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A flowered tabby cat with green stripes, a pink suede nose and blue buttons for eyes. This is the cat pattern I was designing the other day. I feel like I finally got it right. I was looking for a good balance of angular and round. After many test cats with way too big heads and super skinny legs and seams busting open, here's the one that worked!
I finished up my new fall scarf. I used this pattern for a multidirectional diagonal scarf and my yummy dazzle yarn. Now that it's finished I'm not sure if I like it. You think I'd notice this while working on it but I have a weird "project in progress" blindness that keeps me from determining if I think it's working until after it's complete. isn't that handy? I liked the way the dazzle looked in stockinette stitch better than garter stitch, smoother, while this is definitely nubby. But I'm sure I'll love it to death in about 5 minutes. Like I said yesterday, I'm a fickle pickle.
The last time I made barrettes they were much sexier but I'm an old lady now and I wear things like knit barrettes. I'm happy with how these turned out but the barrette mechanism I bought sucks! I'll have to hunt around for something more sturdy.
Knitting those barrettes with the tiny size 2 needles reminded me of this hat I knit for Oscar last Winter when he was a tiny baby. I dug it out and it still fits! Thank goodness because it took me FOREVER to knit and I think he wore it once. Here he is then and now.
There's a beautiful afghan in my Mom's living room that is referred to as the "20 year blanket" because that's how long it took her to finish. This is my great white whale, the 10 year quilt. I promised Tim I'd have it finished in 10. I started it last Fall so that's one year down, nine to go!
The pattern is grandma's flower garden and the method I'm using is paper piecing. I cut out each hexagon of fabric, sew it to paper, sew the pieces together and then remove the paper. When I'm done piecing it together I'm going to hand quilt it. Maybe 10 years isn't enough! Very time consuming, but it is the relaxing, do it while watching tv kind of crafting, like knitting. I love all the different varieties of the grandma's flower garden design. I'm often tempted to cut all my fabric scraps into little hexagons and just commit to that design for the rest of my life. But I know I'm a fickle pickle so I stop myself.
I was hoping to have something cute finished by the end of the day today but instead it is like the island of misfit toys around here. I've been working on designing my own pattern for a stuffed animal and I can't believe how difficult it is! Well, I can believe it, after all I did spend forever getting the pattern for the round dolls just right and those were such a simple shape. I plan to keep at it but I need a break.
Time to switch gears to something I know how to do.. work on a knitting project. I have a scarf going and another bobbi bear. Or maybe I'll get out the 10 year quilt and work on that...
some photos from today...
Look what we found at the Hobbytown! A German Christmas fair in HO scale! Complete with 4 concession stands, snowman, Christmas tree lot and "many small details" including beer crates! Tim is thinking for either at the bottom of the ski run or maybe by the ice skating pond. This is very exciting stuff, trust me ;) It is an excellent find. Finding good model train stuff that exactly matches your needs at the local hobby shop is nothing short of a miracle. A find like this normally takes months of diligent ebay searching. And we just ran across it. We haven't even been on the lookout for train stuff for forever. Might be a sign that the Silver Belle needs to come out this Christmas. Although I'm not quite sure it's boohoo baby compliant.
Other weekend purchases might have included some more fabric. Not my fault though! I can't help it that my parents live in an epicenter of quilting stores. It's odd that I didn't know this. I guess because before Oscar I didn't spend every weekend at my parent's house. And honestly, I was being a good daughter when I agreed to make a quilted jacket for my Mom that she admired at the shop last weekend. I did not enlist her as my partner in crime to justify more trips to fabric stores. And a rooster telling me bonjour. Come on! How can I resist that?!
Here's my new reversible bag. I made it out of 2 thrifted skirts, one tweed pencil skirt and a printed cord circle skirt. It turned out to be a good choice of fabrics, the bag reverses well and holds its shape. Then I made a buttonhole in the front and sewed buttons onto the back of the flowers so they can be attached to either side. 4 combinations (only 3 shown the 4th photo didn't turn out). I made it nice and big so I have something cute in which to lug around all of the boohoo baby's supplies!
Thrifting and buying a beautiful Pashupatina necklace. Then I get home and find out it must have been in the stars!
here and here. Thanks for the mentions girls!
So the thrift store was ok, found a few good fabrics and some cute things for O. The star of the show is this great backpack! Unfortunately I'm not 10 and heading off to the fourth grade. I couldn't resist it. I even thought, well maybe for Oscar. Like that's going to happen.
And I finished him last night.. even without the right tools (Martha would be very disappointed in me). If I can find double pointed size 13 needles anywhere I might have to knit a few more of these. Especially since it is so thrifty in the Thick and Quick!
Also Crafts for Critters...great cause & super cute stuff!!
I discovered there is a quilt shop not far from my parents' house. Dangerous information! I bought a few fat quarters and have vowed not to go back there until these are made into something. I'm definitely feeling theme-y these days. When I looked down at my selections they all matched. Pinks! Shouldn't I be in a burnt orange, chocolate brown sort of mood? Especially since today is the first day of Fall. (right?) But no, record September highs here in Chicago. Today 85. bah!
to console myself I might have been snooping around for San-X yesterday - another dangerous activity! Here are some favorites...
We attended the long awaited Renegade Craft Fair in Wicker Park yesterday. It was, in a word, overwhelming. So much to see! It was as unexpectedly large as depart-ment was small. I'm like goldilocks looking for a craft fair that's just my size. We started strong, it was a bright sunny day, Oscar was merrily shacking his maraca, we were all oohs and ahs at each booth we passed. Then the maraca was thrown on the ground, repeatedly, the sun got hotter and brighter and we had to pick up the pace. The t-shirts and handbags started to blur together, whimpering turned to wailing and entire lanes were skipped. At this point someone stopped us to comment on how clever our stroller was that the front bar could be bent up to work as a teether. yeah, that's not supposed to happen. That's the result of the superhuman strength the boohoo baby gets when he's bored and frustrated. But we managed to get out of there in one piece, with all of our money spent and plenty to talk about the rest of the day. I'm so pleased with the things we found. Two cards, one by Tweedle made of old wallpaper and one by I'm Smitten (horse hostess). And I love LOVE my new dammed dollie. So cute and funny. I love all of her stuff. I would be very happy with an all damned dollie t-shirt wardrobe. But I was frugal and only bought this girl...
Our final purchase was this amazing print by Jay Ryan of the Bird Machine, "a silk screen printshop in chicago, illinois, usa which makes posters and other strange little hand-printed items." Tim and I both spotted it right off and knew we had to have it. We had intended it for O's room but we might put it in the living room so we can look at it all the time. Interesting tidbit...I always refer to this one poster we saw briefly years ago while having lunch whenever I try to describe something cute. I'll say it's like those floaty round things with the feet we saw that one time. I even brought it up again while we were debating purchasing this print. Turns out Jay Ryan made that one too! It was fate.
