Sling Bag

Otherwise known as a hobo bag, sometimes. This bag was made by request, sort of. I asked my sister what kind of bag she wanted and this is the closest thing we came up with. I started with a Vogue pattern, and altered it so that it could be lined. I love everything lined. Plus it gives you a chance to use a fun fabric on the inside. I used a nice soft 21 wale corduroy for the outside, and a cotton print on the inside.

5 victims in 4 graves

As usual, the title has nothing to do with the post, I just watched Sleepy Hollow recently. Anyway, I finished a second baby hat for my old friend from high school. This is the first hat. They are both on my Etsy page in the sold section. If you want your own, let me know!!

So on to the technical stuff... I modified the pattern from Crochet Today Magazine mentioned in this post to accommodate for a 4-5 month-old's tiny head. Firstly, I used an I/9 hook and Red Heart yarn in Soft Navy. Then, on the band, I decreased the number of stitches wide and decreased the number of rows. I followed the same basic pattern for the crown and brim. The earflaps were freehand... I learned the basics of making them from past earflap hats: basically decrease at each end on every other row, if that makes sense.... Until I got down to 2 stitches and just built on those until they were long enough to be ties. So there you have it! Weeeee!!

New toys and new projects

Well, they are toys to me anyway! I got a new iron (fantastic!), and cutting mat and a rotary cutter. This is my first rotary cutter. I'm basically just finding out what it can and cannot do. The iron replaced an old wonderful iron that just finally died. It had a great run. But this new one....wow. Upright steam rocks.

I have not been able to post for a while because of (A) not having a working camera and (B) being on vacation. But that doesn't mean I wasn't busy! I bought a new camera (sorry I can't take a picture of it, ha! It's a Canon 720). Here are some works in progress.....
An embroidery project for a Christmas gift...I'm not going to say to who!

The beginning of the felt garland. The pattern is here, from the lovely Anna Maria.

The beginning of a purse for my sister, which I could have finished in one sitting, had I not decided to make it lined. I didn't have a yard of anything suitable, so it's off to the fabric store tonight! I rarely go shopping for fabric with a specific project in mind; this should be fun.

And lastly, some fabrics with destinies! Brown corduroy for another purse, holiday plaid for pillows, and a beautiful brocade for another (commissioned!) bag. So many projects, so little time!

Itty Bitty Tree

Step 1. Cut out a piece of felt that is shaped like a slice of pie, NOT a triangle. The bottom part must be rounded, as if you had drawn it with a protractor.
Step 2. While it is still a nice flat little thing, run it through the machine with any fancy stitches you like.
Step 3. French knots for the 'ornaments'. I wound the thread around the needle TWICE to make them slightly bigger. It's all just what you like. Here is a tutorial on how to do french knots if you have never done them before.
Step 4. Turn right side in and sew along the side.
Step 5. Stuff with stuffing!
Step 6. Lay your cone on another piece of brown felt (or whatever color you like) and trace around it with chalk. This will be your bottom.
Step 7. Sew bottom on to the cone. Any stitch will do! It doesn't matter if the stitches are visible...I think it looks cute.
Step 8. Before sewing the bottom completely on, find something to shove into the bottom to keep it 'bottom heavy'. Otherwise this wee thing will want to just blow away. I simply wrapped about 2 tablespoons of rice in a paper towel and crammed it in there. You could use dry beans too.
Step 9. Sew up the opening and you are done!
Step 10. Give to loved one :o)

pumpkin cupcakes!

Mateo is turning two tomorrow and we had a party for him last weekend, as my co-blogger mentioned. We made some awesome pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the event. This was my first attempt at baking anything that required sifting as my only escapades into baking in the past were cookies.

The only advice I have is to really let the cream cheese come to room temperature before attempting to make the frosting.We were approaching the 2 o'clock hour (AM) and I think my judgment may have been a little foggy at that point.

As you can see, they came out beautifully and were as delicious as they were cute!

john's eyeglass case

I made this eyeglass case for John's birthday using the pattern from Denyse Schmidt's Quilt-It Kit. The pattern is also in the Quilts book, but i liked having the little card from the kit to take back and forth with me from cutting table to sewing machine to ironing board. It was a lot of fun because it wasn't a rigid pattern and it was easy to machine quilt in a not-so-parallel fashion. The only hard part was hemming the opening with all those layers!! I think I achieved as manly a quilted eyeglass case as possible. I used fabric from those little quilting bundles sold at Joann Fabrics.

The interior is freakin' sweet too! Too bad I couldn't get a good shot!

The Story of You and You

I have been working on this for about 3 weeks. It is a small story book for my dad, for Christmas, and tells the story of him and his wife (sort of, I mean, it's a story book; plus most of it is an inside joke sort of thing). Each page was hand drawn, and then painted in watercolors. The cover was also hand embroidered, using a design from this amazing crewel book called The New Crewel. Then I sewed together the cover and bound the pages in. Please excuse any picture blurryness...I had to borrow an unfamiliar camera. Here is the story from front cover to back:

Framed stitchery

I had an idea for this last weekend, and it came out exactly how I pictured. Simple.