Some sewing fun!

So I have this exciting project going on right now.



It all started with this block print I did a few years back.



When a friend of mine had her first baby at the end of 2010, I used this same block to print on a piece of t-shirt material and then sewed it like a patch onto a tiny onesie.

Long story short, my friend really loved the design, and as time went by, she talked about turning this into a small line of onesies for a children's line she and her husband are launching within their gallery/retail space.

I did some other designs and we tweaked some things, and ordered some other things, and before I knew it, we were all set to start on the first run and I was getting my first custom order from Spoonflower in the mail.













To say I was speechless upon seeing my meager artwork PRINTED on actual fabric would be a grotesque understatement. I actually cried a little when I opened the package and saw it all in front of me for the first time. I cannot say enough about the extremely high quality printing, the delightful feel of the fabric (and we chose the cheapest option!) and the super fast turnaround. I am now officially a Spoonflower addict and cannot wait to do some actual fabric designing. (Always been a pet dream of mine actually...)

Those three are just the ones she picked for the first go round -- there are two, possibly three more designs we'll be using in the future.

Wanna know what they ended up like?







Ta-da!



The shirts will be arriving soon and these little lovelies will be sewed on and ready to go. I am so, so excited about this project, and absolutely can't wait to start on some of the other things we have planned.

A fun side thing that happened while I was doing these was this miniature garland.



In order to finish the top and bottom edges of the patches quickly, I fed them through one after the other without breaking thread and then just cut in between them all when I had done the whole line of them. Of course, with just one side attached, they looked like a little flag garland, so I used the bottom scraps of the sunshine yard to make an intentional garland.



I have big ideas now for tiny things... And I can't wait until I have some finished shirts to show you!

Spring Fever Twenty-Twelve

In addition to our already unusually mild winter, the past few days have been gloriously sunny and spring-like, so I took full advantage and finally got started on some yard projects that have been eating at me for many months.

Okay so last year I built this, right?



It was supposed to be a neat and organized wood pile for our little fire pit's wood supply. I had plans to tack a tarp up around the back, top and sides to keep the rain out. Ahhh, plans. We all know how those go.

What happened to it instead, was that it became a grand play area for the groundhog/cats/squirrels/whatever and I was constantly picking up wood and putting it back on the shelf. I never bothered with the tarp because I figured enclosing would only make it like an all-weather animal fun factory and I did not want to encourage them.

Keep in mind that this structure is in the infuriating corner beside/behind the shed with the doomed compost house and the groundhog depot. The whole reason I was building things back there was because previous plants had failed there, and the space is too small to be useful in many other ways -- and would be a royal pain to seed and mow.

So over the course of the last three days, the wood shelf was disassembled and refashioned into a raised bed,



filled with the cat-destroyed composted material (and you can see more of that in the alley behind it filling in the giant ruts the utility trucks left in the soft mud). The planter will hold a shrub. Haven't decided what yet, but I want something that will fill in that area and give some privacy from the alley.



Compost house, pre-emptying:



See all those Sun Chips bags? None of them broke down in there. None of them. But there was some nice, dark soil all around them under that new layer of dry stuff on top!

Anyway, all the wood?



Now it lives in the emptied compost house turned woodshed. Lean-to. Whatever.



I used the back wall of the compost house as a floor. Just a few quick trims on the sides and it fit right in there.

And THEN all of this?



(Which has been waiting to be cut up into firewood for at least a year now? Yeah. Embarrassing.)

Check. It. Out.



That sucker is FULL! Needs to be rearranged at some point, so I can get to the small stuff in the back, but it looked like it was going to start raining as I was finishing up yesterday and I wanted to get it under the roof fast.

Hooray for no more giant random wood pile!




Also in the last few days, blocks were purchased and laid beside the shed where I *may* attempt a skinny greenhouse out of old windows.



Still deciding that one. I have the windows, but it will be a buttload of work getting them all puttied up and secured so the old glass doesn't all come shattering out of them...

In the meantime, new composter has a good home back there on burrow-proof ground (ie: cinderblocks):



and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!



Under the straw are myriad scrap delights! And coffee grounds! And eggshells! Huzzah!

All in all, it has been an extremely successful few days and SO GOOD to get outside and moving again. The immediate forecast doesn't look as promising, but I have tons of inside projects to do and errands to catch up on and all that good stuff.

But today is gorgeous, sunny and warm, and for now I can still say: Happy almost spring!

I am feeling productive I guess?

No big shocker I suppose, that as I am trying to take it a little bit easy, AND it is still technically winter here, I have been spending most of my time knitting.

There is now a hat for Miss Lydia's first winter next year,



and a coming home hat,



I made this braid out of a bunch of different yarns to thread through the ingenious eyelets the hat's pattern included.



Hat is finished and waiting to be washed. Super cute and easy pattern. I highly recommend it!

Another fun pattern is this sweater/tunic type thing I am working on.



Not sure what size I'll end up with, but it doesn't matter. She'll grow into it eventually!

Now something for mama, in the form of MY FIRST FAIR ISLE EVER!



These are the Fair Isle Boot Toppers from the Juniper Moon Farm Chadwick Booklet and they knit up so fast! I did the actual Fair Isle part in only a few hours, but the ribbing at the top is taking me a lot longer.

ANYWAY... I was super excited to have a reason to make them because for my birthday over the weekend (32nd, if you're counting), I ordered myself something I have been longing for for a very, very, long time.



My very own wellies!!!

Now I am all set to hit the garden in any weather!



See? I have a new compost pail and everything now.



New compost pail's name is "Lettuce Friend" in case you were wondering, and he will become fast friends with this little beauty:



A real composter! For as proud as I was (and still am) of my compost house, the increasing neighborhood feral cat population has destroyed any desire I had to use the beautiful soil in my little heap. Between the terrible odor and the threat of, well, piles of cat crap in my compost, I am shutting down the house and moving on to something a bit more enclosed. Let's hope this guy does the trick!

On a brighter note, I made a dress today, based on a beauty I saw on, where else? Pinterest!



It has now joined the ranks of only a handful of articles of clothing in this house that can accommodate my rapid expansion.



(Needs a wash and press obviously, but I was too impatient to wait for all that.)



As far as the expansion goes -- I'm 27 weeks today and now have exactly three months to go!



VERY hard for me to believe that spring and baby are both just around the corner!

I have comments to catch up on (bad blogger), and a skillet handle cover tutorial to do, and probably a million other things I wish I could get organized enough to share, but all we should realistically expect in the immediate future is a thousand pictures of knitting, my new red boots, bizarre combinations thereof, and blathering on about any of the above...

A Bunch o' Stuff

So I guess I have hit an official blogging slump. I have been doing things, at least I think I have, but most of them are not things I take pictures of. And the creative stuff has been mostly long-term projects -- not the kind of things I want to keep posting updates on as it would probably bore everybody to tears.

But I have a few little things to share. First off, some yarn dyeing, Or overdyeing if you want to be accurate.



One of many wonderful Ravelry friends had some leftover Juniper Moon Farm yarns that she was willing to swap to me so I could put them toward my Log Cabin Blanket.

They were all lovely, but not quite bold enough next to my other colors, so I decided to dye them a little darker.

The green was a very pale mint green to start,





and became sort of a brown and green mossy color when it was done.



The red was very pink-y/magenta-y,





so I oranged it up a bit.



The blue was so pale that it was not even as blue in person as it appears in this photo.





I am pretty proud of this one. :)



So that's that for yarn dyeing adventures for the time being. I'd love to do more, but I absolutely cannot take on another hobby at this point in time.

A cool thing was this suitcase that the boys and I found by the side of the road when we were out walking the other day.





I gave it a good shake to make sure it wasn't filled with anything (believe me, my mind was going over all the terrible possibilities of what might be hiding inside a locked suitcase on the side of the road). When it felt empty, I decided to go for it and we carried it home.



The locks were easy to pick, thank goodness.



And the verdict is: a million dollars in unmarked bills!

Sorry, no, that's my fantasy version. In real life, it was empty as can be, but in excellent condition!



No smells or anything, so we are good to go. Now to decide what to use it for!

Other recent acquisitions include some very special baby clothes.

This dress (actually a toddler size, rather than a baby size) was made for my mother, for a wedding she was in when she was about four years old.





Needs a cleaning and has a small stain, but it will make a little girl very happy someday I am sure.

This sweater and matching bonnet were made for me when I was a 6-9 month sized person and will be perfect for Liddy's first winter!





And THIS sweater.



Newborn sized, lightweight, covered in these little gathers that remind me of little daisies,



perfect for a May baby! I think if I can make a matching hat, Lydia might wear it home from the hospital.

Now a super quick update on the ever growing Log Cabin:



I am OBSESSED I tell you. Love this project so much.



A sort of recent project that is not especially pretty but is inherently useful is this set of cast iron skillet handle covers I made.

I sandwiched layers of plain and printed vintage feedsack over some vintage wool batting I took out of a dry rotted lap quilt, and put pieces of an unwanted pot holder in the middles for added protection.



The feminine hygiene product looking ones are for the short handles. As you can see, they wrap around



and snap securely in place.



For the long handles, I layered some some longer rectangles the same way, but sewed them together into tubes then so they can just slip on and off.



They work SO WELL! I snap them on before I start cooking and they stay cool to the touch and do not burst into flames the whole time the meal is being made!



They even work on a skillet that has been baking in the oven (but obviously I do not keep them on the handles during the baking...)

Anyway. Finishing up a very lengthy post with some love.

Love item #1: I joined Pinterest.

HOLY COW I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Seriously, it is what I always dreamed of in a site for categorizing and sharing my favorite things. Love, love, love.

Look me up over there, if you are so inclined. (Link above) I will be busy filling up my boards and spamming the crap out of my followers with pictures captioned with such descriptive gems as, "WANT!" and "COLORS!" and "GARDEN LOVE!"

Love item #2: The other morning, Ethan magneted a message on our refrigerator to remind us to "go out and love people."



A few hours later, I came across Love item #3: a tiny flour heart on the bottom of my hotdog bun at lunch.



(And yeah, I checked first to make sure it was flour and not mold. Either way, it was still a tiny heart.)

I think that's all for now. I am exploding with ideas but finding myself with little motivation to actually do much other than knit and sit in front of the computer. But I have a few things lined up for when I have those bursts of productivity...