Flag day

I stitched up for a friend's 1 year old.  Daddy could not fine a flag day shirt for his photo shoot.

A Summer of Crocheting

Although I love to stitch my stitching mojo has apparently been missing but my crochet and knitting hooks have been busy.  Normally I don't do much with yarn over the warmer months but not this summer.

My preferred homemade gift for babies especially baby boys is a blanket but I also do them for little girls too.  I have always found that little boys have a strong bond with their blankie where as little girls are more attached to a stuffed toy.

I made a total of 6 baby blankets.   One was made in the spring and the rest were done in the summer.  This is the last gift set I made.  The hat was made on a round knit loom and this is my first time making the bunny.  I saw someone post the bunny on printerest and I had to try making one.  I am pleased how it came out.  This will not be my last bunny.  Sophia's mom loved the bunny and dad was pleasantly surprised by the gift set.  Sophia's dad is my son's boss at home depo..  Everything was made with a variety of Lion Brand machine washable and dry-able yarns.  The blanket pattern is called Neptune's Arrow and it is a freebie on the Moggly blog.  My blankets are all approximately 45 by 45 depending of how much of a boarder I add.  They are larger than the standard baby size of 36x36 and a little smaller than a throw.  It's the size I liked the most for my guy when he was small.

Four baby gift sets were done for the 4 new dad's at my job.   All these guys became dad's within a month of each other.  I help plan the shower. At first there were 2 guys who had expecting wives.  Then we found out another guy's wife was due while planning the shower.  And lastly in a meeting I found out in just 2 weeks that we had a fourth Dad.  

My first 2015 baby blanket was done
using the Moggly leaping stripes pattern.

The whole shower event went so well that it will be tough to top that but I am going to have to give it a go because one of the ladies goes out on maternity leave on November 1st.  Yes that means another baby gift and it's another boy.  Four little boys and a fifth on is on its way.

Drive by NYC Pope Blessing
The White blur is a virtual drive by blessing.
While chatting with my friend Christopher
The pope drove by within 20 feet of him with
his hand outside the window blessing the crowds

This is my late small stitched small.
We had a potluck fund raiser at work
for LLS.  We raised over $1,200 and
voted on the best dish.  This potholder
was part of the first prize gift.

Thanks for reading my neglected blog.  The summer flew by and it seemed like I was rushing from one thing to another.  Lots of hard work and elbow grease this summer and I don't know where the time went.  Not many BBQs or parties and we didn't make it up to Vermont.  Sadly I attended the funeral of a good friend, Mark who I will miss dearly.  This fall also seems to be crazy busy.  I need to gather the last of my tomatoes and our fresh herbs before the temperatures dip.  I am going to miss the heavenly smell of the basil, mint, oregano, and rosemary each morning and evening when I watered them. I will be bring in my mini roses to the office to brighten my desk.  This past weekend we got the back yard ready for the changing season.  I was disappointed that we really didn't grill that much this summer and we didn't really spend as much time outside this year.  We only played a few hands of gin rummy instead of our usually heated competition.  What will you miss most about this summer?

Baby boom

Lots of bundles of joy have been keeping me busy.  Another baby shower at work and another set completed.   Isn't he cute?  The 2nd hat is for his brother who is 2.

Mare

"Me-out Serenade Season" and My Finishing Frenzy

It feels like Spring in New Jersey, finally!  We have indoor cats but in the nicer weather a couple of our cats like to go outside with us to check out all the green things and to roll in the sun.  A few of our girls will stick close to the door and sit on the stoop preferring to look at the world close to the safety of the house in case there is a loud noise  This would be our Heddy and Amy.  Sam, Serena, and Minnie will explore further but do not wander far from their humans.  The Murphy is a different story.   He is our explorer and wanderlust hits him hard.  Minnie does like to follow Murphy around but if you put your hand out or call her  Minnie hops like a bunny to you for a snuggle.  Amy, Minnie and Heddy are my girls and one of them is always by my side or on my lap when I am home.  My son wants Minnie to adore him like his Sam but Minnie wants nothing to do with him.  Here are a couple of shots of Minnie and Heddy snuggling on my crocheting projects.  The expresso and blue denim piece is a in-progress baby blanket using a free Moogly blog pattern called Neptune's Arrow.  I am loving crocheting this pattern so big thanks to Tamara at Moogly!  She has a great blog with tons of cool tutorials, instructions, tips for crochet.  The second blanket is also another wip project using Tamara's leaping stripes pattern also found on Moogly.  Clink on the link above a check it out, lots of great stuff on Moogly.  

Murphy wears a harness with a bell (he is not pictured here but there are shots on my other posts), a name tag in the shape of a dog bone and he only goes out with a leash.    My husband and son often take Murphy out.  Murphy will talk a blue streak to get someone  to take him out.  He can't go out alone because he gets into trouble.  Heaven forbid his arch nemesis the squirrel shows up in our yard.  Its all out war...  Murphy wants to investigate the whole neighborhood and protect his girls from the neighborhood cats.  The Murphy rubs against every fence post and surface he can to mark his territory outside.  Murphy leaps in the air and catches flies in his baseball mitt like paw and then chows down on crunchy bugs.  The Murphy is like a toddler asking "can I, please..."  over again so many times that it is white noise.  "Me-out" is the Murphy Mantra and this is the season.  When Murphy is outside his sister, Heddy frets and paces while he munches on grass and rolls around in it like a pig in mud.

March was a productive month of finishing finishes.  I think I have a total of 19 items that I completed the finishing in March.  I stitched all the items  in the posts except for 2 items.  The fob my friend Kathy had stitched for me in 2009 and a duck ornament that I found that my deceased Aunt had stitched which I will give to her daughter.
   

As you can tell I often stitch the same design a few times.  So you will probably see a few more of some of these designs.   I didn't post photos of the backs because I thought it is already a lot of pictures.  

These bookmarks are on snippets of left over plastic mesh and basted onto ribbon.  April is so far also a productive month with my finishing but I am saving those photos for next time. I need to find my black braid to finish up a few more this month.  I can't seem to find mine which is making me nuts. If you have read this far,many thanks!  I would love reading what you think.   I click on the link to your blog so I can see what you are up.  I am so inspired by what other people are stitching, crocheting, finishing, quilting, knitting and crafting, etc.                                                               I hope you are having a beautiful spring day and can get outside to enjoy it.   On Monday I start a new-old job and yesterday I bought a new-old car because I will be driving to work.  I generally commute via public transportation so driving to work will be new for me.  More on that also on my next post, lots going on.   

Mare

Smalls SAL and some finishes

I have 6 finishes, 3 of which are small designs by Count Your Blessings.  These smalls will be turned into ornaments to go with baby gifts. Two are stitched on 18 ct aida and one is on 32ct linen..  I am pleased on how they turned out given I used fabric scraps and left over specialty floss.  Plus I got this chart at one of my ILCS retreats.  I think these are also nice for a young girl or boys room, maybe done on a really big count fabric.  My picture on the left has my stitched pieces on top of the pattern

This is a picture heavy post. 

This next one is a Bent Creek zipper kit design called Summer House done using the supplies in the kit.  The colors are slightly off.  I have a few of these Bent Creek designs and I have to put them together and see how best to finish them.  I love those little clear pouches the kits come in.  I've done a snowman, a turkey design, a spring small sampler,and a bird on a house.  I have a hope sampler design with a wee bite left to stitch on it because I can't decide what to stitch in place of the dates.  I'll have to get a snap of that one and ask for suggestions.

 

  This heart design is a french blog freebie by Luli and it will eventually be part of a heart quilt I have been stitching squares for a few years.  I must be close to having enough to put a quilt together.  I need to organize them with some of the pretty quilting fabric I have gathered.  I have been pulling out my finished pieces and I have run across many of these heart designs which I forgot I stitched.  A couple are wips so I have to tackle those.

Lastly this is a cute LK design I finished.  I also got this at one of my retreats.  I stitched it on 14ct white aida with DMC 309.  I was going to post some of my finishing pieces but this post is already rather long so I will leave them for my next post.  Thanks for reading my blog and I enjoy reading your comments.  Mare

Joined the 2015 Smalls SAL

http://stitchinglotus.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2015SmallsSAL.jpg

The Rules are:

1. Stitch a small every month. You get to decide what a small is for you. 50×50 stitches? 100×100 stitches? It’s up to you. You just need to be able to get it done by the check-in day. (WIPs that you complete in time for the check-in are great too!) You pick your design.
2. Post a picture of your completed small (stitching done, but the actual finishing is optional) on the last Wednesday of every month.
3. Hop over here to my blog (stitchinglotus.ca)  and add a comment to the current month’s check in post to get an entry into the end of the year draw.
4. You do not need to post a finish every month! Stitch what you can when you can, and check-in whenever you have a qualifying finish.
5. The SAL is open to new participants all year. You can join in whenever you’d like. The more the merrier!

Check in Dates are:

• March 25 (which I missed but I did stitch a few smalls this month)
• April 29
• May 27
• June 24
• July 29
• August 26
• September 30
• October 28
• November 25
• December 30

Here is my March small finish.  Even though it snowed today I was thinking spring.  This little bunny kept me from thinking to much of winters last blast of nipping temperature swings.

Mare 

Finishing Focus Fridays

I love stitching and I enjoy finishing but I have to be in a finishing mood or have a serious deadline to get it done.  Stuff happens and time passes.   Sadly I am embarrassed to admit that finishing mood hasn't struck in a while so things have sort of piled up.  So I have been discovering lots of items which need to be finished and I am gathering them up in a new portfolio green tinted snap box.  I love green.  I only bought one of these cases but I think may need a few more since my new box is almost full. 

Here are snaps of my 2 Friday finishes.  A stitchy kitty dog ornie which I had laced up but not put together because I wanted to use trim to match the blue or pink accents so the colors would pop.  This little guy sat hidden in a project bag because I never could find the right trim.  I decided some gold braid I had looked okay because not everything needs to be perfectly matched.   What do you think?

I did a little fish book mark on a snippet of canvas.  I really like how he came out and I think he may end up with some fish friends. Two finishes down with lots more to go but that's 2 less than I had on Thursday.  Under my finishes is my lovely anniversary card.  We've been married 27 years.  

The last 2 pics are more snippets awaiting their bookmark transformation and some ornies.  I have lots of ornies to finish

  So how many things you do have awaiting finishing?

Until next time... 

Mare