Some quilts and other things

Well, for a break today from statistics and all things boring, I'm posting some delayed quilting.

First up, a butterfly quilt for a friend having her first baby girl. Samir and I made this jointly in a crazy sewing session that lasted about four hours, the morning of my friend's baby shower (this is likely why the pictures are not ideal-- I seem to remember being quite late and needing to run to take a shower, and saying "come on! take it! got to go!"). There's nothing like a deadline to get you going! I liked it particularly because it wasn't too "baby". The back is just the butterfly fabric and it comes through nicely in the second picture. I would have like to angle it, but unfortunately this was just some scrap fabric my mom had lying around so I had to make do with less than I would need to do so.



This quilt I probably made two years ago now (yikes!) and although I distinctly recall taking pictures of it myself, I have never been able to find the pictures. So, we'll have to settle with glimpses available in pictures my friends have taken of their kids where the quilt makes an appearance. It's a lovely little ladybug fabric with red, white, and black, originally made for friends' first baby, but happily used extensively for friends' second baby. I loved this quilt because the cottons I used ended up being super soft. It was considerably larger than the quilt above ("toddler bed" or "crib size" in quilting terms), so took awhile. I was sad to part with it because it was my biggest quilt made to date, but my sadness quickly turned to sheer delight when I saw my friends actually used it. (As I'm sure you knitters can share in, the most heartbreaking part of gifting handmade items is if the recipient does not use the gift. Samir also sews quite a lot but refuses to sew any gifts because of this problem.)


In other happy, artsy things, my sister painted this mailbox for my parents. I love it!


Finally, I thought some of you (not HEB) would appreciate this. Awhile ago we foster parented some adorable, adorable kittens that were abandoned by their stray mother after being powerwashed. My mom found them while out canvassing for some election, and we took care of them for a few weeks until they could eat on their own. They were so sweet! (Like I said, sorry, HEB). They generally cozied up to any and all yarn available. Here, two of them decided to snuggle with a baby blanket I was in the middle of knitting. Unfortunately the intended recipient had a bad cat allergy, so I ended up knitting a new gift for that friend and giving this to someone else.

knitting and other happy-making things

I've sent off a few handknits in the last week or so, so I figured I should also post them to the blog. The first package included this hat: Foliage, in Plucky Knitter cashmere fingering weight in Rustica.
I worked the hat with two strands of the yarn on US 6s. Hat mods here. The matching wristwarmers were knit with one strand on US 4s. (Details here on adapting the hat pattern to wristwarmers.)
As with many lovely yarns, I struggled to capture its color but think that the first shot of the wristwarmers probably gets it the best. As far as cashmere yarns go, I think this one is a great value, since this whole set used less than 1.5 skeins (hat: less than 1 skein; wristwarmers: less than 0.5 skeins).

On EW's orders, I am posting two non-knitting, but happy-making things to the blog. First up: flannel pajama pants that my mom made me. The fabric is Amy Butler flannel from Stitchers Crossing. She was working off a pattern, but, apparently, they were turning out odd so she basically winged it. I am so happy for cool nights when I can wear these. (They have shrunk a little in the wash since this photo, but that's all for the best.)
And my new fall bag, which is what came of having too many lovely birthday gifts.
I hope you all have time for knitting and other happy-making things!