Baby Love

I love making Baby things and the last few years I have taken to making 

themed baby gifts for my grand- babies.

I shared a bit about this owl-themed gift HERE

Another theme idea came from a small bird design I made. 

I shared how I made the quilt   HERE    even though I am not really a very proficient quilter.

Here is a close up of one of the birds on the quilt.

The finished quilt

The crochet flannel blanket pattern can be found  HERE

Another crochet blanket made with granny squares and a ruffled edge in colors to go with the theme.

A bird pillow with two different sides.

And last but not least a small crocheted bird rattle made

 from a pattern I purchased from  THIS  etsy store.

This is the latest baby gift.

The first thing I decided to make was a crochet blanket. 

Since it needed to be neutral until I knew the gender of the baby I decided to
use a white and grey color scheme. The black edge was a later decision.

This free pattern can be found HERE

I added a border and sewed the pink ribbon on by hand at the end to add a
 feminine touch after finding out my new grand-baby was a girl.



This baby gift theme started with an idea to use farm animals. I decided to continue
 the grey, black and white after liking how the crochet blanket looked

First I purchased a horse, cow and chick embroidery pattern
 HERE  to use as appliqué patterns.

I purchased the pattern for the lamb  HERE.

The pig I designed myself with the Pages app.

These patterns:

Became this:

And then: my final blanket top design:

I sent my design to Spoonflower and had it printed in an organic
knit cotton that is extremely soft.

I put a white layer of flannel between the quilt top and a soft striped flannel
I found for the backing. It makes the blanket a very nice weight.

The dotted lines were a great guide for hand stitching around each square.
Decorative pink stitching was added as with the other pink touches at the end.

The decorative lamb pillow is made with polka dot flannelette, white and black felt.
It could be used as wall decor instead of a pillow. It is quite flat.

Even the pink bow is made of felt. 

A sweater is always nice gift. I crocheted a simple shape all half-double crochet with a few
stripes. I was planning to make the sweater hooded but changed my mind and made a
shell stitch peter-pan collar. When it was finished I got the idea to line it with some soft
cotton fabric and from there it seemed sensible to make it reversible. I cut two pieces of the
lining fabric the same shape as my sweater and seamed it right sides together. Then I
sewed it by hand into the sweater. I like how it turned out and so did my daughter-in -law.

Ties seemed to work the best for a reversible sweater. They are a crocheted chain and then slip stitched into each chain for body.

At the last minute I found I had some flannelette in my stash  that had sheep on it so decided to make a double-sided blanket to line the basket I was putting my gift in.

Finished Baby gift !
A baby is a wonderful miracle and so much fun to make things for. What do you think?

Thrifting Thursday

I only went to one thrift store this week and it is my favorite.

 Even though it is a very small store there is a lot of stock

 turnover and I almost always find something good. 

 The prices are great! Just a few dollars can buy so much.

 Also it doesn't hurt that it is only 5 minutes from my home.

This week it was books:

The timing of "Serger Gifts and Crafts" was perfect as I have

 a new serger I haven't  tried yet....... must get to that. 

In the Serger book there are so many ideas with illustrations

 and clear instructions.  I love to learn from books!

a beautiful blanket 

One size fits all apron

The small quilting book has lots of great tips and there are illustrations for  all of them:

I thought this little snowman family was kind of cute in the 

1985 "Women's Circle Crochet" Christmas Annual:

Crochet Snowman Family

If I do this I will probably update the accessory colors a bit.

The "Easy Bazaar Crafts Book" had patterns for some cute little dolls and furniture:

Some of the furniture was made with felt which I love to work with.

To finish it off I was happy to find a classic by Anne Bronte that I haven't read. I did see the movie

 and liked it so I am sure I will like the book even more. I usually do with the classics.

HAPPY THRIFTING!

"Flower" Crochet Cushion

Crochet "flower" pillow

It's been a while since I blogged again but I have been busy with a few projects and couldn't share them immediately as they were gifts. Now that the parties are over and the gifts have been given I will share in the next few posts what I have been up to.

Ever since I saw this blog:

  
I have wanted to try to make one of these pillows, The site has a good tutorial to follow. It looks more complicated than it is.


This is what I came up with for my daughter's bed using the colours in her room.

purple and brown crochet pillow

I like the rainbow colour and the brown and purple but would like to try this in "ombre" colours. Maybe that will be next.

What are you making?

Finished Baby Gift (owl theme)

Finally finished my owl collection for the new little one expected soon.

owl collection baby gift

My inspiration came  from this purchased fleece blanket and a pack of matching receiving blankets.

owl inspiration

The small receiving blankets were used to make this.....

Large flannel swaddling blanket

and this.......

"taggie blanket"

I also made:

owl pillow

crochet small owl "stuffy "

crochet granny blanket

All in all I am happy with everything and it was fun to make my own patterns for things. It is so easy to make any pattern you like by taking a picture or scanning an item and using the image as a guide. The granny square blanket is fun because you can make up your design as you go.

What are you making?

How do I get focus?

I don't seem to be able to keep focused on just one thing for very long( I also blame my lack of focus for my infrequent blogging). I have been busy in my craft room... making things for my expected grand baby. The problem is that so much time is taken up just looking at ideas and when I do start things, I get bored when a pattern gets monotonous.

At the moment I have several things on the go:

bobble crochet blanket

Ever since I saw one of these patterns, I wanted to try it. I decided to use the recycled yarn I purchased from my local thrift shop. Someone washes and rolls previously used yarn and bags it for sale.

Each bag is priced at about $1 or $1.50. I cannot be sure of the content but I can tell if I like the feel of it. I started my blanket but got bogged down when I couldn't decide if I liked the way the colors blended.







So.........on to the next thing.

Grey and Pink seemed like a good idea especially after finding this grey and pink flannel( I will use it for a double sided blanket).  I am planning to make  squares of several different stitches with the flower motif on the single crochet ones.  I don't have a specific pattern so we will see. I  like the mystery and possibilities of not knowing for sure how it will look when finished. There are a lot of good patterns for squares here.  After sampling the flower idea I think the pink is not quite right so will probably look for a better shade of yarn.

Then....

I saw a cute fleece blanket and a whole new collection started in my head.

Owl baby collection

The flannel squares blanket was made by cutting up the too small receiving blankets, sewing the squares together and backing them with solid green flannel.
I crocheted the owl without a pattern just by starting with a circle and working in the round (as in "amigurumi") and trying to match it to the one on the fleece blanket.
My plans are for a taggie blanket and an owl pillow out of fabric to match.

Double treble burst crochet square

 The  pattern is here for the starting square of the blanket  (although I did find it hard to follow and if you don't have any crochet experience I think it would be difficult) and after row ten I am improvising and keeping it interesting for myself. If anyone is interested in a pattern I will post a picture when I am finished and try and write one.

In the end all these projects will get finished, it is just a question of how long it will take. Hopefully nothing else will distract me. Every distraction leads to a whole new collection of things (in my mind).

At the moment I don't know if the baby is a boy or girl so am hoping the owl collection will do for either. I will have to think on it.

I really enjoy looking at what others are crafting and am finding I like sharing my projects as well. What are you making?

What a deal!

crochet cotton on cardboard tubes

 A local antique store has a twice a year garage sale and at the last one I picked up  a bag full of  crochet cotton for only one dollar. I almost didn't buy it because it was a large bag and  would be a problem to store. The cardboard tubes holding the cotton took up a lot of space so I decided to roll it into balls. It took quite a bit of time but the difference in the amount of space it took up was huge!

rolled cotton

Hard to tell by the photos but the difference in bulk is amazing!

cardboard tubes

finished!

All the thread fit into an 81/2" basket with room to spare and I decided to keep the cardboard. Because of the different sizes I could nest the tubes and they fit into  a small paper bag. Glad I bought it.

Now I just need to make something with it!  Possibly these :





I would use several strands at once. Hopefully it won't take forever to get to it.