it is best to delete the whole background copy and start again with a new copy.

Continue all the way around the profile. I was sitting twisted at the waist so my neck and chest don't have a proper profile. I tried to make up where they might be (see below). Then go in a semi straight line across the bottom and connect back to the beginning dot. The dots disappear and you have a continuous line.

Select "load path as a selection". The solid line (and everything inside) will become selected. (Path 1 must be highlighted in order to select this).

Click on "Layers" Tab. And select a new layer.

Go back to your path tab. Put black color as your foreground color by clicking on the double arrow (if black is one of the colors available to be selected here). Then select "fill path with foreground color" in the bottom left corner of the Paths tab.

Click on Layers tab. Our filled path selection is automatically placed in the new blank layer. Deselect both background layers.

A silhouette! Now save your silhouette as a jpeg. (The checkerboard background is just saying the background is blank when you save this as a jpeg and print the picture it will be white or whatever color paper you print this on.)

****

Take picture on solid background for ease of outline.

If you are doing multiple silhouettes, take the picture all landscape or profile views if you want to hang them in the same direction.

Sit upright, good posture! and have your whole body facing the same direction, not twisted from the waist. Just makes it easier to get a good silhouette. I was twisted at the waist. Look at the silhouette from the tutorial above...I look like I am sticking my chin out

then I redid it making up the chest and the back for what I thought it should have been by shaving off my shoulders. so much better!! (I wonder if my neck really looks like that?)

Final silhouette!

Hope you have a good weekend and Halloween! We already went trick or treating last night as per central PA rules, isn't that crazy??!!! Do any other places have a different night that Halloween is observed on? California and Oregon sure didn't.

weekend tidbits

2009-10-26T13:57:00.001-07:00

Lilly and I tried to make cupcakes like this but failed (not Lill's fault at all she was HUGE in helping me with the cupcake liners). I used yellow cake mix and overcooked them so the edges were slightly brown instead of the colors they should have been. I also made the cupcakes way to big so I had to shave off the tops and sides (best part). and I messed up the color order. You should try this though, a fun idea!

made myself a flower pin. Gregg asked "are you going to wear that in public?" I was quite shocked with that comment/question, I think it is cute! (what is not cute is that picture he took of it! sabotage!!)

started a new knitting project. it's my stocking and I am in love

set up my sewing machine to work on a very special project. My mom made me this great cover and under pad that has pockets! Thanks mom! Now I have a really good excuse as to why I simply can't clean my sewing projects off the table for dinner!

(haha! I just realized I have the cover on wrong in these photos, it should be rotated)

I hope you all had a good weekend too!

my mom's birthday

2009-10-22T05:33:00.001-07:00

Oh my gosh, I was getting so annoyed with blogger the other night because I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get to any of my posts by their individual links. The posts would come up any other way except by their own links! So after much frustration and emails from blogger, I actually read a help file in blogger that suggested I uploaded my html template backup file. So I did. and now the links work...(light bulb comes on) I remembered a few weeks ago I was messing around with the blog template trying to do something, can't remember now. So, oooops! sorry blogger, you are a nice blog host!

When my mom was here, it was her birthday!!

Her gift included:

a small tea pot wall hanging (pattern here)

this was fun to make and I used our favorite colors and fabric scraps that were from special projects from the past except that orange lid. I knew it wouldn't look right but I thought just maybe (insert sewing here), dang it! but I didn't realize how much I didn't like it until the whole thing was done (insert laziness here). Mom's have unconditional love, right?

quilted coasters (project found in last minute quilted gifts)

again these fabrics were from projects past

I put her gift in a travel bag (project found in weekend sewing), that also served as the wrapping paper. I am pretty pumped about that travel bag project. I made one for my dad too in his favorite colors (also matches his suitcase). He was really happy with his travel bag, awesome for a guy that I would normally never attempt to make a gift for.

My mom's birthday was when I was actually in Chicago so we celebrated the next day with her favorite cake:

Layers of whipped cream, sliced bananas, crushed, and whole oreos. Kept in the fridge for a cool and REALLY GOOD cake!

Mom, thank you for celebrating your birthday with us, you are the BEST!

Chicago knitting!

2009-10-20T18:39:00.002-07:00

I am still here! Things have been busy and fun. First, my parents have been visiting since last week. They are leaving tomorrow, so sad. Their visit has gone by entirely too quick especially because a few of the days I went to Chicago for work. Gregg was gone for the past 3 weeks doing an away rotation (I can't remember if I have mentioned here that he is in med school?) so our girl was left by both of us to be spoiled by Grammie and Grampie. I was spoiled too, I love flying places without her. So much less stressful when she is not sitting (or rather spazzing out) next to me in the plane. I think I am still traumatized from our last plane trip together (although I have plans to take her on my next work trip to....ANAHIEM! hmmm, I wonder what we will do there???). So with all that relaxing time on my hands in my travels I did some knitting!

Felicity hat:

(we're winking)

HELLO!! Freakin' love this hat. I started this hat here and finished it in Chicago, thank goodness, it was so cold over there.

Mods are listed in my raverly page as is the link to the pattern page.

Yarn: I used Berroco ultra alpaca yarn in the colorway tiger's eye mix. I feel like such a broken record, this colorway is almost the same as my lovely dark gold healther Cascade 220. I love these colors. I had narrowed down the Berroco to the tiger's eye and the most wonderful dark pea soup color but I just couldn't deny that brown/reddish/orangey goodness. Maybe I should have branched out? or maybe I should just make another one? maybe next year...

Instant Gratification Scarf:

This scarf was super easy just like the name suggests (pattern here). The look is great very lacey, even with some ultra soft bulky yarn. I got a great deal on some misti international bulky yarn. I have been wanting to try knitting with this stuff, it is like touching clouds! (rav project page) This is a gift but I have a plan for one for me!

Mitered Kitchen Towel

This was fun for a few rows then I got over it. It seemed like it took forever and lets face it, its a k i t c h e n towel.
Pattern: mitered hanging towel

One more thing...I am a WINNER! I was pumped to have received this in the mail...

I won a giveaway that Lyanna was having for her birthday! (how nice was that to do a giveaway on her day???) Thanks Lyanna!

see you soon!

buttons and toasts

2009-10-12T18:56:00.005-07:00

It is getting colder here, perfect timing for JoAnn's to have buy one get one on buttons (ps. they also had tons of cute quilting cotton for 1.50 a yard?!?! are you kidding me?!?!) so I could finish my buttony. This blue was not the color I had in mind, I was thinking a fun red or parakeet blue but those didn't look right, this pretty blue was it!

+

toasty mitts for me.

I feel like I am always crafting for me. but seriously these are awesome, I am glad they are mine. I am working on another pair for a Christmas gift so maybe I am not totally selfish?

Pattern: toasty
yarn: cascade 220 in dark gold heather (I still have tons left from my lace panel cardi, such a good color to have around)

printables...ahhhh

2009-10-07T16:35:00.001-07:00

above is little hello notecards and assorted gift tags (so cute) wrapped up for gifts

I scored a sweet COLOR scanner/copier/printer at a garage sale a few weeks back. I am so pumped that now I can print pretty pretty things in COLOR! I never ever looked at the printables section of one pretty thing because I knew it was just going to make me soooo mad I didn't have a color printer. But now I can LOOK LOOK LOOK and then PRINT PRINT PRINT! woot woot!

here are some pretty things I like:

apple stationary
photo borders
gift jam labels
12 different colors of thank you cards
a little hello notecards (pictured above)
smiling star (perfect for kids birthday cards)
cupcake wrappers!
flower stationary (i have no idea what I would use this for but i just love it)
birdie notecards
flower postcard
assorted gift tags (pictured above)
Christmas gift labels
halloween note cards
black apple halloween note cards
fall themed cupcake wrappers

Eeeek I am going to run out of ink!

obsess much?

2009-10-05T16:39:00.001-07:00

Thank you for the orange quilt love. I had a pretty good time making that one.

I went from never wanting to knit a hat to not being able to stop. I was thinking of making hats for my friends kids for Christmas. How fun would that be? I could try out different patterns and yarns!! However, after realizing it is extremely hard to make hats for little people because who knew they each have such different head sizes and the darn hats don't fit (I feel like a big dork when a present doesn't fit). So I will stick to making hats for babies, who can grow into them if they don't fit, and for my girl. I thought for sure Lilly was going to be super excited for her blue hat but after trying it on and giggling (hmmm), I have yet to get it on her head again. We lost her favorite hat which was too small anyway so I am hoping by default she will wear this one.

Patterns: The three ear flap hats are each sized down from the adult kittyville hat pattern (also found in Stitch and Bitch Knitting. See my rav project page for the mods.

The little baby hat is the umbilical cord hat (rav link) from Stitch and Bitch Knitting.

Yarn: Lion Brand Pound of Love in denim (this yarn can be found for 5 bucks on sale and is very forgiving and washable, good for baby mamas)

I didn't want to knit hats because of those dreaded double pointed needles but they are not so bad. I like the bamboo needles because they are light. I have a pair of double pointed needles (my grandmas) I am using for a Christmas gift and they are so hard to work with because they are a heavy metal and the yarn is delicate. However, I am enjoying making a few pairs of toast/toasty gloves. So far I have one glove done in each pattern. One pair is for me and I hope to get crackin' on that second one soon, I need them in the mornings! I actually have quite a bit going on including a couple birthday presents, the kind of busy week I like to have!

an orange quilt

2009-09-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine moved a few weeks ago. I wanted to make her a going away present to tell her how awesome she is and how much I will miss her but of course I am running behind just like all my handmade gifts. I have never met anyone who loves Halloween like my friend, Jen, so of course she loves the color orange too (me too, such a great color). Thus, an orange quilt was born.

I quilted it with irregularly spaced straight(ish!) horizontal lines. I really enjoyed quilting like this and just look how crinkly!

I purposely didn't buy enough of one fabric for the backing so I would have to try out something fun on the back.

I know not super crazy back there but it felt good to be brave.

Pattern: inspired by this quilt (p.s. I really want to do a rainbow one like that one). The orange stripes are either 2, 2.5 or 3 inches in width and all various lengths. After arranging them, the white was filled in.

Size: 36" x 52"

kid size oven mitt

2009-09-28T19:14:00.005-07:00

Our weather lately has gotten me PUMPED for fall. Fall has the best colors of any season and I love fall foods. A few favs: winter squash, this cauliflower soup, and applesauce (I added cardamom to our applesauce batch this year, I really like cardamom and applesauce). Speaking of cooking...an oven mitt for my girl. After I showed her the finished oven mitt, she made me a hot pickle in her kitchen.

Such a simple project but the mitt above was my 3rd attempt. I am glad I got it right and that she loves it...certainly makes crafting way better when the gift is not forced upon the recipient!

i heart...

2009-09-24T03:55:00.001-07:00

I love Dana's Made it blog. She has great projects and am completely envious of her sewing skills (she can make anything), plus she is sooo nice. I fell in love with this freezer paper stenciling project. I don't love doing freezer paper stencils but with projects like this it is hard not to like it. I think the stenciling always turns out with an unfinished look to it, but maybe I just need more practice with it.

This one is for a sweet girl who's big brother is named Roman.

And this for two little boys who love their dog.

I thought I did a good job getting a uniform color when dyeing the onesies but I can see now I didn't! Oh well, I really like how bright of an orange I got the second one (actually the picture isn't that great but trust me it is bright). And that blue heart gives it a little 80s something, at least I think so. So many plans are coming to mind, you can be sure to see more of these in the future.

how to make a child's play apron

2009-09-22T05:15:00.001-07:00

I wanted to celebrate my new tutorial with another fun tutorial. My girl got a whole tea set for her first birthday from Gregg's aunt. His aunt included aprons, placemats, and napkins. Everything was super cute and I thought clever too because she used bias tape to finish all the edges. Ever since, I have been using her technique to make simple aprons for sweet birthday girls...

Supplies:

3 yards of bias tape (bought or made)
1/2 yard of fabric (probably could get away with 1/4 yard)

How to:

:: With your fabric right sides out, cut a rectangle 22" x 8". So you have two rectangles, wrong sides together. Keep them together. Cut two smaller rectangles around 4.5" x 5". Keep these two rectangles wrong sides together too.

:: First we will start with the pocket. For the top of the pocket we need to attach bias tape to cover the raw edges. Place the fabric pocket inside the bias tape and cut the length of tape you will need. I don't leave much overhang. Sew a straight or decorative stitch to attach bias tape.

:: Decide where you want your pocket to go on the apron. I usually pick a slightly off center spot. I also like to vary the fabric pattern from the apron (e.g. vertical to horizontal).

:: Then we will attach the bias tape around the pocket, starting at the top edge, while pinning both the pocket and tape onto the spot we picked on the apron. Sometimes it is easier to pin the bias tape around the pocket and then pin it to the apron. When you get to a corner, fold the bias tape over so it has a nice mitered corner.

(upside down pocket)

:: I haven't figured out a good way to hide the raw edges of the bias tape yet. If I try to fold it under, the top of the pocket looks wonky to me. So I just cut the bias tape flush. Now sew your pocket onto to the apron.

:: For the top of the apron, we are going to sew a long loose stitch so that we can gather it up. I set my machine stitch length as long as it can go and leave yourself long bobbin tails with which to pull and make the gathers. Sew 1/4" from edge. Now pull your bobbin tails on either side slowly so as not to break them until the top of your apron is about 14 inches.

:: Now we are going to sew the bias tape to finish the sides and bottom of the apron. Again using mitered corners. Cut the bias tape flush with the top of the apron.

:: Almost there! We need to sew a long length of bias tape onto the top of the apron to finish the edge, hide the gather stitches, and to act as the apron ties. I use the rest of the 3 yd package of bias tape. To make sure that the ties will be of equal length, fold the apron in half and the bias tape. Start pinning the middle of the bias tape to the middle of the apron and go out to each side. Sometimes sewing this can turn out ugly, so you can use a wider bias tape or really try to stuff the apron top to the top of the bias fold.

:: Once pinned, take it to the sewing machine. Start at one end of the bias tape (again I just leave raw edges here) and sew your way to the apron and then to the other end of the bias tape. Finished!

let me know if you have any questions!

New Tutorial! Picture Window Quilted Fabric Ball Ornament

2009-09-21T13:47:00.008-07:00

I know you know that I don't believe it is ever too early to think about Christmas and what a better way to start prepping than with these ornaments!

I have had several requests from customers for this new tutorial. The "picture window" (Gregg came up with that name and coincidentally is quite proud of himself) ornament is a fun way to show off pretty fabrics or your favorite sports team. In making the other ornaments, I always select small print fabrics as the big prints just don't show well. But with the picture window those big prints can shine!

This tutorial contains 40 pages with 81 detailed pictures and written instructions for the PICTURE WINDOW Quilted Ornament tutorial. There is no actual quilting or sewing in the making of this ornament.

This is an Adobe PDF file (4.24 MB) that will be emailed directly to you. Please include your email address with purchase. There are no shipping charges as this tutorial contains the pattern and instructions and does not come with any supplies.

I have been working on this tutorial for a little while and I am happy to be able to offer it for sale in my Etsy shop, my Ebay, or you can click below to be taken directly to PayPal.

I also have a new listing in my Etsy shop that has all 3 of my ornament tutorials grouped together for a discount. Plus, it is fun to mix and match the different patterns for some unique ornaments. Also see the traditional and cathedral window ornaments.

Let me know if you have any questions!

big wonky blocks quilt

2009-09-16T03:39:00.002-07:00

These blocks were 12" square. That made for some big pieces of fabric. Which made it go together fast but not sure about the "interestingness" of it. I do love that small sashing throughout. Really sets the blocks.

I used minky fabric for the backing. I have decided I don't like using minky fabric because I think it limits the quilting choices. But because this and the zig zag quilt are off to some sweet twin boys (I hope their personalities are as different from each other as these quilts are!), there is no way one boy could have the super soft minky quilt and the other have something not so soft. I quilted diagonal lines 3" apart.

Pattern: wonky block or off set square block

Size: 36" x 48" after washing

I started making my first quilt my sophomore year of college. I have no idea what possessed me to go make a quilt. My mom wasn't a quilter yet and I think I was a sporadic sewer at the time. But I clearly remember wanting to make a quilt and I went to the local quilt shop to get help and supplies. After I pieced that top together, in one day, it took me 6 years to hand quilt it! The quilt shop told me there are two ways to quilt, hand and machine but they said you need a sewing machine attachment for that. So of course I decided to hand quilt, I look back on this now and realize I just had no idea! I found out that hand quilting was hard and that is why I worked on and off the quilt for 6 years. I vowed to never make another quilt, it just wasn't that fun. But look at me now! I am addicted and it is fun!

Gregg's Stripey Stocking

2009-09-14T04:09:00.003-07:00

Done!! and Gregg loves it. Pattern from Holiday Knits, using berroco ultra alpaca light in cardinal, turquoise mix, and winter white. A few months ago, when we poured over stocking patterns, each picking our own pattern, Gregg immediately selected the stripey stocking. I then said okay pick 3 colors. He said well I like those colors (referring to the pattern picture), I said yes but you could have any 3 colors you wanted. He said I pick those 3 colors. Okay Mr. Imagination! But really those 3 colors look good together.

After seeing how big Lilly's stocking was compared to Gregg's I finally got the nerve to felt it up. I am soooo glad I did...

only one more to go, with plenty of time to spare...

a belt loop

2009-09-10T05:26:00.002-07:00

Can you believe it is Thursday?? I was pumped last night when I realized a new episode of Top Chef was going to be on (do you watch that show? I love it!). I am working on two bigger projects, one of which I stayed up way too late last night working on (almost there!) and the other will take some more time before I can share...until then a quick fix project.

So, I had a problem, a cute pair of jeans that didn't have a belt loop in the back making the jeans fall down and the belt slide up. This was not comfortable. A belt loop was needed back there.

I used my girl's too small, and honestly not very cute to want to save them for another child, overall's. Just a length of the strap. The strap was perfect for the belt loop as it already had two nicely finished sides. I used a zig zag stitch to attach the raw ends to my jeans (just too many layers to fold them in). I didn't have a jeans needle just a universal needle, so the zig zag stitch did not work if there were too many layers (at least I think this is why). Therefore, one portion I used a straight stitch and applied fray check. I am wondering how this will wash up though.

As a side note, I think I am going to go and stock myself up on different kinds of needles so I have the right one for the job. I am trying to be better about taking care of my supplies because I think I give my mom hard attacks sometimes when it comes to maintaining my sewing tools. For example, I always call my mom with sewing questions like when my sewing tension is off and I can't seem to fix it myself. Her first question, "how old is your sewing needle? did you put a new one on?"
Me: "Ummm, no I don't think I have ever changed it."
Mom: "JENNIFER!!!!!"

Guess what I got for Christmas last year? 3 packs of universal needles!

This happened last week: Me: "Mom, how often do you change your rotary cutter blade? I have been noticing that mine isn't cutting as well as it used to."
Mom: "When was the last time you changed it?"
Me: "ummmm, I don't think I have ever changed it." (I have had it for 11 years)
Mom: "JENNIFER!!!!!"

Don't worry, Mom, I am not waiting for Christmas this year for a new blade, I just ordered one.

messenger bag

2009-09-02T04:33:00.000-07:00

I was getting so tired of my big cable purse. I hate when you have a shoulder bag and you lean down to pick up something the bag comes around and hits you. Or having a big purse that is filled with crap, you can't find anything. So I needed to make myself a new purse. I really like all the messenger bags that Larissa of mmmCrafts has been making. She posted a great tutorial that I followed to make mine.

inside flap

I used a linen/cotton blend for the outside fabric so to make it sturdier I ironed on a heavy weight interfacing. For the strap I ironed on two layers of the interfacing and sewed 5 top stitches down the length to of the strap. I like the quilted look it gave it. The pocket on the back of the outside of the bag is perfect for holding my keys and phone, no searching for those darn things.

I thoroughly enjoyed making the flap too. I got to use some precious scraps from my favorite fabrics. I opted for a rough straight stitch to secure the flowers on the flap, I didn't think I wanted a thick zig zag around each flower (hmmm, maybe I do now). Hopefully they will stay okay and edges won't fray. I did have a tough time deciding how each flower would look, if they should have a center or not. I spent a good amount of time thinking about it and finally I asked Gregg. He said no center and it only took him a 2 second look to decide. I think I would have liked it either way.

This bag has already been in use and it is perfect so far!

I am giving away a copy of my beaded sock tutorial at Chocolate Fingerprints. Go over there for your chance to win! Thanks Andrea for hosting!

popcorn stripe blanket

2009-09-01T05:27:00.001-07:00

I saw a knit blanket that had large and skinny stripes of two different colors coming together in the middle. I liked the idea but wanted to do it with crochet. super quick, super soft blanket. It got its name when I noticed the similarities between the blanket (as I was weaving in all those ends) and the bowl of popcorn my girl was stuffing her face with.

Popcorn Stripe Blanket (rav link)

Yarn: Patons Melody (I used almost 4 skeins of sunny yellow and 3.5 skeins of white)
Hook: Size N (10.00 mm)

Chain 72.

Row 1: In 2nd chain from hook, DC. DC in every stitch across, Ch2, turn. (Ch2 counts as first DC in every row).

Row 2- 30 : DC in every stitch across (remember to skip first stitch after turning work). Ch 2, turn.

Work the following color pattern and cut the yarn when changing colors at the beginning and end of the rows (this = a lot of ends to weave end!):

6 rows white
1 yellow
4 white
2 yellow
3 white
3 yellow
2 white
4 yellow
1 white
6 yellow

SC all the way around edges, 3 SC in each corner, and place SC evenly on the edges with row ends.

Size: 33" x 46"

small projects

2009-08-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

I just can't get enough of sewing lately. And I seriously want a serger. I was telling Gregg about my want (not need, mind you) and he said well why don't you just sell your sewing machine now and buy one off craigslist. Poor Gregg, he has no idea that a girl needs more than one machine! He looked very skeptical that this was true. Oh, innocent Gregg. These projects I have been slowly working on during the past month and saved up to post them all in one fell swoop.

hexagon flower :: I so needed a patch that would cover my soon to be exposed bum. Perfect timing for the sew mama sew post to show up. Next time, I will just cut out hexagons and applique them to the object though.

Eric Carle :: I am in love with the fabric by Eric Carle. I got some of the Brown Bear fabric for a special project and threw in a half yard of this hungry caterpillar print. I am not sure though if others would get that these are from the Hungry Caterpillar and not just pictures with holes in them (not sure I would). But I do know and they are cute!

Table Topper :: I tried out this design for a table topper. I like the straight edges combined with the diagonals. I made this one for a friend and I hope to make us one with Christmas fabrics.

Bloomers :: The bloomers pattern is from Weekend Sewing. Seriously easy. I love me some elastic thread. The top/dress was based off the sunny day top from House on Hill Road. I am hoping this will fit a 6-12 month old lady.

I wish I could say I am off to sew some more but I caught the mean bug that my girl had the past two days. not as fun as sewing...at all.

sock monkey and a firefighter hat pattern

2009-08-23T18:43:00.008-07:00

Sock monkeys for Craft Hope's project 4! All the sock monkeys are going to kids at a burn camp so they mentioned that incorporating some firefighting gear on the sock monkey would be awesome. So I made a firefighter hat (so why I love crochet, you can make almost anything out of that one little hook!)

I used this sock monkey tutorial (I needed some more pictures than the standard instructions.)

I tried a few patterns for firefighter hats but I just couldn't figure them out or didn't feel like sizing them for the monkey's head. Here is what I came up with:

Firefighter hat for sock monkey

F hook
Caron simply soft yarn

HAT BODY:

Row 1: Make magic loop, chain (CH) 3, 11 double crochet (DC) around loop. Pull loop tight. Slip stitch into top of chain 3. Ch 3.

Row 2: In same stitch as Ch3, 1 DC. In each stitch, 2 DC, around. Slip stitch into top of chain 3. Ch 3.

Row 3: In same stitch as Ch3, 1 DC. 1 DC in next stitch, 2 DC in next stitch, around. Slip stitch into top of chain 3. Ch 3.

Row 4: In same stitch as Ch3, 1 DC. 1 DC in each of first 2 stitches, 2 DC in next, around. Slip stitch into top of chain 3. Ch 3. (start checking the size of the hat with the monkey's head now, you might find you don't need to do all the increases in row 5, I didn't, just some spaced around. Also you might not need all the length in rows 6-8 or more depending on where you put the ears.)

Row 5: In same stitch as Ch3, 1 DC. 1 DC in each of first 4 stitches, 2 DC in next, around. Slip stitch into top of chain 3. Ch 3. (I ended up with 37 stitches)

Row 6-8: In same stitch as Ch3, 1 DC. 1 DC in each stitch around. Slip stitch into top of chain 3. Ch 1.

FRONT HAT BRIM:

1 half double crochet (HDC) in front loop of next 26 stitches. Chain 1 and turn.

1 HDC in each stitch across to the beginning for front brim. SC down to next available non front brim stitch.

BACK HAT BRIM:

HDC in back loop (this will be on the same side as the front loop stitches on the front brim) of remaining stitches across (I had 12).

Next 3 rows, decrease one stitch at beginning of each row, HDC across rows to last two stitches, decrease another stitch. (the brim had 6 stitches at the end)

?does this make any sense? Please let me know if you find any mistakes, I will fix it right away!

NUMBER PLATE:

I used these instructions for the number plate.

I attached the number plate to the hat while back stitching the number on the plate with black yarn. Basically, I embroidered the number right through the number plate and the hat.

Finger press the middle of the hat to make the helmet indent.

cute little guy! (I think Santa is going to bring my girl one)

summer baking

2009-08-21T04:20:00.002-07:00

banana blueberry muffins
(recipe adapted from this one)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
zest from 1 lemon
2 large bananas mashed (mine made just under 1.5 cups)
1 Tbl olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 whole eggs
milk (as much as you need to make the muffin mix a bit wetter, if you like dry muffins don't add, I think I added less than 1/4 cup)
almost 1 pint of blueberries (packed as many as I could in the muffins)

:: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

:: In a large bowl, mix the flours, brown sugar, spices, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix the bananas, eggs, olive oil, lemon zest, and vanilla extract.

:: Mix the banana mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. Add milk here if you need. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan.

:: Bake 16 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

this is a dead easy recipe and super good.

peach pie

Use this pie crust recipe, seriously, the best I have ever had and really easy to make. Trust me, there is no crying (or throwing of the dough against the wall) when I use this crust.

Filling

6 cups sliced peeled peaches
1 tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
pinch of cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs butter

:: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

:: Line the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate with one of the pie crusts.

:: Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Pour over the peaches, and mix gently. Pour into the pie crust, and dot with butter. Cover with the other pie crust, and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal. Brush milk over the crust and sprinkle with sugar. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam.

:: Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is brown.

Gregg always says the best pie is apple, he might not even try other pies simply because he knows he will be disappointed that the filling is not apple. However, he said this peach pie makes him forget about apple pie. That is HUGE! I am not like that, I like any pie, especially for breakfast with my coffee.

ps... did you see Project Runway last night? I would love to see what my red carpet dress would look like after only a day and a half to design and sew one up? HA! Designers are so talented (sigh).

version 6

2009-08-18T16:13:00.009-07:00

thank you for your comments on the pinwheel quilt!

Crochet

stripey blanket DONE!
doily
fireman's hat for craft hope DONE!
bracelets ugghhh

Knit

Gregg's Christmas stocking DONE!

Sewing

string pillow
sock monkey for craft hope DONE!
superhero cape DONE!
wonky block quilt DONE!
hexagon flower DONE!
shoulder bag of somesort DONE!
market skirt DONE!

Embroidery

Decorating

framed silhouettes wip, just need frames still, seriously I vow to finish this one, it will not be on the next list
color mobile
art hook

Things I am totally in love with but way too nervous to try (maybe):

wonky butterfly block
paper pieced rainbow swirl block (btw, my love for this is OUT OF CONTROL)

Previous Lists:
Version 1
Version 2
Version 3
Version 4