A Baby Is Born

This little bundle of joy came June 13th. Just perfect.
Her little outfit was knitted by me during testing at school. The pattern was so easy to read and knitted quickly. I highly recommend her.



http://www.dolliebabies.co.uk/item_161/Knitting-Pattern-No.12-Newborn-Size-Vest-Set.htm


The cute little maryjanes were done in about 20 min.
http://wanderingcatstudio.blogspot.com

Just another cute outfit for her

I had to step back and do some work for a few other little ones. This Mickey ensemble was created by me for a "Smash Cake" photo shoot.  Never heard of one before. Guess I will know all about it next year!!!

Life is good. Babies are wonderful gifts from God. To let us all appericate life a little more.
I loved making her baptism gown. Momma picked it and Gammy made it. The headbands are extremely fun to make.
Just loved the whole outfit!!! It was a beautiful day.
 Its a beautiful time in our lives. It makes up for all the sadness.

Got to start knitting this little kitty some warm winter sweaters. I have several picked out and want to start them. So no more bloggin, I NEED TO KNIT!!!!

Baby Fever

Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans

         John Lennon

Its been awhile since I posted. A long while.  Many things have happened. Life and God have been good to our little family since our dark days of cancer. Our beautiful daughter is going to be a momma.  I am amazed that we are here. How did 26 years go by so fast. I tell my students I was 10 when I had her. lol. They look at me confused.  

When we found out I was already planning quilts in my head. Oh the dreams, knitted sweaters, quilts, shopping for everything, it was so exciting. My daughter told me nicely, Mom slow down, we need to find out what we are having first. So I waited.......

They had a reveal party and I got to knit not one but two outfits for them to open!!!! The tech put a green bow on the right wrapped box and the rest is history.... YEP ITS A GIRL!!!

Reveal party

This is a free pattern from Ravelry .

Newborn Vertebrae

by Kelly Brooker

"Sew" the fun has begun!!!

                          Baby fever

   

  Baby outfits. Patterns from Simplicty                                                     


                                                                                                              CUTENESS

"Sew" much fun to make. 

Free pattern

                                     Baby Janes

                                           by Valerie Johnson

    

 There are many knitted things to add. But that's another post.              

I also have 3 quilts done for them. Gotta get some pictures up.  Speaking of quilts.....

The quilt from hell...Turned out to be...... very pretty. I was very happy with the results. It was one of the most challenging quilts I have ever done. The amount of work and time in this quilt is unbelievable. At auction I was told by my local quilt shop would fetch in the $2,500 plus range. SO my nephew and new wife made out pretty good!!! Thats what love is! WORK HARD, complain and reward!

I think they were happy with it. I haven't heard. 

I even stitched the young couples name in the top of the quilt. Now that's love!

Now some UFO's.... A table topper for winter....

And finally a paper piece that has needed finished for at least 10 years!! So happy thats done!

For now, I need to get back to a baby blanket. It is boring!!! But it will be the babies, Home from the hospital blanket.  It's knitted in the prettiest shades of peachy melon and green. That too will be up next post.

Till then, peace out my knitting and sewing peeps.... this girl NEEDS TO KNIT!

Am I an ADHD crafter?

 I Love knitting, but I also love all types of crafts. I read that a creative mind is like having 2,000,879,999 tabs open all at once on your computer. SO true! I go from project to project, different mediums of course. 
So A year and some months later, here I am. 
First is the Hunger Games. My daughters favorite movie this past winter. This is my version of Catness' vest she wore in many scenes.  She went out and bought the perfect jacket to wear under it. 

Then I go to metal work.  A young girl is dying in our community. She needs a transplant and some other issues addressed. The family is dear to my heart. So to help out with tiny things: gas, parking fees, lunch, or what ever, I made these Lifesaver, necklace and bracelets with her name and favorite sayings on them, and sold them at a local craft co op shop and gave all the profit to them. Lots of work, but from the heart. 

Then, you need to have some fun! These dollar store heads became, my fun and funky "pin cushions"! Which became quite the topic at my desk Monday morning after I made them. I cut their original hair off, and put a styro foam ball wrapped with fun yarn in its place. 
Middle schooler's love this kind of goofiness and ate them up! Laughing and poking them, Asking if they could have one. Just a fun time!

Bridal was next. Flower girl dress 1. The other was ivory to match the bride. This bride wanted black. It was a halloween wedding. Still waiting to get paid!!! Its only been 7 months. 
Anyway.....

The other bride was spring. Lots of pretty colors. I made her flowers, bridesmaid flowers and flower girl dress, as well as her garter. That was fun.

Another King size Quilt done for my bed.

 
Found this old quilt I started maybe 10 years ago. Finished that puppy up! Little Christmas throw. It came out so cute.

Made this fun baby quilt for a good friend. She LOVES crabs, and this had her name all over it! 

This is a tea bag holder I picked up on my "shop hop", a few weeks ago, along with the needle work boat. Both are super fun. The needlework is part of a 12 month, block quilt that I 
am making for my husband. Its called "Into the Woods"

This is just a few of my projects. As I type I should be working on my nephews wedding quilt. BUT for some reason I HATE IT!!! It is extremely time consuming and a lot of color! We will see how it turns out in the end. I let the couple pick the quilt and fabric. BIG MISTAKE! Next time I will pick the 3 choices I like and let them pick from those and then just ask what colors they want! Non quilters have no idea about color. 
Now that I have caught you up, just a little, I must get back to this quilt. Oh, let me give you a little peek of it. There are several rows that have been done since this shot.

Time to get back to this monster. 

Keep knitting, crafting, sewing, quilting, metal working, AHHHH you get the idea!!!

Peace out peeps!

What a YEAR

A year has passed since my last blog. WOW!!!
And what have I been doing???? Everything possible!!!
When your family gets it NORMAL back, you're zest for life takes off!
It's wonderful having a healthy family. And for that I am so grateful.
So I want to give back a Lot! The quilt on the left is going to be auctioned off for "Relay for Life". Hoping to raise lots of money.

The quilt is my latest project... There have been many over the past year.

I will recap a little about the past year....

 In February, for my birthday, my Cancer Free husband brought home this beauty. It was born June 10th, 1955. I love it!!! I have wanted one for years!!! It helped make the above quilt, and will help with many, many more.

Also in February I put together a Flash mob with 100 of my middle schoolers. It was for Bully awareness month. You can watch it if you would like. It was pretty cool.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCvzuk4V048

SO February was a pretty full month!

These socks were made as the only, handmade Christmas gift this past year. A pair of pink, purple glitter socks, for the sons girlfriend. Super fast and super easy.
The cap was for a friend. No one super special in my life, but just something I wanted to do. Not for anything other than, he wears them and I like to make them and see people smile when I give them something handmade.

My goal is to give back as much as was given to me....
Life is good, not perfect, but very good.  You realize quickly, its not about the money, things or gifts. Its about Family.

My dear daughter, who has recently become a FULL TIME TEACHER, at a very good public school, I might add, got these for the ride in and back every morning.
She had picked them out a few years ago. And, well, a few years ago I was on auto pilot. The first pair were tooooo small, the gauge was all wrong. I switched the colors, which looked terrible. So off to zzzzzzzz land they went. Pulled them out the beginning of January, bought new yarn, changed the gauge and within a week she had her long wanted mittens! Very cute and very worn!!! And did I mention she is a Teacher!!!! Proud mom moment, thank you very much.
This pattern is in Ravelry.

 Do you love love love Pinterest as much as me????? These were the centerpieces I made for my son's high school graduation.. $1.00 store frames ripped apart and then, parchment paper with the photo printed on it. take the glass out and replace with the parchment photo. Glue 4 of the same frames together and stick a votive in the middle and and and and, its just perfect!!!! Be careful with the candles.

 This is my pride and Joy! I took a 30's Fabric class the summer of 2008. It was so much fun. I wanted to make a king sized quilt. Well I am not going to dwell on the past, so off to the closet they went and slept. Fast forward to November 2012 till January 2013, and the beautiful 30's quilt is sewn together, and quilted and already on our bed. And it has been washed once!!! IT is truly a beautiful piece that I hope will last for generations to come.

This was a weekend project for my dear nephew's sweetheart, that I am sure will be his wife one day soon. She is a huge Nancy Drew fan and the fabric came from the local quilt shop. I made this on the machine from start to quilting. It was a fun project and took no time at all to make and she loves it!!!


I have many more things to post, but I will wait and post more as the weeks come. I hope anyone who might read this is, Healthy, Happy and loves the arts and creating as much as I do. I hope I inspire you to pull out the UFO you have in your closet and finish it. It is such a good feeling !

Or maybe you don't craft at all. Take a minute and look for a class at a local fabric, craft or yarn shop, and take a beginner class. You will love it.
You may think you can't do this stuff, well, my cyber friend, you can, with baby steps, you can!!! And who knows, you may fall hopelessly in love with the craft like I have ! Just think of all the things you can make!!!!
Have a blessed day! I now am done typing, because.....I NEED TO KNIT!!!!

Sunday LOVE

 I love Sunday. A day to do whatever you want.  


Its been awhile since my last post. Christmas was wonderful. As was new years!


And now here it is Spring!
I finally learned how to use the huge quilting machine at my local quilt shop and finished my daughter's quilt!
I had made it for her for graduating high school....5 years ago!
It's a t-shirt quilt of all her favorite t's growing up. 
I could never get anyone to quilt it for me, due to the fact there were rhinestones on many of the shirts. 
Thank goodness for the quilt shop and a great owner, who allowed me to use their machine. She said, JUST don't hit the stones!" It was that easy. DAH!

  

I also have also joined a block of the month. I love it. Its a new site I recently came upon. http://www.craftsy.com/  They offered this class FREE, and each month we make 2 blocks. I love it. Taking a class in my own sewing room is so much fun! Who knew! The teacher is great and repeats the same thing as many times as you need it!!! Just hit the back button and she will show you again and again and again AND never gets mad AND shows it the exact same way!!! LOL 







And Finally. I went to the cupboard to get some pillow cases, and could not find 2  for our bed. SO off to JoAnn fabrics and about 3 hours (travel time, lunch and whatever else) later, I had 4 new sets for my bed, 3 for my son, 3 for my daughter and even got one in for my son's girlfriend! I love making pillow cases. SO fast and easy.

As far as my knitting.....Working on a KAL. Caramel is really cute, but really boring.  Should have the body done today. Hope to start the sleeves this evening. I want to start something new! 
I did make several scarves, and a few hats in between. Need to take pictures.
Its April fools, so watch out. 

Blessing abound!

This little ornament is from our first Christmas together. 1986. 
WOW. When i was younger and heard people say they were married 20 plus years, I thought, That's a really long time!
It seems  like a blink of the eye, now. I have hard time wrapping my brain around it.  
 This holiday season is full of blessings. The hubby is Clean of cancer!!!!!! 
Thanksgiving was so much better!!!
We have spent the weekend putting up our tree and decorating together. It has been so nice. 


I am not planning on making any special Christmas gifts. I am working on hats and scarves for all the special people in my life. I gave my sister in law her hat and scarf set on Thanksgiving. She loved it! I also gave my dad his Beer Socks. Another hit. 

This hat will find its owner I'm sure.

I liked making it. Not so sure I like the colors. It was one of those balls of yarn,that looks better before you knit.

The yarn is called "Mushushi" from Plymouth. Very soft.

So I am off to finish another hat. Its the One day Beret. I'm half way through it. I acquired the yarn from a dear friend who can no longer knit. This beret will be for someone special.

Welcome Fall

Wow Its been a while. Looking back at my last post, I realize I have finished all the projects on the coffee table! Thats a great feeling. 
This cute little sweater caught my eye as I sat at the yarn shop with my good friend knitting a saturday afternoon away. It took all of 3 hours maybe.
Gilbert loves his sporty bright sweater.
I went to put him out last night and he wouldn't go till the sweater was on! Cute little guy!

My husband I celebrated 25 years together last month. Wow, I don't feel that old.  Anyway. We took a day trip to a very small town called Smicksburgh! They had a YARN SHOP!!!! And it was the cutest little shop, tucked away on the side of a mountain on a side street in a tiny little town. Very cute and very charming. SuzyB's had hand dyed and several kits. This one, was one I could not pass up! The scarf necklace, takes less than an hour and the compliments I have received, made it worth the little too high of a price I paid.  I have made four more in various other colors to match several sweaters I have. My 22 year old also had me make one to match her school she were she is currently student teaching.


The hubby went for his 6month check up and scan. I feel very strongly that all is good. He is back to his old weight plus! And his color has not looked this good in over 4 years. I feel blessed we have come through all this and everything is good. Praise GOD! 


Its back to knitting I go. Lots to knit. Christmas is coming.  We had a touch of snow today, just to remind me, I think. 
 I need to complete several scarves and hats and mittens for several people who where there through all the bad last year.