Hard at work...

Oh my it has been almost a whole month since I last posted!

What has been happening you might ask? (and if you didn’t, I will tell you anyway)

Well the cute boy has been at DayCare *sigh* and he is FINE!! Am I fine? Well I am not crying this week….He is so happy to be there because he is so cute and loved and how could you not love this face:




How do you people with Jobs and Crafts and Kids find time to blog? I mean I thought crafting and working made it hard enough – though I admit the blogging forces me to finish…sort of….okay maybe not all.

But there has been some finishing happening. My Mom almost finished this very cute sweater for the boy:



Pattern: Baby Kimono by Kristin Spurkland in Interweave Knits Summer 2005
Intended size: 20” which says newborn, but I think it is more like 6mths (22”) – my mom knits loose
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton Colour #? (lost the ball band)
Needles: size 3(3.25mm)
Changes to pattern: Closure is left over right (boy baby) and used snaps instead of ribbon for closure (again, boy baby)

So easy to make! Okay, all I did was one sleeve and put it together. As you can see I added a bit of grosgrain down each “button band” and sewed snaps instead of buttons. And used a fabulous Pirate Button purchased at the store as decoration. I like snaps and zippers best for baby sweaters since they hold better than buttons possibly torn off by little hands. Of course that does not mean that I would not use cute buttons if I found them!


And there has been a lot of swimming going on:

Maxim with Julie Anne hangin' out in his coolshades at the pool!

Father's Day #1

It is Fritz'z first official Father's Day!
And in honour of said day, I made the cutest little romper for Maxim:



See the ties? Get it? Oh, I slay me!

And really getting on the Father's Day/matching outfit bandwagon, my boys have matching pj's:




too cute i know...Fritz isn't feeling so hot, but I HAD to take the picture.

I even have knitting for the baby to post - but that will have to be later this week, as i am back in Oz for this week while Fritz is home with the babe!

kindness of strangers

Fritz has an assistant named George and George has a mom named Pat – well Pat is a knitter and also has a blog (George’s mom is obviously cool - and i think her hair is red? maybe strawberry blonde). Not only she is a knitter with a blog who is George’s mom – but she knits socks…socks for my Max!



Aren’t these great?!?!? Met her once for five seconds at the MD Sheep and Wool and she knit my boy socks!!!! 2 Pair!!! And a very soft wash cloth (Manos stria maybe or blue sky organic cotton?) Very soft!!! My opinion of George is raised highly since his mom is so cool (Actually I have always like George but add the knitting mom and, well… I am biased after all)

Oh how i miss

this guy!!!










I am at work today!! Can you believe it - my maternity-leave is basically up and gone!!
I miss him so! Fritz has been kind enough to Text me pics all day long to keep me sane :)

Fritz is home this week with the wee one, then I am home next week, Fritz is home the week after that and I get the last week of June with Maxim before I have to go back full time and he is off to Daycare in July...so very sad.

In the picture above, Max is sporting a lovely hat i made with leftover Noro Tidori and Debbie Bliss Cathay. These little booties:










Are also made with the Noro yarn. I think the pattern is out of KNIT SIMPLE magazine spring/summer 2007.
They are not for Max but for Baby Anna who is 4 weeks younger than my sweet boy. BUt doesn't he make a lovely model?

Must. Go. Home. And see baby (that and my boobs are about to bust! Left the tubes to the pump at home - somebody shoot me!)

gettin' crafty

As mentioned earlier, I have been watching way too much DIY. And one of the shows that I tend to watch is called CREATIVE JUICE – the hosts, like most TV hosts, are a bit too cheery for me ….and the chick has red hair...
Has anyone else noticed that all the cool crafty people have red hair? i.e.: Vickie on KNITTY GRITTY, the Annie Modesitt, and in the blog world, Katrin at SewMad, Kristin at Kristin LaFlamme, and Yvette (who is also a costume designer I work with). Starting to think that I should have dyed my hair red instead of dark brown……..might help in the crafty-ness… though i have been known to be a red, rather burgundy, head from time to time.

Ok back on topic: SO CREATIVE JUICE had a baby things episode. They decorated a onesie with Buddha and made a baby sling. So I had to “follow the fold” and go for it.

Maxim has grown out of these onesies and I could not let them go to waste:

Since everyone else is having girls, I decided to lose the traditional car-boy themes and appliqué some cute birdies over the original design:


Added a little glitter paint to the wings and sparkle for the eye…so cute for the girls. Must pass on to the next cute baby (somebody shoot me!)

I also felt the need to make a baby sling:



I needed something classy to help carry the baby (as well as be able to breastfeed in plain view, but not) while at a wedding this past weekend.


I have the Baby Bjorn (eBay purchase) and that works too. I also tried a New Native Sling that for the first few weeks. Unfortunately, both caused some back pain after awhile. Although the Baby Bjorn is a bit awkward to adjust, it is great for more active roaming with the baby and fantastic once I get it right, but bulky and unattractive when all dressed up. The New Native Sling is more of a pouch and not adjustable at all – moving on to the sling!

I followed these instructions and am really happy with the end result. You can find plenty of different versions of how to make a sling, as well as other carriers, here.
Normally these slings cost way too much (that is, if you can sew, have a crazy stash of fabric and trust your own mad skills). Instead of buying (and wanting one NOW) I made a gorgeous and comfortable Baby Sling for under $10.00. I used a silk from my stash that I bought off a $1/yard table in college and the rings are very inexpensive (ordered from www.slingrings.com)

Must make more!!!!

Finishing the unfinished

More finished objects!

The time between late night feedings has become very productive. And now that my serger is back from the Bernina repair guy and my sewing machine is out on the kitchen table…I am flying through a few sewing projects:



This lovely wall hanging was started in 2004. I think? I decided to take a quilting class over at Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg based on the sample hanging in the shop. All the piecing was done but none of the quilting or the bias edge. I am still thinking about stitching around the dragons and castles in gold or silver metallic thread – but that will most likely NEVER happen. I thought about passing it on as a gift but Fritz really liked it and thinks I should hang it in the baby’s room.
Apparently, I liked the first one so much, I started this one:



Now this one has been quilted, but I have yet to do the border pieces….I am sure there is something in my stash that would lend itself to trimmings. Something in a lovely red maybe? To match the back?

And last but not least – a needle case for straights, circulars and dpn’s along with a pocket for stuff…






Any takers? Seriously. You want it, I’ll mail it. I cannot remember who it was for - if anyone. Email me first and it will be sent out to you this week!!

oh and there is more Unfinished yet to be finished..those baskets are scary!

Wow! One whole year!!

Can you believe it? This piddly little blog has been up for a year! And not yet 100 posts...been busy :)
And even more amazing, I finished a sewing project that i started with fabric that I bought last year this weekend.



this is my very first pieced quilt! The finished measurement is about 45" x 36". The few others quilts that I have made were done with those "tops" you can buy at the fabric store and have some sort of character (animaniacs, harry potter...) and then a few blocks of matching colours around them to make them bigger.

So last year, I started with this:


I sliced the rows on the bias, then re-stitched the bias strips into the center rectangle.

The majority of the fabrics are Denise Schmidt - and a few others filling in the blanks. I finished the center portion last summer and then it just sat and sat in one of my many baskets of many unfinished projects. So last week, while finally unpacking a few things, I found the beginnings of this quilt and felt it was time to finish. The top only took another 2 hours to put together (baby napping - yeah) and pinned like crazy to the back fabric. The not so perfect hand quilting was done by the light of the tv inbetween the 4 am and 6 am feedings. No reason to try to sleep for 1 hour :)
The pictures are all a bit blurry since I used my cell phone camera to take pictures (Fritz left the digital camera at the theatre)

I loved the end result so much, that I started another one!



the fabrics were given to me by Vivi, last year during our fabric swap. The colours are very fall-like: browns and rusts with some olive green and a bit of gold. The stripe is something from my stash. There was another fabric, but it is living a happy life as a purse lining. Expect to see a post one year from now with the finished project.....