Posts from the Gifts Category

Choose another category?

Heart Full of HSTs

As a part of Lindsay’s studio makeover, I decided that I would make her a small lap quilt/wall hanging. I had seen the “i heart you” pattern over on V and Co. and really wanted to try it out. I picked up a fat quarter pack from Hawthorne Threads because I thought that they would work well with the pink paint colour I had picked for the walls.

So I went to work getting the 231 half square triangles (HSTs) ready for assembly.

I used this tutorial for making 8 HSTs at once, but it meant I needed to trim each one to exactly the right size. I actually like this method for that reason – it gives you very precisely sized HSTs, which makes final assembly so much easier. It does make a giant pile of trimmings though.

Once the top was together, I picked a little heart quilting pattern out for the long arm and got to work.

By the way, how lucky am I that I have access to two long arm machines that I can use? I mean, really? So lucky.

Once it was quilted, I hand stitched the binding on, and then decided that I would applique the Eileen Quilts logo over the top of the quilt. I used the starch and raw edge method, and I did it after the quilt had been quilted so that if Lindsay ever decides that she would like to use it just as a quilt rather than a wall hanging, she just has to pick out a couple of threads and the EQ will come right off.

Once it was all done and washed up on the wall it went! Yay for those Command Hook thingies!

I am pleased with the outcome and I know Lindsay was too. Thanks V and Co. for a great pattern (super well written). I might even make one of these for myself some day.

A Little Redo

A few weeks ago it was my friend Lindsay‘s birthday. She had been having a rough couple of months dealing with her diagnosis of Graves Disease (you can read about it here, here, and here). So I really wanted to do something to try to make her feel a bit better.

Lindsay has a great studio space for her long arm machine in a part of the building that houses her husband Greg’s screen printing business, but it needed a little perking up. So I called Greg and asked if it would be ok if I came in and did a little work.

One wall is all brick, so I took a big risk and picked a pink paint colour for the walls. I knew she wanted pink because those samples had been up on the wall for a while, I just wasn’t sure which one. I ended up going with Benjamin Moore Hearts Delight in matte Aura paint. (As an aside, Aura is seriously amazing. This stuff covers like NOTHING ELSE. It is flat out my favourite paint. It is spendy, but sometimes you can find a $5 off coupon, and you end up only needing to paint one coat in a lot of cases, so you use less paint. And it is totally worth it for the time you save.) I was very thankful I ended up only having to do a coat, as it took quite a while with the doors, rough brick, and other mechanical items that I needed to paint around.

Once the painting was done, I did a couple other things to tidy up and fix a couple of things. Greg had been storing some things in the room, so he moved all of that out, and what was staying I tidied up in the corner. I fixed a table that was a bit wobbly, painted the door, did some cleaning, and picked up a new cutting board and rotary cutter on Greg’s behalf. I also hung a quilt that I had made for her, but I will do another post about that later on.

Overnight Greg printed a little sign for the door, and installed a doorknob. He also reassembled Vada’s teepee that had been in the corner, but had sort of been flopped around a bit. My friend Amanda made an amazing red velvet cake and we called a couple of friends.

The next morning we all snuck into the studio and Greg schemed to get Lindsay there. Turns out Vada let a bit of the cat out of the bag, so she knew that I was going to be there, but she didn’t know why. I think she was still surprised!

Thank you Greg and Amanda for helping me to put this together. Somehow it still managed to be surprise even with me pulling into the parking lot behind Lindsay by accident (not once, but twice!) and a toddler starting to spill the beans. You are a great friend Lindsay and you deserve to have a space to work in that you love <3

Later this week – more details on the quilt!

Better Late Than Never?

At the beginning of December good friends of ours welcomed their second baby girl to the family. With the total insanity that was my “4th Quarter” (look at me using the business lingo….) my personal work and gifts really suffered. (As a side note, I plan on doing all of my Christmas stuff in August this year and not committing to getting anything other than work done from Oct-Dec. That should work, right?) So sadly I didn’t get their gift finished until the middle of January. Luckily they are lovely people and were very understanding.

I love baby sweaters, but I always worry that babies grow so quickly and thus don’t get much wear out of them. So I decided to make a little baby shrug instead, figuring that would fit for at least a year or so.

Sorry, no modeled shot. There are some really cute ones on the Ravelry link though!
Pattern: Victorian Lace Baby Shrug
Yarn: Skacel HiKoo in 009
Needles: US 5

I really liked the little lace pattern on this one.

It was challenging enough to be interesting but easy enough to memorize after a repeat or two.

The yarn is amazing to work with, and perfect for baby stuff. Really soft, but not pilly at all.

I also wanted to make baby N a quilt, as I had made one for her sister and it got tons of use (thanks J and M for that by the way – I love seeing things I have made get USED!)

I roughly used this tutorial, but I added a large border as I just didn’t feel like it was large enough.

I used two small charm packs for this one (of course I have already managed to forget what line of fabric they were from, duh) and kona ash for the sashing. The border and backing are both from Hope Valley, and the binding is a DS for Joanns. I used my new favourite quilting pattern on this one, called Signature.

I hope that baby N enjoys both the quilt and the shrug! Although realistically, she is not likely to remember the shrug. Congrats again J and M!

Wee Baby

Of the yarn variety only. No surprises here! My friends A + B will be welcoming a little boy into the world in the next few weeks, so I decided to knit up a little present for them. When I was at TNNA earlier this year I met Cid Hanscom at the Skacel booth when she was signing her book – Purl the Little Knit Girl. Of course I fell in love with how adorable the whole thing is. You knit the little doll, an outfit for the doll, a home for the doll and a hat for the baby. Genius! I picked up some yarn from my LYS and got to work knitting up a little boy version.

Is that not the cutest pattern ever? And you know what? The actually pattern is BRILLIANT. It is so well written, the shaping is amazing (seriously, there were points when I just had to trust Cid because I had no idea what was going to come of some of the directions) and the finishing instructions are perfect too. I mean, he has a nose! And ears! And eyebrows! And a belly button for goodness sake!

And of course, bum cheeks (with rouge!)

The absolute killer for me though was the thumbs. Thumbs people!

Dying. Once the wee doll was knit up, I started in on his little pea outfit.

A perfectly shaped little hat and jumper. I think I might have squeaked when I finished it. After the outfit came his little felted home.

Oh hi there! I almost kept him for myself. I really did. I might have to knit myself a little studio mascot or something.

Once all the doll parts were finish, I made a baby hat to go with it. The one that came with the book was sort of a hood, which I knew would not be mama’s style, so I went with the good old standby umbilical cord hat.

I am glad I can finally blog/IG about this one, because I so wanted to do it while I was working on it. But now that the gift has been given, blog it is.

Good luck A+B, I know you guys are going to be wonderful parents!

Baby Weaving

My friend Lindsay is due with her second little girl in just a couple of weeks. Since she is a quilter and a knitter, I wanted to make something a little different for her. I decided to weave a cotton baby blanket after another friend, Beth (sadly blogless) posted some pics of a set of three she had made.

I knew Lindsay really liked pale pink, and that the colours of the baby’s room were in that theme, so I went with a white warp and a petal pink weft. I used a 6-thread herringbone, which I think is a good classic design.

I measured out the white warp threads (I will post all the specifics at the bottom of this post for anyone who is interested) and got them (all 696 of them) onto the loom. The warping of the loom took about 12 hours or so, much longer than the actual weaving takes. I can now say that I am enjoying the warping process, and has taken a long time to get to that point. There is a steep learning curve when you are starting to weave, but I feel like I might be over the first hump.

Threading the heddles

Once on the loom, it was time for the fun part. Weaving!

It took two good solid days to get the blanket done so that I could cut it off the loom. One thing that you have to get used to when weaving, is that the fabric that comes off the loom will not look or feel anything like the finished product after washing. It is really important to sample your fabrics so you know what you will get after finishing. I was being daring and following my friend Beth’s suggestions, so I just went with it. You can see what the fabric looks like right off the loom (colour is a bit off in this pic):

Pretty hole-y and trust me, scritchy. But a nice long wash in the machine with warm water and a good hot dryer and it is soft and fluffy!

You can see the difference in the fabric here:

Big difference, eh? I did a little embroidery on the sewn hems just for records sake.

I didn’t get very many good full pics of the blanket because the weather was not cooperating the day of the shower. But Lindsay really liked it, which makes me feel good. I hope that it gets lots and lots of use! The great thing about cotton is that it is durable, and will just get better with more washes. Can’t wait to meet the bean Lindsay!

Project Details:

Warp: 4 yards, 696 ends (58 pattern repeats of 12 threads each), white 6/2 unmercerized cotton.
Sett: 18 epi on 12 dent reed threaded 1-2-1-2.
Weft: Petal pink 5/2 pearl cotton (hems done in 10/2 unmercerized natural cotton).
Pattern: 6-thread herringbone from A Hand Weaver’s Pattern Book (Davidson) pg 25.
Loom: 4 shaft, 6 treadle LeClerc Fanny, 45″.

Measurements:

On loom: 36.5″ W x 43.25″ L (not including hems).
Off loom, hemmed: 36.25″ W, x 39.5″ L (big draw up in length!).
Washed: 34″ W x 36″ L.

Finishing:

Hems folded and ironed, then stitched by machine.
Washed in warm wash/cold rinse with gentle detergent, front loading machine.
Tumble dried high with fabric softener sheet.
Embroidered label.

← Older entries