Stuff for the grandkids

My needles and hooks were very busy before I left home, and are still working on WIPs! I made "treasure bags" for their Easter baskets. They are filled with jelly beans and treats.

I also made "chef" Elise a chef hat and matching apron. She loves to cook.

I made this tote bag for Cory to keep his counting fish in (which I also made). Now the other kids each want one! So I have more projects to work on when I get back home.

Trying to catch up

I have been very busy this past winter--many projects, another "procedure" for Keith, colds and flu and now some traveling. Right now I am in Idaho with daughter and family for 2 weeks. Many of my projects were for them so I didn't want to spoil the surprises. I started collecting these t-shirts about 7 years ago to make a quilt for Kelly. She forgot all about them. This is the finished project (I WAS going to give it to her for ther 40th birthday last Dec. but we had a "lost" summer with Keith's heart attack). It is queen size.

The blocks are 14" square. The quilt was done on the machine except for the binding which was finished off by hand. This is the back. I transferred the picture of Kelly crossing the finish line when she did the Ironman in 1998 onto some fabric and then made it into a quilt block. I also signed the quilt in the bottom corner.This was a real challenge for me, but now I feel ready to do more quilts. I have a baby one that needs to be finished so that is next.

More snow

It is the end of January and we had yet another snowstorm today. Most of the snow went south of us, but we still got about 4 inches. The bad part is the ice under the snow on the roads. Making turns was a bit tricky! I only went out to the post office and to get my hair cut. I spent most of the day working on a t-shirt quilt that I started about 3 years ago! It is for my daughter. She gave me her t-shirts that were special to her and I have backed them and cut out the squares. Today I started assembling the squares into strips. There are 24 squares, each one is 14 inches. I will post some pictures when I get further along. I just got my sewing machine serviced and it runs like new again, so I am motivated to use it!
I have also been making items for military babies and will post a picture as soon as I finish the hat I am working on (it is #4), plus the booties to go with the hats.

Baby time

The day after Thanksgiving our niece and godchild had her first baby--a girl that they named Zara. She is so cute (from pictures). They live in the Boston area so I do hope I get to see her before she grows up! I made her this IQ blanket. I have made one for our children's kids, so I didn't want to break the "tradition." I just got it in the mail earlier this week, so I don't know their reaction yet...

These are donation items I sent to the 'Lil Troopers Yahoo group I belong to. These were sent in October or November. I am presently working on baby socks and slippers for the group, plus some more hats.

These are baby shower gifts for Kingston who is due to arrive around Valentine's Day. He will be my friend Barb's first grandchild. I added the heart to the hat after I took the second picture. The bib has a snowman on it to go with the blanket I edged. The baby shower is next Sat. but we will be out of town so I already gave the gift to Barb for the shower. They requested a book instead of a card, so I got a box of 26 books for the baby!!

We leave tomorrow night for our vacation to St. Maarten. We have never been there, but the idea of crashing at the beach in Jan. appealed to us (with MORE snow on the way to Michigan it is even more appealing). So I will finish updating my blog when I get back. And no, I am NOT taking any projects with me, just some books to read!!

Scarves

I finished 5 scarves for the Special Olympics project and got them mailed before the Jan. 15 deadline. That in itself was an accomplishment for me.

I was never a fan of making scarves, but this changed my mind. I am now making them for teeneagers at church that need some encouragement. We are calling them prayer scarves. We are making them much narrower than these, so they can be worn as fashion accessories. The first one I made was for someone who had brain surgery. She is only 17 years old and loves her scarf. This is the one I made. Purple is her favorite color, so that is what I used.

Apron time

I made many aprons for Christmas gifts this year. I also sold several at a craft show in early December. I really like making aprons--and wearing them. I am always on the lookout for cute fabrics and patterns. Here are some I made recently

This was made for Lauri. We went to their house on Christmas Eve and had a great time. I used 2 Christmas dish towels to make it. I liked it so much that I went back to the hardware store after Christmas and bought some more of the towels -- 75% off!!

This was made for JoAnne. We went to their house for Christmas dinner. Last year I made her a snowman apron, so this is her newest addition. Again, I used a dish towel and then a dishcloth for the pocket. The plaid almost matches a chair she has in her family room!!

This was made for my walking partner Rosanna. I used 2 different fabrics so it is reversible. The 2nd picture shows a close-up of the pocket. She does lots of baking and cooking.

All of the aprons were well received. I have more fabric to make some for Valentine's Day. They featrue dogs and hearts!!

Happy 2009!

The new year has arrived and I am so glad. It has to be better than 2008. You may have noticed that I have not updated my blog in months--I had severe computer problems. My laptop crashed and eventually died. I lost most of my data and have had to rebuild. It took WEEKS to get things straightened out, and then more WEEKS to get my old laptop (this one) up and running--cable connection problems, etc... But I have been very busy and will try to catch up on what I have been doing. Things may be out of order, but at least they will be here!

I made this prayer shawl for a friend Minnesota. She received it the day before Christmas. I used Lion Brand Cupcake yarn. The pattern is on their website (Half Moon Shawl) and was fun to make. I need just a bit more yarn than I had, so I used a lighter green for the border.

This is another prayer shawl I made. To be truthful, I forget who it was for or what pattern I used. I do like it and it has been given away.

This prayer shawl was made for my daughter in law's mother. Red is her favorite color. I gave it to her on Thanksgiving when we were in St. Louis. She loved it. I used cotton ease yarn (the old stuff that has been discontinued). It worked up very fast.

More to come.....

60 scarves in 60 days

I found out about this wonderful project just as I was starting to make scarves for the Special Olympics project. I joined the group on Revelry and have been having fun making scarves. The hardest part was finding RH Delft Blue, but I finally got some at a local Wal-Mart. Here are 4 scarves I have made so far. Going from left to right, the first scarf pattern is from http://www.christinascrochethaven.com/ . The second one is from Crochet World, June 2006 which I modified for the colors and yarn choice. The pattern called for Lion Brand Homespun and a sizeN hook. I used RH ww and a J hook.

The third scarf is from a pattern in the Sept/Oct. '08 issue of Crochet today! The one in the magazine had more stripes but I didn't want to deal with all of those ends to weave in so I changed the sequence.

The scarf on the right is from the Red Heart website. There is also a knitted version. This is the site http://www.coatsandclark.com/ and search for special olympics. The link is too long and too unpredictable. I think the pattern is also in a magazine, but I can't put my hands on it right now.

Food for thought

I made some play food for 2 of the grandkids (they like to play with their kitchen set). This is what I worked on while sitting in the waiting room of the hospital -- small projects that didn't require a lot of thought!!

The cupcake and doughnut are their favorites.

They do like the s'more also, but aren't too crazy about the eggs and toast.

I also made them some hats. The first ones I made were too small. These fit much better. I think they are sooo cute!!

What a wild summer!!

The summer of '08 is one that we will always remember. On July 23, DH had a heart attack but wasn't really aware of what was happening until he got to the hospital (call to dr. advised him to get to the emergency room ASAP). They did tests and put in a stent. He spent 5 days there. The day he came home DD and her family (husband, 4 kids and a dog) arrived from Idaho. Her DH went back to Idaho the next day. Everyone stayed for almost 3 weeks, plus DS arrived from St. Louis with another grandchild. It was hectic, noisy and fun to have all of the grandkids interact with each other (some of the cousins had never met each other). I felt like an activities director trying to find things for 5 kids and 3 adults to do to get them out of the house. We took lots of pictures and have lots of memories. Picking and eating blueberries! Ice cream from Cooks's Farm Dairy is always on the schedule (we went twice for ice cream and once more just to see the animals). Getting ready to go to the Farmer's Market wearing hats made by Grandma/Amuma.

It was very quiet when everyone left, but we will have the memories!!

On Aug. 28 DH had quadruple bypass surgery. It was a very long day that began at 5:30 a.m. I was so blessed to have friends from church be with me for most of the day --Pastor Curt was there at 5:30 and stayed until Keith was in his room at 2:30. JH brought breakfast food and we had a "mini party" in the family waiting area (until others arrived). K pulled through just fine, but it was a shock to see him right after surgery. Then we began our long hospital stay. It was to be 5 days, but complications kept happening (irregular heart beat, high blood sugar, high blood pressure and the worst--the clip on his arm where they took out an artery for the surgery came off and they had to do a second emergency surgery on his arm to get it fixed). So finally he came home after 10 days in the hospital.

We are now getting on with recovery. We are walking every day--that is new for him, he wants to ride his bike and lift weights, but that has to wait until much later. This whole thing was so unexpected. He is the last person every one thought would have a heart attack. He works out very regularly (almost obsessively), rides his bike faithfully (he had just completed a 70 mile ride 4 days before the heart attack, with no problems), maintains a good weight and watches what he eats. BUT we found out that doesn't matter much if there is a heart problem in your family--heredity trumps everything. His dad died at 53 of heart problems. So now we move forward with a deep appreciation to the advances in the medical field.