More baby stuff...

I was totally in nesting mode with this last entire pregnancy... as you can see by all my domestic sewing ventures! I also made a couple nursing coverups, and ring slings... not the best of pics, but I'm not a fan of modeling shots, so you'll have to use your imagination! I love both creations. The cover up is made using this tutorial... http://imustnotthinkbadthoughts.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/here-have-a-hooty/ very easy to make and it makes nursing in public or even at home, much more bearable in my opinion. the Sling is probably a favorite of Ellie (ok, I like it too)... found some tutorials on how to make them here... http://crafts.sleepingbaby.net/sling.html

cloth diapers...

I've become a cloth diaper-aholic.. when reading online about cloth diapering everyone kept saying cloth diapering becomes an addiction.. at first I was like... umm.. it's something to contain well.. you know what they are for, so how can it be addicting, but it really is quite fun to make them and thus makes the whole diapering thing less... umm... what's the word I'm working for.... poopy? I've made some pocket diapers for Henry, some training pants for Henry, some fitted diapers for Ellie, and some diaper wraps for Ellie. Pretty much my whole 2nd and 3rd trimester after the boys went to sleep, I spent sewing or researching sewing... now if only I could Ellie to go to sleep at 7:30 with the boys, i could get back to making more diapers.... She'll be out growing her current stash so I gotta get back to it!

Maria's Baby...

I made this baby afghan for my friend Maria's second baby girl... I made her other daughter one using the similar yellow/blue/green yarn... and had just enough left to use for a border of this one. not very "girly" I know, but didn't think pink would fly.

Steph's shower

I made a baby afghan for my sister in law Steph and her new baby Sally. I did a plain white lacy kinda design... not that practical, but every little girl needs something frilly!

Melissa's Shower

This is one of my favorite afghans to make... it's made with a light variegated yarn with a solid beige in a chevron pattern. it crochets up quick and looks nice if I do say so myself. I've used this pattern before and I forgot how much I liked it.... I'll be using it again! I think it only took about 6 hours to make!

Christina's Shower..

This was an afghan I made for Ben's cousin's wedding shower. If I didn't love to crochet, I probably would have thrown in the hook after completing this one! First of all... the pattern took forever... I used a solid color so wanted to add a little depth with the pattern... well all those popcorn stitches.... yikes! Also, I bought the yarn all at the same time and it's a yarn that supposedly doesn't have a dye lot... but that is the last time I'll believe that one... do you see the different colored stripe in there... yeah, it's actually really not obvious, I'm probably the only one who would really point it out readily... but boy does it show up on camera so maybe I'm wrong... but it's there.. and it annoyed me to no end since I didn't notice it till I was almost done, and by that point, there was no way I was ripping it out.... when it's not laid out flat, you really can't see it... but grrrr... does it ever bug me!!!!

Train Table

It was meant to be a simple wood working project for the boys Christmas... After a couple trips to Home Depot and A LOT of help from my dad... William and Henry now have a home made table for their trains.... or Legos... or anything else they can dream up I suppose. It was suppose to be a Christmas present but Christmas came about a week early. We'll paint it this spring... stay tuned for the final project... And for future projects now that I have a new drill... Watch out for Dawn with power tools.....

Baking night

I hosted my first annual baking night earlier this month. A few of my friends came over and we spent the evening baking cookies, dipping chocolates, sampling goodies and the like. It was hosted under the intent to get stocked up on your Christmas cookies... and though I can't speak for everyone, I didn't really get stocked up on anything. The whole plate of cookies was gone in just a few days... Mighty tasty. It was so much fun I've had many a request to make it a tradition. Yippee!!! Maybe I'll have more willpower next year.

Monkey hat pics...

okay, so I'm a little obsessive about this monkey hat eh... well.. I just saw a pic of the two recipients of the matching monkey hats, so I had to post it... hehehehe... too funny!

Quit your Monkeying Around.... the Sequel!

Okay, it's done... the adult version of the hat is finished. Of course from the pic you have no reference to size, so Morgan, one of these days you'll have to send me a pic of it on your noggin'! It got a bit big... okay, it got really big... but it works... Now you and little Noah can match, MorgO. The hats will be too big for both of you!!!!

Quit your monkeying around!!!

When I found out Morgan and Amber were having a baby, I already knew what I was going to make for them... in fact it was done before they were even halfway through the pregnancy! hehehe... too fun! There is an adult version of the monkey hat in the works. (Morgan was jealous and wants one of his own) I'll post a pic when it's done.

T..

So back in June we had a girls night in alex. We were a little crazy.. as always... and came up with an idea for a gift for one of our firends who couldnt be there that night. she is expecting a baby... probably any day now.. you would have to understand T... and the rest of use girls for that matter to truly appreciate this little onesie that Elmo is modeling... but I made this shirt for T on behalf of all of us girls. it matches all of T's many... many... many fleet farm shirts from her years in 4H. She got a big kick out of it!

Kitchen Shtuff.

I've been taking a break from blankets and afghans and worked on lots and lots of dish cloths (knit) and potholders (crochet). They are fun, and quick and easy. I made a set for some each of the ladies in the lutherans for life group that I worked with here in fort wayne and I made a set for a co worker of bens who recently moved into a new house. We been watching lots of Xfiles on DVD in the evenings so I've had lots of time to knit and crochet. fun fun fun!

Baby Girl

This was made over a year ago... when I decided to start quilting I made 4 quilts one right after another... this was the last of the 4. I had a lot of friends who were pregnant at the time and figured someone would be having a little girl... but NOPE... they were all boys... so I've been holding on to it just waiting for the special little girl to give it to! it looks kinda blue in the pic but it really is rather purpley... if that really is a word. One of Ben's coworkers had a little girl so I told Ben to take it to her. She will still be on maternity leave by the time we leave for MN, but someone in the office will be sure she gets it when she returns.

Baby Boy

This was made of material I had already... I wanted to try out mitering boarders so I picked a cozy fleece that was too small for anything else, and added boarders with a flannel... then I bound it with satin blanket binding... worked pretty slick! I used the walking foot for some simply quilting and "poof" and instant gift! I gave it to Buddy's coworker who just had a baby... well... his wife did actually. They liked the blanket none the less!

Papa Roo...

For my dad's 60th birthday I wanted to make him something but I didn't know how much a he would appreicate a really nice crochet doily so I decided to make him something he could wear. I found this fleece and thought it was fitting for him! I'm not much of a seamstress... making things that actually have to fit isn't my specialty, so hope it is at least close to the right size!
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I forgot I wrote this post a while ago, before his birthday on May 3rd but didnt want to post it till after he got the gift... I guess I forgot about it.. oops!

Brent and Alicia

This is a gift for Ben's cousin's wedding, given as a shower gift. I'm not really a fan of granny squares but since I used two yarns together and larger hook went a lot faster than my last granny (4 years). I didn't realize it when I took the picture, but the lattice yarn matches the carpet in our apartment... so it's almost camouflage. Oops... not much of a photographer I guess. I did figure out a new technique for crocheting the squares together so that there isn't many yarn ends. I kinda made it up as I went along. Maybe if I get really ambitious I'll put directions online... not that I think anyone is really interested in my techniques, but that way the next time I make a granny square something, I don't have to figure out the technique again... I'll just have my own tutorial! Wahoo!!!

OH NOOOOOOOoooooo.....

yesterday I started the stitching in the ditch of the court house steps quilt... when I realized I PUT A BLOCK IN UPSIDE DOWN!!! it's far to late to un-sew and re do it now, but it keeps staring at me... there it is clear as day... GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh well, life goes on... I have yet to make a perfect project so this is no exception!

The quilting is going well... I've done enough ditch stitching to hold it all together... I was a little daring with my thread choice... I used a matching red on the top and in the bobbin since the tension on my machine isn't right so you can see the bobbin on the top and top thread on the back.... rather than trying to fix that I just improvised, the reason it is daring is the backing is the same light color I used for the background of the redwork, so we'll.. the back shows all the stitches... quite well.... I knew I would have to use a red for stitching in the ditch on the borders, and probably could have gotten away with using light color when I outlined the light squares... but I just wanted to do it all the same.... less times changing thread and winding bobbins means more time sewing, eh?

I still don't know what I'm going do where there is redwork... it needs something on those blocks to hold it all together but don't know what... any ideas?

Granny....

This is Buddy's favorite afghan. It sits on our rocking chair in our living room.... I finished it last fall... I only started it 4 years ago. (I would have abandoned it a long time ago if Ben hadn't kept asking why I hadn't finished it yet) the whole time I kept saying "I hate granny squares". All those loose ends to weave in... then when it seems like it's almost done you have all those squares to stitch together.. eek...

so what do I do after loathing this afghan for the past 4 years... I make another granny square afghan... it's for a gift so you'll have to wait to see it... I'll post it when it's given....

here comes the Judge... again...

Okay, I'm ready to think about the judge quilt again...
(check this out in case you forgot where we were...) http://prairiedawn.blogspot.com/2007/02/here-comes-judge.html
let us continue... shall we...
I've been thinking about the borders more... I went back to the original fabric I planned for borders and started to think it might be just what the quilt needs... . It isn't in the quilt at all so I don't know if that is good or bad. It does have the right color scheme, so I suppose that is good.
I like Morgans suggestion of the cornerstone with more redwork, but I really don't want to do that much more redwork.... I'm planning on putting another small redwork design on the label on the back along with using the same floss to embroider the label... speaking of label... got any clever ideas for a title or short explanation for the quilt... it's gotta make note of the fact that it's a courthouse steps design for sure... okay, back to borders...
here is a couple options...



The light boarders are left over strips from the quilt... I cut a bit too much... oops, but hey, it helps now....
I'm planning on doing a dark inner border... light red second border, then dark binding...




option 1: I like this best, but I would have to buy more fabric to finish it... (click on the pic for a close up)




Option 2: I have enough of this one... but don't think I like it as much... i like it.. but not as much... I think it's a bit too light or something...


I initially thought of using the same light I used as background of the redwork for the second border, but think that is too light for the border... especially since I think option 2 is a bit on the light side, the background ecru shade is definitely too light...

hmm... dilemmas....