North country socks

I used to be one of those knitters who thought nothing could be so tedious as knitting socks, until I tried it and got hooked. After searching all winter for the perfect pair of socks for a baby - warm, soft, durable, and with a cuff long enough that we can pull it up his calf to keep that space between the ankle and pants warm or pull over his pants - and never finding it, I finally dusted off my knitting needles.

Honestly, I don't know what I was waiting for! I wish I had made this pair in December but I'm thankful to have them now for the new blast of cold weather. This is a very easy pattern that I've made over and over again and it's free online. The only part of the pattern I would change is that it originally calls for 100% cotton yarn. While I love cotton, I've had bad luck with it stretching out in socks quickly and not retaining its shape. For this pair of socks I used two yarns held together - a superfine washable wool yarn from Patons and a medium organic bamboo/wool blend from Moda. The sock yarn is self-striping, hence the funky pattern.

And, I think it looks pretty cute on the little guy, who can't pull this sock off by himself, yet.

Here's that new pair of socks on baby while he falls asleep on Mommy's lap, ah, this is the life!

Kilo Appliqued Camisole

Part three of Savannah's Kilo outfit from Alexander Henry's 2005 fabric line- the camisole top with flower applique. See also, part 1 the Kilo skirt, and part 2 the Kilo handbag.

Even though I sometimes skip the step, I did use fusible interface behind the flower this time. It really helps and note to self: I shouldn't ever skip it! When I sew an applique on fabric I use my zigzag stitch and I lower the distance between stitiches to 1 so the zigzags are really close together. I sew around it twice for good measure.

What can I say, someone wasn't in a modeling mood this afternoon.

I still think it's cute. The tank top can be worn with shorts, sweats, skirts and as pajamas too. I like it best with her red sweatpants though.

I'm still amazed at how far a yard of fabric can go when you're five and a half, and I even have a little sliver of it left, possibly enough to make a zippered pouch for her purse or a wristlet to keep her ice cream money safe. Hmmm....

One Way to Reuse a Cork

A cork can come in handy for a variety of projects around the house but here's one suggestion.

I'm really attached to a pair of trivets or hot plates that I have because they are in my signature kitchen colors, china blue or willow blue and white. However, over time the original felt pads have worn off and now when I use the trivets, I risk ruining my table with the heat that is transferred right through the bottom. (I have been using oven mitts beneath my hot plates for months now to prevent any damage to my dining room table surface - but this is time consuming, hard to explain, and could look better.)

I sliced a regular cork into about 10 2/10 of an inch slices as equal in size as I possibly could with my very sharp Henckels knife. Then I carefully super-glued these new "pads" onto the bottoms of my favorite trivets and voila! my trivets are as good as (okay better than) new.

Touch your table the next time you serve something hot and see if your hot plates could use a little cork makeover as well. (If so, you get to get one more good excuse to open a bottle of wine.)

Upcycled Airplane Duvet

I purchased this airplane fabric a while ago with the intention of making a duvet cover for William. He inherited his sister's petal pink crib-size down comforter, which is lovely and warm, but you know, pink.

I found the fabric on etsy from Whimsie Dots, a shop that specializes in fabrics from vintage sources and upcycled fabrics. This fabric is reclaimed from a flatsheet and was very easy to work with.

I liked the airplanes because the first time William saw an airplane it happened to be landing at the Albany airport. It flew right over us and he was mesmerized....

I decided to use three ties on the bottom to close it rather than velcro, buttons or snaps. I made the ties from two inch strips of fabric that I sewed close and then turned right side out with a safety pin. On the bottom edge, I also sewed in about 5 inches on each side to give the comforter a lip to sit on in the corners. This plus the tied bows appear to be working very well. When I went to school in Paris some of the children I took care of had duvet covers with a similar system.This also takes care of one of my crafty New's Year resolutions, only twelve to go.

 I hope the little guy likes it. It will be his for a while...

New and blue

I purchased a set of three white cotton kitchen towels from Williams Sonoma (I love the weave and texture of their cotton towels) a while back with the intention of embellishing them with my signature kitchen colors - china blue or willow blue and white. I finally completed this simple little project and am already enjoying the result.

Eventually my appliances will be replaced with stainless steel energy-efficient ones and I think my white and blue will look even better with the stainless steel. My husband is in charge of that endeavor but I am really looking forward to having an induction stove eventually.

A New Year For...

Quilting is such a wonderful hobby because there is no limit as to what you can do. Every year you could make new quilt patterns and never run out of new styles and patterns and color combinations. Even though I tend to wear preppy drab colors (my faves are navy anything, all shades of brown, black, ivory, etc and I usually buy three of everything I like, so not much diversity there) I have an inner color-loving child who is slowly emerging and painting the world brighter. Quilting gives me one outlet for color and creativity.

Here's a New Year's Resolution of sorts for my crafty to do list.

This year I want to make:

• a quilt with a house block in it
• a summer picnic quilt to bring to the park
  
• a Christmas quilt
• a quilt for the library to auction
  
• a charity quilt (most likely for Hospice)
  
• a boy quilt
  
• more skirts for my daughter with a few matching shirts with appliques
• a matching pair of pants and shirt for the baby
  
• a comforter cover for my son (he has his sister's crib-sized down comforter in petal pink)
• an art quilt to hang up
• a pair of pillows for my daughter's bed
• a scrappy quilt that uses up lots of little bits
• something that uses my dust-collecting serger
  

And I want to do all of this without purchasing new fabric (whites and muslin excepted) because I have enough in my stash to be able to make all of these and more. Waste not, want not, the wisdom goes.

I also want to teach my daughter how to make her own quilt, she's almost 6 and that's old enough, right???

Happy New Year! Let's look forward to a creative New Year together.

Kilo handbag

I followed my handbag tutorial to make this purse for Savannah.
With accessories this cute, who needs pants!?

It matches her Kilo skirt in Alexander Henry's 2005 line. (Ha! Modeling for her Mom before she's even brushed her hair or teeth. What a sport!)

 I was out of black fabric for the lining, so I used white cotton fabric. My fabric diet is still in effect but I'm glad to have designer fabrics on hand.

I can't wait to see her toting sunscreen and shells in her Kilo handbag while wading barefoot along the beach!

Now I wonder would it be too much to applique the red flower on a white shirt to make a whole ensemble? Too matchy matchy or super duper cute? I tend to think she's at the age where anything looks super duper cute.

Texture blanket for William

William, like most babies, loves textures and tags. He likes to sit beneath my sewing table, we call it his fort, while I'm sewing and touch all the bits of thread and fabric that fall under the table. For Christmas this year one of his homemade gifts was a texture blanket with ribbons. It's a quilted nine patch with a log cabin style center patch. The front face of it has ribbons as well as the edges and the back is a soft fleece in navy.

When I finished quilting the top of it I dropped it beneath my sewing table where the little guy was sitting holding onto some bits of the fleece I had trimmed away. He was more than happy to give up the scraps for his new blankie.

I think he likes it.

Kilo skirt

I haven't made anything special for Savannah in a long time and wanted to make her an early Christmas gift that she could try on now but save until our winter trip to Florida to enjoy wearing on the beach with a T-shirt or tank top.

She picked out some Alexander Henry fabric in my stash called Kilo. It's from his 2005 collection.  She said she liked the print because it made her think of Hawaii. I paired it with some basic black cotton and lined it with the black cotton as well. I much prefer lined skirts, over the single layer cotton ones.

The waistband is a 1 1/4" non-roll elastic, thicker than I usually use. I wanted to add a ribbon that would hang down on the side but she said she liked it plain (maybe because she just wanted me to finish asap). I think it looks snazzy! I can imagine getting away with wearing it as an evening skirt with cute black top and a pair of black Mary Jane's.

Look out runway models, here comes Miss Savannah with attitude to spare! Here's the matching handbag.

Quilts of 2009

Quilts of 2009
Originally uploaded by alwayscreatingsomething

Here's a review of my quilts this year. Three quilt swaps, two charity quilts, four gift quilts and three keepers.

My favorites are the Afternoon on Oahu quilt, Baby Isla's quilt and the Aloha quilt. I think I only have two WIPs at the moment which is great for me and one is a finished quilt top.

Sew many fabric combinations, sew little time!