Cloche Crochet

I have been making quite a few crochet flowers, but haven't ventured much beyond that until today. I decided I would try a hat to go with a new flower. I did find out that I am not very good at following patterns, so this just kind of happened. I am the same with recipes-hee hee. It only took a couple of hours to do in between school and laundry and packing. I would do little bits and pieces. It is made from Wool-Ease Thick and Quick so it is very warm. I may have to try another one. My youngest daughter looks so cute in it, but she thinks it is horrible. Maybe my oldest will wear it. These look so much cuter on people with long hair. I'll have to wait til she gets home.

Ahhh! To sew clothing again...

As much as I love crafts, I really enjoy sewing clothes and I have missed doing that while working on all the craft fair goodies.  I did make another crochet flower yesterday and I put together a potholder that I like. I am hoping to put together several sets of these for Christmas gifts. I put buttons in the center of my other black and white flowers I made last week too. The most fun part of my evening though was cutting out and starting the serging/sewing on this Maggy London dress pattern in a robin's egg blue knit. I have loved the cutting, pinning, serging and marking! Hope to get it done by this weekend. Today I will be spreading seed and straw over all of the newly landscaped area before rains and snow wash all of our smooth dirt down the hill. Maybe I will get a little more done tonight if I am not totally exhausted.

A Busy Weekend

This past week proved to be a rather busy one. I spent quite a bit of time preparing for our first unit celebration for our Tapestry co-op. I was in charge of doing a Seder meal display and explanation. We have been studying the first 5 books of the Bible and also Jewish festivals and feasts. I made Egyptian Palace Bread that is nothing but honey and white bread baked low and slow, then topped with homemade whipped cream. I made charoset that was very yummy. It is a mixture of apples, nuts, raisins, dates, honey and cinnamon. We had a very good time Saturday night with all of the families that attended and ate some amazing foods. Friday night, Katy had her second sewing class of the year. She is getting so good at reading her patterns and knowing what to do. The class is making purses for their fall project and Katy's looks so cute. She just has to finish the handles and sew on the button accents and she is done. Too bad it is a spring/summer fabric. I also made a custom order crochet flower that will be made into a pin that this customer can use on anything. She wanted black and white with this cute 1920's flapper button as the center. I am going to attach it to a hat to give to her. Yesterday I came home and had to do something with a huge bag of pears my son brought home from work. Most of them were bad and many of them weren't ripe even though they were rotting. I chopped them into pieces and then cooked them in red wine, honey, cinammon and ginger-OH man did they smell good! I then made a basic dough from flour, sugar-both brown and white, eggs, buttermilk, baking soda and salt. I added a little of the syrup from cooking and some of the charoset I had left over as well. To finish it off and make it moist, I added a cup of oil. I then tossed in the pears and about a half cup of chopped pecans. I baked it in a bundt pan for almost an hour and it is fabulous! I am sending half of it with cream cheese icing to the guy my son works with that gave him the pears. He gives them away with the hope that someone will make him something to eat out of them. All in all, we had a busy week and I am hoping for a little slower pace this week so I can get some sewing in. Have a great start to your week!

Floral Creations

My kids and I were watching the pres. debate tonight online and I hate not being productive when I sit and watch something, so I made 3 flowers out of this home decor remnant scrap I had. I added tulle and a little white on cream for the centers. Sewing these is much easier than hot gluing them-I have tried both. I'll probably make these into pins.Two of them still need buttons in the center. I was playing "clean up your fabrics" today and figured I could make something out of that scrap. Unfortunately my youngest daughter was quite ill this morning, so I tried to take care of her first. I hate it when my babies are sick! Hope you have had a great day.

Glendale Leftovers

We had an enjoyable day, although not quite as profitable as I would have liked. I have quite a bit of stuff leftover, so I started an Etsy store today. Hopefully I will be able to sell some of my goods. That would be exciting. My store name is Andrea's Basement Boutique. Here are some of the goodies I made and plan on listing.

Work, work, work

This craft fair thing is going to make me crazy. As if college deadlines weren't enough! I have been hastily finishing up projects for Saturday. Oh my. I made several sets of "No Sweat" coasters and finished crocheting all of the flowers for the 4 hats. I even sewed them on buttons and all tonight while listening to the pres. debate. I also tried a new flower made of tulle and decor weight cloth. It needs some tweaking and some more petals, but I really like the body it has. I will work on those tomorrow. Bed is calling my name!

Another crochet flower and a take along blankie

Finished up another flower in a worsted weight teal. I changed my pattern a little and I like the way this one came out. I need to write down what I did before I forget. I also did a little take along blankie. I blanket stitched one of the flowers from the backing material onto some nice yellow jersey and then added a denim strap. It is 12X12 roughly. Nice size for the car or stroller and the strap keeps it handy.