post holiday catch-up

I'm drowning in holiday photos and too busy to post. Here are some random family photos from my phone.

Ginger cuddled up in the animal quilt I made for Sammy.

On a walk with Sammy and Ginger to the park.

Dining at Zov's in Irvine.

Sammy modeling the sweater I knitted her.

I still have more photos to process out of my camera.

holiday projects continued

This is a small art quilt that I made for Vickie, a member of my art quilt friendship group. She was supposed to get it last Friday, but the meeting got cancelled due to illness. She wanted Art Nouveau style quilts. This is similar but not quite AN, so I called it "Presque Nouveau." (presque means almost)

I made a pillow case for Samantha to go on her youth bed. It goes with her animal quilt. I need to find a photo of that, too. I've got one somewhere.

I made two hats like this, except with the colors changed around. These were for Jack and Warren.

Our friend Yoshiko sent us Japanese treats all the way from Japan! We've been working them. My favorites are the ones that include chocolate.


More photos to come!

more holiday projects

 

I made four of these hats for gifts, made by a pattern that I got at Yarn Lady, which is unfortunately going out of business. This photo doesn't do them justice. They are slouchy and flattering.

The way you shape them is to wet down the finished hat and shape it onto a child's ball. Let it dry thoroughly and it's stretched into a nice slouchy, lacy shape.

I knitted this sweater for Samantha. It was a simple pattern, but I think it turned out adorable. I believe I found the pattern at a little shop in Santa Fe. It looks cute on her; I will post photos of her wearing it later.

Another view.

I made this puppy for Samantha, too.

Hanging out with the red dog.

Aren't they cute together? I loved making these dogs.

I made this kitty from a Mimi Kirchner pattern. Mimi is a very talented doll artist. She has a cool blog; I'll try to get the link for it.

I made the doll to ressemble Samantha's cat, a tuxedo cat who is coincidentally called Mimi! The scarf on the Mimi doll is cut from a cashmere sweater. The body is made from black sweaters.

The details are made from felt and embroidered. This doll was also fun to make. She's very huggable! I would like to make more.

Okay, now to something more art quilty! This is a prayer flag for my sister-in-law Marti. I was inspired by the forest fires that were near where she lived in Colorado Springs in 2012.

This is the other prayer flag I made for Marti for Christmas. Obviously I went with a more wintery vibe, and the theme is "Calm." The quazi-calligraphy pieces were made by Lisa Englebrecht. I am sure I will get inspired to make more flags for Marti in the future.

More projects to show you, soon....

Holiday projects aplenty

At last I can share some of the things I made for Christmas. I made this stocking and donated it to a silent auction at Flying Geese Quilters in December. One Dresden plate block, cut up and appliqued to the stocking shape. I used my sashiko machine here.

I made an upcycled sweater as part of a challenge for Fibreye. I used an old J Crew pullover sweater, overlaid with silk chiffon which I dyed at the last retreat in the Diane Ricks workshop.

This is the front. I was inspired by Christopher in the last season's Project Runway; he put "shredded" silk chiffon on a lot of his clothing, but not on sweaters.

I made this wall hanging, kind of a riff on my previous VW tree quilt. I used the sashiko machine again. It ended up being a gift for my friend Linda.

Detail.

Another detail.

Well, that's a start. I will post more holiday projects soon, now that I've finally figured how to efficiently access the photos from my phone. :-) Hurray!

A festive vintage photo

I am so tickled by this photo, I just have to share it with you. A cousin posted it on Facebook, and it depicts my family plus relatives on my mom's side. Wow, aren't we colorful!? Click on it to see it a little bigger.

My oldest brother and my Aunt Dorothy are missing, but everyone else is included. My parents, my grandparents, all my cousins, and their other grandmother. Judging by the youthful look of my brothers, I figure this must have been taken about 1963-4, when I was in high school. Can you find me? I'm wearing green. (but I have no recollection of having a sleeveless green dress) Mary, the blond girl in front with the bright green pants, is a doctor living in Montana. Mike, the blond boy to her right, used to have a tour boat business by the Balboa Pavilion. My mom is in green on the extreme left, and my father is in back on the right.

Wishing you a happy holiday!

Hello again

My goodness, I've been AWOL from my blog. Sorry about that! I've been busy, caught up in the holiday frenzy. I have lots of things to share, but I don't want to spoil surprises.

Family members will be arriving this weekend - we are excited! I am still doing a bit of knitting, but otherwise Christmas gifts are done. Also, this afternoon I cut into some fabric for a new art quilt. It's kind of a scary stage - hope it all pulls together soon.

In the meantime, this very same anthurium from last Christmas is still blooming like crazy! I've never kept an anthurium alive for this long, and I am not doing anything special to it. Lucky me...

red dog

I made this dog on a whim for my friend Jamie's new studio, where I visited yesterday.