Suki's Sampler

For the girls' first birthdays, I like to make samplers with symbols from the pregnancy the year before. Here's Suki's, based on the same pattern as Grace's but with symbols unique to her.

It's all counted cross stitch on 28 count linen, the finished design is about 5 inches wide by 10 inches tall. Sorry not to write more but it's a very busy night!

A Little Blue Mouse

Grace loves the set of crocheted finger puppets I made for her (cousin Sakura has an identical set). When the blue mouse went missing a little while ago, she started asking me to make her a new one. Last night I finally got around to making it. I used the basic pattern from this site and cobbled a mouse together with the body and ears of a cow, the muzzle of a dog, the tail I made up on my own. It's a bizarre looking mouse but as you can see, Grace loves it. More photos below.

Grandma's afghan

We were lucky to have Grandma come visit us for a few days. Grace was especially lucky because Grandma brought the afghan she recently made for her! Grace loved cuddling up with her "cozy little blanket."

This is the second generation of children in our family to receive striped afghans in this same pattern from their grandmothers. I'm so glad that my mom made this and so happy that Grace enjoys it so much already! Any ideas what the pattern might be?

Christina's Works in Red (otherwise known as More Baby Things)

So since I am "expecting" with our adoption anytime from tomorrow to a year from Tuesday, I figured there were some things I needed to have together in case I had to run out the door and pick up a baby STAT (which has happened to several people working with our agency, so don't think I'm just dreaming dreams here). And what do you carry baby things in? A diaper bag, even though the more I think of it the more I realize that diapers are just the tip of the iceberg that needs to fit in that bag.

Okay - so anyway, I wanted a pretty diaper bag. Not a plastic Winnie-the-Pooh diaper bag (no offense to anyone who wants that) but a real, I-don't-mind-carrying-this-even-after-a-baby kind of bag. And I saw plenty of pretty ones, but they all seemed pretty pricey. Then I saw a really BEAUTIFUL one at the craft version of our Farmer's Market in town, but sadly it cost $160. However, it gave me the idea that since this wonderful woman had whipped up her own, likely out of supplies in my own Missoula area, maybe I could, too! So I looked for a good pattern, and found a Butterick pattern I liked.

Steve helped me pick out the outside heavy cotton fabric, and then I went back to the store later and got the gold brocade for the inside and all of the many notions that were needed for the bag (the excitement of fusible fleece and a sewing in a swivel key clamp were mine!) and set myself up on Fourth of July for some sewing fun. A few calls to mom later, I had finally gotten my tension right for using the extra-heavy-duty thread I decided the job required, and I sewed the day away. It took about eight hours, all told, but here is what I ended up with:




The inside has two elastic-topped pockets, one big back pocket, and two medium-sized front pockets. That is also where the key ring comes into play!




Originally, I was going to cut the pockets on the outside out of the pattern, but Melissa convinced me I would want outside pockets, so I just made them less bulky and put them in. Thanks for the good advice - I actually LOVE the pocket that pouches out with a velcro top, because it fits my wallet and cell phone perfectly. The other side one holds a bottle snugly in place.







So, that's that. The diaper bag is packed with diapers, onesies, a swaddling blanket, formula, and bottles, and it sits in the closet waiting for its day. Any advice on what else I need in there for a rush trip to the hospital?

In other crafting news, I finally finished the kimono-tie sweater I was working on, and here it is - it's made out of a soft red cotton, and at this point I forget which book the pattern came from. My goal is eventually to have a hat to match it, but I've been wooed by a pattern for a cherry-hat that is pulling me away from it at the moment.

Christina's crafts, dedicated to Kerrie

Some crafts would never have been taken on without the influence of someone else - in my life, my friend Kerrie is frequently a direct (and indirect) source of inspiration. She is the one who started me making soap, and who has supplied many of my scrapbooking embellishments. More recently (okay, over a year ago) she found a rocking chair near a church with a "free" sign on it. She couldn't pass it up, but asked us if we were interested. We definitely were - the catch was, it had a broken seat, where the caning had been ripped apart. After spending about a year thinking about the many ways this could be repaired (buying new caning, learning to cane, cutting out the cane and replacing it with a wooden seat, etc.) Kerrie inspired me with another of her favorite crafts - crochet. Here is a picture of the chair as we first ran nylon cord all around the intact parts of caning. Then, I superglued the caning near to this nylon cord to make sure the caning didn't unravel any more.




Then, the single crochet started. I went all the way across doing single crochet, about the rate of an inch an hour. You can tell that this took some steady time in front of the tv (oh, my suffering!)

Finally, I had my own pseudo-caning in artificial nylon:

This, I determined, was just for structural purposes. Luckily, a trip to Linens and Things yielded a seat cushion which sits very steadily over my handicraft, and the seat is now fully functional!



Inspired by Kerrie that crocheting may in fact be superior to knitting in many ways (um, especially the speed and the odd shapes you can make on purpose with crochet!) I decided to try making a star blanket for our one-day-to-be baby. We're getting rid of the carpeting upstairs, and I decided a baby needed to have something to play on that wasn't hard. Yes. And also, I found a new yarn store and fell in love with new yarn, so also that. Using the pattern here
and new yarn ( heathered green and a heathered blue in the very soft but affordable Plymouth Yarn Encore, and indulging with the beautiful Italian Tonalita colorway) I made this:





It was so much fun - not just doing the star, but using the Tonalita in between color changes. I never knew which color was going to come up next, and it was a nice change from my usual drab colors (yes, see the green and the blue). I always envy the colors Kerrie picks, and I thought she might approve of the bright interspersed in here.

That's the crafting as of late! Yarn has been my thing, but now that it's spring we're moving back into the garden, so hopefully there will be some things to show there soon.

An Easter Craft for Suki

I saw this amigurumi rabbit and knew I wanted to make it!

It's all single crochet, and pretty straightforward even if mine did turn out different than the pattern. The arms seem a little shorter and I think the body is overstuffed.

I love this little tail, though! I suspect Grace may swipe it from Suki for a little while :)

An Easter Craft for Grace

I saw these bunny beanbags and wanted to make some for Grace for her Easter basket. They were so cute! And, I reckoned, pretty simple to make. I traced the circles out of felt (brown or white for the top, a contrasting color for the bottom). I made a little pattern for the ears and cut those out of the contrast color, too. Then I stitched the ears on the top layer, embroidered some eyes, and made a pompom to sew on for the tail. The bunnies got stitched together and stuffed with polofin pellets. Points taken away because those pellets are supposed to be used only for decorative items, not played with items, but Grace will play with these in my sight and as you know, she's not one to put things in her mouth anyway.

Here are my half dozen bunnies, all finished and put to bed in their little grass lined box.

Detail of the ears and eyes.

And the wee tail -- I used the handle of a spatula to wind around to make these. It's about an inch wide.

My little rabbits. I call them Sleepy, Devil Bunny, Halloweenie, Tropicana, Angel Bunny and Chocolata. I had way too much time on my hands during the stitching, that's all I can say about that. Possibly I am losing it from lack of sleep.

Then I covered a box in felt to put them in -- here's the lid, with a stuffed bunny attached to the top. These were easy to make and so adorable! If I do say so myself :)

Grace and Clifford

Grace had her second birthday party this weekend, and I was lucky enough to get to go out to Virginia and celebrate with her and almost all of our family. After seeing the dogs on here that were for Sbo and Charlie, Laura gave a gentle hint that Grace might like one for her birthday. She's also a big reader, so I decided to make her a fluffy red dog and introduce her to the Clifford series at the same time.

The red material I used for Clifford was fluffy but VERY sheddy - it went through the wash several times, and after sewing it up I still saw a little bit of fluff come off now and again. Laura wore a black velvet skirt to the party, and Clifford shed a little on that, just like a real puppy.

When she opened the gift, Grace said "Is a puppy!" and gave him a hug right away.



She was interested in the books a little later on, and I couldn't believe how well she associated the dog with the dog in the book. They're similar looking, but not THAT similar! When you read the beginning "Hi, I'm Emily Elizabeth, and this is my dog Clifford" of any of the books, she grabs Clifford and puts him nearby. It's very sweet.