Baby Quilting

My husband's brother and sister-in-law are pregnant, so you know what that means: I get to craft them something! Their nursery is going to have a birdie theme, so at first I was considering this mobile, but it needs to be ship-able, so I decided to make a quilt. The quilt is going to have 12 birds, in red, yellow, and green prints, with a blue print for the sashing to match their nursery.

I hope they like it; you always take a chance when you give a handcrafted gift, because some recipients don't value such things, but I always try and hope for the best. I like to give handcrafted gifts because those are the kind that mean the most to me.

What kinds of gifts have you handcrafted recently, and any suggestions for cute handmake-able baby items?

Sneak Peeks: A Finished Object

This...


Plus this....


Makes a surprise for my Cozy Domesticity swap partner!

Cozy Domesticity Swap

I've decided to host my first swap! For this swap, put together a package for your partner that they can use for some cozy domestic moments this winter. Build your package around one handmade item: perhaps a lavender-filled eye mask, with some bubble bath, a great novel, and dark chocolate. Or perhaps a knitted tea cozy, with a pretty tea cup, some tea, and a fun magazine.

Whatever you choose to do, the focus should be on the handmade item. Other ideas include hand-knit socks, mittens or gloves, aprons, potholders, embroidered tea towels, etc.; be creative and have fun! Focus on your handmade item and include a couple other things to provide your partner with some cozy domesticity this winter. You can purchase materials and items or use things from your stash and re-gift items, as long as they’re in top-notch condition. Vintage is always welcome too!

You must be an active blogger or I must know you personally to participate! To sign up, send an email to bibliosophy@gmail.com with the following information. Then, grab the button from my blog and link back to it from yours.

Name:
Address:
Blog address:
Willing to ship internationally?
Hobbies:
Favorite winter activities:
Favorite kind/genre of book:
Hot beverage preference:
Favorite magazines:
Favorite colors:
Any crafts you don’t do but wish you could?
Collect anything small?
Favorite craft supplies:
Decorating style:

The last day to sign up will be January 22, and I will tentatively assign partners by the 24th. The ship out date will be March 1. Come join me and create some handmade winter cozies!

Quilted Playmat

In the recent issue of Living Crafts magazine, they have patterns for five new knitted farmyards. Knitted farmyards, I thought? A knitted farmyard, I discovered, is a playmat that is made by creating and piecing squares of a variety of styles to create one whole "farm." Each square is a different part of the farm, like a sheep pasture, or vegetable garden, wheat field, or pond. Back in Living Crafts inagural issue of Winter 2008, they had this article about collaborating with a group to create knitted farmyard playmats.


Because I have no green yarn in my stash, which would be necessary for fields, I decided instead to make a quilted farmyard. Using different prints for the various fields, I'm sewing the patches together to make a Cotswold sheep farm. The fields are bordered by golden stone fences, typical of Cotswold limestone. My plan is to embroider the fields with flowers, crops, and vegetables, and somehow embroider the stone walls to look like stones. Then, when I put in the batting and backing, I'm going to quilt crop rows and waves of water onto the fields and ponds, respectively. Some knitted or wooden animals and simple wooden farm equipment which I hope to purchase should complete Baby's first Christmas present in a little under a year from now!

Vintage Valentine

I was brainstorming with some other ladies on a forum about how to organize/display vintage valentines, when I remembered I had already created a book with that theme. This flag book was made using vintage postcards, most around 100 years old, that I had collected. I designed this book so that the backsides of the postcards with the writing, stamp, and postmark would be visible, because I think this is the most interesting part. The writing is legible, and it's fun to read the notes and imagine what people's lives were like back then. I get the impression that they used postcards 100 years ago like we use the telephone or email; a lot of the letters are just one or two sentences to arrange a vist or an appointment.

If you're interested in making your own flag book with ephemera or other scraps of paper, check out this great PDF tutorial.

Knit Flat Fingerless Gloves

I designed these for those of you who, like me, dislike using double-pointed needles. These fingerless gloves can be knit with straight needles and close on the sides with decorative buttons. This pair is destined for a friend; I need to make some for myself soon!

Size: one size
Finished measurements: 8.75” long x 4.5” wide

Materials:

- Approximately 121 yards of bulky weight yarn; Patons Shetland Chunky was used for this design.
- Size 7 needles or size needed to obtain gauge.
- 12 - ¾” buttons for finishing
- Tapestry needle to weave in ends.
- Sewing needle and thread for buttons.

Gauge: 18 sts and 25 rows to 4” over stockinette stitch on size 7 needles.

Right glove:
CO 42 stitches. Work seed stitch (Row 1: K1, P1, repeat to end; Row 2: P1, K1, repeat to end) for two rows. Next row (RS): make buttonhole [K1, YO, K2tog], seed stitch to end. Work seed stitch for rows 4-6. Row 7: K1, P1, K1, knit to last three stitches, P1, K1, P1. Keeping first and last three stitches in seed stitch, and making a buttonhole every 10th row, work stockinette stitch until piece measures 3 1/4 inches.

Shape thumb gusset: Work 20 stitches, place marker, work 2 stitches, place marker, work to end. Work 1 row. (RS) Inc row: Work to marker, slip marker, kfb (knit into the front and back of the stitch) of 1st stitch, work to last stitch before marker, kfb, slip marker, work to end. Continue in this manner increasing between the markers every 4th row, until there are 12 sts between markers. (Remember also to keep working buttonholes along the side band.) Work 1 row.

RS: Work to marker, slip sts between markers onto a holder, CO 2 sts, work to end. Work 10 rows. Work 3 rows seed stitch; bind off in seed stitch.

Place stitches from thumb gusset on needle. Join new yarn and kfb of first and last stitches on first row. Work one row. Work seed stitch for 2 rows; bind off in seed stitch.

Weave in ends. Sew sides of thumb gusset to glove. Mark places for 6 buttons on side band of glove; sew on buttons and close gloves.

Left glove:
Work as for right glove, placing buttonholes on the opposite seed stitch band.

We got soaked

...in generosity at our baby shower! Wow! My MIL and SIL gave us a lovely shower this past weekend, and now we have everything we could possibly need for Baby. My mom came from Minnesota, and my grandma and aunt were there, as well as DH's relatives and friends. Because we didn't find out if Baby is a boy or a girl, people couldn't buy either pink or blue, but they found some super cute clothes in neutral colors. There were lots of soft, cuddly blankets, which I must make myself save for Baby! There was also an infant car seat in a bright aqua blue, and all kinds of baby care items.


And then there were beautiful handmade goodies. The quilt above, made by my mom, of Beatrix Potter fabric to match a sentimental framed print of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle from my childhood. She even quilted little hearts in the four corners:)

This beautiful crocheted blanket from my SIL, in perfect baby colors; and it turned out to match the quilt.


And these cute vintage prints, which were painted by my grandma from a paint-by-number set for my mother's nursery. I love them, and my mom had saved them all these years.



We were also given a handmade diaper bag in French country-ish blue and yellow fabrics, and the sweetest little variety of knit hats, made by my aunt. What a lucky mommy and baby, huh? We are very grateful; it is kind of overwhelming to be the subject of so much love and generosity.

Booklet Ornaments

We had a fantastic weekend with family and friends and were given a baby shower with lots of handmade lovelies and everything we might need (more later)! Last week, before we left town, I finished this little trio of Christmas ornaments. They are slightly larger than the brooches, at 2 1/2 x 3 inches. They have mulit-colored and printed paper on the inside for you to add your own Christmas memories by writing, collage, drawing, etc. These are for an ornament swap, but contact me through my shop if you'd like some for your own home!

Handmade Christmas

Almost every year for Christmas my brother receives a well-intentioned, but unfinished, knitted present from me. Two years ago it was a half-knit scarf; last year, I gave him a store-bought sleek Banana Republic scarf to make up for it. So this year, good intentions aside, I HAD to finish a project that I started for him; and not just finish, but in time for Christmas. To make up for previous years, it had to be something big and substantial, and since he would probably rather die than wear a hand-knit sweater, I decided on an afghan. My first ever. With cables. And eyelets. And lots of pattern repeats.

This does have a happy ending though, because I finished the afghan on Saturday with two yards of yarn left! I am so happy. And hopefully he will be too with a real finished present on Christmas Day.

And since he doesn't even know about my blog, I can disclose what gives me so much satisfaction about this project: it only cost $15! I consider that a triumph! The pattern was a free leaflet at Joann's, and each of the five balls of yarn cost only $3. It's value has been very much increased though with the love and prayers I've knit into it for him.

This reminds me of a wonderful blog I came across last night: Taste the Goode Life. Evidently this lady had a cooking show on the BBC for many years which was very popular. Now she writes this blog everyday, and has so many good ideas for frugal cooking and a frugal Christmas. I'm excited to be more financially mindful this Christmas, because I know it will (it already has; witness the $15 afghan) increase my enjoyment of the season as I savor what it really important. Check out her blog for yourself. She is quite an entertaining writer.

Hot Drinks for Hot Mamas Apron Swap

This is the apron I sent to my swap partner Tammy for the favorite hot drinks swap. She loves coffee, and I found this neat coffee bean print fabric and geared my complementary fabrics to a mocha/cappicino-like color. I also sent her some coffee cup cozies, and one of my handbound books with a vintage food print on the covers.

Destash: Scrap Fabric Wreath

In an effort to continue cleaning out my stash of craft supplies, I made this festive wreath for the basement door. I pulled all my red, pink, and green colored fabrics, and used them up to make a new decoration!

First, I cut the fabric into strips that are about 1 1/2" x 6"; any size really will work, just make sure you can tie the strips in a knot.



Then, with your purchased wire wreath frame, start tying the strips onto the frame, packing them pretty tightly to cover all the space.



Continue in this way until you've covered the frame and the wreath is pleasing to you. I finished it by tying a pretty ribbon on one side to use as a hanger.



Easy! And now you have an (almost) free new holiday, or anyday, decoration!

Christmas Progress

Saturday I finished these, the last three of my four remaining Christmas present projects. They are leather bound picture albums, with decorative paper accenting the covers and endpapers.

Every year we go back and forth on how to handle Christmas presents in the family: there are no grandchildren yet (the first, ours, is due in January), so we haven't been able to use the no presents for adults rule yet. For ourselves, we are trying to keep gifts to a miminum and be very intentional and thoughtful about what we give. This year, I'm hand-making all the gifts except one, and to me, that makes a gift very special. I hope our family recipients agree!

How do you handle gifts between the adults in your family?

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway a couple posts below!

A new skirt...and a new gifting philosophy

This is my newest summer skirt, finally finished after as DH said, "almost a year." Well, not quite, more like 8 months, only 2/3 of a year; so there! It is the Sasha pattern by Louet knit with Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Linen and I love how it turned out. But now I'm too pregnant to wear it. So I've just been admiring it on the hanger. I thought about making the elastic band in the waist a little larger to fit under my belly, so I might play around with that. Right now I'm just content to gaze at it.

As I was wrapping my friend's wedding presents in homemade fabric gift bags, I was pondering my plans for Christmas presents this year. I'm giving all handmade items (mostly handmade by me; yes I'll be busy:), and I'm going to wrap them using items I already have on hand. The fabric gift bags are a great way to use up leftover fabric, and, since I save all the wrappings people give me, I have quite a stash. Yet another way to recycle, be good to the environment, and get more stuff out of my house!