Poppy the Knit Chicken

This is Poppy the Chicken, that I knit. The free pattern called for super bulky weight yarn which I didn't have, so I used 2 worsted weight yarns that I held together while I knit. My first attempt turned out in a rather tall chicken because I didn't account for the fact that I was using thinner yarn and I knit to the 9" in height as directed. I realized that looked odd, so I ripped back a few inches and then followed the rest of the pattern so that she was a shorter chicken. My finished Poppy is about 6" tall x 6 1/2" wide at the widest. I added some weight in the bottom before I stuffed her, so she feels a little nicer and doesn't tip over.

I thought she might be fun to knit and if I liked her a lot then I would knit some more to use up some of my yarn. While I think Poppy is sweet and an easy knit, she is a one and done knit for me. I have no idea what to do with her. I used wool, so it would be too itchy to give to a child to cuddle.

The beak and eyes are made from yarn that is knotted.

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2 String Quilt Table Runners

I had started out making some blue string blocks and some red string blocks to make a red and blue scrappy string baby or lap quilt, depending on how many blocks I ended up with. Then I changed my mind and just wanted to do something with what I had already made and decided on making 2 table runners instead and be done with them. I do have a few red and blue blocks leftover, so they might become purse flaps for the purses I donate or some kind of appliqué? I'll see when I get to them later.

Glad I finished these. The blue one was done first and is for sale at the gift shop. If it sells, I will take the red one in or add it to my PayHip Shop soon.

There is something so satisfying about making string blocks and turning them into quilts of any size.

A simple serpentine stitch works great for quilting these runners.

Now that I am looking at this, I should have swapped one of those blocks with the checks on the right with one of the blocks with the red and tiny white dots on the left to balance it out more. Oh well, sometimes I just want to finish something so I can move on and I guess this was one of those times.🙄

I used the serpentine stitch to quilt this red runner too.

I like the red musical fabric for the backing. I forgot to take a photo of the backing for the blue. I used a tiny plaid print of blue with a touch of red for the blue runner backing.

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Sew Powerful Purses #44-47 for 2025

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. 🍀🍀🍀I don't have any Irish blood, although when I first had my DNA tested, I did have a wee bit of Irish, but that keeps changing as new information is shared. Now it seems I have a wee bit of Scottish blood instead, like 1%. 

Here are the last 4 purses I made to donate to Sew Powerful. On the Facebook Group we are given monthly challenges for fun and this month was flowers. I made flower flaps and paired them with green fabric purse bodies. The solid green was an upcycle from a Starbuck's apron from my daughter. I have other purses that I started making from aprons too and need to finish those so I can share them with you soon.

The flap on the left I used crayons to color the basket and flowers, stems and leaves and then added some hand embroidery and crystals on. The background was too stark white, so I got out my acrylic marking pens and colored the background with dots to it's less white and won't show the dirt quite as easily now. Glad that finally got used in something. The selvage flap has an appliqué flower with double stacked buttons.

A fun green print for teenage girls. 

Back side with pockets.

These two flaps were made by upcycling a rainbow dyed knit tank top and cutting 1/4 of Hawaiian flowers that I appliquéd to the flaps. The white backgrounds I used either paint sticks or markers. A few embroidered flowers and flower buttons I sewed on too.

The same green print on the left purse and the upcycled green Starbucks apron on the right.

Back with pockets. The green Starbucks apron has 2 front apron pockets, so I was able to use one apron pocket on the back here.

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Easy Going Knit Swoncho

I saw the Easy Going Swoncho online recently and love how this looked. It is a combination of a knit poncho and sweater (hence the name, Swoncho). I like the look of most ponchos, but they just don't look or hang right on me and I tend to fiddle with them as they slide off my shoulder or twist somehow, ugh! Plus, how to you carry a bag/purse with a poncho? Under the poncho? It won't fit over one very well, at least not on me. This Swoncho looks a bit like a poncho, but behaves more like a pullover sweater and I love that! It has normal sleeves, not those sleeves at the forearms with the huge gap under the arms! I don't think I would like those, even though I never ever tried one on before.

This was an easy knit too, a huge bonus for me! The only thing I had to change is the length of the sleeves and only because I knew I didn't have enough yarn to knit to the wrists or even 3/4 sleeves, which is what I prefer. I wasn't sure when to to stop knitting, since I had to knit 2 sleeves and didn't want to run out of yarn on the second sleeve. I ended up with a small amount of yarn leftover, but it would have only added 1/2"+ to each sleeve if I had known in advance that I could have knit a bit more on each sleeve. I need to try this on now that it has been blocked and see what I think of the sleeve length on me. I quickly tried it on before blocking it and it hits about my elbows on the sleeve length. I used my hand dyed yarn that I dyed myself years ago. I used a double strand, since this was thinner weight yarn than the instructions called for.

If I love how this looks and feels on me (and that still needs to be determined), I might try making another one with the longer sleeves and using up a lot of my various leftover yarn amounts, blending them in as I knit.

Knit with 2 yarns held together throughout that I hand dyed myself.

Center stitches down front (back and sleeves also have this same stitching).

Bottom edging clsoeup.

Sleeve closeup.

Find the FREE pattern on Cascade Yarns HERE.  Thank you Cascade Yarns for this free pattern!

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Southwest Stars Table Runner

I made this table runner over a month ago and recently quilted and added the binding on it. I took it to the gift shop where I sell things and it should sell there eventually as Southwest items do very well there.

I really liked making this star block (Spinning Star?) and it's fun to see how it looks in different colors. I made some of these stars for the SAHRR quilt (2025) where I added 2 rows on my quilt. The completed quilted SAHRR will be shared soon, as will all the others who have finished their SAHRR quilts, so be looking for it.

Southwest fabric prints in batik, plus the orange rust and cream color fabrics are batik and the binding is batik fabric too.

I like how there is a secondary star in the rust orange color that appears as you sew together the blocks. Plus, the brown frames both the turquoise stars as well as the rust orange stars.

A simple serpentine stitch was used for the quilting.

The backing is a Southwest print of Indian arrows. This is not batik fabric though.

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Sew Powerful Purses #42-43 for 2025

2 more purses to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. Aren't these bunnies/rabbits cute? I am pretty sure these are from one of the Art to Heart books I have by Nancy Halvorsen, but I don't remember which book it came from? I do have a quite a few of her books because I love her sweet appliqué designs. Hmmm... maybe I should make other purses with some of her designs, reducing the sizes as needed to fit the flaps. Talk about going down a rabbit hole!!!😂😆😄🐇🐰🐇🐰🐇

2 cute bunny (or rabbit) purses. These bunnies started out to be fabric quilted postcards that never got completed as postcards. I found them recently and thought these would make such cute purses, so here are 2 bunny purses! I hope the girls find them cute.

Closer look at the bunny/rabbit. 

Front pockets and flaps linings. Isn't that flap lining perfect for the those bunnies/rabbits? Carrots, peas, radishes and roses, in case bunny gets hungry. 😄🐇🐇🐰🐰🐰

Back slip pockets.

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Sew Powerful Purses #39-41 for 2025

3 Scrappy Pieced Heart flap purses made to donate to Sew Powerful Purse Project. 2 have batik purse bodies and one has a fun print of clouds in purple, pink and white.

Scrappy pieced hearts on all flaps.

Front of purses with pocket.

All have slip pockets on the back of the purses.

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