Blogiversary: win an apron

So July 5th is my blogs anniversary (blogiversary). I can't believe it has been two years since my first post. I decided I wanted to give away a reproduction copy of one of GGH aprons ( which apron reproduction that can be won is still a surprise that will be posted the day before the winner is announced). You haven't even seen all of the aprons yet so it is a big surprise(over 30 of them) way more to come. All are welcome to enter just leave a comment on this post about either something you learned from my blog in the last 2 years or something you just liked that I posted or something you would like to see more of on my blog (no profanity or any thing of that sort) or all of the above is fine too and please leave a way for me to contact you. A winner will be drawn on the July 19 th that gives you a few weeks to leave a comment tell all your friends this should be fun. I will close entries at 5 p.m. on the 19th Utah time. Plus I should have all of Great Grandma Harbaugh's aprons posted by then too for your viewing pleasure.

thanks sunshine

Update on braided rug

The rug is about 4 rows from the next step in the tutorial. It is hard to tell in the photo, but it is almost five feet across now. The length of measuring tape that is extended beyond both sides of the rug shows five feet, my goal. So, I will be posting the last two tutorials in the round rug series very soon. This would have been done sooner, but as you noticed I had an absence with working, and commuting 20 hours a week and two holidays with crazy hours, 70-hour work weeks, a death in the family, and being sick on top of it all. It was all I could do to get up in the mornings lately. I think I am back on top of things. This should be done in the next 10 to 12 days.

Jacket number 2 for child number 3

Yes, I need to make another jacket; this one is for the butterfly-princess daughter of mine. Same problem as the last dress: no sleeves. She has been wearing a little white jacket with it, but the jacket looks more Easter- like and is bothering me. I want it to look more winter and to be warmer.

The previous dress, with the cream jacket, the ladybug princess was happy with. She wore it to church yesterday. Prior she wore a little caplet with it that had a spring feel to it . This was before I made the jacket; it just wasn't warm and didn't cover well.

I figured if I used wine or black it would be too heavy a color for a little girl of six years. This will make it a little brighter, plus I can place wine ribbon roses on it to add some of the color of the dress into the jacket. I am going to make a similar jacket to the last one. Still don't have a pattern, but it was simple enough the first time; I don't think I need one.

The details on bottom of dress: the sequins seem to shin a little green, thus the green I am using in the jacket.

WIP for my middle daughter

My middle daughter's Christmas gift. She can't wear it because it has no sleeves, and she's a very modest child. Which I am very happy about. So, of course, the question of "Mae, please make a jacket".

I started to make a shrug this morning, but I just didn't like the way the pattern was working out. Plus, I didn't think it would cover her in a way she would be comfortable with. SO I frogged that piece.

Then I just started to crochet without a pattern, and this isn't finished yet. It still needs the all important sleeves. But, even as it currently stands, it covers more of her than the top of the dress did.

Could someone explain to me why stores in Utah, where there is snow, don't put sleeves on Christmas dresses to keep little girls warmer? I would think it common sense that, "oh my, it is cold and there is snow out -- maybe sleeves would be good on the clothing for this region." Oh well, I know how to crochet and with a little bit of chenille and two ribbon roses, a cute jacket can be made.

I debated on adding a silver thread to the crochet to make it match the skirt portion of the dress more. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it a bad idea. Chenille is so soft, and metallic threads are so rough and scratchy. Why make a little girl itchy in her clothes when she could have warm fuzzy instead. So, no silver. Not bad for only one mornings work and no pattern

Update: finished it Saturday night. I am thinking it might need buttons or some sort of closure; what do you think?

Christmas swap at MJF

Group1

1. creatmyworld : Beaded Wreath ornament sun catcher.
2. smoothiejuice : I can't remember which was in which swap -- hot cocoa and Santa mitten.
   
   
3. sunshine : Boa scarves.
4. botanical bath: I can't remember if soap was in group one or group two; same goes for the lotion she made, but you either got this or lotion.
5. Gaias Rose : Hand-made ornaments.
6. Willowtreecreek : hand decorated notebook.
7. Bertha : Pin in box with ornament decoration on box.
8. Rebekka Mae : Citrus ornament and needle case.
9. Cheryl : Hand towels, there are 4 styles; each person gets one, not all four. I kept a tree.
10. Tina Michelle : Heart ornaments and bookmarks.
11. Farmgirlwannabe : Embroidered Christmas sock with Sees candies inside.
    
    
    Group2
    

1. creatmyworld : Snow flake beaded ornament sun catcher.
2. smoothiejuice: I can't remember which was in which swap: hot cocoa and Santa mitten.
   
3. sunshine : Handmade brooch.
4. botanical bath: I can't remember if lotion was in group one or group two; same goes for the soap she made, but you either got this or soap.
5. Gaias Rose : Tree-shaped ornaments.
6. Willowtreecreek : Hand-made pin.
7. yarnmamma
   
   
8. ktknits : Basket.
9. allee: She sent a crocheted tree; can't find photo of it, don't know why.
   
10. dropped
    
11. dropped

My last two weeks have been too busy and this post shows it. Yikes!

Teddy Bear one

My children's schools are doing a fun Christmas activity; they are doing a toy drive for a Women and Children's crises center in Ogden. They are also making baby hats for the center and tying quilts. I have been helping with all these activities and it is keeping me super busy lately.

The bears my daughters are donating are one-of-a-kind, 100% hand made, no machine stitches in them anywhere. My children earned the money for the supplies for the bears, then I donated my time to make them. I have 1 1/2 made; my youngest got to take hers today and put it on one of three trees holding the bears at her school.

First she had to say good bye because these are not any old bears; these are one-of-a-kind, made by mom bears that they got to pick out every fabric and detail on.
We also visited with Santa Claus today; that is why no posts earlier in the day. He also heard what their schools where doing and donated 4 more bears for them to take to school tomorrow on top of the three we are sending. Santa is so cool!!

Holiday Brooch Tutorial

Supplies:

• Mattel Knitting machine (find on ebay, thrift store, the bottom of your closet from when you where a kid in the 70's)
• safety pins or pin backs
• fuzzy yarn
• yoyo (you have to make these; I used a cd as my template)
• jingle bells or other center decoration (buttons....)
• thread, needle, scissors

How to:

1. Cut and make your yoyo; set aside, leave long tail to stitch to fuzzy yoyo, bells, and pin.
2. Make your fuzzy knitted yoyo, (this is 16 rows that are 16 stitches on the Mattel knitting machine, you can do this on knitting round needles too, gather both ends and pull both tails to one side and tie ends in a knot and cut).
3. Stitch fabric yoyo to middle of fuzzy yoyo; have tails of fuzzy yoyo facing fabric yoyo so they are hidden when piece is done.
4. Now, stitch on bells or other embellishments. When done, take needle to back of work.
5. Sew safety pin to back of brooch, or use a store bought pin back. Finished!

Re-purposed Dress into Butterfly Slip / Prize awarded

So the butterfly girl wants a butterfly bedroom, but that all has to wait a little. Because she is having a real big growing spurt, we made a butterfly slip yesterday and today. I found this yellow piece of lace at an antique store and bought it just because it had butterflies on it. I love the butterfly silhouettes on this.

Then, three days ago I realized my daughter had grown out of all three of her slips. So I came up with an idea to correct this.

Re-purposed

At one time we had a dress that had tulle on it that kept ripping off, and I got tired of repairing it. So I cut off its underskirt, and sewed on lots of lace to give the slip volume to fluff up her dresses. Then took the pattern from the yellow lace, used size 10 thread and a size 5 steel hook and made three repeats of the pattern, also 3 solid rows so I had something to sew buttons to. Then I added crochet straps and attached to skirt. Wish I had taken a picture of the before dress; trust me, this is an improvement. My daughter is happy to have a so-called new slip, especially since it has butterflies on it. The lace is actually sewn on straight; it just looks funny in the photos.

500 Post Prize goes to:

"Javajem said...
Congrats on 500!!!
I always get inspired when I read your blog :)
Wed, Oct. 31, 2007 10:49:00 AM"

You can check out her blogs here, here, here and here

I will be sending out fat quarters, vintage mother of pearl buttons and other items. I need your mailing address to mail this to you. My email is on the side bar so you can send it to me privately. I would love to see what you make with any of the items.

last day to sign up / Small Apron Collection

Today is the last day to sign up for the give away on my blog tomorrow: please go here and leave a comment to be entered.

I also thought it might be fun to show some aprons that I own. With the holidays coming up I am wearing these more and more. Just sort of makes things a little more festive.

1. I decorated this apron with hi-straw flowers. The apron itself is store bought about 10 years ago.
2. This apron was a gift from Bemoosie last year.
3. Purchased vintage apron from Vintage chic.
4. These aprons are all made by Aunt George as gifts for my children and myself.
5. Vintage apron that my cousin Colleen bought for me at a antique sale in the park.
6. Apron I found at a thrift store last month.
7. This is actually an apron I bought at our local grocery store. I liked it because of it's color, red, but also figured it was one my husband could wear too and not look girlie. Not that it is possible for him to look girlie in the slightest bit.
8. Reversible apron made by smoothiejuice given to me by Judyblueeyes.
9. Apron, a gift from suzyhomemaker.
10. Apron I crocheted and gave away.
11. Aprons I made and gave away for mini-apron swap.
    

suzyhomemakers mini quilt in her home

Suzyhomemaker over at MJF sent me a picture of what my quilt looks like on her kitchen wall. This is the photo she took. I like the color of her walls; it's very pretty. I hope she is doing well and that this cheers her up in fighting her cancer.

Fall Quilt Block Swap at MJF

List of swappers:

1. Sewgirlie
2. Suzyhomemaker
3. carol Sue
4. cinnamongirl, from whom I have four.
5. Mkmomus
6. jcbtxstars
7. Katmom
8. Smoothijuice
9. Khartquilt
10. Cheryl
11. Sunshine (twice): Mine are not pictured; because I made them for everyone else but not myself, I made traditional nine patch. Because I signed up twice, I have two from every one except Cinnamongirl; I have 4 from her because she signed up twice, too.
    
12. Cinnamongirl (twice: 4 blocks)
13. Ktknits
    

This is not my layout; this is just every block I received. This is too uniform for me. I will make one block for myself and do a 5 by 5 layout

3 down 33 to go

I joined a winter quilt swap at MJF. I signed up twice, which equals 32 blocks, plus I have 4 others I am swapping with other people for a total of 36 blocks to be embroidered in less than one month. That is more than one block embroidered a day; I must have been crazy to do this to myself. But here we go. I am embroidering the trees and will leave them blank so the person getting them can decorate them or leave them plain. I am also doing snowmen; I haven't started embroidering them yet, even though I have all the blocks drawn for the snowmen and the trees too, for that matter. The blocks all equal 12 1/2 inches square except for the butterfly; it is 8 1/2 inches square and one other that I haven't drawn yet is also 8 1/2 inches. I will post these as I get them made. Might be boring to see so many or the same block, but nice to document my progress. This butterfly is one of the patterns I am also using in the butterfly room, too. Tree pattern is actually a quilting pattern that I modified for embroidery line work. That I modified with the help of my computer to make it about 10 inches tall instead of 7 inches.

Halloween swap part 2 at MJF

If you missed part 1, go here.

Ktknits swap 2: Recipe cards and gift made of fall/Halloween imitation nuts with scent pellets.

Alee swap 2: Milk bath; comes in the plastic bag with hearts. But I had to put some into a bottle I got from Alee a while back just because the bottle has the name Sunshine on it and is from my home state.Sunshine/daughter swap 2: Knitted boa scarves made on Mattel hand-crank knitting machine. The second item is handmade daisies and die-cut shapes that we punched out. All that is needed is for the recipient to make some yoyos and add these and a few buttons and you have a cute Halloween garland. Or they could make a cute pin or anything else they can think of. Note each kit is a little: different colors, types and amount of what is in it. Mkmomus swap 2: Hand-painted door hanger with witch and pumpkin candles.AliShuShu swap 2: Picture frame magnets for refrigerator, post it notes, and a Halloween decorative hanger.
naturecraft swap 2: Decorative fabric in hoops to hang, pumpkin stickers, handmade holiday cards.
Mommom swap 2: Hand-painted wood magnets and hand-stamped sachets.createmyworld swap 2: Hand-made pumpkin pins.
botanical bath swap 2: Hand-made midnight sugar lotion.
Smoothiejuice swap 2: Hand-painted wood picture frames.

In my double hoop

I'm working on some embroidery blocks for a few swaps. The tree one is for a Christmas quilt block swap and the other one is for a just-for-fun, one-on- one embroidery block swap. This hoop can hold two projects at the same time and currently is.

Flowers Abound

Picked up an old project over the weekend while I was still fighting the fever. Thought it might be of interest to some. The plan is to make 3 twin-size afghans for my three girls; I have quite the ways to go, still. The thread is antique thread left over from other projects, so I never know how many blooms I will get from one left over project. It may be as many as five or as few as one or none. If none, then the smaller scrapes go into these other two projects that I am working on. The second spare scrap project is using the pattern linked to with the word "project," but it is using thread, not chenille, and I think I am going to make a skirt out of it.

Once I make the blooms, I use left-over green to surround the flowers. After that, I use left- over cream and white thread to border the flowers. So, there aren't any two blocks exactly the same, color-wise. The blocks alternate, white and some form of cream/ecru. I am hoping my children like these when they are done. I am debating if I have to make five and not three because we have two bedrooms that have two twin beds in them. Then I would have to make one more so each daughter ended up with two blankets apiece. This project may be getting bigger than I want it. Who knows, maybe I will make 1 real large one for my king-size bed and forget the rest of the idea. I never know 'till I get done what I will actually do with some projects, and this is one of that type of project. These, of course, are a type of granny square.

The flowers are made out of size 10 thread and knit cro sheen and any other 100% type thread that is that type of weight; even pearl cottons are in the mix. The hook is a size 6 steel hook.

UPDATE:
I was asked for the pattern; here is where to find it:
The flowers are under copyright, still. They come from a book called "The Crochet Yearbook, Volume 2" by American School of Needlework, book 1336, page 135, ISBN 1-59012-003-5

The pattern calls for flowers ever other square and a solid colored background, not alternating cream and white. But that was just too boring and not enough color, so I threw out the blank blocks and made them all flower blocks.

Part 1 Halloween swap at MJF

Below are the people that participated in the first swap at MJF for Halloween; there are two swaps. I will post the other one after I get them all in. I was in charge of both; it is always fun to see what everyone does.

createmyworld swap 1: cat pins.botanical bath swap 1: pumpkin juice body lotions.Bonne swap 1: samhain soaps.
Cheryl swap 1: yoyo cats.britchickny swap 1: mini pillows.
mima swap 1: hand glittered cards with beaded fringe.
Smoothiejuice swap 1: candles with decorated clothes pins.Gaias Rose swap 1: samhain pins.


From Sewgirlie swap 1: felt ornaments and embroidered tea towels.


sunshine's items swap 1: hand-crank imagination machine knit hats and boa scarves made on Mattel hand-crank knitting machine; you know, that toy from when you where a kid. Yeah, that one.

suzyhomemakers mini quilt is done

suzyhomemakers mini quilt is done, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

I worked on this over the weekend, and got it all done and ready to go. I will mail it when the yoyo swap at MJF is done; it will be in her package along with the template.

mini yoyo Quilt / WIP/256 yoyos

I am making a mini yoyo quilt for Suzyhomemaker over at MJF. She was in charge of the "4th of July Quilt Block Swap" over on that forum. If you remember, I was moving during the swap and she was kind to me and made blocks for me. She even sent me blocks when I wasn't expecting it. There where 13 blocks in the swap so I made 13 blocks in yo-yo + 3 as a thank you for her generosity.

I have one more block to finish, then I'll finish all the stitching between the blocks. I like to pin the blocks and yoyos together before I stitch so I can get a feel for what they will look like in the completed project. I used a mini cd as my template which I plan on sending to Clare (suzyhomemaker) with the mini quilt. Then, if she wants, she can make this bigger. She can easily put a border on it and use random yo-yos as the border so she doesn't have to follow the pattern I did. Clare is in the yo-yo swap at MJF that I am in charge of (side note: sign ups are still open), so when I am done swapping those out, this will be placed in her package.

Temp joins between two completed blocks.

Temp joins on uncompleted block.

Red Work Southern Belle

This is for a swap that I am late getting in the mail because of going to Vegas to see my sister and because we just purchased a new home and have been a little busy with that. This scan didn't come out very good.

In My Hoop

Currently I am working on a red work floral bell. She is about 1/3 the way done. This is for a signature block swap I am doing, same as the last one, so I don't get to keep her.

There was another swap awhile back that I did that everyone is switched out on. The first one I did, someone else hosted and I made a lot of blocks (13 all different) and have never seen any back; I'm not happy on that one. I am still hoping that I will get a package in the mail with 12 blocks in it; because one block was for a person not in the swap, I should get 12 back.

Back to this block I hope to get her done over the weekend. If you notice I am using red lines to draw her out. This way if a little of my drawing shows it won't be very noticeable next to the red thread.