A tutu for every occasion!

50 yards of 6" tulle. Perfect for one tutu!

a (prison) smock for mommy!

ha! My dear husband commented that my dress looked like a prison smock. He wanted to clarify by adding that I was definitely in charge at the prison, but prison smock and that the fabric was the most lifeless purple he had seen.

I made this simplicity 2706 dress after seeing this post on burdastyle.com.
I also whipped together a lovely little skirt out of this lovely lavender and black cotton fabric I found at Denver Fabrics. Now all i have to do is get a photo of them, on me. (excuse the self timer portrait)


What a fab weekend of sewing fun!

So comfy. possibly too big, but wonderful on a hot summer day!

I am also make two Oliver + S lazy day style skirts for the girlies.

yippee!

Finally finished!

Another WIP done. It only took me 8 more months and
I figured out how to quilt that vintage sheet quilt and
am giving it away to one of S & P's little girl friends for her second birthday on monday!
yea!

Pillowcase Dresses & Tutus

I've been roving the internet in search of quick and easy summer projects and have stumble upon and completed quite a few...
pillowcase dress and pillowcase style dress
the oliver + S lazy days skirt (a freebee on their site) - of course i made it with ugly fabric as a test...now to use some of that gorgeous uncut stuff in the closet to make beautiful quickie skirts for my girls
and of course how could any nearly two year old girls life be complete without this quickie tutu.

fun fun fun





(and well, now that they are up, they don't want to be photographed)
please excuse our really dingy pjs.

AT long last:

Renegade Craft Fair!!!
Yipppeeee!

Sunshine Happiness Quilt is finished!!!

pictures and saga to follow!!!
(i did it)

Happy 10th Birthday to my niece!!!

I finished her birthday quilt, before her birthday!!!
A first for me just before her tenth!!!

(little label on the back)

here are some pictures of the front and back and children.....

front (and sophie who wouldn't get off!)

back

pesha and sophie


blanket hugs!

1st Birthday Baby Quilt!

for Henrik, one of my favorite friendly cutey pie baby friends!

Very proud that I was able to whip it together in 1 week using only my
naptime hours!



Yah me!

Sadly, I need to work on my square cutting skills and alignment!


(will post pics of little H with the birthday quilt)

happy 2nd birthday tristan!!!

Doll Blanket and pillow!!!
My inspiration is here.
luckily, grandma got her the doll!!!

Hats and more hats

So, I've been busy knitting -- as always -- and this time actually have proof!

Aidan Montessori, where I work, has an annual fundraising auction. One of the cool silent auction items are theme-based "buckets" of stuff: gardening, cooking, crafts, etc. You bid to take home all the booty in the bucket. This year, I offered to make 4 hats (2 adult, 2 child) for a "four seasons fun" themed bucket.

I found a super easy but awesome cabled hat pattern, called the Snappy Hat. I used Lamb's Pride Bulky (and doubled worsted) to whip up a clutch of caps in less than a week. Most awesome of all, my good friend Erika and her kids were the ones that won them!

She's awesome and sent me a great picture of them on; blue and yellow for the kids, red and charcoal heather for the adults.

Little pillows, etc.

Haven't really been up to much so far this year,
except buying fabric for imaginary future projects (or
projected projects? ): some left over christmas holiday gifts
which are becoming birthday gifts and a quilt for my sister.

A lot of fabric...see photos

-sigh-

So far, in 2009, I've worked on:

• little pillows for my daughters "comfy" chairs
  (so far this is the only finished thing!!)

• 9-patch brown/pink quilt (for my niece's 10th birthday)

• finally quilting my "sunshine happiness quilt"

• emergency GUYS for kids birthdays - both upcoming and past

• and some lovey/doll quilt size work

I hope to finish something soon and to photograph it and blog about it.
LOL!

I don't seem to be using my creative time very wisely these days... BOO!

Mr. Moustache! - an emergency birthday gift!

Mr. Moustache - as a gift!





LOL!
had worked out fabrics and basic idea
for Mr. M beforehand - about 3 months ago.

Hubris...

I knew that I had a lot of stuff for knitting. You know, needles and hooks, yarn and projects. Well, today I started the long road to stash-a-holic recovery...

I entered all of my needles and hooks into my Ravelry notebook. At least, the ones that aren't part of a set. There are more than 100 of them! (Plus, I've got one Denise from sz 5 to 13 and one Knitpicks set from sz 4 to 11). Woah...

I also entered every single project that is on needles (or cables)...every one I say. Including the ones that I finished in December (so I could feel better about all the hibernated projects that I haven't worked on in months or years). That number is just over 50, but almost half are done. 25 ongoing projects--that's not too awful, is it?

I'm scared to inventory the actual yarn. It's going to be ugly.

My name is Rachel and I'm a fiber-holic.

Inauguration week knitting

So, I had a four-day weekend for the Inauguration and MLK Day weekend. I put the time to good use, though I did ignore all housework.

I know it's not necessarily rational, but I have a new outlook this week. I have visited the whitehouse.gov website several times, I've listened to our President's first weekly address, and I just feel inexplicably better about being a citizen. I'm ready to follow the lead of the Obamas, to step up and take responsiblity for making change. Maybe it's because, as Jay-Z says, "my president is black...but his house is all white."

Anyway...I've been busy:

• Cast on and more than half done with a Baby Surprise sweater for Amanda's son Henry. It's lovely: a blue-green mixed main yarn and grass green accents.
  
• A pair of gloves on the needles, which I'm knitting to test the pattern for a Ravelry friend.

I'm still trying to decide what style of hat to make for Nikki and the twins; a family of hats has been commissioned. I'm going to recycle the green from Nikki's sweater (neither of us liked it) and have found some lovely accent colors (rose, purple, gray) to add. Keep you posted!

Hats for Willem

OMG, baby hats are like knitting crack! I don't think I can stop...

I thought to myself, "I really like Jen, so why don't I make more than one hat?" Three (yes, three) hats later, I am seriously considering whether or not I could squeeze in just one more before I send the package off.

I'd better stop though, or I'll never finish my backlog!

PS: After Jen gets the hats, I'm sure we'll have some pictures (finally) of some of my work. Must. Get. Digital. Camera.

Nicholas the Pig

This beautiful pig was created by Dylan. He drew the picture and asked me to find pink fabric and to make it asap! Too much influence from Noggin and their easy crafts in 60 second spots. I couldn't do it fast enough for him, He is made of some batik pink fabric, vintage buttons and some stuffing.

She shoots, she scores!

Can't post a picture yet (promise I will, really) but I'm so excited about the mittens I was working on. I thought the pattern seemed ginormous, but it turned out I can't add (6+2+3 does not equal 9) and they weren't that long...and then I realized part of the problem was these silly pointy tips. I made a few modifications to the tip (and to the top of the inside portion, which other folks commented were better ribbed). I'm happy to report that I've got JUST enough yarn to finish both.

BTW, Mia has even agreed that flip-top mitten might be cool enough for her. I think I'll be adding a pair to my knitting queue for her. It's only taken a year...

Nope, still no housework...

So, I've got a pair of shortie socks on needles for me now. I feel much better and they'll just lurk in my knitting bag as a back-up project. Phew...

I've been working on flip-top mittens to go with a hat for a holiday gift still unfinished. The pattern seems ginormous, but I'm going to keep going with it. I guess I could line them with fleece or something if they're too floppy...

Oh, btw, Yolanda and Salim loved the sweater and kufi for Jabril. He's a dollbaby; I got to hold and feed him, then cuddle him to sleep. Ahh...babies are good! (especially when you get to leave them at their mother's house)

Off to do some free knitting drop-in hours at the public library. Worst case, I get two hours of knitting with friends...

Socks!

I know, I know...I'm supposed to be focused on finishing stuff that's already on my to-do list. What can I say: I'm knitting ADD and I HAD to start something new. And I've been very good for the last week or so, right?

I've been wanting to make socks again. Correction, I've got a huge collection of sock yarn (pretty) and figure I'd better make something with them. True, there's just something satisfying about turning a heel, seeing a toe form, etc. Most sock patterns are pretty predictable (even if they are lovely), but I've had this book by Cat Bordhi (the queen of interesting knitting experiments) where she shows alternative structures. I've been wanting to play with them for almost a year...and today, I dove in. I've made two different toddler socks while learning new sock structure.

I'm gonna make them into pairs for Sophie and Pescha to wear around the house (or share with bigger friends). And then (probably NOT today), I'm gonna' make a pair for myself!