A little owl for my sister's best friend. She's expecting her first. Gender neutral green because she and her husband want to be surprised. This was made with Retro Mama's owl softie pattern. The pattern is simple and adorable. I've used it for baby gifts and to make my own little man some happy little owls.
Christmas sewing is in full swing in our house. I over estimated how much I can get done in a few short weeks, once again, even though I tried seriously, deliberately not to. Am I the only one who does this?
To help things along, Sean declared today "sweat shop sewing day" and took complete control of childcare. It was a productive day.
Two different quilts for two different recipients. Both have a ways to go but I made a significant dent.
Finished! This quilt is made almost entirely from vintage fabric and reclaimed bed linens with the exception of the white (Kona Cotton) and the black and white gingham (Robert Kaufman). The quilting is done a quarter of an inch on either side of the ditch. I backed it with a minty blue sheet.
Even though I love the way it looks, from this quilt I learned that you shouldn’t bind with gingham or any other more loosely woven fabric. What a huge pain in the ass it is when your binding starts unraveling just as you think you’re approaching the finish mark! Lesson learned.
My favorite parts are the pink stripes with orange flowers and the bits of screaming fluorescent orange polyester.
This is the largest quilt I’ve ever made. It measures 85 x 85. A monster in my book – especially when it came to the machine quilting. I love it. But I’m glad it’s over.
I took a break from the holiday sewing and made this little guy for myself. This is all done out of vintage feedsack scraps, except the center of the block which is 1930s reproduction fabric. I've found some amazing bits of feedsack fabric recently. That ebay app spells real trouble for me. It really, really shouldn't be that easy to bid on fabric.
No real pattern. There is a whole world of beautiful pincushion inspiration out there if you need it. In this case, I just sewed random sized strips into a teeny log cabin, attached a backing (not shown, also feedsack) and the gingham tag, cut to size, and stuffed it. Happy little pincushion.
Had a baby three months early. Spent 4 months in the NICU. Then four months on maternity leave. Now we've got a new, and better, normal. And it means I am back to crafting and blogging about it. The blogging part was a surprise, but I guess I couldn't stay away.
Meet Henry!
Now back to crafting.
I've become addicted to flickr over the last year and this is why. This is a sampling of my favorite photos from other crafty folks. It's what's inspiring me for 2010. Some of these are projects I'd like to try, some of it is just eye candy, some of it I need to wait to try until we buy a house (read: photo #22, orla kiely wallpaper - I own one precious roll but it was too expensive to waste on a condo we plan to sell and I'm heartbroken I can't put it up tomorrow and look at it every single day), and some of it I need to make quickly before the baby comes.
Today I'm getting on a plane to LA and I plan to crochet the time away - I'm making granny motifs for some garland, inspired by photo #4. Vacation, good friends, kiddies to spoil, good food, warm(er) weather, and 12 hours of travel time to crochet. Love.
My mom was good enough to take a picture of the little forest quilt I made for her Christmas gift this year. One of these went to my mother-in-law too. Like I said earlier, I got so caught up in the making, binding, finishing - that I forgot the picture taking.
I found this pattern on the purl bee and I instantly knew I needed to make it. It was designed by Sharilyn Wright of Lovely Design. How I didn't know about this woman before, I don't know. Her blog has since become one of my favorite places to visit. Late to the party on that one!
It's meant to be a wall-hanging - and it's about 15 inches wide and 28 inches long.
Thanks mom for sending the picture and I hope you love your quilt!
First quilt for my boy! Since these photos I've pieced the backing, basted it, quilted it and I'm half way through the binding. I've been so drawn to red, white and blue lately, especially this combination of bright reds, robin's egg and bright blues, whites, and creams. So cute.
While I was working on it last weekend a neighbor knocked on our door with a little present for Huck. I have no problem with clothes for dogs. But I didn't even realize they made clothes his size. I *probably* would never actually buy this for him myself. But it was so satisfying and hilarious to see him in it.
He didn't protest. He just tried to eat it which is his reaction to most things he doesn't understand. I did lots of "no biting!" and "only licks!" which eventually moved him into obsessive sniffing instead. Sean's favorite part is that there are pockets and they actually open. He put a treat in one and zipped it up. And then we were back to square one him trying to eat the jacket. Our fault.
I generally try to keep it craft-related here, but I'm throwing in the towel on that one. I've noticed I visit and post here less when life gets messy and, really, what's the point of having this outlet if I can't use it to deal with life's craziness? So, with that said, I'm mixing my worlds and doing my first completely craft-free post. Prego pics!
As expected, even after longing to have a healthy pregnancy for so long, not every part of pregnancy has been fun. But. The belly IS fun. I love, love, love my growing belly. At only 5'3" though I'm wondering where in the heck this baby is going to go in the next four months?
Here's the progression, with a few weeks missing between 15 and 18. Those were the scary spotting, bed rest, WTF weeks. I guess I don't take many pics when life gets messy either. I'll have to change that too.
15 Weeks
18 Weeks
20 Weeks
21 Weeks
22 Weeks
Also, we named him on New Year's Eve. Hooray! Each step closer to having him here makes me unbelievably happy.
Before it turns 2010 (and we're much looking forward to a year like no other) here are some bits and pieces of our holidays. I sewed and sewed. And sewed. And then never took photos of the gifts I made. NOT very blog-friendly to forget the photos. If this blog is anything it's a photo journal so my heart sank when I realized. Ah well.
I may ask the gift receivers to take photos so I can share them here. In the meantime, here are the other bits.
Partridges from RetroMama's tutorial.
For my mom, in colors a little more tradish.
My mother-in-law (a very crafty lady) made this ornament, along with a several others, when she and my father-in-law were first married. We hang them every year. They make my heart melt a little, knowing so much work went into them so long ago.
Also, we got to be around kids on Christmas Eve. Wow. It's a whole different holiday with little ones around. They made beautiful and hilarious gingerbread houses. I've never seen a 4 year old and 2 year old concentrate like that.
I spent the last 24 hours starting a stroller quilt for my little man. It features tiny animals and apples - all from some of my favorite Japanese fabric prints. It's delicious - pics soon.
