My 3 Girlies! Today is a birthday!

My 3 Girlies!
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Today is my #2 baby girl's birthday. She is 41 and that number really makes me feel old. She is on the right in this picture.

Of course, back on the 17th of this month my #1 baby girl had her 48th birthday. She's the one on the left in the picture. So, this feeling old thing is sort of familiar.

Baby Girl #3 is in the middle and she was 36 in January. My girls were all fairly close (but not in age) growing up. Unfortunately now for them they are separated by many miles. This picture was taken a while back when they all met up in San Antonio where #3 lives. They had a great sisters visit from all accounts. It's too bad they don't get to do that more often.

Today they were teasing me about Tasha (see yesterday's post) being my favorite now. Hardly a comparison. Although........I DID forget yesterday to mention that you can see more pictures of Tasha in my Flicker pictures if you are so inclined!

Between them they have 7 kiddos which we don't see too often. They range from age 21 down to a 6 yr old who is in 1st grade this year.

So, now you know a little more about me. I must say they all appreciate my embroidery and crazyquilting efforts even though sometimes it takes me a long time to get things completed.

The thing I've always been best at is having babies and procrastination!

Isn't she cute?

My garden
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Oh,this picture is my way of distracting you from all the excuses I have on hand for not keeping up with this blog in a timely fashion.

I could say I have been SUPER busy with our new puppy, Tasha, who is about 4 mos. old in thisi photo. We got her on Memorial Day and truly is IT like having a new baby for the first few months! She has drastically changed our lives - for the better we think.

So, she was born on March 7th and her "official name" is Angel's Natasha Joy. She weighed less than 5 lbs when we brought her home. She rode, wrapped in her blankie in my arms most of the way home. She has a delightful personality and is very smart, as most corgis are.

She is now almost 7 mos. (October 7th) and truly the light of our lives. She keeps us hoping and makes sure we keep up with her routine. My daily routine surely has changed since the beginning of this year.

Last Holiday season I fell into a funk as the anniversary of my brother's passing away came and went. It took me a bit to haul myself up and out, but I never stopped with the fiberarts all through it. I knit a lot of things for charity this year - mostly baby hats for our county's hospital.

I also went back to my Take it Further blocks that sort of fell by the wayside when my brother was ill. I've finished Sept and October and only have a little left to do (the beading) on the November block. In the days to come I will blog about my work on them. Soon I will start the December one and maybe I'll have it finished by the New Year - just two years late....LOL

Scarf for Gabrielle

Scarf for Gabrielle
Originally uploaded by lasassone

After Christmas I was all about yarn and knitting and crochet. In the cold evenings I really enjoy working with yarn but this year I really went overboard.
My youngest daughter's birthday is in early January and I made this scarf for her with a combination of 3 yarns/fibers. It ended up feeling like fur.
I forgot to take a picture before I mailed it to her and so she took this one for me. I think she doubled the scarf for the pictures. She also sent me another of her youngest (my youngest granddaughter) wearing the scarf. I will try to add that picture below.
The fibers I used were all different. One was a glittery yarn that almost looked like a crocheted chain. The 2nd one was a fun fur and the 3rd was an eyelash. I usually make scarves with only 15 stitches and 2 fibers. I yarn over on one row and then drop that on the next row. It makes for a nice loose feel. With 3 fibers this one turned out very much thicker and had a fur feel.
Here is my granddaughter who is almost 6 wearing the scarf.

HAPPY NEW YEARS DAY TO ALL!

I have been a bad blogger, I know. And I have nothing but the usual excuses, which don't seem good enough. However, they did at the time.

May 2010 bring you all you wish for. Happiness, Health and Wealth as pictured in the above image courtesy of Dover Publications. May we all find one of those little bags of gold coins!

Granddaughter's Birthday Pillow done!

Lauren's Pillow
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I did the embroidery for this pillow some time ago and when my #3 granddaughter was here this summer she saw it in my UFO pile. Her birthday is the day after Christmas and so finaly I have gotten it made up into a pillow for her bed.

She loves dogs and and I've always loved this vintage design. I used twist up Crayola crayons to color the design before I embroidered it all. I really like how it turned out and I hope she does too.

We're off now to our Garden Club Pot Luck Holiday Dinner. If you'd like to see what I made to take, check out my other blog - there's a link to Lulu's Girl on the side here.

Christmas Cracker Gifts

XmasCrackers
Originally uploaded by lasassone

WARNING: If you are one of the Delta Crazy Tuesday Ladies, please stop reading this right now! You will spoil your Christmas Luncheon Surprise!

I believe I've mentioned before that I belong to a little stitching group that meets once a week. We split off from our large monthly group that is still very active. It started during one summer when someone was on vacation from her school job and wanted to devote a morning to stitching so she could use her time off efficiently and get something accomplished during her time off.

Along the way we picked up another member and we are now 5! This year is the first time we will have our own little Christmas luncheon/party. We are going to the local golf course restaurant and then back to one of the members homes for dessert.

We discussed doing a baggie swap for each member and I asked if I could be a little different and try something I read about on the CQI list. I didn't join in the CQI swap, but I thought this might be fun to do for this group since I'd only have to make 4 and not so many as I would for the large monthly group.

I'm assuming here that you know about the Christmas Cracker tradition. You can still buy pre-made ones at Costco World Market last time I looked. They are a lot smaller than my version and usually contain a bit of candy or a toy like Cracker Jack boxes do. When I was a small girl we had these on the table for Christmas dinner and they made a loud pop when you opened them! I think my Canadian Father might have grown up with them and that's why we had them.

For each of these special Crackers I cut a 7 inch length of a paper towel cardboard tube. Then I pieced an 8" block for each of my friends. I handpieced a simple block similar to what I did for the Take It Further Challenge that Sharon Boggen had last year. Just 5 pieces and the center piece of each block was chosen according to the interest of the person it is for.

Then I pulled embellishments appropriate for each block, put them in a 3" by 5" ziplock bag and stuffed it in the tube. After that I rolled the block around the tube and tucked the ends in.

Then I cut a piece of a faux crazyquilt Christmas print about 8" x 13" and just hemmed it with machine basting and applied lace to the short sies. That way, if they want, they can salvage the fabric to use for another project.

For the tags I printed off some gift card packets, put them together with double stick tape and inserted an angel faux cigarette silk that I printed for each of them.

I sure hope they like what I've done. A couple of the blocks may very well be a real color challenge for the new owner, but we're always talking about expanding our color horizons, so I hope they are not disappointed.

Come this Tuesday I'll surely find out! Stay Tuned!

XmasScarf#2

XmasScarf#2
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Last night I finished this, the 2nd scarf I have knit for a Christmas present in the last month. This one is a tad longer than the first one and it's a little more frilly because of the fashionista granddaughter who will receive this. It was knit on size 8 needles and the yarn is Red Heart's Collage. I guess you call this a self-striping yarn, the color is called blue waves. It is not nearly "green-looking" as it looks in the pictures - it's more gold/yellow.

I've done this pattern before back in January for a black & grey scarf I made for one of my daughters. Once you get the hang of the pattern rows, it's quite easy. However, as usual I did my fair share of UNknitting because I get easily distracted.

My next knitting project will be some fingerless mittens or maybe I should call them handwarmers. At any rate, they look like they would be great for driving.

Also in the works is a Taggie for our new grandnephew, a set of redwork IKEA dishtowels, another pillow, some doll clothing, a wallhanging, some fuzzy fabric scarves and maybe a totebag or two. My deadline for most of these things is the 18th of December when SOME will have to be mailed.

Wish me luck!

A Great Blog and Super Give Away

Cathy over at Crazy By Design is having a wonderful Holiday Give Away. You MUST go visit and check out her generous offerings! Go Here:

http://cathyscrazybydesign.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas and stay tuned. I'm catching up on projects and will be back soon!

Skirt for Cheryl

This is a bad picture of a gift I took up to my daughter's home for Thanksgiving yesterday. It actually looked way better than this picture. I just had the hem basted at the point I took the picture.

The evening before Thanksgiving I had finished this skirt that was a promised birthday gift for my eldest daughter. I had given her the pattern, fabric, thread and zipper in a gift box at her birthday celebration. I wanted her to approve of it before I went ahead and made a skirt for her. She had been complaining that she couldn't find a "pencil skirt" for work similar to what I appeared to be wearing in a lot of her old baby pictures. Back then we just called these "straight skirts" and even the skirts on most of my dresses were cut straight.

Do you know how LONG it's been since I made any clothing? It has been 15 years at least I think because that's when I stopped making clothes for my 2 eldest granddaughters who are now almost 19 and 21. While I can't recall what I had for lunch yesterday, it appears I haven't forgotten how to sew clothes. The hardest thing was remembering to use 5/8" seams and not 1/4 inch! I do have to admit to leaving the pattern pinned on the fabric for a day or so, just in case I would discover I had messed it up somehow.

The fabric is a polyblend from JoAnn Fabrics and it raveled something fierce, so I had to machine zigzag over all the seam allowance to make sure the skirt wouldn't ravel away! I liked the pattern (McCall's 3830) because there was no waistband to deal with, just a facing. And I put in a zipper! I'm so proud of myself.

However, I feel very dumb for not getting a picture taken of her in the skirt after we determined the hem was okay. Duh......

But she said she loved it and it looked cute on her!

I'm almost done with all my "promised projects". I just have one more pillow to put together and then I can get busy on Christmas gift things. The grands like to get gift cards, but this year I am trying to make them each some little thing to go along with the gift card.

Stay tuned!