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Monday, January 31, 2011

2010 craft books

 raise your hand if you're a craft book junkie. the whole month of February i'll be blogging all about 2010 craft books, my favorite ones & what i created from them.  craft books can be so inspiring, plus i enjoy a challenge ~ i want to try & learn new things when it comes to crafting.

(i did this last year, check out 2009 craft books here)

this is a fun winter project for me, something to keep me going during this long, cold, dark, snowy Minnesota winter we've been having.  maybe you'd like to chime in & mention what were some of your favorite crafty type books from 2010.

so come back tomorrow, i'll see you then !

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Mother Bear Project Teddy Bears

 "Love cannot remain by itself ~ it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service."  ~  Mother Teresa
 you know how it goes, when you finish a knitting project you have leftover yarn, then after finishing several knitting projects you have even more leftover yarn... so what can you do with all this leftover yarn?

i found the perfect project for some leftover yarn... the Mother Bear Project Teddy Bear.  the Mother Bear Project was started by Amy Berman & these hand-knit bears give comfort & hope to needy children in Africa & Haiti.  more information can be found in the Knitting for Peace book or at the website.  i was very touched by these stories (this quote can be found here):

"Berman has received hundreds of calls and letters saying how much the bears mean to the children. One young boy in South Africa rushed into his home to save his teddy bear just before the house was washed away by a flood. Another story was told by one of Berman’s distributors about a 7-year-old girl in Zambia who had AIDS. Her classmates refused to play with her, and soon she became too sick to attend school at all. Before she died, she asked to be buried with her teddy bear because, she said, it was her only friend. Her family honored her wish."
 i was thinking how silly it was having this extra yarn just sitting around doing nothing when it could be used to knit up a simple bear which would give a needy child such comfort... so here are the 5 Mother Bear Project Teddy Bears i've knit so far...
 Mother Bear 1 was knit flat using the Mother Bear Project Teddy Bear pattern found in the Knitting for Peace book, be prepared to spend a bit of time sewing up all the seams.  i really like how the 3 colored stripped scarf turned out
 Mother Bear 2 was knit in the round ~ for me this is the way to go, knitting in the round... oh, how i love seamless knitting !  no time spent sewing up seams :)  also for all the ones that i knit in the round i grafted all 4 paws closed
 Mother Bear 3 (knit in the round) was knit using the remaining yarn (dyed with blue Kool-Aid) from the Tiny Tea Leaves cardi that i made for my daughter
 Mother Bear 4 (knit in the round) i was really pleased with how this one turned out, this guy got black shoes
 Mother Bear 5 (knit in the round) i ran out of brown yarn, so this teddy bear is gray & black shoes for this one, too
 one last big hug to all the bears before they go off to Africa or Haiti to give a needy child a hug :)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

pink dress

 {prepare your eyes for lots of pink}

November & December's pattern for the Carefree Clothes for Girls sew-along was the dress with contrasting patches.


 my daughter wanted a pink dress, would you call the color Honeysuckle ?  (Pantone 2011 color of the year)
 instead of adding the contrasting patches to the dress i made a pompom trim keyhole neckline & added a belt
 one sewn button loop in the front
 sewn button loops tutorial found here
 6 sewn button loops in the back
 with a vintage ribbon belt
 with a homemade pompom trim belt
 with the vintage ribbon layered on top of the pompom trim belt
which belt do you prefer with the dress ?