Crystal Madrilejos

Remember the little crocheted mushrooms for our baby that I posted about a little while back?

For Christmas, I made a big blue mushroom for our niece Layla! The red ones are the ones I made for our baby. I put them in the picture so you can see the size difference. Also, instead of stitching circles onto the cap I followed the original pattern and sewed felt circles on instead. I think I actually like the felt circles better!

I’m still hoping to one day make a BIG mushroom, but that will just have to wait.

–c.

This past October my sister had her 4th baby, a little girl named Phoenix! For her Christmas gift I made her a little quilt, which was technically the first quilt that I have ever completed.

I started a quilt for our baby a few months back, but have yet to finish it. The one I made for Phoenix is a lot smaller than the one I’m making for our baby and it turned out to be a good learning experience. I almost tore my hair out a couple times, but overall I’m happy with how it turned out. I’m confident that I am now better equipped to handle a larger quilt next time around.

I made this quilt out of flannel and though in the pictures it looks good enough, it’s by no means perfect. Honestly, I don’t really know how to sew too well and half the time I’m just improvising as I go along. There are plenty of puckers and bunches in places, but oh well!

Here are some detail shots:

-c.

I became a fan of Jennifer Murphy the minute I set eyes on her site. She makes some of the most beautiful stuffed animals I’ve ever seen. One day I would love to own one of her pieces, but 1.) there’s no way I could afford one and 2.) they sell out super fast.

Luckily for me Jennifer teamed up Midwest of Canon Falls and licensed some of her designs for mass production. Most of the designs are now retired and no longer being produced but can still be found some places online.

I happened across this one at a local store recently. Other than the ornaments on our tree, this is our only other holiday decoration. I love it!

–c.

A view from Bryn Derwen Studio located in Snowdonia National Park.

–c.

Welcome to the first installment of “Christmas Gifts 2009,” where you’ll finally get to see what we’ve been up to the past couple months!

In the past, I’ve really gone all out on the wrapping but this year I kept it simple: store bought paper and ribbon. One thing that I did do was design gift tags. They turned out better than I expected! I really think it’s the way to go if you want to do something fun but not spend a million hours wrapping gifts all fancy.

And what are in those little boxes? You’re probably wondering… Acorn necklaces for my nieces Monica and Abigail!

I found this tutorial on how to crochet acorn necklaces from one of my favorite blogs, Resurrection Fern (a blog I briefly posted about a little awhile ago.) A few months ago Andrew and I gathered acorns in the woods behind my parents house. I’ve actually made quite a few of these necklaces, experimented with different yarns, strings, and embroidery flosses; and I’ve decided that crochet thread worked best for me. It comes in different thicknesses but I prefer it on the heavier side. It gives the necklace a nice weight.

One thing about acorns! If they’ve been on the ground for a little while, you might want to bake them before you put them in the necklace. Otherwise, you might find little ants crawling all over you! Better yet, just don’t use any acorns that have little holes in them. I learned the hard way.

–c.

The holidays are coming to a close and, jeez, am I exhausted! But in a good way :) Not much is better than exhaustion brought on by getting to spend time with the family, eating too many good foods, putting up holiday decorations and making gifts for friends and family. Not to mention this little one that I’ve been growing is making me more tired than all those things combined!

On Friday, we will be finishing up week 32 (which means baby will be here in about 8 1/2 weeks) and we’re not nearly ready for him or her. The holiday really put baby preparations on hold. Once we’ve recuperated from this holiday season, we’ll be going full force until February 26th!

We ended up not getting a real tree this year. We almost went completely tree-less, but changed our minds at the last minute. Luckily, my sister had a little fake tree that she usually sets up for our niece that she let us borrow. And it worked out perfectly. I don’t think we have enough ornaments yet to decorate a big tree, and we definitely don’t have the space for one. Needless to say, the felt ball garland didn’t get done in time. Oh well, there’s always next year!

–c.

Taken out my window while flying to the U.K.

–c.

Generation 2.0 isn’t a total overhaul, just a tweak. In version 1.0, I made it to accommodate rectangular tissue boxes. But it turns out that because of the way the tissues are layered in the box it doesn’t work too well to pull them out upside down. They tore. So this one was made for square tissues boxes and it works much, much better since the tissues are layered and folded inside the box. It was made for our friend Michael C.

-a.

After seeing the cat pillow that I made for my co-worker’s niece, another of my co-workers requested one for her niece as well! She requested it a few months back and I hadn’t gotten around to making it until recently and I am very happy with how it turned out.

The first cat pillow was for an infant so I had to be sure everything was sewn down completely because I know babies have a tendency to tear things off and eat them! With this version, I could be a little more fancy with the details because my co-workers niece is a little bit older, beyond the eating things phase. I didn’t have to worry about all the edges being satin stitched so it was a little easier to make more complicated shapes.

I had complete creative freedom, but my co-worker’s one stipulation was it had to have a cat pattern on it somewhere. I was lucky to find this one! In case you were wondering, I’ve been using flannel, felt and polyfill for these recent pillows. But I’ve used many other fabrics in the past. I usually have a hard time coming up with ideas for the faces. There are just too many possibilities!

–c.

On top of it being basketball season, we are in the thick of football season as well. And for me that means a few more hours a week of crafting while Andrew watches the game.

Recently during games, I’ve started making a garland of little felt balls for our Christmas tree. I’m using the leftover cuttings from when I trimmed down the felt I made a little while back. It takes awhile to make these, and it’s a little messy and makes my hands hurt a little. But it’s still fun nonetheless! I doubt this garland is going to get done before Christmas. Maybe it’ll be done by the next one.

Not sure why they are so fuzzy or if that’s normal, but oh well! I found this tutorial on the Martha Stewart website if you’re interested in trying your hand at it.

—c.