Upcycled Sweater Baby Blanket

A friend of mine at work is having a baby.  Yes, it's the same one I made the Seven Seas quilt for.  But every baby needs a stroller blanket right??

I made this from repurposed sweaters, both wool and cashmere.  I added some vintage trims for texture.  And this time, I added some basic quilting, stitch-in-the-ditch style, so that it would hold it's shape when it got washed.

What's your favorite baby gift to make?

What the heck I've been up to

So I finally got to go on that vacation that I've been whining about. I took the kids and we went to visit my cousin, his wife and newly adopted son in Virginia. It was my daughter's first plane trip, and my son's second. He said he was too little to remember the first one, so he felt like this was his first too. We had a FANTASTIC time.

Our first day we spent at the National Zoo. It was close to 90 and just downright steamy. The kids are wet from the water sprays they have along the walkways to keep cool.



All that they cared about was seeing the pandas, which we did. From far away, but they were live pandas nonetheless.

The next day we spent at the Museum of Natural History and walking the National Mall. It was a wonderful day, but LONG for little legs.

The true excitement was being in a terminal at Dulles when the EARTHQUAKE hit. The whole terminal sort of slid side to side. Some pieces of tile fell from the ceiling. After a brief "huh, what was that?" my kids went right back to reading their books. Really. They are tough to impress apparently.



Now that we're home, I've been working on this blanket for a co-worker. I've made so many of these "a la Betz White Warm Fuzzies" style blankets now. They are really loved. I try to put some of my salvaged trims on each one. The blue on this one is one of my favorite and almost gone.



I usually put flannel on the back and they are just super soft and cuddly.





Last but not least, I am still on my two-per-week pace of making pillowcases for Conkerr Cancer. So far I've got nine. My goal is to donate a cool 100 over the course of the year. I'm hoping to find time to branch out and use different patterns as the year goes on. This one is just so easy and sews up so quickly, I've stuck to it for now.



What are you working on these last few days of summer??

Harder than it looks!

Because I got so many positive comments on the owl, I decided to try another one.  This time I made a cat, also for another baby turning one.  So I stuck with the cashmere, and no buttons, only embroidery for the decorations.  What I came up with is this kitty.  She's made of mostly grey cashmere, with a few pieces of white and black.  

There's also a felted heart on her back.

 I had really wanted her to come out more round, than oval, but this making your own patterns thing is tough. 

A friendly owl

Whew...it seems that the holidays got the best of me.  I made all kinds of things, some at the very last minute, and didn't have the time or foresight to post any of them!  But now that it's January, and things are starting to settle down, I'm back to moving just a little more slowly.  

For some reason I have been thinking about owls a lot lately...seeing them in advertisements, on TV, and most importantly at a birthday party my daughter went to at the kids Science museum.   I love how slowly they move and how majestic they look.  Their eyes are very telling though, almost like they know something you don't.

With that in mind, and our neighbor Anna's first birthday in mind, I made this for her.  It's made of two formerly cashmere sweaters, a pink one and a cream one.  The eyes are sewn on circles with smaller felted circles in the center and some yarn stitches (meant to look like eyelashes, but didn't really come out that way.  Same for the beak, some felted wool, a piece of yarn around the outside and a tiny piece of maroon wool in the center.  There are diamonds of the maroon wool on the ears, too.  I was trying to get that great feathery-owl-ear look...

My favorite part though are the wings.  They are pieces of the cream cashmere blanket stitched to the sides.   The result was a great contrast of color, but still soft looking.  I had initially wanted buttons for eyes, but was afraid they might get eaten off..

The whole thing took around 2 1/2 hours to make...I'm sure once I had a design I knew better and had made a few times I could cut that significantly.  

Maybe next time I'll try a blue and green?  Or should I go for a straight up owl browns?  I'd love ideas or comments on what colors would look the best.