"Cinderella" Apron Challenge

I am so excited!!! Jenny of Elefantz had a challenge. It was to repurpose a skirt and make it into an apron. I wanted to take this challenge very much, but with other things going on and other projects that I had been doing, I thought I wouldn't be able to complete it. Well....I took some time this morning and made the apron:o) Without any more ado, here are the before and after pictures:
I didn't have a skirt that I could use for this project. I don't have very many of them and the ones I do have I really like a lot. They have elastic waistbands that change with my growing or shrinking waist depending on the season and how much I feel like exercizing. Anyway, this is a flower girl dress that my oldest wore many years ago when she was in a wedding of my husband's cousin.

I loved this dress on her!! I loved the fabric - 100% cotton - and it was so comfortable for her to wear. I love the flowers and the design and could not bear to part with it.

I am so glad to have been able to repurpose this into something useful that we will see almost everyday! Although it was hard to cut it apart at first - I was very nervous that I would ruin it.

But, all turned out well. I used just a plain blue cotton for the waistband.

And here I am wearing it. Sorry for the glare in the picture - I took it in the mirror in one of the kid's rooms, but it does fit!! And I couldn't be more thrilled!!! I wonder how long it will take for one of the kids to steal this from me to use for themselves.......?

Progress Reports

Progress Reports - that's all I have, but I have been so excited to be working on all these things that I have not gotten much in the way of domestic duties kept up.
First up is the Romantique Sampler by Angie Designer. This is a SAL but you have to complete each portion of the pattern before you receive the next portion. I have the first two sections, but have only worked on section one so far. Above is a photo of how it looked earlier this week.

Here it is without the backstitching....

And here is section one complete - what a difference backstitching makes!! I love taking before and after shots of backstitching.

Some knitting got done - the Mid Month Dishcloth for my Dishcloth Group. This one is called Freedom. I started this one in the two colors called for, but decided that there wasn't enough contrast between them so switched out the green for this ombre.

Needles: US5

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream

Color: 01105 Country Blue and

00165 Daisy Ombre

I love this dishcloth pattern. It was easy to knit up and the effect is very striking.

My mandatory fish picture of the week :o)

It keeps me honest - I know I need to knit at least 7 so I keep at it. This week there are only 8 because I was so distracted with other projects! And I don't anticipate next week being much better :o) I seem to be easily distracted............

I started sewing the fish together and this is as far as I got. I do like the way it looks! Right now, it is not easy for me to do this so I have to concentrate. This kind of keeps me from sewing them together at recitals, games and the like, but slowly and surely it will get done :o)

Santa Cross Stitch update

I have been diligently working on my cross stitch stocking every evening in order to make a little progress.

I just looked back at my last post of this here (scroll all the way to the bottom) and I am heartened by what I see :o) Even though it has felt as if I am making no progress at all as I am stitching each night the pictures show me that I am!

I guess an hour or two each evening truly counts!!

So exciting! Just one of the many reasons to have a blog to track the progress of projects, especially long term ones like this one :o)

OakHaven Designs SAL Progress

So...this has not been as straight forward as I would have hoped. The design is VERY cute and is pretty simple - no half or quarter stitches - no real backstitching to speak of. However, it is my inexperience as a stitcher that has held things back for a bit.
I started first with the back stitching in the upper left hand corner and quickly realized that counting all those stitches as I stitched down the side would be a disaster - I haven't mastered the art of counting accurately above 10 yet :o) Then I started putting in the stitches for the snowflakes and decided that I should put in "guidelines every 10 rows. That was ok.

After I stitched for awhile, I realized that the color "dirty" called for in the pattern was not just cream - these white stitches really did not show up at all. It took me a few days to get out to the craft store where I purchased some really pretty light blue 14ct Aida cloth and promptly started out again. Part of the way throught this rendition, I realized that the white was not showing up all that well on the blue either, but I kept going and this morning finally finished the January part of this SAL.

I really love this cute little owl, but the background color is not dark enough to show the stitches. At this point, I see two choices: 1. Leave it as is and go back and backstitch around the little guy if it really still bothers me at a later date or 2. I can get some even darker fabric and re-stitch him. I am a little relunctant to do that as I don't know what the next patterns will be. If I choose a fabric that is too dark, it might not show up the next sections very well.....I will wait and see.....

And the requisite fishie photo for this week.

12 of them again

Even I am getting sick of these photos

But not the fish :o)

I did figure out that if I want a finished blanket that is approximately 4 feet X 6 feet, I will need 180 fish. Not bad.....If I keep up the same way as I am going now, I could totally be done by the end of the year. Can I stick to one project that long?????

Fish & Scrappy Scarf

12 fish for this week. My goal for this year is one per day and I now have 15 fish. So on some days I have time to make one or more and some days I don't finish even one. The hope is that by the end of the year I will have enough fish to make a complete blanket. I haven't quite figured out how many I will need......That might be a truly scary number!! And then of course they will need to be attached together in some form or fashion. It's very exciting to be using up all these bits and pieces of cotton that are left over from dishcloths and other projects and have been sitting in a bag for a very long time. Some of the balls were very small and needed to be combined with other colors -kind of fun! They are so quick that they have become very addictive and each time I finish one, it feels great! Then I leave them in a little stack on the corner of my kitchen counter as inspiration to keep going and at the end of the week take a picture. It's been working so far!

I also worked briefly on this scrappy scarf that was started some time ago, but quickly decided that it took away too much time from the fish :o) After the fish blanket is complete this will be what the scraps of cotton go to. There are so many other exciting things that I am working on that I can't wait to share them, but right now there are many hungry mouths awaiting waffles!!

Finishes and Starts

The First Dishcloth from the Monthly Dishcloth Yahoo Group

"Happy 2011" Dishcloth

Started: 1/1/2011

Finished: 1/4/2011

Needles: US5

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream

Color: 00026

Lot: 1008 245636

Oh so fun to knit!

Yet another fish. This one is using leftovers from the Last Summer Splash Handbag.
Started the SAL for the Oak Haven Designs Yahoo Group.

I have gotten farther than this picture shows, but the design does not show up well on this light fabric so I don't like it. I went out yesterday and bought some beautiful sea green Aida 14 count fabric and will start all over again tomorrow.

This is the fabric from my stash that I have chosen for the Birdie Stitches Block of the Month over at Little Miss Shabby

Here is some of it cut. Boy does cutting this fabric into 2.5 X 2.5 inch squares take a LONG time! Each one of the blocks for this BOM will take 20 of these so I thought I would just cut them all out at once and then get started. What I spend in time now, will feel like a huge savings as things get busier and all I need to do is choose squares and sew them together.

T-shirts (12 of them) that I have chosen to make a T-Shirt quilt for my DH for his birthday coming up in March.

The T-shirts are all running shirts from foot races that he has participated in. They have just been sitting on his shelves (he has soooo many of them) and he can't bear to part with them. I hope he likes the quilt!

Fish & robot fun

Started making fish again :o) One day I will have enough to complete a blanket!

Green yarn from Last Summer Splash Handbag
J got a robot kit for the holidays.He very carefully colored in all the little pieces.

Then we build the robots together.

Quite a cool little kit.

J enjoyed every bit of making these.

His robot family!