Z everyday things: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

Animal bread

I get the Fleischmann's Yeast newsletter, which is always full of yummy recipes. The most recent was for animal shaped bread. It was quick and easy, and fun for Zboy to help add ingredients, mix, and shape. The bread didn't last long before legs were ripped off, mouths eaten, and little mouse bits appeared all over.
It's quite tasty, and could be altered to be even more healthy, but I usually like to follow a recipe exactly the first time.

Beginning shaping. The oddball shapes are his own version of a gator, a turtle, and a snake.

Yes, I need to clean off my counters before pictures, but I just never think of it. I'd rather do fun things, like make alligator bread!

I wore her for a while, but then Zgirl wanted down, and just hung out by the learning tower.

The alligator, complete with teeth. The mouth was the first thing Zboy ate.

The turtle and snake.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Crochet covered stones 4-6

I finished these all up, so I'll just post them all at once =) Original post explaining the reason for these stones is here.

This is stone 4. The pattern is here- it's called the pinwheel doily. In case it's not obvious, I just started at the beginning and continued until it was large enough to fit the stone-I couldn't fit an entire doily on there, could I?

Stone 5 is the floral star doily, a free pattern download from Ravelry (you must be a member to access this).

And stone 6 is the sunburst doily, with some modifications-I tossed the pattern after the first couple of rows, and just did some treble crochet with sc between.

I hope the folks receiving them enjoy them, and I can't wait to see what I get in return. I'll be sure to post it for everyone's enjoyment and inspiration.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Crochet covered stone 3

Keeping up with the stones, here is the third. I have 3 more to make. This one is the beginning of the spider doily (click for free pattern) This worked a little better than the 2nd stone, since it is more circular. Now, off to pore through the millions of free doily patterns for the 4th stone!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Crochet covered stone 2

It takes a little more finagling when not using the already prepared crochet covered stone pattern. I wanted to make each stone different, so I found this pattern for a snowflake doily for stone 2. What do you think? Do you prefer this or stone 1?

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Month 9 block-the final one

I'd tell you the name of this block, but I've misplaced the instruction sheet. I love the silver foil for the pitchfork, but still need matching thread to applique it down. I imagined the fabric choices working out differently, but not too shabby. This is the final block! I've been working on making the squares that coordinate with each month as I go along. I'll post more as it's completed.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Month 8 block

Month 8, Mister Big Mouth, is another favorite. The fabric choices make me think of watermelon. He was one that was a bit annoying to put together, with the scales on his back, and the toenails, but I think he's very cheerful.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Month 7 block

The Green machine (or red/orange machine for the colors I chose) is one of my favorites. I love the fabric choices, and he is just really neat. I'm not looking forward to sewing on all his individual teeth, however! The scales on his back were annoying enough.

Monday, May 23, 2011

A break from the monster quilt-crochet covered stone!

If you're sick of seeing monsters, today's post is for you! I joined a yahoo group that is specifically for swapping nature table items (don't know what a nature table is? here's a great explanation) After debating many things to make for my first swap (the theme is summer), I decided on crochet covered rocks. I didn't have the materials for other things I wanted to make, and all this took was some cotton crochet thread, and rocks from my backyard! I followed the pattern here for this stone, and am going to attempt to improvise something a little different for each stone. It was pretty easy going, until putting it on the stone, and that took a little while, as I had to rest between hand cramps! What do you think?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Month 6 block

For month 6, we have Mister Chompers. Alas, Mr. C is in need of a redo. I attempted a new way to applique the antennae (a small zigzag/satin stitch), determined it looked horrible, and in my stitch removal got a little carried away. It left a hole in the white background fabric. I have left him, because it made me mad. I need to decide if I should start over from scratch, or attempt to darn the hole, remove the other antenna without issue, and re-sew them.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Month 5 block

This month's block is the Hairy Monster. He's still missing his eyes, and needs a lot more "hair". It takes a lot longer than you would think to make it all! The hair is made up of a couple of strands of embroidery floss knotted in the back. My mom came up with a clever idea to make it quicker, so I hope that will speed things along.
Monster quilt sew along with my mom

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Month 4 block

Month 4 is the Dragon madam. For some reason, this is one of my least favorites, as far as color/fabric choices go.
Monster quilt sew along with my mom

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Month 2 block

I completely forgot about posting my blocks! None are completely finished, as I still need to add in the small pieces, like the eyes. However, you can get a look at the colors I picked! It's coming along nicely. Month 2 is Mister Bones.
Monster quilt sew along with my mom

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Finished the back

If you remember my post the other day, I'm slowly knitting up a little tanktop for Zgirl. I've finally finished the back. It would have been done sooner, had I realized the pattern was in cm, not inches. So it's a bit longer than it's supposed to be, but thankfully I realized before I made it 22"! It's a wonderful soft variegated wool yarn (Malabrigo silky merino). Not too shabby for a slow, left handed knitter, eh? I'm documenting it on Ravelry, with my other crochet/knit projects, so add dahlea as a friend if you'd like!

Monday, May 16, 2011

How does your garden grow?

Potatoes (Kennebec) They just keep growing like crazy!! This is my first time trying a lot of new things, like these, and I'm excited to see what happens.

We need a couple more trellises-the beans and cucumbers are in the back.

What will be a pea tepee for the kids to play in. Peas around the outside, and groundcover growing in the middle.

What the heck are these eggs?

Our hydroponics. Lettuce in the middle. Sad strawberries on top, and one good one on the bottom.

Here are some not so great evening shots of our garden thus far. Planted are carrots, lettuce, green pepper, black bean, cucumbers, potatoes, green onions, and a mystery squash. I've got the mystery squash as well as identified squash planted all around the house in the landscaping.
Also, help me identify these eggs? And an environmentally friendly way of getting rid of them?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Cars shirt

Today's the last day of the kids' clothing week challenge. This was my 2nd attempt at trying to trace a pattern from an existing piece of clothing (the first was the pirate pants) This went ok, but trying to trace a thick flannel long sleeve pajama shirt to make a thin cotton short sleeve shirt was probably not the best choice. My first try, I made the collar inches too short. The second try was long enough, but once I got it on Zboy, I saw the proportions of the collar were ridiculous. Oh well, it's just for pajamas. It still needs snaps, but I take pics when I can get them!

I'll attempt to adjust the pattern some, but the shirt itself fits well, and will obviously look more done and fitting once the snaps are on it. Snaps, again? Yep, I hate making buttonholes on a machine, and I have a snap press and tons of snaps!

Zgirl wanted to take a turn as well.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Oliver+S Seashore dress

Finally finished! It took a bit longer than expected, due to grocery trips, fussy babies, and the normal things. This was a very easy pattern to sew, and the directions are very straightforward, much more so than the usual commercial pattern (like Butterick, etc.) Next time, I'll probably make the bigger size (this is the 12-18 month size and it's almost tight. Zgirl weighs around 20 lbs) and I'll leave the pockets out until she's older. There are bloomers that you can make for underneath, but I'll save those until after I finish Zboy's pj set.

This is the first thing I finished for "Kids' clothing week challenge".

Back view

Snap detail-see the butterfly?

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Slowly working

I had hoped to have a finished Seashore dress to show off last night. After realizing I had put the pockets on backward and everything was sewn together, I gave up! So for tonight, I'll be ripping the pockets out and flipping them. I hope to have a finished project to show tonight! The kids' week sewing challenge is great, but I don't know how much you could get done if you truly stuck to 1 hour a night. It took me an hour just to trace the pattern and cut it and the fabric out. Maybe I'm just slow?

After I finish the dress, I'll be making Zboy a pj set, because I realized he only has 2 pairs of summer pjs.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Kids' clothing week challenge

Ok, I just found out about this tonight, so I'm missing tonight's sewing time-but I'll sew double tomorrow!


 


"KCWC stands for Kids Clothes Week Challenge. It's one week (I'm sure you
figured that out) where we commit to sew one hour a day for 7 days.
Sewing clothes, of course, for our kids!  Or other people's kids, but
not your inner child and absolutely not your canine child."
       -challenge hosted at elsie marley

I know what's up first-I just got some Oliver + S patterns in a co-op, and I'm going to start with the Seashore sundress.

Then, it's time for Zanthias to get something new!

Anyone else feel like sewing a lot this week?

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

on my needles

I'm not much of a knitter, being left handed and unable to knit any other way. I can do simple things, so I'm trying out this cute little tanktop. (Pic is taken from the site I got the pattern from) I'm knitting it with Malabrigo silky merino yarn in a yummy pink (previously bought for Bloom, which I was unable to do!)
I finished a crochet skirty for Zgirl as a diaper cover/skirt, and will take pics of it once little miss isn't sick and is more willing to have her pic taken. Everyone in the house has been sick for the last week (excluding me-knock on wood!) so everything is going a bit more slowly.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Two heads are better than one

If you guessed it was a skull, you're right! It's the "Two heads are better than one" wall hanging quilt from Whip up! Mini Quilts. Holy cow, did it take forever to cut out the pieces! I also forgot I only wanted to make one, and the pattern makes 2 mirror image wall hangings...so I cut out twice as much fabric as I needed. Once I had it cut out, I had several mistakes, as I was using different colors than the pattern calls for. Once I wrote the colors onto the pattern, it was pretty quick and easy to sew together. Now I need to buy some batting if I want to put it in, bind it and quilt it!