Project: Organic Pillow Cases

I'm in love with this organic cotton flannel. Fanfare. By Cloud 9. It's for the boy, who aggressively buries his face into his pillow at bedtime. Easy-peasy. The best kind of project.

Craft Hoarding

I just haven't finished my projects yet.
I haven't decided what to make with the fabric/yarn/paper yet.
It was on super sale and a total steal!

All symptoms of craft hoarding. Apparently it's a common affliction. Once you have to buy storage equipment or extra pieces of furniture to "organize" your stash of craft supplies, I think you have to ask yourself if you're a craft hoarder. Guilty. Definitely guilty. 

There's this funny post about signs that you're a craft hoarder. Yet, while reading it, I couldn't help but wish I could lay my hands on that must-have ribbon in photo #3. 

And OH. MY. GOD. I have toyed with the idea of saving dryer lint and dog hair! I didn't know you could actually felt cat hair! Hmm... What about dog hair?

Help me, I'm sick!

Project: Fuzzy pompom hat for Izzy

First completed knitting project since the birth of the twins. Major feat, possible only because of the super bulky yarn knitting up in a few hours. That, and the fact that Izzy lost her warm hat during one of our walks and it was getting cooold. It's still a bit big on her, so hopefully she'll be able to wear it next winter too.

Project: Quick Winter Hats

12.18.11. It got cold, cold, cold. I used fleece and cotton twill tape from my stash. The kids got a kick out of these super-easy-and-quick hats!

Project: Baptism outfit

Baptism outfit for my nephew (last year).

Made the night/morning of the baptism. Yes... typical.

Turned out kinda wonky, but he looked sweet in it.

Project: Tooth Fairy Bags

Project idea and instructions from the purlbee.
I made a bunch of these last year for friends and family. They made nice little thank you gifts for my baby shower too. For those with kids, I tucked one or two in with my thank you note.

Baby Bunny Caps

On my to do list.
Instructions.

Project: vinyl banner shopping bags

My best friend bought some bags that I just LOVED, made from recycled vinyl banners. I remembered that my parents had some banners at home (don't ask why), so I was able to make these for me! Yippee! I love them. I ran out of vinyl for the handles so I used the material from an old roller shade. Unfortunately, the shade material was too old and brittle to last very long, and one of the handles broke after several months of use. Good to know... Fixing it is now on my to-do list.

Project: Recycled sweater sheepdog

Ok, it is supposed to be a dog, but everyone thinks it's a lamb... He's made from an old Banana Republic sweater, a little felt for the ears, some recycled cord from shopping bags, and bits of leftover yarn from my knitting.

Project: poplar pet gates

dining room/kitchen gate

BEFORE: hallway barricade

When puppy Jack first came home, a couple of wastebaskets in the doorway were enough to keep him in the kitchen. Very quickly though, two serious barricades of random stuff were necessary to keep Jack penned in. Yuck. I considered buying baby gates, but the options out there were so horrible (or they looked passable, but were too expensive to buy two), I decided to make my own. We had leftover poplar from our window sashes project and while searching online, I serendipitously found this. Perfect(!), although my gates would be much smaller in scale to fit the doorways. I also had constraints with the direction in which the gates could swing. I decided to forgo the caster (as much as I love casters) because my floors are fairly uneven. It was a bit hard to find hinges that would work for me (thanks finally to OSH!), and a latch that I could attach to the outside. Then I had to meet T's perfectionist-engineer requirements. But all in all, I'm very happy with the results. And having a clear hallway again, PRICELESS!

AFTER: hallway/kitchen gate

interfering with the work

yum, let me chew on this!

Nerdy Knitting Project

My friend L. found this hilarious dissected rat on Etsy by CraftyHedgehog. It totally cracked us up and I found it so clever and adorable that I just had to re-share.

Hawaiian quilt progress

Hard to believe, but the huge applique is almost finished. After 3 months of intermittently stabbing at it. Just a few more "grapes" need to be sewn and I'll be ready to start quilting. Now the question is: to hand or machine quilt? I was always planning to use my vintage-industrial-3000-stitches-per-minute Singer, but suddenly, I want the softness of hand quilting... Will I EVER finish this then?

Wool socks

Found this great fingering-weight washable wool at an estate sale for $0.50 a skein!! I snatched up all they had to make socks and decided to make it up as I went along, no pattern, no nothing. Everything was going well until I ran out of blue wool! Oops...

 Was forced to improvise, but I think they came out alright...

Grant Heapes at the Gladstone Hotel Cafe

I fell in love with the Gladstone Hotel during our recent trip to Toronto. This amazing wall hanging by artist Grant Heapes was hanging in their cafe, and I was awed. It's made of small square pieces of fabric that are stitched together through the middle. This was beyond fantastic. Really wish I'd thought of it!

Doggie hats

Yes, it's been a while since I last posted. Super busy at work. But during thanksgiving, I made these hats for my brother (his dogs, that is) and he finally got around to taking a picture. They were a huge pain to size (try holding a hyper boston terrier still), but once I got the pattern down, the second hat took very little time. I used a washable acrylic yarn.

Tissue paper pom-poms

Recently, I've been seeing these really cute tissue paper pom- poms EVERYWHERE. They were originally featured in Martha Stewart Living 2006 (online instructions here), but 3 years later, I still want to make a bunch for no purpose at all.

Project: Hawaiian Quilt

Sometime during the year 2001, I decided to make a Queen sized quilt in the Hawaiian tradition. (For a step-by-step introduction to the beautiful art of Hawaiian quilting, check out this site and click on the individual pictures.) I only made it as far as purchasing the top fabric and cutting the large central applique before I put it away back in 2001. I've finally decided to resurrect this project (it's a now or never kind of thing) and since it'll likely take me years to finish, I'm writing about it now, way in advance of project completion. Right now, I'm sewing the large applique piece and only have about 1/4 done. It sure seems like it'll take forever... Does anybody like to sew?

Project: Lion Sweater

100% merino wool. Made for my cute little nephew last year. Unfortunately he outgrew it after just two weeks!

Project: Tomato Hat

Project: Winter Hats

Made with Paton's Classic Wool (100% merino wool), lined with no-pill fleece for extra warmth, and with the maker's label.

Total time: maybe 3 episodes of The Wire each.