Sisterly Love

I was just uploading some photos and ran across these from August. This is a close up detail of the quilting on a wallhanging I made for my sister's birthday. Her roomate agreed to pack it in his suitcase and present it to her on her birthday for me. She loved it and has it hanging on her wall in California.

I bought this as a kit from the Sewing Expo I attended with my aunt just before I moved to Alaska. I also bought a kit to make a quilt for my mom, but I took two others with me to make her and I'm not done with them yet so I haven't gotten to it. One is close though, I press another piece for applique every night.

Here is a view of the back. The quilting was done by my dear accomplice in stitching, Jeanne. She owned the quilt shop on the island. And the cafe. They live nearby now, but I manage to not call them enough. She also quilted a queen size quilt for my sister (pictures are MIA) and one for my aunt (also MIA pictures), and a smaller quilt for my niece (you guessed, MIA pictures, though I have faith my girlfriend who lives near her will get some for me). And she did a couple for me, the animal print one I discussed in an earlier post, and one that is patiently waiting for me to go buy some binding. That one I started in Idaho. Anyone remember back when I lived in Idaho?

Windproof Camo Vest

Winky dog (aka Percy) loves to model for me. She patiently sits on my feet while I sew and happily complies with dress up time.

Percy felt this vest made her look fat since it was so large in the torso. So she agreed to let me try it on someone else and see how it looked on them.

I'm not sure what he calls this model look, perhaps 'Mountain Man'? This is actually the second time he has received this vest; the first time he took it, unfinished, on his goat hunt trip in SE. You know, the one where I thought I would get the brakes done on my truck while he was gone....

I believe this is his 'Blue Steele' look.....

And this would be 'Magnum'. This is my second time making this vest. I posted about this previously on my other blog; the first vest was for my dog sitter on the island as a thank you for watching Tatonka when Smokey and I went home for Christmas last year.

Super Warm Smokey Quilt

Smokey's birthday is Valentine's Day and last year I made him this quilt from a pair of his jeans that he wanted to discard. Because they were too big on him. Yeah, kinda makes me sick too.

Lest you feel deceived, I feel the need to clarify things a bit. This project was for his 2007 birthday. As you can see from this angle, it isn't done yet. I did however, sew on the brown flannel border so it is currently awaiting funding to purchase the additional black polar fleece for the backing. Hence, the warmness of the quilt. After I piece the back it will go off to live at my quilter's house until she can work her magic on her long arm machine. I hope to send mom's bear quilt with it to keep it company. It has been waiting for birthday from same year (new year's eve). What can I say? That's actually not too bad for a delivery time for my work.

Machine Quilting Small Project

Here we have an assortment of lovely potholders made entirely from my stash. I made these for my cousin when she moved into a new place. She got one pretty quickly, but these other five have lingered in my apartment for some time now. When I finally completed them this summer I decided we were closer to the next Christmas than the past one and so I sent them (late) to her for Christmas 2008. I used a batting specially designed for handling hot materials and I quilted these on my machine.

This was my first experience trying to quilt on my machine and I didn't have the proper foot for it until a few weeks later. I think it could have gone much worse; the print hides the mistakes nicely. I think they will be very utilitarian and will serve their purpose well and provided a great learning platform. How's that for a PC way of saying "Wow, I'm not good at that at all yet."?

Stripey Americana Socks

I finished these this summer and hung on to them to give to my Mom at Christmas. I think I'm just going to send people things I finish for them when they are done from now on. These were super fun to knit and though you can't really tell from this picture, they are really textured with ribbing and funky cables. I knit them from some yarn my aunt sent me, following a pattern in 'Knitting on the Road', a book I got from my aunt. I have knit a few other patterns out of this book, so stay tuned for more project pictures!

Warm Enough for a Different Bear

Here we have Smokey helping Bear cat model a scarf I knit for one of my girlfriends. She will likely see this post before she gets the package, but I can't stand to wait any longer.

*Note: Smokey is growing his hair out for locks of love and is almost there. He says he can't wait to shave his head. Here he is sporting the act of breaking his own rule: long hair OR beard, because he is too lazy to shave and it's super cold here now.

I originally tried to knit this as a birthday gift, but the pattern and yarn were uncooperative. I unknit this piece several times in an effort to get a good balance of width and length. I actually think it is going to work better as a headband than as a scarf. Luckily the giftee has lovely hair that will look great tied back with this. The piece is loosely based on a scarf (worn as a headband) in a fantastic book, Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, that we both own.

Ms. Melissa Goes to School

Not this Melissa, but the Other Melissa. This is currently somewhere between Anchorage and Renton. I believe I machine pieced this, but it was hand quilted. Melissa is a science teacher. She has way more patience than I do. I added the dark blue piping to hide the inacuracy of my piecing. And I bet you would have never known if I hadn't just told ya!

I quilted around the major pieces and put zigzags on the cream inbetween. And blue stars around the borders, of course. Can you believe I had this sweet label in my stash? Neither could I; it is perfect. I didn't put any hanging devices on this piece as it is small and can easily be pinned to a wall.

You Are What You Wear

I feel like I'm cheating a little bit here because this isn't a newly completed object. But I lost so much documentation when my camera was stolen that I find myself grasping what I have left with both hands. I made the sleeveless top underneath the outer pocketed sweater (from my Grandma Linn) for a wedding I attended. It is a pattern from Knitty and I used Calmer to knit it up. I generally think that without the outer sweater the shortness of this piece makes me look short and chunky, but I think that illusion dissolves with the outer sweater.

I also made the pants. They are a dark green wool from the Pendelton outlet shop in Portland. I have the same fabric in blue and black and hope to complete those pairs of pants shortly as they go together very quickly and have little finishing. They have full, straight legs that look great with my Danskos. What has been holding me up on these is that the first time I made these pants I made them in a nice medium brown and made them according to the size on the pattern. They ended up too big. I made these green ones the next size down. And I think I still need to go down a size. This takes the effort level up a notch as I will need to trace the pattern again. I think it's only three new pieces. But sometimes I'm really lazy and pattern tracing for me means clearing off my whole sewing table (including cat bed and food dishes and sewing machine).

Warm Enough for a Bear

I made this scarf for Smokey's mom for Christmas. Too bad his parents decided to visit her brother in Texas for a month. I doubt she will feel cold enough to wear this there. I used the same yarn to teach my friend in town how to knit. It's slow going since she has a darling little girl to look after and a real job too. The yarn is super soft and almost the color of daquiri ice from baskin robins. And the bear is what Smokey made his little nephew for Christmas. I know, can you believe it? Almost as good as the stick horse I made for my niece. Hmmm..... I wonder if I have a picture of that?

Here's a more complete picture of the rocking bear. It disassembles for shipping.