driven to madness

This is what fabric shops do to me:

Catherine and I went to the Fabric Shack in Waynesville today - she had a plan of what she was going after, I bought with wild abandon. See evidence above. It was so much fun though!! I got 1/2 yards of most stuff, which made me feel like I was being thrifty (seriously?) but got a yard of the two flannels to make covers for the bed pillows. Oh, also the big roll of fabric was a ton of remnants that were only 2.98/yard - a couple bits were as much as a yard, but most were smaller - and I can't resist small bits! I think I better make some plans and have something cool to show for all this! In closing, I'm on a serious fabric diet now.

my lips are no longer sealed!

Yeah! I've been making lots of baby gifts lately, but couldn't blog about them because then there'd be no surprise for the mamas! But now I can because they've been given - granted, most everyone who reads this has already seen the stuff, but you'll just have to sit through it again!

For Ginny, I made some felt booties. I got this pattern, which is a 1950's Simplicity reissue, and had no idea who I'd make them for, but I just had to get it! Because Ginny isn't going to find out whether she's having a girl or boy, I tried to keep them sort of gender-neutral. However, I think this pair is pretty girly! She'll have a 50/50 chance of being able to use them, I suppose!



I think these other two pairs turned out as something a girl OR boy could wear though! I made one each of the different styles. I think I could make a million of these and never stop loving them!



Oh man, why are baby things so darn fun? because they're adorable! I was looking on the Purl Bee because they always have the most fantastic baby stuff (it may just be that they have great photographers, and make stuff out of their fabrics which are to die for - and also horrendously expensive. oh if I were independently wealthy....) and found some super cute bibs - perfect! I didn't use their suggested unbleached organic handwoven and kissed by a baby lamb $50/yard terrycloth, but I did use some pretty snappy fabrics, I think! I tried to keep the color family and prints sort of similar so it really looked like it was supposed to be a set. The edges are bias tape, and the contrast fabric at the bottom is a crumb catcher (which I didn't even know bibs had!)

Then for English Emily, because she's doing a woodland theme in the little acorn's room, I made this squirrel! Stuffed stuff is just the most fun stuff to make!! I had to warn her that it's extremely non-kid friendly! I used some buttons that belonged to my grandma for the eyes - I couldn't quite remember which tin I'd fished them out of, but my mom recognized them when she saw them, so I knew it was from her mom's tin! they've got several layers, which is perfect for eyes, but they're sort of loosely connected, so they're also perfect for choking on. Then to make matters worse, I used some nylon threads for the whiskers and kept them from falling out by putting a little dab of glue on the fabric around them. certainly not going to keep them from being pulled out and eaten! Then, to top it all off, I made the tail by knitting an i-cord and slipping it over a piece of old wire I found downstairs. "sometimes the i-cord slips around and you have to tuck the wire back inside" - that's what i told Emily. seriously. i might as well have sewn little razor blades on it's paws! However, it's adorable and i think it'll be great for a room decoration - not everything has to be a crib toy!

Then, because I had so much fun making the squirrel, I kept going and made this turtle - he's a woodland friend too! Both of these patterns come from an old Lady's Home Journal book that I had to get after my friend Catherine showed me her copy - for one thing, right on the cover was a doll that my grandma made for me when I was a kid! I was totally blown away when I saw that! But on top of that were sections of jungle animals, woodland animals, cats and dogs, Alice in Wonderland characters - just tons of fantasticness!

And, of course, I had so much fun with Ginny's bibs, that I made a set for Emily too!

And finally, because I cannot stop making these fun bibs, I made a set for another couple who are having a boy soon - they're friends of billy's really, but I don't care - it's an excuse to make more bibs! and I just realized that I kind of did the bias tape wrong on these - well, I suppose I should say that I mad the trim different on these - guess it's not wrong! Again- I did the crumb catchers in fabrics that were mostly blue, so they'd look like a set! I think I might have to ask for a big box of bias tape for christmas - I'm kind of in love with it!

Whew! I'm glad all that's off my chest finally!

Best. Swap. Ever

Holy cow! I just realized that I forgot to blog about what might have been my cleverest move ever!

As you know, I have a thing for casserole dishes and also a thing for Wollmeise. I also kind of have a thing for frugality. Well, I ended up with this Longaberger casserole dish because a lady at work was having a catalog party and i sort of "owed" her for making a big purchase from me during a Pampered Chef party I had. I'm not big on baskets, and while their ceramic stuff is also not stuff I'd normally buy, I settled on a casserole dish that I figured I'd at least use. and it was yellow. unfortunately not really yellow enough for my taste. I think I used it once. I thought I'd try to sell it on Ebay just to get a bit of money back out of it and free up some space (granted, that space would probably be taken up by more casserole dishes!) Then I got a notion that maybe someone would want to swap some wollmeise for a Longaberge casserole dish! I posted the picture on the ISO/Destash board on Rav and got like 5 responses! woohoo! i kind of had my pick of the litter! Most of them just said "take a look at what I have and tell me what you like!" whaaat? so I settled on this one person who had Grasshupfer, which I love love love! she said sure! then asked if there was anything else I liked in her destash - I thought she was just sort of giving me the chance to buy a couple things since she was shipping the Wollmeise. Turns out she was just offering to send me more yarn! She was fantastic and I ended up with the Wollmeise, a skein of Baruffa cashwool laceweight, and two skeins of Malabrigo silky merino! oh man, what a good day!

scarf socks and sun!

My first plaid scarf inspired me to plaid it up again - this time with colors that I thought might be good for one of the men on my Christmas list - like my dad, brother, or uncle. Even though I'm not totally into brown, I kind of love it and could totally keep it for myself! The brown, and red-brown are some alpaca that I bought bags of ages ago, and the off white is some wool.



I finally finished the socks for my dad for Father's day - I think he'll love 'em! The pattern is called Decorative Rib. and I think it is.


As much as I really didn't feel like starting on another pair of boring neutral men's socks, I have a terrible time thinking of gifts for my uncle, so I bit the bullet and started these for my uncle's birthday - believe me, if I'd have had any backup plan, I wouldn't have cast on! I "dressed them up" with a little pattern in some of the leftover grey from my dad's socks. I think I'll repeat it just before the cuff. Because they're plain stockinette, at least they're going pretty fast. I'm on the leg of sock #1. I'll see him for his birthday on the last sunday of the month, so I've got plenty of time!



I think all the sun and warm weather we've been having here has totally spurred my tomatoes on! Look at those! Do you see all the green tomatoes? whee! the warm weather has also spurred on the weeds, but has had an inverse effect on my desire to pull those weeds! oh well. we broke down and finally turned on the AC for this weekend's predicted 88 and humid weather. i think we made a good show and held out long enough!

Paper!

At the Upper Valley Fiber Festival a few weeks ago I won a free class with Paper Alice - a papermaking lady up in Tipp City! She was also doing a demo there at the show and I watched her make some really great paper. I'd never really thought that it was something I wanted to do because it sort of fell into that "papercrafting" category, which is synonymous with middle aged scrapbooking moms to me (nothing against any of you scrapbookers, and I can totally understand why people want to make snappy photoalbums, its just not my thing!) Anyway, her demo looked REALLY fun, and I thought, hmm, i think i could totally get into that! for cards, or gift tags, and whatnot! yes. So I planned to take a class, but her website only had classes listed though May (I'm sure she hasn't updated it yet) and I'm kind of not a class taking kind of person anyway. i mean I think it'd be fun to make paper with other people, but not really necessary for understanding how to do it. I knew if I went, I'd come home with some gear, so I looked online and ended up buying this. It's only 5.5x8.5, but that's a decent size. It came in the mail today so I made some paper! Because Blogger is being all weird with uploading pictures, I can't put captions to the pictures right now, so it's just a selection! For some, I tossed in rose petals, little white flowers from my bolted radishes, bits of Tansy, glitter - whatever I had! Everything I look at now is like something that might go into paper! what fun! I'm totally using some of this for the gift tag on my father's day socks! oh, which i'm getting close to finishing - sock #1: done, sock #2:leg, heel, gusset done, on the foot!