A Christmas Post

I saw a free embroidery pattern yesterday on the Wild Olive blog and immediately got down to stitching one up.

It's part of Mollie's "25 Crafts of Christmas." Adorable!  And it stitches up quick because it's so teeny.

(Find the pattern in this post.)

I don't know if any of you watch any Cartoon Network at your houses but I just love Adventure Time and this little, swaddled Christ-child kind of reminds me of Finn when he sleeps.



Speaking of Adventure Time, that reminds me of this quote by Cake the cat!

"Sweet babies!"

I'm a sucker for nativity sets.  More specifically, I can't resist rescuing orphaned saviors when I find them lost and alone among an incomplete crèche.  And while I don't want you to read too much into this, I do want to share my collection of baby Jesus figurines with you today.

Wait! Where are you going??

I'm amazed at the variety of little messiah repre-sentations out there...

Don't forget cookie cutter Jesus!











I'm not crazy.  Really.  They all live in an old Coca-Cola crate hanging on my wall.  But I am working my way up to one of those blow mold light-up ones someday...

Now I'm working on another project from Wild Olive (find the pattern post here.)





I cannot help myself.  They bring me joy!  And joy is what I wish for you this holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

~Kristin

Adventure Time  ™ & © Cartoon Network 

Thrift Stop - MadMen Women

So I found some vintage sewing patterns...and they came home with me because I'm a sucker for the cover art and always have been.  (If you were a midcentury teen girl in America you might remember the covers of all our novels had similar-style illustrations.)

Anywho, here's just a couple of the good ones:




1950s Girls' Coat in Two Lengths

Simplicity 4418

1960 Misses' and Junior Dress with Slim or Full Skirt and Dickey

McCall's 5737

1960s Misses' One-Piece Dress, Jacket and Belt

Simplicity 3842

1967 Misses' One-Piece Dress (princess line with bias roll collar)

Simplicity 7099

Did you see it?  

Wait...are you a Mad Men fan?

Because...

It's Joan Holloway!

And Betty Draper! (After all, she was a model...)

What do you think?  

Did it blow your mind?  

I've got many more Joan examples people!

    (She's on tons of them!!)

Wanna see?

Thrift Stop

Today's mid-century treasure: a Westmoreland black glass basket, a 1972 chalkware "Bathometer",  and a 1962 smoked glass platter celebrating the history of thread and the Coats and Clark Company.

I got these a little while ago but in keeping with the black and gold theme: four TV trays with deer.

That's it.  Happy thrifting!

Another Cradle Update

Well, it's been a while since I've posted about this one.  Remember the doll cradle I found on the curb in April?  (I blogged about making the mattress and pillow here and then the quilt here.)  Now there's finally a sheet and pillowcase for it.

A Mattress and Pillow

A Sheet and Pillowcase

I did consult a tutorial for making a fitted crib sheet.  I preferred this one because of the French seams then I just scaled it down to fit 12 by 22 inches.  The pillowcase is my favorite part.  I'm beginning to think piping can make anything more adorable.  However, I have to admit, the mattress is just so cute I hated to cover it up. 

A Quilt and Blanket

Here's the complete set.  Of course, some little doll or animal needs to start sleeping in here but at least it's ready for when inspiration strikes.  Or perhaps I'm simply prepared in case a tiny refugee happens by looking for a warm, safe place to overnight...  

These have to be some of the most enjoyable sewing projects I've ever made.  I'm totally one of those people attracted to anything miniature; it just makes me smile. 

On the hoarding front: I'm really hoping to find another doll bed to rehab.

Home and Away

I've been away since Friday...up north at the family lake cabin soaking up the sun.  Although it was difficult to leave, we have a big weekend planned with a concert, hanging out with friends at a "beer-lympics," and a family reunion after that.  I have no idea what a beerlympics consists of except that there will be beer, teams must dress as their country (we are Japan) and there will be games of skill.

Isn't it amazing, all of the variety you can get from half square triangles?!

But until then, today is Thursday and that means another block for the Beginner's Quilt-Along.  For the fifth one, I used some brown LouLouThi by Anna Maria Horner and the yellow is Flying Stripe by Ellen Luckett Baker for Moda; they were both in a remnant pack I purchased with my commission for the tutorial at Sew,Mama,Sew!  My thinking is, I'm too new of a sewista to have built up enough scraps of my own but my sewing table is steadily being encroached upon by new fabric piles.  Again, there's another little machine-applique on this block because I just can't let one of these go without the horse treatment.

My town is full of occasional sales stores.  These are thrift/antique shops that only open for one weekend a month (it starts today.)  Most of them are elaborately themed and fun to paw through as the merchandise has been hand-picked and staged like a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot.  I'm about to walk out the door and explore a few of them but first, I'll leave you with a recent garage-sale treasure.

Almost 3 yards for 3 dollars.

That's it for now.  Take care!

Minnesota, Puppies, and Spring Time

Minnesota

If you haven't made the connection by my monicker, I live in Minnesota.  I was born in Montana and moved here when I was in middle school, then I married a guy from Montana...so depending on who asks, I have different answers about where I'm from.

I have nothing but LOVE for Minnesota.  While I've found every place I've ever lived or spent time or visited hospitable (which is a lot of places since I served for 9.5 years in the Army and Army National Guard), Minnesota offers a ton of things to do, all four seasons in full glory, and fishing year round.  I should offer up that I live near enough to the Twin Cities to enjoy restaurants, museums, and shows but far enough away that I can experience small town living and farm country commutes.  Even though the years whip by faster and faster, spending time looking at the sky and experiencing the weather is an incredible pleasure.

Here is yet another "Pin-spired" project (using a couple of tutorials: here and here.)  The nail art took about an hour on Thursday.  (We took a little road trip to Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma last Thursday through Tuesday.)   Since then, I've finished the two dachshund  puppies on the right.

Dixie and... "Moxie" or "Lee"? What do you think?

Our good friends (so good they let us get married at their house) have a miniature wiener dog named Max who is the softest, nicest, most cuddly dog in the universe.  Also, Cities 97, a local radio station that used to be "the stuff" (remember when "Alternative" music was all the rage?) issued a compilation CD in 1997--on which, my favorite song is "Dixie the Tiny Dog."  Those two things, as well as the fact that I just happened to find a McCall's 1810 vintage pattern at my local thrift shop as well as an "As is" brown velvet curtain at IKEA all came together to make this production possible.

You may have gathered, thus far, the random pattern of my process.  This is how I sew and how I do most things.

Curbside Cleanup and Covered Buttons

     One thing you will learn about me is that cheap or free pretty much guides my project production.  I grew up going to garage sales and auctions, even the dump and loved it all.  I love to collect (some people call it hoarding) and my parents and I treat thrifty acquirement as a sport.

     Every April, Bloomington Minnesota offers a city wide curbside cleanup.  We take a truck and prowl the streets with other "pickers."  Most of the home owners are friendly about it but some really resent people picking through their discards. I think of reuse as the best kind of recycling.  All of the cabinets and the workbench in my garage were torn out of Bloomington houses.  In fact, my sewing machine was picked up last year.  It's a Europro 8260.  My mom checked that it worked and gifted it to me this January.  We downloaded the manual for free online and with it, I've learned to sew.

     This year, I found a doll cradle.  I actually walked away from it the first time but then I just didn't want to leave it, mostly because I could envision the tiny quilt I would be able to make for it.  So I used this tutorial from Punkin Patterns to sew the mattress (my first experience with covered buttons and piping) and I love the results.  Now I have to decide upon the fabrics for sheets and blanket!

Good as new.