Summer Sweetie

Today most of the local kidlets are off to start the new school year and it has me thinking about summer coming to an end. I'm completely looking forward to Autumn, but trying to savor the remains of summer for the next month or so. I shared some shots of this little girlie on the photo blog, but thought I'd share more here. They make me completely jealous of those of you with little girls and I hope you had the chance to let yours run around barefoot in the grass in light summer dresses.








I love this shot with the bubble perfectly poised above her head.



She looks sad, but I think she's just plotting to catch the next bubble because this next shot was seconds later.



The dress in these last shots is a continuation of my vintage children's clothing obsession. My 18 years older sister had some really darling dresses when she was little and now about 50 years later my niece can wear them. You have to check out the full size photo for the detail, but it is a light pink sheer cotton dress with embroidered tulips on it. More little girl jealousy from me right there! At least I get to photograph her prancing around in them.

Baby gifties

My latest knitting endeavor involved making my very first pair of baby booties. I am not exactly a fan of dpns (although I have a feeling I'd like bamboo better than my slippery, little, metal skewers) and that is part of the reason I shy away from tiny little knits. The Saartje bootees, however...totally addicting. After running out of the leftover yarn I was using on the initial pair, I started this second pair.



These went to my friend's new baby along with this receiving blanket that I made.



I know one other person expecting a baby this year (a boy), so I think I'll be adapting the pattern to make some boy friendly booties (have you browsed through these things on ravelry?!). And I have no doubt that any future babe of mine will be lucky enough to wear handknit booties. Sorry, Tot - I hope your baby feet weren't chilly in their store bought, ill-fitting socks.

I miss you!

I'm talking to you, blog. I have good intentions, I even take photos of things to decorate your pages and hopefully make you enticing to our readers, yet I haven't taken the time to put it all together. And I miss that. Sooo...here I am and I pulled out one photo of one project to try to get back into the swing of things.



I made these coasters to warm a friend's new home... about a year ago. (The stitching doesn't really contrast with the fabric quite as much as it seems to in the photo.) These are from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted gifts. I've since made one other set for myself, yet un-photographed, but being well-used in the next room. I also have at least three more pieces of fabric intended for coasters that haven't met with the sewing machine. Actually, I blame this all on my ancient machine and lack of a walking foot which is the suggested method for quilting these babies. The first set I used the standard presser foot and it, well, pressed them and made things a little difficult in a bunching up sort of way. For the second set, I tried a darning foot that I found on ebay. This method probably yielded worse results as it didn't hold the fabric AT ALL. Not to mention I did them with the Tot grabbing my arm every so often, thereby yanking the fabric off course. Sooo....if you come across a walking foot for an old Elna sewing machine....I will love you! I'll even make you some coasters!