Winners! And lots of crafting.

The winners for the Rainbow Moebius pattern giveaway are: Flanthrower, Mz Kwooz, craftattacks, Brittney, and Julie. Please email me with your address at (oiyi.yau at gmail.com) replacing the spaces and at symbol acordingly. If you don't contact me before Friday, I won't be able to mail out your pattern until I get back after the holidays.
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I have been knitting, baking and sewing like crazy. I haven't been spending a lot of time online except for Ravelry. I will have to catch up on my blog reading after the holidays.

Over the weekend, I took a break and went to the annual Sit 'n' Knit Holiday Party. This was my first time and it was a lot of fun. There was a Open Bar and lots of food. Everyone brought a knitting project and there was also a raffle for some great prizes. The pictures from the party are from Rima. My little old point and shoot wasn't working very well in the bar, so I asked her to take the photos and she sent me copies.This is me with Rima. She was so nice to save me a seat at her table. I didn't know many people there so I really appreciated that.There was also a Optional Gift Exchange. You knit or crochet a gift before the party and then we drew names at the party. After all the names have been drawn, you have to find the person that you got and give her your gift. And someone else will be looking for you to give you their gift. It sounds easy enough, but there were over 60 people there and it took me a long time to find my gift recipient. The above picture is me with Katy. I eventually found her and gave her my gift which was a little scarflet. It's a cute little pattern that my MIL taught me when I first started knitting.I got my gift right away from my friend, Tomo. I couldn't believe that she drew my name. She made a fabulous soft scarf that was in the colors that I like.
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I bet you haven't seen any of my sewing endevours in a while. I owe 5 blocks to the members of my Online Quilting Bee, called Common Threads (link on side bar). This month is my turn to send out the fabrics for my quilt. The other 12 members will work on the block with my specifications and fabrics. Over the weekend, I finished everything up and the next day, DH kindly took all 12 packages and stood in line at the Post Office.The blocks vary in size. It's whatever the person of the month tells us. On all of these blocks, the sizes ranged from 11 inches to 15 inches. The above one is 15 inches and it is the largest block I have made so far.This person wanted log cabin blocks. I made 2 blocks because she gave me ample fabric.This was the most challenging block so far. She wanted a tree house block. The block is 14 inches and is mostly appliqued. I bet this is going to be an awesome quilt when it's finished.
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I have been knitting like a demon. I have finished a lot of projects, but haven't had time to photograph them. I finished this hat almost 2 weeks ago.This hat is for DH. Can you believe that he almost bought a hat from Target? His wife is a knitter!! He said that I always seemed to be so busy with a lot of projects and didn't want to bother me.

After I made him put the hat back at Target, we went home and he chose the yarn from my stash. Then I searched through Ravelry for a non-girly pattern (he specified no girly yarn color or girly pattern). I casted on late Sunday night and on Monday when he got home from work, I presented him with a finished hat.It's a really good pattern and produces a very nice hat. Because the brim is folded up, you can pull the brim over your ears on the really cold days.
Pattern: Seaman's Cap (free pattern)
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm and US 7 / 4.5 mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease, color: Grey Heather, 0.74 skeins = 145.8 yards (133.3m)
Size: Large

A Little Hand Sewn Doll

Thank you all for your well wishes. The insomnia continues to plague me. The magic hour seems to be 5am. That is when I drift off to sleep, but that is also when DH starts to snore! So, I barely get 3 hours of sleep and then I have to wake up at 8am to feed the baby. Sometimes if I am lucky, she will sleep until 9am. Hopefully, this will end soon.

My recent project is from a Japanese Craft Book that uses socks and gloves to make dolls. I got this book a few years ago, but now they have published a English version. The Japanese version has enough pictures to show you how to make the dolls even if you can't read Japanese. The neat thing about the projects is that you don't need a sewing machine. Just a pair of scissors, needle, thread, and a pair of socks or gloves.
So, I started off with a pair of cheap gloves from Target. I chose to make the Pig. I cut apart the gloves and sewed them back together to form the pig. I made a boo boo on the head but sewed up the glaring hole afterwards. When I looked at the English version at the book store, I realized where I went wrong.This is my practice pig, so I left off the eyes and button for the snout. I did add the cute belly button. I am not crazy about how the limbs and ears are attached on. They instruct you to use a whipstitch which produces a very "home made" look (you can see the stitches). I am sure that is part of the charm, but I like my work to have a cleaner look. That's just how I am. I am working on another animal and I like how it's turning out so far by making the stitches as invisible as possible.Apparently, she likes to chew on pork.She looks like she is growing a Mohawk.Here she is stalking her prey.The poor Pig resting after getting chewed on, drooled on, and having it's arms and legs yanked on. I think one of the legs is longer because of all the yanking.

Someone turned 3 years old!

Today is Napoleon's birthday. I will be grilling up a steak for him and Caesar to share. 3 years ago, he was my first "baby" and now I have 3, one human and 2 fur babies. Babies and dogs bring a lot of laughter into the household.Someone else is having a bundle of joy soon, so I made this Care Bears soft book for her. Don't worry, Napoleon's paws are clean. Since both my dogs live in a Chinese household where we take off our shoes when we enter the house, they get their paws washed when they come in, too.I made my first soft book from a kit I got at Joann Fabrics, but this time, I bought fabric panels from Hayloft Fabrics. You just have to supply the batting. I used a nice cotton batting I got from Michaels. Hayloft Fabrics delivered quickly and without any problems, so I would definitely recommend them.

The only problem I had was in making the book. The panels are not printed in perfect rectangles, the sides are not straight at all, so you can't cut them out straight. In fact, some of the sides are warped, so it made lining up the panels very difficult. I did my best not to lose any of the important parts of the book when I sewed them together, like the star numbers and the pictures. It was frustrating and I almost didn't send it since I felt awful it wasn't perfect. But then I remembered that babies won't scrutinize the book for imperfections. They are just happy playing with it and putting it in their mouths.

This is the second month of the virtual quilting bee at Common Threads and I made this 14 inch quilt block for Melissa. Curves are hard, but I had a lot of fun with this block. I just don't know if it fits in with her theme. When I hung it on the wall to take pictures, it reminded me of a modern art painting. Slap it in a frame and you can hang it on your wall.

This one is for her.

I am back! We lost our cable internet connection for a week. And boy did I go through some withdrawal symptoms! Time Warner Cable said they would send someone to check it out by the end of the week. A whole week seemed like an eternity for DH and I since we are internet junkies. The problem turned out to be a bad modem and they gave us a new one and we are back online. Woohoo!!

During my internet free week, I kept busy with some more sewing projects. This is another one of those Cuddly Quilt Kits from Jo-Ann Fabrics. This one is called Children at Play and the colors are brown and green. All the fabrics is 100% cotton and cotton flannel except for that brown plush. It was a nightmare to sew with. Let's just say that I spent more time with the seam ripper than actually sewing.
This will be my last Cuddly Quilt Kit. I am tired of struggling with sewing the fabrics that are in the kits. The brown plush was the problem and it would not stop shifting even though I pinned the hell out of it. I do love the colors of this quilt and I am glad that this one is going to my little girl. Normally, she does tummy time on my bed or on a carpet next to my bed. This is the first time doing it on a hard surface on top of a blanket.For some reason, it made her lose her balance and she fell over. I noticed her arm kept buckling when she was on the hard wood floor, but she has no problem propping herself on a softer surface.Whoops! I checked for boo boos and she was fine. I am a mean mommy, but I kinda think this picture is funny.Laying on her back was much better. She stopped crying and let me take some pictures.I love the back! It's a soft cotton flannel with a swirly print.

Baby Bunny Pink

After getting reacquainted with my Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine last week making the soft fabric book, I decided to tackle another sewing project. I know a few babies that are arriving this Summer, so I need to start making the gifts now. Jo-Ann Fabrics sells these quilt kits called Cuddly Quilt Kit. I bought 2 kits in January. This one is called Baby Bunny Pink. It comes with all the fabric for the front and back and includes easy directions. This quilt doesn't require batting. The rights sides are sewn together leaving a small opening and then you turn the quilt right side out.The directions are very clear in how to cut out all the pieces and how to assemble. My biggest and only complaint is the choice of fabrics they give you. Most of the fabric is cotton and flannel, but there is also satin and a eyelet cloth that has embroidery all over it. Those two were very hard to sew with. I ripped out the sewing many times, but decided to just go with it at the end because I was beyond frustrated. Surprisingly, the pink heart plush for the borders didn't give me any problems.It's not perfect, but it's still cute. It's a light blanket, perfect for a Summer baby girl.The back is a flannel print, called Bunny Words. The size of the blanket is 30.5" by 36".

A Good Read or Good Eats?

I think she is more interested in tasting the book than reading it.I took a break from knitting this week and dusted off my sewing machine to make Melody a soft book. I got this Winnie the Pooh Soft Book kit from Jo-Ann Fabrics while I was in Boston. It even comes with the batting for inside the book. You just need to cut out the book panels, baste the batting to the pages, sew the book pages with the right sides together, flip it inside out, whip stitch the opening closed, then sew the book pages together.It took me all day to get this done, but that was in between changing diapers, bottle feeding and play times. For those of you without a baby, it would probably take you a few hours. I want to make more of these soft books. I know that they sell just the fabric panels online somewhere (have to do a search when I get the time) and it would be cheaper than buying the kits. I have plenty of batting in my closet.The best part is that it is machine washable. She tends to drool when she does tummy time.