Summer Stampede....

...an art Project.

Twilight, Blue. Princess Garden, and Sleepy.

I was informed that Sleepy gets his name from The Legend of Sleepy Hallow.

Ann Wood, Thank you for the great Tutorial for these Here.

UFO No More!

I sent my mom a box with partially cut strips, partially sewn together strips, a few actually pieced blocks and all the un-cut fabric. She finished it all up. It is fabulous!

A Double Irish Chain.

A close up of the machine Quilting.

The Backing.

Now the awful truth.
I started this quilt over thirteen years ago before my oldest child was born.

Thank you, Mom!

Knit and sew

Myra is going to a Birthday party today. We Made the birthday girl a Doll. Myra picked out the fabrics and trims. She also did all the stuffing. I did the sewing and knitting.
My favorite part of this doll is the swirl fabric used for the hair.

From Scraps!

All the little strips are scraps, from the fabrics I have used in my Dear Jane.
The blue border came out of my stash.
This was a fun random project. I just picked the scraps at random chain pieced them together until I ended with the five strips. One ended much longer than the others but it was easily made smaller. This was a nice bit of easy sewing after all the Dear Jane blocks of the last month.

Book covers!

I am trying to use up scraps left over from my Dear Jane quilt. I think bookcovers are the going to be a good use for fat eighths. I also have a good start on a Stacked Coins quilt that will be a good baby sized quilt. I have bunches of 2.5 inch squares sorted out for a Nine patch of some sort. And I am thinking of Doing pinwheels with my 5 inch squares.

A dress up day at school!

Renaissance day at school next week. They have to dress up, they get a grade for it. It is an all day event with games and activities. The pants and shirt are previous Halloween Costume parts. The Tunic and Hat are New for this event. It is a little big, but I bet even back then they got hand-me-downs or clothes made a little big to allow longer wear.

A new doily started.

This is the begining of a medium sized doily. The next section has a spider web pattern, followed by tulips. The tulips are what got my fingers itching to start a new doily.

Happy Mother's Day!

My gift was this great new coffee mug from Starbucks.
I Also got some Hersey's Extra Dark Chocolates. Yum.

Doily and a Dolly

A sewing project with a little bit of crochet.

The Doily is supposed to have a ruffled edge. But after making the doll I decided it was a perfect shawl for her and stopped where I was.

(Sorry for the Blurry photos, I think I need nes batteries.)

Pincushion

(made with size 4 steel hook and no. 10 crochet cotton.)

While browsing new patterns on Ravelry today I cam across this pincushion.
I thought I would give making one a try. After translating the pattern I ended up with a mini pincushion, so I turned it into a ring.
I am working on another using the proper weight yarn and hook. If you don't have Ravely the pattern is here, in Danish.


Edited to add translated Instructions. (permission received from Liselotte Weller)

Left pincushion made with Noro, Right made with Bernat Hot Sox.
I used a Size E 3.5mm crochet hook.
(For her pincushions Liselotte used a size 3.0mm hook)

You can adjust hook size to your desired yarn. Just choose a hook which gives you stitches tight enough to prevent stuffing from showing through finished pincushion.

Crocheted hexagon

- Cast on a chain with 6 stitches, join with a slip stitch to form a ring.
- 2 single crochet (sc) in each sc around. 12 sc.

(In each round there are 6 increases)

– *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then one single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 18sc.

– *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then two single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 24sc.

– *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then three single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 30sc.

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then four single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 36sc.

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then five single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 42sc.

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then six single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 48sc.

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then seven single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 54sc.

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then eight single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 60sc.

{ For a larger pincushion work two more rounds. (Size is up to you.)

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then nine single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 66sc.

- *Work two single crochet stitches in first stitch of previous round, then ten single crochet in next stitch* repeat 5x. 60sc.}

At end of final round; join with slip stitch to first stitch of previous round and bind off.

If you need to, you can place a marker at first stitch in each round to help you.

Make two and join together (wrong sides together) with one round of single crochet. Stuff before closing last side.

Sew from center to each point of hexagon pulling as tight as you think looks nice. Add button to center. Notice in photo below that when stitching through point of hexagon the stitch was made just inside round of crochet made to join the hexagons together.

You can make pincushion larger by working more rounds In same pattern of increases.

A simple dress

A couple weeks ago I made Myra a new dress. It is very simple. only five pattern pieces and a button in the back at the neckline (no zipper! ) It was easy to make and she likes it. The fabric was a piece I picked up at the thrift store for a $1. So the dress is both cute and inexpensive.

Fabric Eggs

One dozen scrappy eggs.

pattern from lolanovablog.blogspot.com

Introducing Stickman

While working in the yard today I found a stick man. It reminds me so much of the vacations I took together with my Grandparents. Grandpa found one. I remember making the one he found a little vest out of leaves, with grass stitches.
The man I found today was quite large. I may have to dress him up too.

Southwest Bunny Quilt

This Quilt is my Favorite quilt that I have finished. I made this quilt while visiting my parents, in New Mexico, one summer. It was my second completed queen size quilt, and my first quilt designed by me. It is also the largest amount of machine applique I have ever done on a single quilt. The inspiration for this quilt is taken from Native American art, including rugs, jewelry, and petrogliphs.

From southwestbunny

The Rabbit

From southwestbunny

The Kokopelli

From southwestbunny

The Mesa

From southwestbunny

My Mom quilted the quit on her long-arm machine. I used an existing butterfly border and a book of southwest clip art to design the continuous line pattern used in the mesa areas.

I also made two matching pillow shams

From southwestbunny

Here is a flat view of the quilt.

From southwestbunny

I gave this quilt to my parents.
A big thank you to my Mom and Dad for taking the time to take new pictures of this quilt.

Owls

Egg Cozy!
tutorial found here: owl
Myra did almost all the sewing on the brown one and half of the red one.
She is really doing well with hand sewing.

Killer Whale Crochet

Myra really wanted a stuffed Killer Whale. We could not find one at any local stores so I looked around for a pattern. I found a free Whale pattern on a Japanese web site, through the pattern search on Ravelry. I made a few patten changes to make it a little smaller and shape the nose.
I cross stitched all the white details on except the underside of tail. For the tail I just made one from white and crochet them together around outer edge. I added a fin to it's back, also.

Clouds and Birds

I am really enjoying this project.
And now I am all caught up and ready for next months block.

Medieval Castle

This is Erik's extra credit project for Social Studies class.
It was a great recycling project.
The castle is built using; a shipping box, a box from a 12 pack of Ramen noodles, an oatmeal canister, the tube from a roll of wrapping paper, a Girl Scout cookie box, the tube from the center of a roll of toilet tissue, and a cereal box.

Chicken, Good

Yes, I did name her after the character Leeloo in the movie "5th Element".
And she absolutely needed a chicken.

Sunshine!

And a Smile.

A New Project

Shhhh! Don't tell. I Started a new project.
It is a Block of the Month from Grandma's Kitchen called, Friendship Flower.
Since the block sizes are given in centimeters I decided to make the background first, so I did not have to do the conversion to inches each month.
As soon as I get some more printer ink I will start adding the appliques to the sections.

Friendship Flower

Baby Quilt Ready to be Gifted.

A is for Adrienne.

This quilt pattern is from a 1968 quilting booklet.
I made a few changes. Instead of embroidering
the tail, mane, ears, and eye, I appliqued them.
Also in place of a saddle, I put a wreath of flowers around the neck.

ETA: The Back

Cute!

I thought I would post this cute picture of Leeloo.
And say that I am busy hand quilting the baby quilt. The deadline for finishing it is this Saturday! It will be a close finish, but hopefully I will have the binding finished and the gift wrapped by Friday.

An Apple .......

...makes a tasty treat.

Snorkie

Yesterday I got a puppy! Her name is Leeloo.

Random Things

Does anybody other than me shed thread? The above photo is my front steps.
Maybe some birds will use it for a nest.

J-7 in progress. Fussy cutting 25 ( 1 inch ) squares.
When I look at the finished block I wonder which little bee is the one dancing, and telling the others where the good flowers are.

A new find.

I went to the thrift store this week. I found this cute little vase for 50 cents!

I have been working on Hand quilting the baby quilt. I forgot to take breaks and move around. I am going to have to take a day off and let my shoulder rest. Ouch!

Baby Quilt Preview

Just a peak until the end of the month.

Ice and Snow

A couple inches of ice with 6 inches of snow on the top!

From 2009-01-31 ice