Birthday Handmade Goodness!

Lizap surprised me for my birthday with a beautiful hand-knit scarf. Love the wavy pattern and colors. She told me she thought they looked like my colors and she's right! I put it on immediately, as it coordinated with what I was wearing and wore it back to work. Co-workers commented, "the colors are totally you, but the style has Elizabeth written all over it". Thanks Elizabeth!

Olive also appreciates quality handmade items as well (though she was only allowed to wear it to model for this photo).

Catching up - 2010 Projects

It's been a while since I've posted, and even though I didn't think I'd done a whole lot of crafty stuff in 2010, looking back I managed to get a number of things done!

A mini-quilt I made for my secret valentine, a woman who can't stay away from half-square triangles.



Thanksgiving turkey platter. Recipe/Instructions available here.



A Christmas I-Spy quilt for grand-nephew Harley:




Boss and Olive can't stay away from Zan's quilt as I tried to put a binding on it.



The finished quilt I made for Zan. I modified a pattern called Stepping Stones from Cozy Designs.



A detail of Kathy Sperino's quilting:



Ringing in the new year with Redwing pottery, cheese fondue, and cookies from Zoe and Diana. Featuring a new Lotus three-tier platter and a handmade Christmas tree platter from Mom and Dad.




A 'wurm' hat - my first attempt at double pointed needles and knitting in the round:
You can see more about my knitting projects on ravelry.com



A 'baktus' scarf, wonky but warm:



A warm cowl to keep the hunters at bay:

Buttons so Hip

I'd like to blame my pal Kathy Sperino on my button collection, but I think she just fueled the fire. It started when I took up making the hats, my sister and I spent about a half hour digging through a bucket of buttons looking for the cute fifties plastic ones that they were selling for 10 cents each. Then this year Kathy asked me to keep an eye out for mother of pearl buttons. I found some of those. And now my eye is drawn to them and buttons of all sorts. At this last Brimfield I got a huge haul from a dealer in the back of a field who saw me looking at a box of buttons and said, "I'll make you a great deal." She then proceeded to bring over another box and offer it all to me for $8 dollars. Hundreds of buttons. I jumped at it.

Later that day we went through a few booths where they specialized in buttons and ribbons which was further inspiring. LizaP has a picture of one of those booths here. At one of the booths I bought a new book, Buttonware, by Amy Barickman. The woman who was running the booth, Susan Gower, had some of her bracelets featured as a project in the book. She had a fantastic assortment of buttons, notions, and other squeal inducing items which she also sells off of her website, NiftyThriftyDryGoods.com.

I made this bracelet from another project in the book, Charmingly Graceful. I'm pleased as punch at how it turned out. Will have to make some more button projects soon.