Amigurumi (No, I don't know how to pronounce it. Look it up.)

Amigurumi are little crocheted animals, critters, and generally non-human things, with a cuteness factor times 100.

This is my very first attempt at amigurumi; I used a free pattern I found at Bittersweet. I'd like to make a little flock to accompany this guy (girl?), and then I'm going to try an amigurumi tea cup pincushion (pattern at Lion Brand Yarn site).

Should I be hoping to win this?

My entry is my ADD Vegetable Quilt:

And here is a close-up of its amazing awfulness.

It's okay if you just threw up in your mouth a little. I did, too.

For the almost newest family member

My nephew (J. Bull) and his wife are expecting their first child, a girl, in about a month. Since they won't reveal her name until she arrives, I've taken to calling her Miss Adora Bull.

Anyway, these are a couple of burp cloths I stitched up for her this morning. The flannel for these came from sample cards that a lot of shops sell for a dollar or two. You can often pick up some nice pieces of an entire line of fabrics, in all the colorways, and they're perfect for small projects like this.

swappin' into the wee hours

Stayed up way too late last night, working on swap projects...

Bookmarks for a swap friend. Her given is Maribel, but she goes by the user name of CraftyRabbit. The pink bookmark on the left is made from a paint chip.

This is a zippered pouch made from a pita chip bag. :) It's lined with yellow fabric to coordinate with the exterior colors.

And another zippered bag; both bags are going to a swapper in Switzerland.

Doll quilt

Recently, while waiting at my dentist's office for the opportunity to spend an ungodly amount of money, I was perusing a copy of Conde Nast Traveler magazine and happened upon a photo of a very cool hotel in Beijing, China. The Opposite House has a wall in the lobby that is a contemporary interpretation of Chinese apothecary chests.

(This picture isn't as good as the one from the magazine, but it's the best I could find online.)

I decided to try the design in a doll quilt, using colors in the aqua/blue/green/tan colorway. I added navy blue buttons in each block. This was the end result.

And, like everything else I've been making lately, this has been shipped off to a swap partner. :)

Never dreamed I'd make a corset.

At least I don't have to wear it. :)

This is for a swap for a coffee cozy. I decided to make a coffee corset instead. On my first attempt, I put metal grommets on the holes, and they didn't work well at all. I guess it was because they were going through 2 layers of fabric, plus batting. So I quickly made another one, and this time I used the little eyelet stitch on my machine (1st time!), and I was much happier with the results.

I used this particular fabric because my swap partner loves grapes and grapevines.

A house I love and don't have to clean.

My new craft challenge - making Row Houses. 

This is the very first one I've completed, for a swap titled "Vacation/Beach House." The front of the house (below) features sandpaper for sand, a paper cocktail umbrella, a shell doorknob and a shell house number sign, and paper curtains cut from an ad for a swimsuit cover-up. 

The back of the house has a little clothesline to dry a miniature towel and swimsuit. :)

What do you do when....

...you've made something for someone else, and when you get it finished, you like it so much you don't want to give it away?

This is a "quiltie," a miniature 10" square quilt, that I made for a swap. The challenge was to try a new technique or block or design. Several years ago, I had bought the quilting book Circle Play because I was so intrigued with the idea of the interplay of lines and color between the circles and triangles in the author's quilts. Naturally, after purchasing the book and oohing and aahing over all the pictures, I never actually made a project with the techniques.

Until now.

Wow. This was challenging. Picking the primary fabric for the circles was easy. Background fabrics, not so much. Then cut and piece. Then lay out circles in multiple positions to find the best effect, stitch them on. Then decide to add piping. Then make the border, piecing fabrics and aligning them to get the visual effect I wanted. Then ponder how to do the quilting. Quilt, then add binding and a tiny label.

I love, love, love how it came out. These colors are so "me." Even my husband said, "Wow! That's really pretty!" when he saw it, and getting a wow out of him is no small feat. This is one of my most favorite projects ever.

The big problem now - I'm supposed to mail it to my swap partner. And I don't wanna!!!