but I’m inside working on my flower garden…
bored and boring
I like to show pics of new supplies…new exciting exotic supplies. But these things I picked up this weekend are a very accurate representation of what’s going on around here so what the heck…
Bland pancake. Absolutely nothing is new. Same cold snowy weather, same stuck in the house with a toddler suffering, same no house for us anywhere story, same old.
I am doing some paper piecing. A slow pokey project for a slow pokey life.
maybe not quite so small
I finished the first doll quilt. I’m in serious love with this quilt that Jen showed from the Tokyo International Quilt Festival and so I thought I’d try a teeny tiny version of it. At first I
really wanted to totally recreate it as best I could, have lots of super tiny blocks, do the same quilting design, etc. It quickly became apparent making super elaborate tiny quilts wasn’t where I wanted to go. Then I was listening to this Alex Anderson podcast Jen sent me to on doll quilts and the gal she was interviewing was talking about how doll quilts were always made very quickly and were often quite basic because they were meant to be played with by children. And that sounded a lot more on the money to me. So I made bigger squares, did real simple machine quilting and used twill tape for binding. I always have a hard time with the intentionally imperfect look but I think it turned out cute. I dig it. It’s tiny though, 15″ x 18″. Next one should be bigger. One down!
Thanks for the Stitchette love the past 2 days! I’ve been to the post office 3 times since yesterday and they should be landing at their destinations shortly. Next on the horizon, the snowsuits. And then the make-a-long knitting patterns. Speaking of which, I’m looking for a very nitpicky knitter with some time on her hands, any takers?
epiphany!
It just dawned on me last night what I want to do with the baby’s room. Doll quilt wall! Remember this picture I found in a book a while back of a wall of vintage doll quilts.
I was just reminded of it by a reader who was tackling it herself and it hit me how perfect that would be for the baby’s room. I wouldn’t have to stress all out coming up with the one perfect baby quilt for her but rather could make a bunch of tiny little quilts. I won’t have to settle on a few favorite fabrics but could use many. I can work on lots of little projects instead of one big daunting one. I can give Tim and the wall painting/stenciling plans I had a rest. This way I can do all the work ahead of time and when/if we move it’ll be all finished and ready to go. And when the baby gets bigger she can use them all as quilts for her dollies. I love this idea! I’m so over the moon for it. It’s the perfect sweet country thing and also I think it could be done to look really modern. Simple and still ornate. I’m psyched!
Hopefully it’ll come together as wonderfully as I’m imagining. I’m still thinking yellow for the wall. And lots of white and light colors in the quilts with some brights mixed in. We’ll see how far I
can get on this project. I can always ebay some vintage doll quilts to add to the mix. And if my mom says yes I already have my first quilt, this doll quilt from her childhood.
Olive and Archie chapter 3
Olive and Archie are bundled up and ready for their next adventure. You can read their new story here.
There will only be one pattern for this chapter, the unisex snowsuit, so it’ll be a cheapie. Should be up soon, I’ll send an email to the list when it’s done. Then it’s on to creating patterns for the knitted items I’ve made for them. I’m so excited about the knits! A little less excited about translating my very amateur knitting skills into patterns but they turned out so cute I really hope they can be recreated.
hello cold
Isn’t it always the case that right after a bout of productivity one is slammed down with a cold. So frustrating. All the Langs are home sick today. Oscar’s been absorbed by Noggin, Tim’s being a good husband and off to the store for supplies and I’m being a lazy bum and reading magazines with a kleenex shoved up my nose. When I get better…
I’m going to knit this matinee coat from a vintage knitting magazine
and make this bambi for the baby
make some nursery decisions
and find a big boy bed for boxcar.
the boy’s got cute
So Oscar was exhibiting some very non-Oscar behavior this weekend. Perhaps in an effort to not be outdone by some hypothetical baby sister he spent all of Saturday afternoon deciding that teddy bears were very cute. That they needed to be collected and inspected and hugged and piled up under covers. That they needed to snuggle in. And that the tinier the bear the better. It was too much! When we tucked him and his bears into bed Saturday night I asked if I should make him a new tiny bear and he said “yes, while I’m sleeping.” So I eyeballed the pattern pieces in one of my Japanese bear making books and this is what I ended up with. He’s about 4″ tall, made from some hand dyed wool from Molly Chicken and has one too-tall ear.
Of course Oscar woke up on Sunday and gave me a yeah, mom look when I showed him the bear. I got a “cute” and then it was set aside for the melange of cars and trucks. Guess everyday is not bear day. But it’s nice to know it’ll pop up now and again.
It was a great weekend for crafting. (Crap for house hunting but thanks for the encouragement! I will not get discouraged) The yarn I’d ordered in December and had given up for lost miraculously arrived on my doorstep last week and this weekend I finished up knitting outfits for Olive and Archie. Also got a bit of snow around here on Sunday so I gave those snowsuits another shot. Should be some new make-a-long action around here soon.
And I’m trying a little something new, answering emails I get here just in case anyone else wanted to know…
– the magazines from the post before last are a Dutch childrens magazine called Ariadne At Home Kinderen. I got my copies in a trade and am not sure how to get them here in the U.S.
– I do have plans to make up patterns for the pull toys I made last Spring but I’m not sure when that will happen. Maybe Summer?
– Winter Stitchettes will be up in the shop soon. Maybe this week? Depends on how fast we can get the postcards back from the printer.
