Naomi's Zoo Book

Naomi received a very special gift for her birthday this year - a handmade Zoo book from her Auntie Margaret. I share it here because I think it is the coolest gift for a 2 year old. Naomi would wholeheartedly agree - she loves the animals, the different closures, the colors and textures... Check it out:













This is Naomi's favourite: The Kangaroo. She just loves that baby Roo.
(What you can't see in the picture is the buckle closure on this page).





And this is my favourite... I love that 3D polka dot heart!









The story goes that Aunt Margaret had made one of these books for her neice, when her neice was just a little girl. She had since gone to visit her neice to celebrate her neice's child's 2nd birthday. Lo and behold the kiddo was playing with the book that Margaret had made her neice, many moons ago. Seeing how much it was loved, she decided to make Naomi one. I'm thrilled she did. I welled up opening the gift - so much effort, and love, has gone into this. I too foresee a future where Naomi will be able to share this with loved ones many years from now.

PS - if anyone knows where to find a pattern for this, I'd love to learn about it. (Margaret had found the pattern on eBay... I'm checking but no luck as yet).

Cacti pin cushions

Cacti pin cushions, originally uploaded by samjoepics.

Aren't these cute! The pattern was from an English magazine called Mollie Makes. You simply cut out felt pieces using the template guidelines in the magazine, blanket stitch around the edges, stuff with soft toy filling and then 'plant' in a cute little pot. I used glass planter stones to add a little weight to the pot. The cactic flowers are simply attached with pretty coloured pins. That's it! But oooh they are cute. As you can see from the picture, Mummy's little helper thinks they are pretty cute too. Hmm, note to self - hide on a very high shelf!

Balaclava

Balaclava collage, originally uploaded by samjoepics.

4th knitting project of 2012 completed: the balaclava that Joe had been asking for.

I'd started out knitting a beanie to go with his fingerless gloves. The yardage in this skein of cratively dyed sock yarn seems to go on, and on, and on, so I ripped the beanie back and made the balaclava that Joe had asked for.

The balaclava is based on the sockhead hat from Boho knits blog:
- I cast on the number of stitches called for in the sockhead pattern
- Knit in 2x2 rib until it was a good length for the neck
- Change to stocking stitch and knit until it covers the mouth
- Cast off 45 stitches for the face opening
- Knit back and forth until it is the depth that you would like for the eye opening
- Cast on 45 stitches and knit in the round for an inch
- Follow hat pattern for the crown of the beanie
- To finish, pick up stitches around the border of the face opening and knit in 1x1 rib for and inch, then cast off looesly

I like that it is versatile to wear as a balaclava on those really cold days, or roll up like a beanie to just take the chill off.

It cracks me up that Naomi wanted to model this after Daddy had modelled it (and that it covers her past her shoulders!)

More quilt blocks

Swoon Block #2 is complete. Isn't she a beauty!:



Next I need to cut out the pieces for the remaining 7 blocks... hmm... let's just say there may be a delay as the cutting part is not my favourite!

I also joined the farmer's wife quilt along. These are my fabrics - The Secret Garden collection. Such pretty colours.



I had read on a couple of blogs that it is easier to do paper piecing, and naturally 'easier' appealed to me. I'd hoped that the paper piecing templates would be included on the CD that comes with the book. But alas, no. The book comes with all the templates for the component parts of each block. However I had my mind set on the paper piecing approach. So I joined the farmer's wife Yahoo group, where some kind fellow had converted each square into a paper piecing pattern. Yay!

I attended a class at a local quilting store to learn this techinique. I really like this approach. FYI, here's the best online tutorial I could find. (PS - doesn't she have a gorgeous blog, with the most fabulous quilts... yes, yes she does!)

On an entirely unrelated note, Naomi turned 2 today. She had the most wonderful day!



Wishing you an equally wonderful weekend,
Sam xxx

Snuggly soft sweater

I recently finished this sweater for Naomi. I can't take all the credit for this beauty: my Mum started the sweater, and completed the body of it, when she was visiting over Thanksgiving. I just needed to finish the arms.



I didn't think I had enough of the lilac yarn to complete the arms and so I decided to stripe them with the pale pink. Turns out I probably would have had plenty in the lilac, but I really like the stripey arms. And because I was feeling all Valentinesy, I decided to overstitch a heart on the body of the sweater.

The best part of this jumper is how unbelieveably soft and light it is. It is knit is Misti Alpaca Chunky, instead of the Rowan Big Wool that the pattern calls for... pattern is Lucy from ROWAN Junior magazine. This yarn is deliciously soft. It makes me want to knit myself a big cuddly sweater too. :) Needless to say, that when Naomi puts this on, she doesn't want to take it off... must be like getting cuddled by a teddy bear all day! Ha ha!

Thanks Mum. Naomi loves her beautful and cuddly sweater xxx

Sherbet Pips Quilt

I first saw the Sherbet Pips fabric on Bea's blog and became fixated: I 'needed' this fabric! I thought it would be perfect for a quilt for Naomi. I've only completed a strip quilt so far, and wanted to try a 'real' pattern, and yet doable for a beginner. The Fat Quarter Store had just what I was looking for: the Winter Sherbet quilt kit using the Sherbet Pips fabric and Thimble Blossom's 'Piece of Cake' pattern.



The pattern was, as it's name implies, really easy to follow. Note that the original pattern uses non-directional fabric. Since some of the prints in Sherbet Pips are directional, my first tip is that before you start happily cutting away, you'll want to take the fabrics you selected from your layer cake and figure out which half of your blocks you want to be 'portrait' and which will be 'landscape'. Then cut the squares accordingly (Tall and thin vs short and wide).



My only other newbie tip is that one once all the blocks are complete I recommend that you lay them out according to how you want them to be displayed. I numbered them so that I knew which order they go in, but also for those blocks that had non directional fabric, I knew which way the block should be oriented when I sew them together. Besides, I find it fun to arrange, rearrange, stand back, umm, aah, rearrange some more until I find that most pleasing composition :)



Finally for the quilting I stitched in the ditch around the pieces in each block, and then stitched tram lines in the sashing. I like how the tram lines zig and zag around each block from the top to the bottom of the quilt.



This is far from perfect. And at times I was disheartened with it's complete lack of anything resembling perfection. But you know what, I love it! Flaws and all. I was telling one of the ladies at the local quilt store about this, and she said "Honey, have you not heard of the 30/30 rule?... If in 30 years from now, at 30 feet, no-one can tell then it doesn't matter!" I like this lady!



What's most important to me is that Naomi likes it too. She runs up, pats it, and exclaims 'NAAAHS" (Naomi speak for 'nice').

Wishing you a great weekend,
Sam xxx

Broad street fingerless gloves

snowball, originally uploaded by samjoepics.

Joe had asked for a pair of fingerless gloves for Christmas ...and may I quote: 'if I truly loved him they'd be handmade!' Ha ha the goof!

I used the Broad Street mitten pattern - which is a fingerless glove that has an optional mitten 'flap'. Since I didn't need the mitten portion i simply followed the fingerless glove instructions. The only other change I made was knitting each finger so that they match in length (the pattern has them sloping in length).

The yarn is from Creatively Dyed Yarns. I picked it up at Estes Park Wool Market this last year. The colorway is 'Tribal' (I also think you could call it sci-fi or alien). I am really loving this yarn. Great colourway, nice feel, and the yardage seems to go on forever!

Joe is super happy. And feels loved ha ha!
Now he wants a matching balaclava! Since there seems to be oodles of yarn left I think this might be possible.

Loving the snow, and nowhere to go :)
xxx

Knit fast, Die Warm

Knit fast, Die Warm, originally uploaded by samjoepics.

:) How cute is this Christmas gift! When I get my craft room all set up I think I'll keep it framed in an embroidery hoop just like this.

What's cuter still is how it was gift wrapped:


But perhaps cutest of all is my little cross stitch helper: Naomi would sit snuggled up next to me waiting for the needle to appear through the top of the cross stitch fabric, which is when she'd carefully pull the needle and thread through the fabric and then hand the needle back to me. I'd then put the needle back down through the next hole in the fabric and as the thread followed Naomi would giggle and hit the top of the fabric. Very cute! Repeat this a fair few times over the course of a couple of evenings, and ta-da you have yourself a fun cross stitch, with fun memories built in. :)

On the topics of fun memories, we had a snow day here in Colorado today. Naomi just loved the "nossse" (ha ha.. close, but not quite the right pronunciation!)







Stay warm and safe my friends, and enjoy the excuse to stay inside working on those crafty projects. Sam xxx

Swoon: Block 1

Swoon: Block 1, originally uploaded by samjoepics.

Class was so much fun last night! The teacher was fantastic and I learned a lot:

- How to make flying geese per the pattern, but also another way that uses uses a flying geese ruler template, and less fabric
- How to make half square triangles per the pattern, and an alternate way that uses 'Thangles'- That I need to take better care when ironing my blocks as I have been distorting them slightly (and that's contributing to why my points and lines dont match up perfectly)

I love learning new things!

In class I was able to make all the half square triangles and flying geese that are needed for the block. When I got home I was itching to do more... I spent the rest of the evening (and into the early hours) assembling them into this. And then doing a happy dance because I'm tickled with how it turned out! :o)))

My first 'real' quilt block!

Fancy Tiger... aah I dream of owning a place like this!

This weekend I headed over to the new Fancy Tiger location with some friends. There are a group of us that are all about to make the swoon quilt and we decided it was a good reason to head over to the new Fancy Tiger location to check out the line of fabrics they have there.


Wow! I walked in and immediately thought that this was a place that I could happily spend my days. (I often find myself pondering how I could make a comfortable living out of crafting). The store is gorgeous, spacious and they have some of the most wonderful crafty goodies. I love that they stock a great range of fabulous Japanese fabrics, books, embroidery, yarn. The staff are helpful and there's now a parking lot that is next to the new location. All good stuff.



The night before, I'd pulled out my ever-growing fabric stash to see if I had anything in sufficient quality to make the swoon quilt. It turns out that I do have 15 fat quarters (of the 18 needed) of Ruby which is what the original swoon quilt is made from. I was hoping that I'd be able to get my hands on the final 3. I was also thinking that if they had the entire range of Echo that I'd be tempted to shift gear completely and make my quilt out of that. As it turned out, despite the amazing range they do stock, they did not have Ruby, and only had a few bolts from the Echo line. So I'll be sticking with Ruby and picking up a few extra fat quarters online.



Talking of sewing goodies, I received a wonderful gift from Mum this year - a Cath Kidston sewing box. I love, love, love this! As soon as I got back here I started stocking it with the sewing niknaks that I have. It's good to have these all in one place. And a bonus that this one place is super cute!


For the rest of the weekend it's been fairly mellow. I put together a couple of Valentines token gifts for family. Its a simple, but super cute, robot box (Target... love that store!) filled with Hershey's kisses.


And I did get a good start on this cross stitch that a good friend gifted me for Christmas. Just a teaser for now... expecting I'll have this done soon and can share in a future blog post.


Hope you had a great weekend too,
Sam

EZ February Toddler Sweater

Here's another of my favourite patterns: the Elizabeth Zimmerman February baby sweater on 2 needles. This time upsized for my toddler :)


I took the exact same approach as the baby version that I make on sock yarn:
- Cast on 71 stitches and then follow pattern for yoke, adding a few extra rows of garter stitch
- Knit the rest per pattern instructions (except I only add a few buttonholes at the top)

By simply upsizing the yarn, and the needles, I was able to convert it from a baby sweater to a toddler sweater. Yarn is Debbie Bliss Cathay, and I used just over 3 balls. Needle size is US 7.


I do love this pattern as it is pretty, stretches a little with blocking, and is a different than anything you'd find in the mainstream stores, without being too different if you know what I mean :) I think she likes it too.

Stay warm,
Sam xxx

Ruffles #5

I know I like this pattern, but I was actually surprised to tot up, and realise, that this is the 5th time I've knit it. Yes, it's a favourite gift knit.



This version is Josie. Josie has been a good family friend for as long as I can remember. Her husband and my Dad were also very good friends from school age onwards. Josie is also a Sister at the hospice where Dad was lovingly cared for in his last few weeks. She was wonderful to our whole family, and made sure we had fond memories during what was otherwise an extremely difficult time. In fact the whole staff and volunteers at the hospice were some of the most uplifting, caring and amazing people I have ever met. A very worthwhile charity to support.

I digress...

The scarf is made with some yummy Sundara Fingering Silky Merino in the Robin's egg colorway. Josie loves scarves and this is her favourite colour. It took only half a skein, so now I need to ponder what to do with the rest of this delicious yarn.



As for the pattern, I did make some modifications to suit this different weight of yarn, although in truth I can't recall now how many stitches I cast on this time. I'm thinking it was 1.5 times the amount that the pattern calls for. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have cast on 2x the number of stitches the pattern called for as I certainly had enough yarn and the scarf would have benefited from some extra length. (My first sock yarn version was 2x the amount, and turned out really well... just a pain to get that many stitches on your needle :)

Wishing you a lovely Sunday.
It's a beautiful day here in Colorado - a smattering of snow on the ground and crisp, clear blue skies.

Sam xxx

Back again

It's been a while. You see my thoughts and attention have been elsewhere:
My Dad was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in early June. Sadly he passed away in late August. It's been a devastating blow to our family and I'm having a hard time coming to terms with it. I am thankful though that my managers supported me working remotely so that I could be there with Dad, and my family.

I can't tell you the amount of times I've tried to write this post. To explain what's been going on these last few months. I'd start by writing it all down. Then I delete it. Writing it down seems to help. But it has been an extremely upsetting and difficult few months. Truly you don't need to read about it in all its gory detail.

I've also been thinking about all the wonderful things I'd want you to know about my Dad. He was an amazing man. (Naturally, I'm biased :) Instead I'll be pouring all those details into the stories that I share with Naomi so that she learns about her Grandad.

What I will share is that both my Mum and Dad always encouraged us to do what made us happy. Dad was avid about his hobbies - he was an extremely talented musician who played in local bands and was a well-respected music teacher in his spare time. He also loved computers and was the one who got me started with this blog. I think he'd like that I was back blogging again about the things that I love! So, I'm back. And I'm looking forward to re-connecting with you and sharing the fun things that I'm working on.

Here's a pic of my Dad, Mum and I taken at my brother's wedding the previous year.



So, moving forward, I have lots to share. Including this short poem that Mum sent to me today. I'd like wish you the very best for 2012 and look forward to getting back in touch.

May your troubles be less,

Your blessings be more,

And nothing but happiness come through your door.

Sam xxx

Catch up

Hi, Lots been going on here and so I've been away from the blog. Time to provide an update on the crafty stuff...

First, I have caught the quilting bug. On Bea's blog I saw Sherbet Pips and became fixated on the fabric. Little girls, puppy dogs, knitted scarves are all in the designs - of course I "needed" this fabric! ;o) I've made a start, piecing together the quilt top, and will share more about it in a future post.



I was back in the UK for a couple of weeks. I took my scrappy sock blanket with me, but after the first week ended up working on new projects instead. I'd purchased some Vesper sock leftovers on Ravelry, and started making these cheerful socks out of a random mix of the leftovers. Love how these are turning out.



Mum and I also picked up some novelty yarn to make these ruffle scarves. I'm not a big novelty yarn fan, but have to admit that I really quite like how they turned out. Other bonus - made each scarf in a matter of hours. (You can make 2 scarves out of one ball of "Loopy" yarn. One scarf was 7 stitches wide. The other, shown here, only 4 stitches wide). So if you need a last minute, fun gift...



While at home I spotted Henry - Henry is a bear that I'd made for my Mum about 10 years ago now. Got me to thinking about a future potential project - little bears made out of cutesy print fabrics. Let's see if that ever comes to fruition! (Too many ideas, and crafty plans, not enough hours in a day to execute!)



Happy Sunday,
Sam
xxx

Estes Wool Market

This weekend is Estes Wool Market in Colorado. Joe, Naomi and I headed up there to check it out. Not that I need any more yarn. Ever. But I figured it would be fun for Naomi to see the animals - she loves animals! (Are you buying that excuse? ;o)

As you can see, she had a great time! There were alpacas, sheep, goats and super soft angora bunny rabbits.



Oh, and maybe I did find a little yarn ;o) Naomi seemed pretty fond of it too! (This was a great company I hadn't heard of before - Creatively Dyed yarns out of south carolina. I was tempted by soooo very many of her colourways. Check it out!)



Hope you are having a great weekend too.
Sam
xxx

My First Quilt

I did it! I made my first quilt. It's going to be a playmat for my new nephew/niece who is expected to make his/her debut sometime in August, and goes with this diaper bag that I'd made a few weeks ago for my sis.



I wanted something simple to start out with, and saw a great strip quilt that my friend Stacey had made. So I did a mini web search and found this great tutorial for how to put a strip quilt together. I followed these steps to piece together the top, and then referred to the Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Quilting (thanks for this gift Mum :) to figure out how to assemble, quilt and bind.



I chose a simple channel stitch for the quilting, after seeing this gorgeous inspiration piece. I love how it echoes the stripes in the quilt. The binding is double fold that is machine stitched to the front and then hand stitched using a ladder stitch to the back.



I'm hooked! I have my fabric for my next quilt. And am eager to try my hand at doodle quilting. I fear the knitting may be neglected for a little while!

Camp Wanna Knit Knit

Last weekend was the local knitty girls annual trip up to the mountains. We tuck ourselves away in a lovely home, enjoy each other's company and get some good quality time on our projects.

This year I spent time on my Snowbird. It's a lovely pattern and the cardigan is progressing nicely. Hmm should have taken some pictures to share... maybe for a future post.

I also spent time working on these cute little purses:



Oddly enough, last year I had plans to do something similar for the goody bags using the sheep fabric you see here. I really don't know what I was thinking though (I blame the sleep-deprived baby brain) because at the time I didn't own a machine, or posess the skills! I guess it just seemed like it would be a fun idea... if I could have pulled it off. But this year all came together - our great teacher Stacey showed us the way, I had the lovely stash of fabric and zippers, and Joe has been 'best husband ever' (as always!) and bought me a lovely sewing machine for my birthday! :)

And what camp wouldn't be complete without awesome goodies:



This year Stacey and her Mom really spoiled us with the goodies - a beautiful 'knit happily ever after' necklace, sheepy pjs, a knitting theme notions purse and a lanyard with fold away scissors. Thank you ladies! And thanks also for cooking for us all weekend. I felt truly pampered!

What do you do when you can't sleep?

Last night I was exhausted,but for some reason could not sleep. This doesn't happen to me often. In fact Joe jokes that I'm normally fast asleep by the time my head hits the pillow. But last night, whooo, I have no idea what was going on.

After laying there for a quite while I decided to just get up and make the most of this quiet time alone to do some crafting! I needed to make some thank you cards anyway, so it was a good way to feel productive and creative. And by the time I was done, I was feeling quite sleepy and was able to get a good few hours nap before my furry friends came in to bid me good morning.



Aside from loving the outcome, I also loved that I was able to use up some odds and ends of paper - the bits that are left from other projects, but I can't bear to throw away because that would feel wasteful. So armed with my cupcake paper punch and a box full of papery bits (and Bruno dog, under my armpit, observing every move) I created these cute little cupcakes. I used pastels to add some shading and some mini beads to add 'sprinkles'. What do you think? Not bad for a bleary eyed effort, if I say so myself! :)