Art Wires

In an effort to get the piles of artwork off the fridge (or mostly the floor near the fridge), I put wires across the rumpus room in the basement. The art is no longer blocking my path, but it puts off the tearful fight with my dramatic son when I try to throw the lamest little piece away. After it's in the basement for a couple weeks, he doesn't notice, unless he sees me take it down. It takes up a lot of room, but the faux wood paneling is pretty ugly, so I don't mind.

Ok, so some of you may not consider this a craft. But I did have to *make* it. And my standards are low.

Dishcloth Hat

Since I never finished Brinda's dress (she doesn't like dresses, plus I lost it...I have the pattern and the needles. No dress.), I decided to make her a hat. She had one like this, but all acrylic. And my mom trained me well - I can't handle acrylic.



So I made her a new one, in stash cotton (ok, it's dishcloth cotton). She loves it, and wears it inside all the time. It fit her when I first made it, but she loves to pull the ties down until she can't see, and now it's a bit larger. (There is an upside to acrylic, I guess.)

A Quilt for Brinda

Mom and I put the quilt top together for Brinda...

Mom put the binding on.
I chose the backing fabric and
Cheyenne "helped" me put the layers together.

This is my first attempt at machine quilting.

Does this fabric SCREAM "Annie" to you?

shelves

In the finished part of our basement (you know, the rumpus room), we have a big space that is meant to hold a (really $&*!ing big) TV. It's always been wasted space because it's just a big 3' X 3' x 2' hole. So I finally built a shelf for it. It's 12" deep, and the best part is that Chris built another almost identical shelf to go behind it, because the cabinet is so big. And yes, that's right, it's not full. We still have more room for crap! Yay! Now where can I get more crap...?

You might notice that it's not exactly square, and some family members will take exception to my tagging this post as woodworking, but it looks great to me. Chris's is even worse off (we had really warped wood, apparently we should have spent more time picking it out, but I like to think it's a sign of the creator...), but it's hidden.

And this is my other shelf. It's in the back part of the basement, and it also was just a big hole. Now it's filled with my art supplies. And sure, I haven't done any block printing, book making or whittling since before Chris was deployed, but it makes me happy to look at the supplies anyway. I believe that someday I'll throw my children out of the house, and then I'll be free!

Pretty Scarf

I haven't had much time to knit this semester, but I did manage to finish a scarf for myself before the end of the winter.  I bought the yarn on line, and didn't realize quite how purple it is.  Luckily the scarf took over a month to finish, and by the time I was done with it I didn't mind it.  The pattern was very intricate, which made it a project for watching TV alone.  When I tried to knit with people around I had to tear out rows.  

Corpus Collosum Arm Warmers

Last March, when Matthew went into the hospital to have his corpus collosum completely severed, I started making these arm warmers, thinking I'd have lots of hospital time, and apparently totally forgetting that I had a child. For a while I had one done, and contented myself that there's only one corpus collosum too, until I realized that Matthew now has two (more or less...kind of). So I finished the other. They look just like corpus collosums, don't they?

In a totally surprising turn of events, I don't look nearly as cool wearing these as the woman who inspired them. But they are warm, and it's all stash wool, so that's an accomplishment by itself. And I used the magic loop knitting Sarah had mentioned, which was fun, almost making up for the k2, p2 ribbing.

Crib organizer (for lack of a better term)

Not long ago my Mom mentioned that when one of us was little she made a pocket to hang in the crib. After the baby was asleep, she'd put in a bottle and a book. She claimed it bought her 20 minutes in the morning. I'm not holding out any hope for additional time in the morning, but any elimination of "I can't find my pacifier" in the middle of the night would be great.

I used a receiving blanket, with heavy lining (warm and natural?) for the base and lightweight interfacing for the pockets. Two of the pockets (for pacis and water) are pleated at the side. The top pocket, for a book, is just a flat patch pocket.

If I were to make another one of these, I'd have made the straps at the top a bit wider, and with wider velcro also. Instead of ties at the sides, I'd measure more thoroughly and put velcro straps there as well. (I'm like Claire in that, while numbers are how I earn a salary, they seem to be merely a suggestion when it comes to crafts). The water cup pocket I'd make a bit taller and narrower, and the paci one bigger all around. The lining of the base didn't need to be as thick as it is - sewing through the pleats on the pockets was not pretty. All of that having been said, it seems to be doing it's job pretty well.