I finished two more box bags. This time I used a strip of vintage copper/silver mesh fabric I got at The Cancer Garage Sale for 75c! I was so afraid to press it for fear of melting it. I backed it with a very grainy muslin before piecing it. I had two colors of this metallic cotton so I decided to make a sister set. Quite LITERALLY a sister set because the red one will of course go to my sister Lisa and the sage one will go to me. Kinda reminds you of that Overbeck painting, Italia und Germania, doesn't it? I saw that in Munich and bought a postcard of it because I just thought, "Katie and Lisa" when I saw it. So here is my rendering of Overbeck's "Italia und Germania" in box bags.


My sister and her husband are currently touring Italy. They are enjoying a memorable one month on the continent where they have been joined by our parents and a first cousin. How wonderful to share the experiences of a place like Italy with the ones you love! They write on their blog about their daily adventures of train platforms, pidgeons, asiago cheese, sweat, Duomo, etc. All the things you'd expect to hear about Italy. I enjoy checking in and reading about what they are up to.

More Box Bags

I finished some Christmas gifts last night! (These, however, are Christmas gifts that I didn't finish for this LAST Christmas!) I have 3 more bags cut out that have just INSPIRED me (more on those later) but I have to go foraging at Joann's for trim and some more felt interfacing before I can finish those. My sewing machine had been being kind of naughty tension-wise, but then my mother took it all apart and showed me a trick with threading the bottom bobbin. I have to say that a casing-less bobbin is the greatest thing to ever happen to sewing machines!

Butterfly Gals

Two of my dearest friends are nuts about butterflies. I was dinking around in Walmart and came across this fabric for only $4.96/yard and got the purple/blue for DeeDee since half of her house has purple accents (she is also a big tie dye-er so the fabric was an added bonus!) and the orange/gold for Melissa (but I forgot to take a picture of Melissa's after I gave it to her!). While in the store, I casually asked Melissa which colorway she liked better and quick had it cut while she went to the bathroom but I think she saw me on her way back! Anyhoo, the talented and lovely Amy Butler has some glorious sewing patterns (and simply EDIBLE fabrics!) and one of my absolute favorites is her Messenger Bag pattern! Mom and I both take a Messenger Bag on every trip we go on because you can put all the stuff you acquire throughout the day in it and your hands are free. It has lots of handy pockets for maps, tickets, chapstick, etc. My mother has made about 12 of these in different fabrics. This fabric was a sturdy cotton twill weave and just perfect for this project.

Temari Time

I went over to DeeDee's house last night to work on Temari balls. I had made one for her as a wedding gift a while back and I don't think I have made one since! She has always been interested in making them and we started work on a wrapped ball last night. I had forgotten how time consuming they are and how daunting they must be to a beginner. She was able to get her ball wrapped in thread and mark a north and south pole before we called it quits. I couldn't wait to keep working on mine and I stayed up all night and just finished it! I had had this color combination in mind for a while. I was inspired by the embroidery on this purse I bought in Limerick for 5 Euros. I was shopping in a "Penney's" store and it was one of my favorite souvenirs from that trip to Ireland! Temari balls are Japanese and usually made or given on New Years Eve by a mother to a daughter or an aunt to a niece. I have grand schemes to make one every year for my nieces, but that will mean a lot of catch up work! My one niece has already been around for 5 New Year's and the other has been around for 1, so I have a few I need to make already! I like the wrapped designs because there is not nearly as much stitching and they work up fairly quickly.

2 and counting...

I finished my second pair of wrist warmers from Grandma's bridal crown beads. I was home for the holiday and had Mom scan me in a wedding picture and it was indeed the crown of her veil. We also deduced that the uncut piece of lace yardage I have was the border of the veil itself. Now what to do with that? I am very pleased with the way these are turning out. I'm doing a lot of perle cotton de-stashing for this endeavor as well since it IS "Use What You Have Month". This is the "Lilac" version of the Perdita pattern and I started, finished, and blocked these last night while sitting up watching movies. I then took a break from Perdita to work a little on Mrs. Beeton. I'll soon have more wrist warmers than I know what to do with!

I made these cookies last year and based this picture on an email I had received, but the email involved chocolate bunnies. I couldn't resist. I am off work for 2 days and heading home to my parents' house but not before I do my compulsory dinking around here for 2 or so hours. I will try to make a batch of frosted Easter sugar cookies to put in the freezer since this will likely be the last time I bake these before the fall. I am looking forward to 2 quiet days at home with the folks. I have some new movies for tonight's Film Festival and some new knitting patterns for my mother. It is nice to not have to be anywhere or do anything for a day or two. Bliss.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Eggs Gone Wild!!!

Instead of having Knit Night tonight, we all got together at DeeDee's to work on some dyed eggs for Easter. I brought over my box of dyes and my styluses, egg blowers, candles, polyeurathane, and plenty of paper towels and we had at it for a few hours. Everyone brought some eggs and some craic and we had a great time hunkered down around DeeDee's coffee table! Melissa had a tragic moment when she finished her first egg, held it up with a proud exclaim of, "Ta-da!" only to DROP it on the coffee table moments later! She still managed to crank out a few more. We were really careful to examine the eggs for any hairline cracks in the shell before starting work and we didn't lose a single one in the blowing process! I have got at least 6 other colors and I really should mix them up for next time (violet, dark red, bright red, bright pink, light blue, light green, etc.). I kind of wanted to come home and work on my latest wrist warmer for a bit, but my hands are still blue and I'm afraid I might stain the thread!

One pair down...

I finished the first pair! If you look really closely you'll notice that I simply set the buttons on and haven't yet actually stitched them! This pair took 100 beads and I think I'm going to try to make a few pair of the Lilac variety because they won't use as many beads. I really would like to make enough for my mother, her sister, her sister in law, my sister, my sister in law, and my 3 female cousins, and of course me! You DO realize that is 9 pair in total. And you DO realize that in about 3 weeks or so I will be shaking my fists at the sky and cursing the day I made this promise to myself and to Grandma! Oh well. I am SO very proud of these and I would certainly like the lily of the valley variety for myself because they are my favorite of all flowers (besides pansies, of course). This first pair will go to my mother. "...and the best pair, of course, went to Mother."

Jessica's Baby

There is a gal on my floor who is pregnant and due in June. I got to visiting with her the other day and was asking if she knew if it was a boy or a girl and she didn't know. At that moment I slipped into a parallel dimension because I could still hear her talking and everything but all I could think of was this ball of yellow and very unisex cotton yarn and this pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting. It was a really simple pattern but I got to about 4 rows before I had to cast off and ran...out...of...yarn. Blast. So I already screwed up April (Use What You Have Month) and went to Hobby Lobby to get another ball of yarn to finish the project. I couldn't find a pattern for a hat and just made one up. I'll use the remainder to make a bib from Mason Dixon Knitting. I really liked the ribbon for the tie closure. I'm going to give this to her the next time I see her!

Baby Hat-Using Bernat Cottontots Worsted Cotton Yarn

CO 45 st. onto 3 dpn's, size 8. K in ss til work measures 3". *K2tog, k3* repeat from * 8 times. K one round. *K2tog, k2*, repeat 8 times. K one round. *K2tog, k1*, repeat 8 times. K one round. K2tog 9 times. Pull tail through all stitches and break yarn.

I like candy. A lot.

This is another of the items I got from my grandpa's house. It is just a lovely and humble little blue pottery plate! It is chipped in places but I think it is just so charming! I think it will look very nice on the table covered in kringlas or linzers or some such thing. I especially like it covered with festive Lindt chocolate! This is MY personal Easter stash! Everyone else will have to settle for Reese's Peanut Butter and Snicker Eggs. The Lindt can be consumed only with special dispensation from me!

Perdita-WIP

I surprise myself from time to time. I have all kinds of tins and boxes and bags and pouches that hold unfinished projects or raw materials for designated projects all over my house. They are not ordinary containers either. They are fabulous, glorious, decorative, and personal vessels to contain said items. I have begun work on a pair of Perdita wristwarmers using beads salvaged from what I think might be the crown of my late grandma's disintegrating bridal veil. I've had the floss and some ho-hum store bought beads for this project for some time now, but I was struck with inspiration when I came across this veil and began a pair. I was walking through my living room when I noticed the work on the needles laid across it's home (the tin) and thought, "What a great picture that would make!" The work matches Elizabeth's dress perfectly! And how fitting since the first pair will go to my mother who is another great Elizabeth! I bought that tin for a quarter at the Cancer Garage sale this year and absolutely fell in LOVE with it! It's a souvenir biscuit tin from ERII's coronation on June 2, 1953. I love how you can see thistles, shamrocks, and Tudor roses all over it!