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for the girl on the go

I just finished this little dachshund handbag for our favorite girl on the go, Trixie. Oscar is smitten and he asked me to send a little something on his behalf. 

I had originally wanted to crochet her this Ted purse from my Jaeger baby knits book.

I could totally picture little Trixie leaping over the side of the crib with her valuables safely stashed away in her teddie bag. But, I couldn’t figure it out. I thought it was just because I am awful at crochet but I had my friend Teresa who is an expert crocheter give it a shot and still it turned out weird. So when I spied this puppy purse in one of the Japanese craft books I got for Christmas I knew this would be the alternative.

I hope she likes it! It doesn’t really match her other luggage but I think that’s ok. All forward thinking girls break a fashion rule or two!

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Snowmen

What do I do when the projects are piling up, the Christmas cards are unaddressed and nothing has been baked.. make snowmen of course. Unauthorized projects are my downfall. I spied little snowmen like these on one of Kitty’s Oriental Craft Shop‘s listings and had to give them a try. They’re made from cheap gloves, scraps of flannel and tweed, a shiny bead bracelet I had, some floss and a little blusher. I love them.

Unfortunately even their sweet little faces aren’t making me any less of a stressball today. If my maillady doesn’t deliver my long awaited goods yet again today my outgoing packages will be sitting here another day and I’ll be another day closer to crazy. Probably wouldn’t bother me so much except that Oscar is pushing me closer to the brink by refusing to sit still for a Christmas card photo and by choosing this week to give up on sleep altogether.

These things cheer me up though… tiny orange making via Kottke and Loobylu’s friend Christina’s Christmas village.. it reminds me of our HO scale Christmasland which unfortunately has to live in the attic until Oscar is old enough not to trample it.. 15?

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Oscar’s Baby Clothes Quilt!

baby clothes quilt

I did it! I finished. phew. It was quite a day of speed-quilting yesterday. Oscar took 2 looong naps yesterday and I was able to baste it together, do all the quilting and make and sew on the trim! I think Oscar has realized it’s cold and snowy and we’re not going out for walks to the park or library so he might as well sleep all day. Poor guy, we’ll have to brave the cold today and go out as a reward for him being so good yesterday.

I really like how it turned out! At first I was disappointed because the design I had conceived of originally didn’t work out. I wanted a more modern, less traditional quilt with lots of white space and random splattering of squares. But I couldn’t narrow down the squares to use to so few – Oscar had so many cute little outfits and I want to remember all of them. So we came up with this instead and I think it worked out great! The white squares are flannel, as in the trim. And the backing is striped knit jersey.

There are some wonky bits. Actually a lot of them. I might have been able to do a better job with the quilting if I wasn’t in such a hurry but I don’t know. It’s so tricky to do the center with the entire quilt jammed in the sewing machine. And I always finish these things in a hurry whether or not I am because it’s kind of tedious. Wavy lines and puckers aside this is my favorite quilt ever!! It is so soft and, what’s a good word, malleable? You know how quilts can be stiff? Well since this one has knit jersey front and back it’s really flexible.

I hope Oscar likes it and adopts it as his blankie. Although maybe it’s for me…flash forward 18 years, Oscar’s just gone off to college, I’m in bed curled up in a ball inside this quilt hugging Kanga.

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Sashiko for Mariko

I’ve been dying to try my hand at sashiko embroidery ever since I found a book on it at Mitsuwa. I decided to try out an apron pattern for my amazing accomplice Miss Mariko. (If there is ever a crafting version of The Amazing Race I want her as my partner!) Hopefully this will keep her neat and tidy while she bakes all her yummy goodies.

 

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so much

I’m bursting with ideas these days. So many projects and inspirations – great fuzzy things from the thrift store to transform into stuffeds, so many beautiful new fabrics to sew up and quilt and display, and so many great childrens books I’ve discovered. All the distractions are keeping me from finishing the how-to I’m in the middle of.  And my house is overflowing. I’m running out of shelf space for stuffeds and my basement is so packed with leftovers from my vintage business there is no room to move all this outgrown baby stuff. And yet my wishlist keeps growing. I’ve convinced myself I need felting kits and teddy bear joints, jars of vintage buttons and fabric fabric fabric. I’m having all sorts of inspired ideas about trading and selling. At least they seem inspired in the shower when I come up with them. Everything is a little less brilliant after I’m toweled off. I’ve got gifts to buy, decorations to make and a stack of magazines to read through that is almost menacing.

Here’s a little bear I made last week to look at while I get my act together…

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Deep within the primeval forests of the emerald moon of Endor…

**updated to add** it’s getting to be Halloween time again and I always get a ton of emails about this costume. I made this 4 years ago for my son. I didn’t use a pattern, I don’t know of an ewok pattern and I no longer have the costume. The only suggestion I have is that if you’re going to make one be careful what you use because this type of thick, stiff fake fur is not really meant for an allover costume – too hot!

the small, furry Ewoks live in harmony with the natural world around them.

ok, here’s Oscar’s Halloween costume. He’s Wicket W. Warrick, the Ewok from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Being the brilliant first-time Mom that I am I though ‘oh, how he’ll love to be all snuggly and warm in a furry costume on a crisp October night!’ Of course the fake fur is heavy, hot and itchy. Of course, this is the boy that screams like you’re pulling off his toes when you put any clothes at all on him. Of course he hates anything on his head. And, oh yeah, of course it’s 75 degrees in Chicago this Halloween!

Here’s Wicket with Aunt Katie the Star Wars fanatic and the originator of the Ewok idea. Thanks KT!

It’s a good thing that many of the items in Oscar’s thriftstore-bought wardrobe look like Halloween costumes anyway. A backup plan is underway.

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Cracking


Today is Halloween costume making day. I’m under strict orders to “get cracking”!

But I just had to make this cutie squirrel first. When I saw how wonderful the felted camel sweater and the feedsack fabric matched I just had to bump up Squirrel-y here to the front of the line.

ok, now to tackle this bag of fur. Hopefully this is going to work out and I won’t need to make an emergency trip to the Target for a backup costume.