Purl Bee and Mimi Kirchner

Not sure if anyone saw these amazing doll patterns that the Purl Bee “commissioned” so to speak from Mimi Kirchner.  I fell in love with them at first sight.  They have a very turn of the century feel, but still modern and updated.  You should check out all of Mimi’s work.  I’m new to it but thanks to Purl Bee have been really inspired.  I have a few felt dolls in the works for Mazie, but I think they might take a back seat to making these.

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No more bird poop on these

Another project undertaken over the last stretch was to recover some of our couch pillows.  I used to have a nice lovely arrangement of pillows on the couch and then came kids.  Two little girls (ours and my friend’s daughter who watches Mazie while I’m working) have successfully transformed the once beautiful pillows into some weird science experiment that I’m sure have made all of my guests’ stomachs turn as we suggest they sit on the couch.

So I’ve decided in general our house needs a bit of freshening up but I didn’t want to spend any money.  So I had this old cashmere sweater that had seen better days and turned that into a pillow cover.  I’ve also had excessive amounts of this rather bland beige linen and I’m struggling to find uses for it.  Truthfully, I don’t really like this fabric, but I had lots of it and it’s clean, and it’s better than the ones before.  I kid you not, I think one of them had some residual bird poop on it from when the girls dragged it outside with them and then in a freak incident it was pooped on.  No matter how much you clean I don’t think all that stuff comes off.

So here they are.

I now hate the two pillows from the original arrangement that were not nasty and disgusting.  They just don’t work with these so I’ll have to find something else in my stash to recover them, but that’s for another day.

My bedroom is the next item on the list.  I think once you have kids your room is always the last to get any attention.  Still have the same comforter from before Robbie and I moved in together.  It was mine immediately following college and was the nicer of the two options we had — mine from post college or his from college.  His swiftly went into the trash.  I couldn’t even donate it.

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An Army of Frogs

For Valentines day this year, I made an army of frogs (this is an ode to a line in a song by Debbie and Friends).  I found this great pattern from the Purl Bee and it brought back nostalgic memories of a similar frog I played with at my grandmother’s house.  Her’s was made from scraps, just as these are, with a corduroy belly and paisley back.

For a Valentine’s day touch, I gave each of these lovelies a little wool applique heart.

I couldn’t post this until I delivered the last one to my new godson, who was the recipient of the blue frog.  Each of these is filled with lentils and has two little jet black beads for eyes (sewed on extra tight as to not be a potential choking hazard).

It’s been like the sick ward at our house, so apologies for the delay in posting.  I’ve not had much energy to talk about my crafting, cooking, homemaking, and new cool products, although there has been some going on and will continue to keep you guys updated.  It’s a snow day here as well and I’m enjoying the suprise day around the house with the family although my poor husband who managed to fend off our germs for so long has finally sucumbed and is feeling rotten.  I’ll have to try and whip up some soup tonight for him.

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New Magazine - Stitch

So last night I came home to new copy of Stitch Magazine.  Well two copies.  I didn’t mean to order two, but Interweave, the publisher, says I ordered two and it’s silly to send one back so my friend Kristy will be the lucky recipient of the second copy.  She doesn’t know yet so: “Hey Kristy, I have an extra copy of this cool new magazine I think you’ll like. I’ll give it to you next time we see each other.”

Some pretty great stuff in this first issue.  I haven’t had a chance to read cover to cover yet, but with a quick flip through I think I’ll have to order a subscription.  Not a big maker of my own clothes.  Historically, I have had some REALLY bad attempts at making my own clothes.  One hat termed the “condom cap” by my college roommate, one HORRIBLE skirt with a Hawaiian print fabric that seriously must have added, oh I don’t know, 200 lbs to me! AND some quilted mittens I tried to make (I know, you’re saying “Quilted mittens”?) that ended up as oven mitts in our college apartment.  Thank you to Nicole, my college roommate, for putting up with all my attempts at sewing clothes and only making moderate fun of me.

Anyhew as you can see my sewing is predominantly focused on other non-clothing projects, but I’m going to attempt this skirt on the front one day and will report back.  Wether the result is good or bad, you’ll know.

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