Monday, December 26, 2011

Armchair Sewing Caddy & Yarn

I made this armchair sewing caddy for my sister. I wrapped it in a pink & green paisley print totebag I made. I posted the photo of the totebag earlier this year in this posting: http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/2011/07/beach-bags.html
She sent me this beautiful skein of Alpaca variegated yarn. Oh so soft! I am going to knit a scarf with this yarn.
Pin It Now!

Knit Socks & Yarn


I knit these purple socks for my friend Susan for Christmas. No matter how I photographed it the royal purple color of these just didn't come out in a photograph. They look more blue, but they are really a beautiful shade of purple. These are an acrylic/nylon sock yarn.

I also knit these socks for Susan too. They are a variegated self-striping yarn in blue and green. It's a wool/bamboo/nylon blend sock yarn.

Oh and look what Susan mailed to me! Now I can knit some socks for myself with this great-looking sock yarn in those yummy Kaffe Fassett colors. Wow so many colors in one yarn, I can't wait to see how they knit up. The green ribbony-type yarn I had never seen before. If you pull the green yarn out width wize it looks like those fishnet stockings I remember wearing years and years ago. Lots of possibliites for using this yarn. I wonder how it will knit up? Can't wait to try it. Thanks Susan!
Pin It Now!

Dress Form Pincushion

Last month was my birthday and my friend Bobbie made this pincushion for me. Isn't it great? It's mounted onto a champagne glass that's upside down. I suppose I could pour champagne in it and drink from it, only I couldn't set the glass down :0)
Pin It Now!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Sewing Machine Covers

I love the Ladies Series from blogger Carol at Mama CJT (http://mamacjt.blogspot.com/) that I made 6 of the ladies and then made them into 2 sewing machine covers and a serger cover. I used one lady on each side of the covers. That way I can just grab one and place it over my machine and not have to be concerned with which side is the front side. I asked Carol for her permission to post these on my blog and she mostly graciously agreed. So please check out her blog to see the other ladies in the series. There are over a dozen ladies, so I had a hard time choosing just 6.
One side of my larger sewing machine cover.

This is the other side of the cover above.

This is a cover for my serger and I also made a serger litter bag to match. The tool organizer I made before ever deciding to make the covers, so the binding on that is a yellow and orange stripe. This lady looks a lot like my own mother! Even my daughter said it looked like Grandma.

This is the other side of the serger cover.
This is the cover for my computerized sewing machine.

This is the other side of the cover above.

Close-up of the lady on the above cover.
Pin It Now!

Wall Quilt For a Friend

A friend of mine lost her very best friend to cancer this month. Angela is having a hard time coping with her death. I made her this small wall quilt to help cheer her up.

I added embellishments such as French knots, beads, buttons and silk-like flowers.

Pin It Now!

A Trio of Zippered Bags

I made 3 zippered make-up style bags from fabric that I had quilted. I had quilted a long strip to originally use for the side of one of the sewing machine covers that I made, but I had calculated the measurement a few inches too short. Never fear I can put that quilted fabric to good use and hence enough fabric to create 3 bags.
Pin It Now!

Knit Vest Using Prickly Pear Dyed Yarn

I knit this vest using the bulky weight yarn that I had dyed with prickly pear cactus a few months ago. This was the second dyeing with the cactus juice, resulting in a lighter pink shade that the first dyeing. The first dyeing resulted in a dark color.
Pin It Now!

Knit Tee Shirt

I knit this tee shirt out of a light boucle yarn. It's very light and drapey. The pattern called Lazy Days Tee Shirt, came from the book, Saturday Style: Casual Knits for Weekend Wear, by Doreen L. Marquart.       
 
Pin It Now!

White Elephant Gift

My daughter needed a white elephant gift for work. She asked if I could knit one of those knitted beards with a hat that she's seen online and this is the result. She is giving this to a young male co-worker who has red hair. I hope she gets a photo of him wearing this so I can see how it really looks.

Pin It Now!

Tie Dyed Tee Shirts

At the end of summer I had dyed buckets of tee shirts, fabric and felt. Here are just 2 of the tee shirts that I dyed.
It took lots and lots of tiny rubber bands to make this one.

This is the back view of this shirt. The front is nearly the same, but this photo turned out better.
Pin It Now!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Flannel Pajama Bottoms

I made these for my daughter.
Pin It Now!

Monday, December 12, 2011

New Camera

I got this new camera last week. My old camera broke the hinge where the batteries are inserted and so I couldn't use the camera anymore. I researched Consumer's Reports and this Cannon was the top rated camera in the point-and-shoot variety. I like that it uses 2 AA batteries. For me that's a plus, but some people prefer the lithium batteries. It takes great photos and easy to use and so much quieter than my old camera, which sounded like a sick moose whenever I turned it on :0) So from now on my photos will be taken with this camera. I wonder if anyone will notice a difference? (The mug rugs below was taken with my old camera). I do have some photos I can't post yet, since they are gifts I made for friends and family. So you'll have to wait to see those. I am really liking this new camera a lot!
Pin It Now!

Mug Rugs

I made 18 mug rugs using batik scraps for the front and whatever scraps I had on hand for the backing and binding. I gave these to the ladies in my UFO group. They didn't all fit in this photo.
Pin It Now!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My 1st Basket

I joined a basket group this month and I made this basket. It was the first basket I ever made, besides my coiled fabric baskets. The process was easy although sometimes a bit awkward to weave with the stiff basket materials. I certainly have a better appreciation and understanding for how baskets are made now.

Side view of basket.

I want to try making a coiled pine needle basket next as the pine needles are plentiful and free now this time of year. I've gathered up several bags of needles and washed them and sorted through and bundled them. So I will be giving it a try this winter and see if I can make a decent pine needle basket.

I don't really want to make anymore baskets like the little square one I made above. It was a good learning experience, but those kind of baskets, while beautiful and functional, don't really thrill me enough to want to make any more of them. Pin It Now!

Sakura Quilt

I liked the quilt I made for my daughter's friend Dee (see the post below), so I decided to make another one for me. The Kanji fabric I used for the background of both quilts is the same fabric, but the other fabrics are different and I used slightly larger and thicker buttons for the flowers. I named this one Sakura, which is cherry blossom in Japanese. The branch works perfectly as a hanging rod too.
Pin It Now!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Birthday Gifts for My Daughter & Her Friend

My daughter, Amber, said her friend (Dee) wanted me to make her a quilt for her birthday. She told me Dee didn't want anything else for her birthday except a quilt made by me. So being the wonderful mother I am, I made her a quilt. I first asked Amber what Dee liked. She said anything Japanese (Dee is half Japanese, as her mother is from Japan), especially Cherry Blossoms. She also likes owls. I decided to make a cherry blossom quilt. I machine blanket stitched around the flowers. After I quilted the quilt, I added the button and beads on the flowers. I hung it by a branch onto the wall of my cutting/ironing room. It looks so nice hanging there that I just might need to make another one for me! I'll get to enjoy it for a little while until I give it to Amber to give to Dee.

Close-up of the beads and buttons on the cherry blossom.

Amber has always loved pigs since she was a little girl. So I made her this Pink Piggy quilt. Her birthday is a couple days before Dee's.

Close-up look of the pig.
Pin It Now!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Even More Baby Gifts

I knit this baby sweater for my daughter's friend who is having a boy in November.

And a hat to match. I also made a zipper gift bag in a baby print fabric (just like the bag with the knit duck hat below).
Pin It Now!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

More Baby Gifts

The gift bag I made and the chile pepper baby rattle I knit. My friend is going to be a grandmother this month for the first time. Her son and daughter-in-law are expecting a girl. Why a chile pepper? Since Pam designs chile quilt patterns, the bag is for her and the rattle can stay at "Grandma's" house if she wants it to.

I also knit her granddaughter-to-be a sweater. So pastel the colors hardly show up in this photo.
"Chile Pepper" hat I knit too.

The chile pepper rattle, a closer view.
Pin It Now!

Second Yarn Dyeing

This is the color I got when I dyed more yarn using the same batch of prickly pear cactus juice. It came out lighter, which was expected. I really love this shade of pink. This time there was hardly any color left to the water after the dyeing process. To see the first batch of yarn dyed with prickly pear cactus, scroll down a few older postings.
Pin It Now!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Baby Shower Gift

I knit this duck hat and booties and also made the zippered gift bag to put them in. This is for a baby boy due in November.
Pin It Now!

Friday, September 30, 2011

Gifts for Mom

My Mom came for a visit and she also turned 85 years old this September, so I made a few things for her. I made the zippered bag from a Red Hat fabric print. I gave her a bar of handmade unscented soap...yes I made the soap too. Then I crocheted 3 small washcloths. I figured these were useful gifts and hopefully she might really use them.
Pin It Now!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Chile Placemat

My friend Pam taught how to make this placemat at the quilt guild I belong to. If you make several of these in different colors, you can link them together to form a Chili (Chile)Chain Table Runner. Pam is the designer of this pattern as well as several other chile/Southwest designs. I made one of these in red (see older posting) too. I didn't follow the directions completely because I used scraps instead of cutting 5 fabrics she suggests in the pattern. I always have to be different!
Pin It Now!

Yarn Dyed With Prickly Pear Cactus

I dyed some yarn with prickly pear cactus. Here is is hanging to dry in my bathtub. In order to get this color you need to let the yarn ferment for 2 weeks.

Here are 2 balls of yarn I wound. This yarn was a bare sock yarn from KnitPicks. It is a superwash wool with 25% nylon. Those little flecks of color are in the wool that I purchased. The small bit of yarn in the foreground I also threw in the pot to see if it would take the dye differently. The smaller yarn is 100% Peruvian wool, also from KnitPicks. It appeared to dye a bit brighter and darker than the nylon blend wool. Like I did with the fabric and tee-shirt dyeing, I saved the prickly pear cactus fermented juice and tossed in 3 skeins of bulky weight wool yarn to ferment for a couple of weeks and I think I might end up with a light pink shade...stayed tuned and we'll see what happens.
Pin It Now!

Knitted Apples

I knit these apples after I knit the pear. It's from the same place I found the pear tutorial (scroll down to the knitted pear posting below). I like the apples better than the pear.
Pin It Now!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...