fun stuff

• A unique and creative gift box from Carissa:

including a paper ornament, handmade leaf box, cute card, mix cd, glass bead stamp magnets and a yummy assortment of tea.

• Walgreens.com

Their photo site is great, especially their poster/calendar offerings. Just upload 2-40 photos and they will arrange the photos in a collage. You can select border thickness and background color (but not arrangement). I put together a photo collage of classic cars that my dad has photographed for my dad's office and one of our cats for Jon's office and then framed the collages with frames from IKEA.

• Fabric wall hangings

We bought this fabric on ebay a few weeks ago and spent about 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon stapling it to canvas stretcher bars (ours were purchased from a local art supply store, but you can find them online here). There are directions for this project here. It's a great way to display fabric that you love. And, it's a great way to feed our Marimekko addiction!

• A new softie from SotoSofties....these little stuffies are just too cute

meet Sherbert the bunny!

• A sweet new wooden German Candle Pyramid from Jon

I have always wanted one of these and I was so excited to open it up on Christmas!

Habitat Quilt

I've been on vacation from work for the past week and I don't have to go back until January 12, so I've been in project mode around here (home, Christmas, knitting, sewing and otherwise)

First up is a quilt that I made my aunt Dani for Christmas...

I first saw this kit/pattern at a quilt show in October 2007. It's the Habitat Quilt by Fourth and Sixth designs. At the time, the booth was sold out and rather than special ordering it, I let it go. Then, earlier this year, I saw the same quilt kit at a different quilting show and it was in stock, so I scooped it up. I've had this sitting in my sewing room since March. In August I washed and cut out the fabric and then I let it sit for another four months and did a marathon quilting/cutting session last Monday and Tuesday. I finished it just in time for Christmas.

The fabric for this quilt was hand-dyed, so it has a slightly mottled and suede look to it. I really liked the texture and dimension it adds to the quilt.

I did my standard free motion stippling on the quilt. The quilt measures 50" x 58" and is composed of 56 blocks and a small border around the edge.

Merry Christmas!

knitting projects

I finally finished up the February Lady Sweater for NaKniSweMo last Monday (about 15 days late). After a thorough wet blocking, the sweater was set to wear and I love how it turned out! Here's a flat photo of the finished sweater. You can find more details here on Ravelry.

I went a little yarn crazy around here to pick up the remaining yarn for my Zig Zag afghan (which has been neglected, but not forgotten!).

How did I get all of those hanks of yarn into balls? Oh, with my new swift, of course!

I really like working with this and it is so pretty to watch it spinning away while I make balls. I picked it up a City Knits in Detroit, where I was lucky enough to meet and talk with the owner, Karen Kendrick-Hands, who designed the Lifted Twill hat pattern for Interweave Knits Winter 09. I picked up these two skeins of Misti Alpaca Chunky to make this hat myself.

while I was away

in no particular order...

• I watched Jon learn lots of new knitting skills. So far he's finished his first scarf and is working on a set of handwarmers, Dashing.

• I worked on my NaKniSweMo.





Here's the progress on November 30,

and here's the progress today. I'm hoping to finish the sweater up by Saturday.

• I successfully cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jon's family (turkey and all) and sewed these napkins for the table.

• I found the perfect stuffing recipe for said Thanksgiving dinner: Sourdough stuffing

• I finished up the semester (well, about 98% finished)

• I watched and was inspired by Craft in America

• I saw an incredibly inspiring, deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, perform with the DSO.

Now, I've got a month of free time and a long list of projects to do and books to read. Hopefully I won't be taking long breaks again any time soon!