So here it is, a rather late reveal for the flower to hexagon blanket. I finished just after Christmas. If you remember, I first started planning this blanket back in the middle of September. I even made a tutorial for you. Two and a half months after starting,
A lot has gone on here since my laptop wire went kaput. I know I told you I finished the hex blanket and started the next one, but I still haven’t gotten good pictures. As soon as I do I will put up a reveal post. I will also be posting a 2010 to-do list of projects, and you will be able to follow along with my *hopeful* progress.
Last weekend we went to the Meadowlands Expo Center for a big electronic sale. There was a lot of other fun goodies, too. Here is a shot of our loot. There was also a DVD/VCR player we got for the TV in our bedroom. It almost never gets used, but it’s nice to have once and a while. Plus with a DVD player in there I can work out in the bedroom when Doug and the girls are in the living room. Cool.
Here is a closer shot of some of the loot. We got a new camera, a universal cord for my laptop (turns out my laptop is not very universal, hence the cord I had to order.) A little African drum for the girls ~ shoulda’ gotten 2 of those ~ 2 MP3 players ~ haven’t tried those yet…~ PJ pants (Red Baron for Doug and blue for me) ~ Spidey boxers, slippers for the girls and I, and
Every other month I receive my issue of Creative Home Arts magazine, full of fun crafty ideas. Lots o’ the ideas within come from the readers. Every issue they announce a contest with prizes ranging from $25 to $750. They also show the winners from 2 issues prior. With this issue there was a last call for a card making contest, and the announcement of a needle arts contest. You can use something you already made; it does not have to be made just for the contest. To enter you just send in photos of the craft, and a short description. So I decided to enter both. I’m sharing the entries here with you.
Back in November I had Doug grab a bin of mine from his mother’s attic. It was full of unfinished Christmas crafts. I pulled some of them out to make ornaments to give along with the many girt bags of banana bread and chai tea mix we had lined up for Christmas. There were a bunch of these little cross-stitch squares and those little round plastic music “boxes” to go with them. I seem to have lost the rest of the kits long ago.
I found some blue fabric and thought “mini pillows”. Not sure where that thought came from, but it did. So I sewed them together with a pretty gold loop on top and an opening in the bottom.
In an attempt to save some money, and satisfy my creative side, I have lots of homemade happenings for that day a week before the New Year; the day of the Big Round Guy. For now it is mostly jar gifts. This was my table a few weeks ago making 72 cups of banana bread mix.
Of course I didn’t have all the jars yet, so then I had to stash all that mix, and all the ingredients I had for other mixes, somewhere. Yeah for those new bookshelves!
That’s right, I finished the Craft Hope quilt last night. I have made a few quilts in the past, but I have never hand quilted one before. I grossly underestimated how long it would take! However, the quilts are due November 14th, so I am safe. Now I know, right.
Here is the quilt on Friday, I still had nearly half to do, see all the safety pins?
To make matters worse, I woke up on Saturday feeling very under the weather. Luckily quilting is not too strenuous an activity, so I was able to sit and quilt all day. I finally finished Sunday afternoon. Here it is.
Last week I ran across the Craft Hope. Jade is an amazing lady who finds various groups who need crafts made for good causes. You can read all about the current project, but the short version is: making quilts for homeless kids.
Remember how I told you I had bought some fabric on the way to Beth’s? I picked up a pack of 20 strips (2 1/2 x 42 inches) a pack of squares (5 inches square) and a few quarter yard (18 x 42 inches) pieces. I started at Beth’s, between teaching her and eating pizza. This is what I had when I got home.
Back in March I went to my friend Beth’s wedding shower and presented her with the presents seen above. They were both from her registry, a large self-watering planter, and a book “Sewing for Dummies”. Inside the book was a note saying she would also receive a day of sewing lessons from me. This is a decent gift, as I used to run a university costume department and teach sewing and pattern making.
It took a while to come up with a time we were both able to spend the day together. This Saturday was it. I drove to her place in Pennsylvania, a bit of a drive, but worth it! I stopped at the craft store on the way and picked up a cute little apron kit and some pre-cut strips and squares to make a quilt for craft hope, I’ll write more about that in a bit.
Just a quick post this evening to let you know that I am planning some tutorials. I just took tons o’ snaps of the flower-to-hexagon pattern I came up with for the girls’ blankets. I will be writing that tutorial first. I’m also planning some more for the Christmas goodies I am putting together, and another series for my dry mix recipes. As far as I can tell there is no way to make “pages” here on Blogger, as I … Read more
Today was a nice day. I’m getting over my cold, and for the first time in a while I woke up without feeling like a zombie. After showering, I felt the need for a yummy breakfast. So…
Yes, that is my precious morning coffee, and that lumpy batter is just waiting to become…
