Knit doll dress

Barbie dress #1

I knit this with baby yarn. It was a test knit of the top half of dress. I then went back and crochet the bottom of dress. And since the baby yarn made it bell like, I added a tulle underskirt.

Barbie dress #2
I used a finger weight wool, purchased at the thrift store.
I mostly followed the pattern for this one.

And Acorns
Each Acorn top was about 1 1/4 inches.
The leaves are paint stamped on felt.
Each Acorn body has three sections, using scraps of fabric from my Dear Jane quilt project.
I was thinking mini pincushion, but think it would make nice ornament as well.

Oak leaves

Stamp made special, just for this. Stamp is made from a small piece of linoleum block, and is about 2 inches.

Knit shawl started

Yarn: Bernat Satin, Flamingo
Pattern found here.


I did paint a little more on Thursday. I decided to paint the medicine cabinet off-white. The cabinet was green. I have just left it for the past several years because I was just happy to have a nice big cabinet. I found it at a yard sale for $15 dollars. It is one of those with three doors and very fancy framework around the mirror. It took a long time to paint all those little details.

Paint, paint, and more paint.

I have been painting for 5 days in a row. I am still not finished.

The first day I brushed primer on the walls where we had touched up a few holes. Especially around the new closet door. The door has a smaller frame then the old one.

Day two I painted the ceiling with primer. We had put texture on it a long time ago to cover cracks and it had never been painted.

The next day I painted the ceiling a color called ginger sugar. It is off-white in the green family.

I waited for that to cure over night. I masked off a line 3 inches down and painted the upper half of the wall. The upper wall is yellow. I don't know what color to call it. It does not match my paint chip. It almost matches. After lunch I went back and painted the lower wall green. The lower wall is textured to look like tile ( the original plaster wall.)

I waited over night and repeated day four on day five, putting on a second coat.

I have a wallpaper boarder that ties all the color together that goes in between the green and yellow. But I have to wait at least two days for the paint to cure. Plus since I used an enamel paint that is very glossy I have to prepare the wall for the paper. *sigh*

I also need to paint the trim and the closet door.

It is taking longer than I thought. But I think I am doing pretty good when you consider how long ago I started the project. Some time in August of 2008. Yes that long ago, when I tore out the built in closet with its 'evil' 30 inch deep shelves, I could not reach the back of. And It had equally ridiculously deep drawers. ( one day I just snapped and cleaned everything out of it and literally took a sledge hammer too it. Then I sent a text message to Shawn and told him I had done it. ) Tearing out that closet called for a new door. That messed up the Wallpaper around the door. Wallpaper is just horrible to take off the wall. I procrastinated a lot. Then When the weather turned cooler This year I made myself get busy on that paper. I did a couple sections at a time. And Shawn helped get the really hard to reach parts. After the paper was down things started moving right along.

I don't think I will get it all finished by this weekend. I have plans to go to my Mother-in-laws house and eat birthday cake on Saturday. And Sunday is bi-monthly game day with our friends.
Pictures soon.

More of the finish it list

I started this Granny Square Bag while we were on vacation in July.
It is very large.

Most of the yarn was odd bits in my Mother's Stash.

We now have a ceiling fixture in the bathroom, not just vanity lights.
No Electricity hooked to it yet. I am just glad the hole looks so nice. We had to cut through plaster and lath-board. I was afraid the whole ceiling might try to crumble. I also got primer painted on from the ceiling down to the base boards.

It needs finished.....

I am going to try to finish a very long to do list.

I am starting with a curtain remake.
Thrifted plain off-white becomes...

slightly southwest and cheerful. I am thinking, since I had to put the yellow fabric up so high to hide a hole I did not see at first, that I need to use fabric paint and add some chili peppers to the off-white.

A walk in the park

We were enjoying the beautiful Fall weather.

Bookmarks

A great quick finish project.
The tutorial was found here.

Feed the birds

It is so hard to get a good picture of them.
I think there are 3 different ones, but have only seen two at a time.
They don't like to share either.

I spent about 3 days putting things in the craft room back to order. I have a couple of Chicken Scratch bookmarks to show. I have been wanting to try that type of embroidery for some time now. I found some great vintage pattern books while shopping at the thrift store on vacation.
I just need to do a little top stitching and I can share.

Coffee Jello

It is like iced coffee! So Yummy.

I used this recipe. I used an extra tablespoon of sugar. If you like your coffee sweet you may want to add more. I also sprinkled a little cinnamon on top.

I made good progress on getting back into the Dear Jane quilt project. 10 blocks over the last week!

Back to The everyday...

The Family had a great two week vacation. Two days driving to the western edge of New Mexico, Several days there, and two days driving back home. A lot of driving! The kids do good in the car. they take games and watch DVDs.

We got to go camping! It was cold at night, hot during the day, but really fun.
We even roasted marshmallows
.

We saw beautiful wild flowers.

We were camping in Cunningham Gulch, Co. The views were fabulous.
They were having the annual Hard Rock 100, an endurance run. 100 miles over mountains, through valleys, and across whatever water. The runners crossed this waterfall 3 times on the trail that zig-zagged up the mountain side.

Besides camping we got to visit with my parents and both of my brothers.
Mom and I sewed together,and the guys went on one Geo-cache hike.
I raided the fabric shelves (and got all that lovely scrappy fabric in the previous post).

We had a terrific time! Thanks Mom and Dad!

More bits and pieces for Dear Jane

I has been over a year since I worked on my Dear Jane. I am ready to jump back in and sew, sew, sew. I have this fresh collection of scraps to add to the fabrics I am using for my DJ.
I spent an entire afternoon ironing all the pre-washed pieces.

Giggle

Seahorse Finish

A Yo-yo for the eye.

A lovely variegated thread used on the back, makes the back fun to look at.

Huge thanks to my mother for Quilting this on her professional long-arm machine.

This and That

Myra's new purse! Myra did about half of the sewing for this cut little bag.

A crewel embroidery Pin-keep. Circles of matte board help it hold its shape. The pins go in only on the sides.

I found the kit for the embroidery at the thrift store. It was supposed to be a pillow type cushion. I wanted something a little more unique.

My new purse, made using Amy Butler's Madison Bag pattern.
The Cell phone pocket is a McCall's Pattern.
The long skinny zipper pouch is made up off the top of my head (the Madison bags do not have pockets).

The heavy duty (Peltex) interfacing was kind of hard to sew with this bag. The bag has great body because of the interfacing but ... it gave me fits. Also hard to sew was the act of sewing the lining in. The bag was practical wrapped around the arm of the machine.

At the moment I would not want to make another one. But I got lots of compliments on it. Maybe it will be like childbirth and I will forget how much trouble I had and decide to make another.

Seahorse

A small cross stitch pattern makes one big block!
I am using 2 inch squares.

I have since these photos sewn the rest of the seems to obtain a finished block.
23 1/4 inches by 41 1/2 inches.

The worst of it is trying to keep the seems pressed the correct direction. I did pretty well, but there are a couple of lumps were 4-5 of them got turn the wrong way. I think that is pretty good considering how many intersection I had.

Pencil bag ...

...with lots of space.
3 zippers
two large pockets and one small.

A Coaster

A quick little project.

Today I am actually sewing! I got out fabric and everything.

Still with the crochet...

These are not the best quality pictures.
Above is a pair of lace earrings.

Below are 3 bookmarks.

A sock yarn pineapple bookmark. It is almost as wide as a paperback.

A simple edging/insert design with ribbons.
The left is sock yarn and the right one is size 10 crochet thread.
I Think I will be making several of the ones that use ribbon. I have a lot of scrap ribbon.

Crochet Bags

What I made last week. The Bottom two still need handles.

I purchased some yarn for a afghan in colors to match my living room.
I am using the same Granny square pattern as Myra used in my previous post. The Yarn is Vanna's Choice and is really soft for an acrylic yarn.
I have found that you can make 120 color combinations with the six colors. The Beige (that is under the completed square) will be used as the joining round color.

Myra crochets!

a Granny square! She had a little help joining rounds. She did a very good job keeping the stitches all the same size and following a charted pattern.

Waldo

This is Waldo. I made him last week, while I was sick with a summer cold.
I made him for me. He has already suffered through one dog attack. This attack required major surgery. I had to remove the entire muzzle and redo it.
Now I make sure Waldo is always placed someplace out of the dogs reach.

Hopefully this cold will be the last for awhile. School is out for the summer so fewer illness should be brought home through the kids for a few weeks.

I have several projects I am wanting to work on, if only I felt up to it.

Magnolia

A washcloth based on a vintage doily.

Bacteria!

.....so there is not much crafting going on here lately, just lots of washing and cleaning.

There are two or three different bacteria type illnesses going around the area. I think everyone in the house has had at least one of these bad bacteria.

Random bunny picture taken on Easter.
(because it makes me smile)

In the Mail Today

Thanks mom for finishing the piecing, quilting and binding this quilt. It is just terrific!
I love the striped backing!

Camera Bag

This was so cute! I had to make it. I thought when I first saw the pattern that it was for a toy camera and I would have to alter the pattern to make a bag. I was really excited to see it was a bag. The picture of the bag was on the web site a few weeks before the added the pattern. I checked back several times a week, watching for the pattern. I used scraps of cotton yarn to make the bag. I ran out of red so I have not sewn the buttons on the sides or made the neck strap.

Tiny

Little River Rocks
The kids bring these home from school (without the crochet).

Start a new project?

I crochet the above Shawl as part of a CAL. It was fun. The shawl is more pretty than warm.

A trip to Joann's, and a need to buy just one ball of yarn, resulted in these colorful fingerless mitts.

A puppy bed! It is huge, but one of the kids usually ends up laying on it with the puppy.
It is made from a thrifted vintage sheet and 7 recycled bed pillows.
I sewed the 2' x 4' pillow ,and Myra cut open the flat bed pillows, fluffed up their inside, and stuffed the puppy pillow.
I then cut a big square from a faded Chenille blanket (a yard sale find for a dollar). I made the chenille into a fitted cover that can easily be thrown in the wash.

Happy Puppy!

Noah found a Latch hook kit that makes a stick pony. I have never done latch hook before. And I am not doing this one either. Although I may help when it comes time to sew the two halves together. (The eyelashes still need trimming.)

Spinach and Bacon Linguine. Recipe was on the pasta box. yummy!