Superboy!

There is a sweet little boy in my life who turns a big two years old this week and I can't for a minute imagine him being a "terrible two". He really is the most delightful, sweetest, most thoughtful little boy and he loves it when his Auntie sneaks kisses. I sincerely hope that his mom realizes what a gift she has been given by having this little one.

This sweet little cape came from Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson. That book is chock full of the greatest projects, another of which I'm starting today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!

XOXOXOXO

Welcome Elliot Grace

Welcome sweet baby girl. I hope that this baby blanket wraps you up tight with lots of love when you need it and gets dragged along on many adventures. I can't wait to meet you and kiss your sweet little baby feet.

xoxoxox

I'm not playing favourites

Before I am accused of loving one child more than the other, please look upon my other lovely pup and his new collar. Roscoe isn't one for pillows or blankets or other such things but he needed a handmade something too. As in clothing for children, all the best fabric is girly. I chose this Joel Dewberry fabric because I thought it would look handsome on my little man. I found the pattern here - http://keyka.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/recyled-dog-col.html. It was very easy and I was able to recycle the clasp and ring from an old collar. Next time I'll use heavier interfacing because his name tag wants to slide off. Other than that, I see this as the first of many collars I'll be making.

And in other news, the baby blanket is almost done. I washed it this morning and it's on the blocking mat now. I put it in the washer with great fear in my heart. This is the first project I've done with that amount of stitching in of ends and I was terrified that it would all unravel. Fortunately, that was not the case and everything looks A-OK. Now hopefully it will maintain some sort of normal shape once it dries. Behold the Franken-blanket.

(P.S. I LOVE this little thing and desperately want to keep it for myself. If it hadn't been such a pain in the arse to knit, I'd be starting up another right away. And if you're so inspired, it's based on Joseph's Blankie of Many Colors from Mason-Dixon Knitting.)

A tuffet for Her Tiny Highness

It's so gratifying when you make something for someone and they love it exactly as much as you hoped they would. This time it was a no brainer. Lately at bedtime, Little Miss Olive has discovered pillows are great for sleeping. Sometimes she wants to sleep on top of them, tuffet style. But her favourite seems to be climbing inside the pillowcase and using it as a sort of sleeping bag. After making pillowcases for us and having her appropriate Scott's before he even got to put his head on it, I decided that Little Miss needed her very own. This one is made out of the sweetest fabric from Heather Ross's "Lightening Bugs and Other Mysteries" and "West Hill" collections. The orange band at the end has little dogs on it! I used a basic pattern from a class I took at my LQS. It's so soft that I almost want to nab it right back. . .

Lazy Sunday

It's so much easier to spend HOURS stitching in ends when I have my little snuggle buddies/knitting partners by my side.  I love these two.  They fill up my heart every day in a million ways.  Even when they're rotten.  (That means you, Olive.)

The blanket

I'm about an hour away from finishing this baby blanket for a friend which means that by the time I put my head on my pillow tonight, the knitting will be done!  Then I have to start weaving in all those ends. . . It's a beautiful little blanket but I'm going to be relieved to be done with it.  I start to get itchy near the end of a project and am always ready to start something new - like a pillowcase/sleeping bag for Her Tiny Highness, Miss Olive.  Or my very first quilt.  Anyway, I'll post more once the blanket is complete.  

I am an accomplished quilter.

And by that, I mean that I've accomplished the task of finishing my first quilt, albeit a small one.  We had to finish a sampler quilt for class that used the blocks that we'd been making.  Two weeks ago we pieced all of the blocks together and did the framing.  Last week we learned how to quilt (I love you walking foot, and soon you shall be mine.  Oh yes.) and bind.  Binding was not fun.  I did say very bad words under my breath.  OK, maybe they weren't under my breath but I was the only one in the room.  But the result is great.  And I feared the hand stitching of the binding to the back.  Up until now, hand stitching was not my thing - you'd agree if you saw the pincushion/sewing caddy that I made - but I learned to do it properly and it really wasn't bad at all.  I think I did a nice job if I do say so myself.  I can actually see myself doing that on a much larger quilt.  And hopefully I will.  Soon.  

Without further adieu, may I introduce you to my first quilt - 

front 

and back