toy drawers

inspiring

bye, bye, blue car

SOLD!  To the hipster with the beard!

I felt that!

My dad loves the quilt I made him so much that he requested a scarf made with the same soft felted wool.  Turned out nicely I think.  Zach was so kind as to

model for me.

He thought it would show better in this action shot.

Another thrift store find this weekend past was a thick green wool J. Crew sweater.  It felted up nicely and the neck reduced to a perfect size for my little Hen.  Did a little tracing and cutting...

 Sewed up the sides and VIOLA!  Super easy!

Now if it would just get cold enough for him to wear it.

i'd rather be a forest than a street, yes i would.

Last week our Grandma Lisa returned from her Peruvian adventure and brought a bounty of gifts for our family.  Among the gifts for me, some beautiful chocolaty brown baby alpaca yarn.  I can't decide how to use it yet.  Maybe a scarflette?

A sweater, a hat, a zampolla for the kids and this alpaca that we all fight over.  Greta added the baby.

Here are the kids with Grandma having a serious jam session. 

They sounded a little something like this:

quilting

Yesterday I attended a baby shower for a baby girl that will be here very soon.  I made her this quilt.  Used some seriously cute fabric and managed some freestyle quilting.  I would have done more swoops and swirls but I ran out of time.  Next on my list, my poor neglected stepson, Julien.  We will see him in December so I know I have time.  Poor guy still using the quilt I made him when he was 8.  He has since outgrown it.

Found this knitted quilt style throw while thrifting this weekend.  I love this!!

And for the kids I found this machine that I am not exactly sure what it was used for.  But there are levers and numbers and when you slide paper under it stamps whatever sum you set.  Greta has jammed it once so far.  We'll see how long this lasts.

HAPPY MONDAY!

who does she think she is?

poser

These days when I try and get a posed shot of Henry, I crouch down to his level. He copies me and we both end up a couple of crouchers until one of us end up lying on the floor.

couple of fruits

traffic

Greta and I play a little game sometimes when we are stuck in traffic. It helps keep our mind off the misery. We found ourselves close to home, yet soooo far. With full bladders and driving our 1983 Mercedes wagon that we cannot seem to sell, we started our game. It went something like this:

Me: Ugh, traffic.

Greta: Don't you love it? Isn't it amaaaazing?

Me: Yes, it is awesome.

Greta: You know what would be even better? If we had mosquitos flying around in the car and no air conditioning.

Me: Yes! Or a mad bumblebee and a wasp, then we would feel really relaxed.

Greta: I wish we had lots of smelly farts, worse than Ollies! Wouldn't that be great?

Me: I wish we had rotten tomatoes to stick in our armpits, then we could flap our arms like a bird until we got home.

Greta: Or some nice prickly cactuses to sit on. How wonderful.

Me: Wouldn't it be great if we both really really had to pee...Oh wait, we already have that!!

Greta: Or what if we were driving in a really really old stinky car...Oh wait, we have that too!

It went on and on. We were laughing so hard.

Henry didn't get it.

sabotage

I miss Oregon...

and I miss my dad.

feel the love

bruin fest

Along the main street in Brookings, Oregon you can find these life size whimsical bear statues. I wanted to pose the kids by each one, that didn't happen. But I did hear Seaweed Pete (aka grandpa) say he wanted to get Greta's picture by the samurai bear, so early one morning we went out for a drive thru mocha and a quick snap with the samurai. There were many more bears...these are just a few on the north side of the street.

fabric fever

Last weekend I discovered two of the most inspiring fabric/craft/yarn shops around. Full of delicious fabrics that I could only find online before, now I can see and touch them in person. This is huge for me. We went to The Urban Craft Center is in Santa Monica on Saturday, there I picked up a quarter yard of the 5 fabrics on the right. The other 2 on the left I found at Home Ec in Silverlake. The owner at Home Ec , Jenny I think, invited me to join the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild. So I did! They have monthly meetings that I wont be able to attend for a while because they are in the evening. But online I get to see all the quilts that are so fresh in their design and fabrics that I love. I'm feeling so inspired.

So this weekend I plan on doing some sewing.

I will take a yard and a half of every Alexander Henry fabric ever printed, please.
These are some stripes cut out of Japanese tenugui cloth for Julien's quilt. Not sure where I am going with it, but there will be just a splash or two of that red! Another Alexander Henry.

Half of my stash. My other half is in an unfortunate plastic box under my bed with a lid that doesn't fit and that makes the occasional dog bed. My goal is to have all my fabrics organized by color on shelves that are not plastic. No more digging.

Happy weekend, wherever it takes you. I think it's taking me downtown to Michael Levine. Just sayin.

Oh , and there is a rather unfortunate skunk story that I will soon share. Writing it down would mean reliving the experience and I am not ready for that. Give me a few days... or at least till the smell goes away.

"wish you were here"

My mom is in Peru right now and sent me these photos.

apples apples

speaking of dogs and felt...

There is one thing that drives me just a little crazy. Vague online crafty tutorials that leave out vital details and include poor photos for reference. I will now apologize for this is exactly what I am about to give you.

Heidi over at Two Kitties asked if I might share how I made Ollie's felted sweater.

I shy away from patterns and measuring in general, but I will do my best here.

First, I eyed the felted sweater that I had found at my local Goodwill. I cut out the biggest piece I could then draped it over Ollie's back and made sure it would wrap all the way around him comfortably. It was perfect.

Next I started hand stitching it together so it looked like a big tube.

I then checked out where Ollie's front legs might pop through and cut small circles in those spots.

I used the cuffs of the sweater as sleeves. I fluffed the tube inside out and hand stiched the cuffs to the cut out circles. Shown here.

I cut out an arch on the underside so Ollie wouldn't get pee pee on his sweater.

The neck hole was much too big so I tapered in the neck so it wasn't too wide. I could have avoided this step if I had slowed down to do some measuring. Once I tapered it in it fit much nicer around his neck. For a nice finished edge on the collar I stitched the collar from the big sweater onto Ollie's nearly finished sweater.
Here he is looking smart in his stripes.

How did I do? Impressed? Confused? Underwhelmed?

Being that we are experiencing summer weather here in Los Angeles, this sweater hasn't had much use yet.

I promise you Ollie, we will both be bringing out our winter sweaters soon enough!