Blogs to Follow

I found a couple of crafty blogs that I wanted to share, but I don't think I can edit that list at the side of our blog. Here they are:

http://mairuru.blogspot.com/ is by a young Japanese girl who makes small hand-sewn gift-type items. I've tried a couple of the projects but I had difficulty with them - they were so tiny. But I love to read her commentary. She's reall sweet. She writes in broken English and I just love her commentary on Japanese crafts and life.

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/ has great projects and fabrics and it's updated often.

I'm participating in a Block Party. I've never done one before, but apparently each month everybody in the group makes two blocks for one of us (there are 12 in all) so at the end of your month you have 24 blocks to put together into a quilt. There will supposedly be pictures posted on Flickr at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tethered%20threads%20block%20party&w=all

or you can just sign into Flickr and search for Tethered Threads Block Party.

Dresser Scarf

This is done with English paper piecing then appliqued onto the background. I don't usually like to do hand sewing, but this looked easy enough, so I tried it, then did the hand embroidery, and since I had already done all that hand work I decided to hand quilt it too.

Snuglets

It's officially autumn on the East Coast and that means time to pull out the fleece blankets. Inspired by Maya's creation that I saw on a visit to Pittsburgh this summer:
I made a fleece snuglet (an obvious rip-off of the Snuggie) for Zac. It is his Christmas present from me, but I felt he might need it during football season. Then I remembered he lives in LA and probably never ever needs a fleece anything unless he's trying to pick up hiker babes. Anyway, he likes it and facebook LOVES it.

This is incredibly easy to make. You just make two sleeve tubes and sew them into the holes you cut out. It practically makes itself! I think I made 2 in one hour. Pattern here: http://www.sissonfamily.com/Sewingroom/images/2006projects/thesnuglet.pdf
Thanks, Maya!

ROY G BIV quilt

Look what my sisters made me! Pam and John are visiting us in San Francisco and Pam brought us this beautiful quilt made by her and Kathy. Pam said that she thought it was appropriate for me, because I taught her the ROY G BIV method of remembering the colors of the rainbow! (I don't remember that, but OK, as her older sister I'll take the credit!) The pattern is from a book called Simple Patchwork Gifts, which I had just gotten out of our library, and was sitting on my coffee table when Pam arrived. It's absolutely beautiful!!

New Project: Baby Quilt

My friend Hillary is having a baby next month. Like a lot of the new moms I know, she is not going to find out the sex of the baby until it is born. One of the reasons for this decision is to avoid the piles of pepto pink or baby blue items that she worries her friends and family will heap upon her if she told them the baby's sex.

I found a great quilt on the Crazy Mom Quilts blog and Hillary loves it, too, so I'm starting another scrap-based project. Yesterday I made a quilt sandwich of just the backing, muslin for the top, and one layer of bamboo batting. Today I made a bunch of tiny scraps (all smaller than my 3" squares for my other scrap quilt) and pinned a few on.

Here's what it looks like now. None of the edges of the scraps are turned under. The idea is that to quilt just inside the edge of each square and that should be enough to hold it on there. And maybe with successive washes the edges will get nice and fuzzy. We'll see. I think I can get a few squares done before the Steelers game starts this afternoon and maybe a few during half time.

They use it!

Babies using Laney crafts is my new favorite post.
Alex with his elephant quilt, Sept. 2009

Baby Monster

Whipup posted a link to this baby monster plushie tutorial. It was very easy and turned out quite cute. This will be a gift for Monika's baby Elise who is 16 months old now.