Sunshine Award

Bella from Art Club Blog nominated me for a Sunshine Award, and I can't begin to say how much this means to me! Please stop by her blog and see what she is working on as well as take a peek at the other artist's work that she features!

If you have been nominated and would like to accept this award, here is what you do:

* link the award to the person who gave it to you

* answer the questions that came with it

* pass it along to other bloggers and let them know they have received it

Share answers to the following questions:

* favorite color

*favorite animal

*favorite number

*favorite non-alcoholic drink

*Facebook or Twitter

* greatest passion

* favorite day of the week

*favorite flower

Here are my answers:

*changes all the time but for now it is turquoise
*elephants
*don't really have one but for now it is 24 because my son is due the 24th of July and I can't wait to meet him
*vanilla milkshake
*Twitter
*being a wife and mother
*Sunday (love resting with my family)
*lillies and orchids (sorry, I can't pick just one!)


and here are some blogs that I would like to nominate:
Mangle prints
Mirdinara
Oh, what a world, what a world
Jezze prints
Melly Sews
Daisy Yellow

In my sketchbook...a new love of crayons

Is it wrong to steal your 15-month-old's crayons for your own artistic pursuits? 

Since she isn't complaining, I'm going to keep on using them! :-)

Off the needles and ready to be seamed/blocked!

When I first saw this picture on the purl bee website, I knew that I had to make it. It was the neckline and color of the yarn that did it for me. Had I not just knit a gray sweater for AJ, I would have knit this one up in the same color as the picture below (but in Malabrigo instead of Koigu for budget reasons!). 

I was going to knit this in pink, but my LYS only had one skein in the colorway I wanted so Lilac it was!

With about 3/4 of a skein of this yarn left, I am either going to knit a cowl for my sister in law (who LOVES the color purple) or make leg warmers for AJ. Will let you know what I decide!

In my sketchbook... a fun collaboration

My daughter loves playing with my sketchbooks to the point that I can't work in them when she is around. In an effort to fix this problem, I bought her, her own sketchbook so that she could work along side of me. 

Funny thing happened, she still preferred my book to her hers so we ended up coloring with crayons together!

In my studio... upping my skills!

So now that I am kinda-sorta getting an idea of how basic (no zippers or buttons) tops are constructed, my thrift store shopping trips have completely changed. Instead of seeing clothes just as they are, I see fabric that can be turned into something else.

Case in point, this top was originally a yoga-style skirt for a pre-teen girl. Now it is a cute top/dress for my 15m daughter.

 I didn't even have to look up at any of the tutorials saved on my Pinterest boards to know how to modify it! 

About halfway through this project, I started to wonder if I should go back and "fix" some of my previous sewing blunders. It isn't that those clothes are falling of my daughter or anything, it is just that they are quite as neat as I would like them to be.

I decided against doing this because otherwise I will end up spending all of my time "upgrading" things I've already made instead of trying to make more complicated garments. Also, I like having a history of my sewing progress recorded in the garments themselves.

Until next time!

In my sketchbook... triangle petal flowers

In my studio... baby sling for JD

The nesting hormones have really taken over my life lately, and this time they "forced" me to make a baby sling for JD. :-)

I found this super easy-to-follow tutorial online (LOVE the fact that it helps you calculate what size to make based off of multiple measurements) and then some really pretty teal sheets from Goodwill for $1.

Since I want to be carry JD to and from the car during winter time in this sling, I decided to double layer it for warmth and thought that it would be fun to print the inside layer with my foam stick stamp. 

        

After printing the fabric and sewing it up, I realized that I made a fatal calculation in my pattern making. It was only half as wide as it was supposed to be. I drafted a new one and begun the process a second time. 

Thankfully, the second one went off without a hitch and is now waiting to be used once my little guy arrives!

Off the needles: sweater for AJ

I finally knit my first sweater for AJ!

I know that a lot of knitters make things for their children from before they are even born, but I just didn't have the heart to knit her something that could only be work for a very short time.

Using some recycled Cascade Eco-Wool and Veera Valimaki's Fisherman's Pullover pattern, I was able to whip this up in less than a week.

The pattern is easy to modify and for this version I choose to shorten the sleeves.

If you are interested in making a similar modification all you have to do is knit one row, knit two rows of a 2x2 rib and then cast of. Easy peasy!