I made myself some handwarmers for the winter season using a hybrid of the pattern from Joelle Hoverson's (owner of Purl Soho ) book Knitted Gifts - and the Herringbone Rib Stitch shown in Vogue Knitting's Stitchionary.

They're very warm, and made from washable cashmerino - which is good, because I'm always doing things with my hands, and therefore managing to get them dirty.-

Shelbie

Our quilt group had a fabric exchange 2 years ago. The theme was dots. I decided to make this quilt with the fabric from the exchange plus some that I had in my stash. Every single fabric in the quilt (except the white) has dots in it. The machine quilting is dots as well. I gave this quilt to my daughter, Chelsey, when she graduated from high school. Somehow I held onto it until yesterday. We were folding all my quilts to put on shelves in the work-in-progress new sewing room and Chelsey decided she had to finally take it from me. So I quick snagged a snapshot as a reminder. It was a very fun quilt to make. The dots are appliquéd on white squares (circles are so fun to appliqué). I carried the theme of dots-on-square to the border. It looks kind of crazy with so much color in the picture but it really is a great quilt and more peaceful than it appears. - nanette

Our family dog Shadow needed a cute little hat for the holidays. Shelbie was ever so helpful and knitted him a particularly cute one on Christmas eve.




I rather adore the little pompom and how his little ears stick out of the ear holes.
Shadow put up with it for a while, but he kept taking it off and hiding it. Much to his chagrin, whenever we found him without it we found his hiding place and put it right back on. It was just too cute not to!

-Tracey

My mom gave me this beautiful Japanese book with Japanese crochet patterns in hopes that I would make something for her.

(As a side note, I can't seem to find an official title for this book, but I would like to know who this model is, because her hair is gorgeous)

As part (most) of my mom's Christmas present , I made the scarf on the front cover.

I changed up the color scheme for for one with more bold colors - attempting to make red (her favorite color) the main theme.

The end result is shown below. It was a fun project, and I have a feeling I will be doing more crochet in the future!
-

Shelbie

I wanted a soft and snuggly gift for my boyfriend. I got him a cd player for his truck, but that isn't much fun to open on Christmas morning. So I whipped this together with my mom's help on Christmas Eve. I think it turned out darling and he really loves it. Elephants are his favorite animal and he named it Horrace Greeley. I got the pattern from this book , but the directions were a little incomplete and no pictures. So it took us a while to figure out. Now that I made one it will be really simple and quick to make another. Thanks to Shelbie for taking the picture! - natalie

In the fall I knew I wanted to put some of Lizzy's books in the bags I was making for my daughters and I wanted to get some extras for friends. I ordered them in advance and I'm so glad I did. They are just beautiful and each is unique. I think they will make great journals or sketch books for the girls. Laurie didn't want a bag but she got a Lizzy book and a zipper bag to keep her new Ipod in and she was happy with that. Jamie calls her book "my book of rhymes" as she is writing raps in them to be the first girl rapper from Utah. (like there would be another one) Each book had a personalized description from Lizzy about the paper and ribbon. She's so talented.

For Christmas I made 6 of the 7 girls purse sized bags. (Laurie adamantly didn't want one and Jamie will probably not use hers. They are too tomboy I guess.) It was kind of fun to personalize each bag for them. I filled them with books and make-up and some jewelery for each of their personalities. I think it worked out. - nanette

Shelbie's bag - it's for knitting and squared off at the bottom so it can sit on the floor and hold a box she keeps with some notions in it. I also got her a knitting needle case from Etsy. This bag is made from Japanese canvas with leather handles I bought that just crimped on.

This is a little gift that I gave to my female co-workers. I used either a light blue yarn, or a variegated yarn, created by dying some habu textiles yarn with kool-aid.

My favorite part was picking out buttons - which are my favorite notion. -

Shelbie

Merry Christmas to you. Our family has had a great couple of days. Its fun having a partially home made Christmas with all our family here. So much cooking and clean-up for just a couple days. But its worth it. Now I need to find time to nap. - nanette

I should have credited the pillow to a gift from my sister-in-law, Lorraine, from a few years ago.

I have several things to finish before Christmas and I'm getting closer. I went shopping today for the last (hopefully) time. It made me so glad I made gifts, ordered them online, asked my kids to shop for me, or bought them months ago so I didn't have too much shopping. -


These bags have been a lot of fun to make. - nanette

Since last Halloween of '06 i have wanted to make myself a cape that i could use as a coat.
The idea came from an adorable witch my best friend Sarah made. It was made out of a purple wool and i just fell in love with it. After I finished my first real knitting project in September, the arrowhead lace caplet, i finally decided to buckle down and get it done.








I used this pattern that Igot online at sewingpatterns.com

Then I purchased my fabric at fashionfabricsclub.com . I used a really pretty and soft black flannel coating and some Amy Butler fabric from her Lotus collection.
I had a few problems putting it together, I'm pretty rusty with my sewing and was never that good to start with. But I think it turned out really well and I love how it looks on me. - whitney

These are 3 of the 5 quilts I submitted to Fons and Porter's baby quilt contest. The top one is called baby roses, the 2nd is woven strips, and the 3rd is plaid toys. My philosophy on baby quilts is that they should be used and loved and sturdy enough to be washed and washed. I like to use interesting fabric for both the baby and mother. A quilt is almost a fashion accessory for both mom and baby. I also think they should be made from a simple design and pattern. I don't like dark colors or fussy quilt patterns with lots of triangles and sharp edges for baby quilts. I like them to be soft and light just like a newborn. Planning and creating the 5 quilts was a good experience. - nanette

When ever I get a package of fun fabric or a good quilt book I take full enjoyment from petting the fabric and pouring through the pictures in the book. Its such a treat. My mind starts filling up with ideas and plans. And thats the best part of a new project - the dreaming and planning. This came yesterday from Kitty-Craft.

I want to make this quilt, these slippers and this tea cozy. I don't drink tea but I have a collection of teapots and I love their shape. I think a cute tea cozy on a teapot would look great on the shelf in my new sewing room. The patterns for the quilt and slippers were in one of the books but not the cute babushka. I'll have to think about how to make her. She reminds me a little of the soft toys that Wee Wonderfuls makes. I have to pace myself and wait until the new year to start new projects, when I'm finished with Christmas and I've moved into my sewing room. Patience! - nanette

My daughter Chelsey (thanks Chelsey) came over to help paint today. I guess I'd better get some carpet picked out pronto. We still have to paint the adjoining room, which is the formal living room that I have plans to make somewhat less formal. I want to slipcover the furniture in the spring and give us some spill over room since my family room gets packed on the weekend when the older kids come home to eat and visit. The paint color is called "brown bread" by Behr. I haven't found any color that doesn't coordinate with it yet. We newly painted my entry way in the same color and it goes so well with the yellow, green, and red in my house. My neighbor Laura helped me systematically go through paint chip after paint chip until we found the perfect color. Its hard to tell from the photos but its not gold and its not green, its just somewhere in between. - nanette

My mom gave me this book by Joelle Hoverson as an early Christmas present. I'm making the pencil roll for my boyfriend's sister for Christmas. She's an artist and I hope she likes it. It was fun picking out fabrics, but what I hate most about sewing is all the cutting that needs to be done. blech. I did cut enough for three pencil rolls though, so I'm set if I want to make one again soon. I had a hard time getting my fabric choices look cohesive until I got the order of the colors right. It is very satisfying seeing it all layed out and pretty looking, but I still have to put the whole thing together. I'm sure it will turn out cute. -Natalie

This is one of the quilts I sent to Fons and Porter for their baby quilt contest. I made 5 baby quilts and rules stated they had to be "original designs". I thought my take on making a tumbler block into a bow was kind of clever. I knew tumblers weren't completely original but I do like my use of fabric and color and making them into bows. Yesterday I stumbled on a blog by Kelly and saw she has a similar design and has sold darling kits for this quilt. Since I've made my tumbler quilt I've seen several like mine. I think the shape of the block is really pleasing and all in all it was a good experience making it. I will continue to use this pattern and idea for gifts and baby quilt sales. I love using vintage fabric along with new fabric and Japanese reproductions and I try to incorporate vintage fabric into every quilt I make.

So much for winning a new Bernina. I guess they liked choo choo trains best? The strange thing is that Fons and Porter sent only 4 of my 5 quilts back. I emailed them when I didn't receive my 5th and they said they are holding on to it for additional review before a committee. I don't really know what that means but from the email they sent to me today they have kept at least 20 other quilts for "review" that weren't winners either. They said they would send me a letter (maybe) about it so I'll just have to wait and see. However, the fabric I used for that quilt was a Japanese import that isn't even around right now. That might kick my quilt out of any possibilities since they mentioned fabric availability was a consideration for the committee. It was a great opportunity for me as a quilter and designer to stretch myself and enter this contest in any event. I'll post the other 3 baby quilts that were sent back another day. - nanette

I am making some gifts with this "homemade fabric". I got the idea of using selvages in a project that Manda did at Tree Fall Design. She made pin cushions that are darling.


I have been thinking about the interesting selvages I have been throwing away and wondering what else could be done to use them. I decided that sewing them together and making new "fabric" out of it would make endless possibilities. You could make anything from quilt squares to something wearable. I think hotpads would be super cute. Maybe I'll try that when I'm done with this project. If I could get our dog Shadow to sew instead of sleep I'd be much further ahead with my hand made gifts. - nanette