Happy birthday to Leanne, who turns 2 tomorrow! She wears her cupcake sooooo well.
And happy (not!) flood day to me, due to a cracked hose on the washing machine during the party.
Fortunately, not a lot of damage. Sooner or later though, we're going to have to tear out the wall that separates the laundry room and the under-stairs closet near the front door. Not looking forward to that little project.
This yarn has been in my stash forever. It finally told me what it wanted to be and, voila, two days later it was done.
And a day after that it was gifted and gone. (The yarn also told me who it wanted to go home with.) The giftee isn't expecting it; sure hope she likes it!
I used two strands of Prime Alpaca, held together, and the Leia's Lace scarf pattern I designed, minus the picot edging and with fringe added. The scarf is thick and warm and soft and cuddly - just in time for daytime highs in the 80's. Ah well, cold weather always returns. Usually in June.
This little quilt has a long story about how it ended up in my hands.
My sister-in-law's best friend, Ellen - she's my pal, too - introduced me to the quilting blog her niece in Texas had begun writing. I enjoyed Emily's projects and writing style, so became a follower of The Caffeinated Quilter.
A week or so ago, Emily posted about an art quilt she had donated to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I liked her quilt, and since I'd never heard of AAQI, I wandered over to have a look, fully expecting that this little beauty would have long since been snapped up.
It wasn't, so I did - and it was delivered to me yesterday.
I love how this little flower is so cheery and hopeful. And that it will remind me of friendship and connections every time I see it.
Sewing - and other stuff - has been happening, but since it was all intended for gifts, I couldn't show it until now. I made travel-size pillowcases for Addy and Rachel.
At least, the butterfly one was intended for Rachel. Addy has apparently claimed them both, one to use in mommy's car and one for daddy's truck. You can never have too many pillows, right? Guess I'll have to make another one and sneak it out to poor Rachel.
Leia and I made matching hand-print pillow covers to give her daddy and Mary for Valentine's Day.
I thought this would be a quick, easy job that Leia could do mostly by herself, with a little supervision. I thought wrong.
The construction was pretty straight-forward, it was the embellishing that got out of hand (hee). We traced Leia's hands onto fabric, cut them out (my job),
wrote names on each one (her job), then sewed them on the covers (my job).
It was zigzagging around the fingers - and trying, mostly in vain, to do it neatly - that took so much time and aggravation.
We eventually got it done and Leia is very pleased with the results.
Leanne helped us with the photo shoot for a bit,
I love this picture with Leanne in the background. So much energy.
then decided running around with her favorite backpack was much more fun.
And the flowered pillow cover Leia also made? Still to be gifted . . . .
I forgot I hadn't posted this; I had trouble scanning it in December and just got around to trying again.
I love this picture. Brings back memories of a such a fun, happy day. Just wish Marie and her family had been there too.
And with that, Christmas 2012 is officially over. I think.
Last Friday was warm and sunny, so we packed up the little girls and headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo.
I've said it before, I know, but this zoo is the perfect size for toddlers and young kids. Nice uphill path to tire them out build anticipation,
enough animals to keep them interested -
including a petting zoo, which Leia loves,
and giraffes to feed, which she really loves -
a sliding hill (Leia would happily spend her entire time here, if she could),
a pond with big, brightly colored fish,
Emmett the Train,
room to run,
and so much more.
Leanne had her I'm-not-going-to-have-fun- and-you-can't-make-me moments
but having her favorite bear* to cuddle
and so much to see and do kept those moments to a minimum.
It didn't hurt that the day we went was the first warm, sunny day in a couple of weeks. All the animals were out, enjoying the sunshine, and many - including five or six condors and a small fox - were right at the fence, where the girls could see them up-close.
If you click on the giraffe picture above, you can see the two new lionesses sunning themselves on a rock, just above the giraffe's neck. Which put them right at eye-level and about 10 feet from the viewing window when the girls got there. And as the train conductor told us a little later, put the lions right where they could daydream about giraffe burgers for dinner.
*Leanne was terrified of this bear until the batteries ran down and it stopped moving and talking every time she touched it. She's much happier now that she's in control.
Leia and I decided we should do some planting today, before the rain that's supposed to start tonight. I've had tulip and daffodil bulbs in the fridge for just over a week, trying to trick them into believing it's winter in So. California.
We unearthed the gardening equipment, finding a misplaced tiara in the garage along the way - Leia was thrilled - and started digging. Tulip bulbs went in along the front sidewalk, with Mr. Peacock-Head standing guard.
More tulips went in along the gravel walkway.
This was a super easy project, even with re-working the pattern so it was half as wide - and so I didn't have to cut my yarn every 2 or 3 rows. I hate weaving in tails.
With a slip stitch here and a slip stitch there, carry a yarn, weave a yarn - minimal yarn tails! My version is a little different from the original, but close enough.
The pattern is Sashay by Berroco, using two colorways of their Lodge bulky-weight yarn. Loved working with the yarn and the way the colors changed.
I'm teaching this as a class in April. I'm still debating about adding fringe, as in the original. I'm not much of a fringey person but I'm thinking this needs a little something more. At least I have a month or so to make up my mind.
A friend saw the pillowcases Leia made - yes, I was bragging and yes, she's already made a second case, for Leanne -
and offered to give Leia the rugged, almost indestructible, 3/4 size sewing machine she'd used in her first and second grade classroom before retiring.
Leia is soooooo thrilled. We got it set up tonight, and Leia was off and sewing. She was very good about keeping her hands away from the needle (Me: do you want to see your blood? Leia: no way.) and remembered to always pay attention when the machine was running.
She quickly figured out how to change stitch patterns, raise and lower the presser foot, go in reverse and control the sewing speed. I put the foot pedal on a footstool, which made it the perfect height for her.
Some things I showed her how to do, and some - like turning the handwheel to raise and lower the needle - she discovered on her own.
Tonight was about experimenting and having fun with her new machine. Next time we sew, probably Thursday or Friday, she wants to make something "for real" for her daddy. Sure hope he wants a pillowcase!
Posted with Blogsy