Crocheted Ripple Baby Blanket

I love making things for other people, so I'll pretty much jump on any excuse to whip up a gift. A woman my husband works with recently had a baby, and I've been dying to crochet a baby blanket so I decided to make her one.

I spent some time looking at free crocheted baby blanket patterns on Ravelry, and I eventually settled this one, Neat Ripple Pattern. I had always wanted to make a ripple blanket, so it seemed perfect. I tried making one once but I was crocheting so tightly, it didn't have a nice drape, so I frogged it. I decided to try a ripple blanket again with the Neat Ripple pattern and a larger hook to help out with loosing up my stitches.

While looking through the projects shared for the pattern on Ravelry, I was inspired by one that had a neat color change pattern. I had my husband help me choose four yarn colors to use, and I got to work. It took me a lot longer to finish the blanket that I thought it would, about three weeks. To be fair, I didn't work on it many of the days I counted, but it still felt like it took forever. Once you've crocheted up a few rows, you can work without looking back at the pattern easily. Weaving in the ends took forever, but I think I finally did that part right this time!

There are more babies expected in the near future (including one of my own), so I'll probably make a few more of these this year.

Heartmade Holidays Ornament Exchange - Done!

At the end of October, I signed up to participate in Heartmade Life's holiday ornament exchange. We got info about our swap partner at the beginning of November and get to make two ornaments for them. The deadline to mail them out is this coming Monday, but I managed to not only finish in time, but I finished early! This is a big accomplishment for a procrastinator like me.

My swap partner loves the color teal, so I based my ornaments on that. I knew that I didn't want to do the same type of crafting for both, and after a lot of thinking and searching for inspiration on Pinterest, I settled on one crocheted ornament and one embroidered ornament. Here are my cuties:

I found the pattern for the crocheted snowman HERE. For the snowflake, I did a Google search for snowflake line drawings and found one I liked. I traced it onto tissue paper and stitched through the tissue paper onto white felt. The back side has another white felt circle, and I stitched 2013 in the center of it. There is a slightly larger dark gray felt circle sandwiched between the two white pieces, and I hand-stitched the three pieces together.

I really like the way they turned out. My son is obsessed with the snowman and didn't want to give it up, so I have another one in the works. I really hope my swap partner likes them, and I can't wait to get my own little surprise in the mail!

I've Been Bad

So, I've been a very bad blogger, and I'm sorry. I haven't posted in two months and it makes me sad. It all started because I wasn't feeling well and wasn't really getting anything done that would be worthy of writing about. As you probably know, when you don't feel well, it's hard to get the motivation to do things.

I'm working on a lot of projects and will have a lot to write about, but things might get a little crazy in March . . . because I'm pregnant! We're expecting a little girl this time, and I am so excited!

I've been feeling better (although I still get really tired on most days), and I have been getting a lot more crafting done.

I have only really progressed on one of the projects I last updated you on, my Woodland Sampler:

Woodland Sampler

Since my last update, I stitched up my September and October frames. I am currently working on the November frame and hope to finish it this week.

Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club

My top is finished (expect for trimming it), but I still don't know exactly how I want to finish it. I have so many projects going right now, that I'm not going to worry about it until next year.

Wild Olive's Autumn Stitching Club

It's still going on right now (I think this is the last month), but I haven't started working on it. I know that once I get started, I'll probably fly through stitching up the designs. At least, that's what happened with the Summer Stitching Club. I may end up waiting to start this until I finish up all the handmade Christmas gifts I have planned.

ABC Quilt

This project has been on hold for too long. Maybe I can get in gear and finish it in time to give it to my son for Christmas. The timing would be good because we recently switched him to a toddler bed, and he doesn't have a nice blanket for it yet. It might be too much work to finish in a month, but I'm going try.

NEW PROJECTS IN THE WORKS

Eloise Baby Sweater

My first handmade item for the new baby is the Eloise Baby Sweater from MooglyBlog. It's adorable, and I am almost finished. I need to finish 1 1/2 sleeves and the neckline. Then, I get to weave in a million ends. That part won't be fun, but I'll be excited to have it all done and waiting for my little girl. Here is my last progress picture:

Countdown to Christmas Advent Calendar

BetterOffThread is running a Quilt-Along for this advent calendar designed by Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! for SewMamaSew. The Quilt-Along started at the beginning of September, but I didn't hear about it until today! They are working on their binding this week, and I am just getting started.

Their final link up, which enters you to win some nice prizes, is on Monday, November 25th. I'm hoping I can get mine done in time to join in the link party.

So far, I have chosen my fabrics. I had a ton of fabric set aside for Christmas projects that will match/complement the family Christmas stockings I made two years ago, so that will make things a lot easier - no running to the fabric store before I can get started! I may have to trek to JoAnn's to get some white fabric for the sashing, but I'm hoping I can scrounge up enough from my stash to make it work.

Here are the fabrics I'll be working with:

Heartmade Holidays Ornament Swap

I'm participating in a handmade ornament swap hosted by Ashley from Heartmade Life. I have two ornaments to make and send to my swap partner by this coming Monday, November 18th. I think I finally know what I am going to make. Now, I just need to get them done!

My Sister's Birthday Present!

My sister's birthday is this Friday, and I have had a handmade gift idea for her for a LONG time. I have had everything I need to make it for a LONG time. I need to get it DONE! I'll be visiting her for her birthday, and I want to have it in hand, ready for her to open, when I get there. She might be reading this, so I'll post about her gift next week. :)

Wordless Wednesday - July 18th