Monday Greetings

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We got SNOW here in Tucson, believe it or not! Woke up Sunday morning to snow on the ground, but it soon melted away. It was sure nice to see it while it lasted, as it is a rarity in these parts.

I can't believe it is already the last day of February - is it just me, or does time seem to just be flying by this year?

I've been busy working on projects, as usual.  :)  I made my first no-sew fleece blanket over the weekend. If you've never made one of these, they are very easy to do, just time-consuming.  Here's a glimpse of the process:

You lay two pieces of fleece wrong sides together (I have a floral and a solid), preferably on a table or other large work surface. Cut out a 4 inch square from each corner. Then you start cutting 1 inch strips up to the 4 inch mark you cut.. do this on all 4 sides of the blanket.

Then you start tying knots, using a strand from each fabric. Do this all the way around.  Here is the finished front:

And back:

I'm going to be donating this one to the local child crisis center, along with this taggie blanket I made this weekend:

You can buy "kits" at Jo-Anns of these fleece blankets ... in fact, my local store had them 50% off yesterday, so I'll be making one for me and one for my SIL Becky.

I may not be posting much more this week, as we will be having company visiting. My other SIL is coming to stay with us for the week and she is a very talented sewist and quilter. I can't wait to have her help me on some projects that need done. I'm hoping she can get me started quilting too.

Have a great week everyone.

Giving Back

I've seen this on several blogs lately ... maybe you have too. At first I didn't bother to check it out, but today I did.

It all started here at Cara's blog. She drove past a shelter with a sign out front saying they desperately needed paper towels. Before she knew it, she was at the grocery store buying all the paper towels she could. She is now encouraging others to donate items to locate shelters or organizations that need everyday supplies; things like paper towels, zip lock bags, shampoo, etc. Things that we take for granted.

We are so very fortunate that my husband has a good job and is able to provide for our family. There are so many others that are less fortunate that I was moved to give back.

My local Ronald McDonald House here in Tucson has a Wish List on their website of items they always need. I printed it out and will keep it on my refrigerator as a reminder to donate some of these items at least once a month from now on.

Every community, big or small, has needs. It wouldn't take much time to find out what yours is and donate a little something. Do you have those travel-size toiletries tucked away in a drawer that you never use? Or are you like me and stockpile things like toilet paper and paper towels? If so, please consider donating some items somewhere in your community. You'll be glad you did.

Love This Hat, Love This Yarn

I made this cute cloche today from this pattern.  It is an interesting pattern, because once you get the pattern established, you turn your work after each row, which I have not done before when working in the round. I also like it because the cloche is very form-fitting to the head.

The yarn I used for this project is Michael's Loops & Threads Charisma (color is Lakeside). It is 100% acrylic yarn and I absolutely loved working with it. It is so nice and soft, and is going to make this a nice, warm hat for Jennifer to wear in jolly old, cold England!

I plan on making her several more hats and/or cloches in different colors, so hopefully she will have a hat to match most of her wardrobe. I'm thinking I will make some scarves to match some of them too, if I have enough yarn left over.

If you haven't given this yarn a try yet, I highly recommend it.  

Crocheted Cap

A friend of mine has a daughter who will be moving to England in a few months, so I wanted to make her some cute caps and berets to take with her. Here is the first one I finished:

I love the flower detail.

I had the cute little button in my stash so I just sewed it to the middle of the flower. The pattern calls for the flower to be felted, but since I didn't use wool yarn, mine is not felted and I think it came out just fine.

The pattern can be found here. This is a beginner friendly pattern; the hat will only take about an hour to complete!

I tried crocheting her a beret the other day but it came out way too big, so I need to go get some boucle yarn. Much as I hate working with the stuff, sometimes it's a necessary evil.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. If you are lucky enough to have Monday off too, enjoy your extra day off. 

You Know It's True Love When .....

you buy each other the exact same Valentine's Day card (from two different stores no less!!)

Is that funny or what???

Hope everyone has a very Happy Valentine's Day

And the Winner is.....

It's here!  Today is the day to announce the winner of my One Year Anniversary Giveaway.

I used the True Random Number Generator at random.org and entered 1-15 (I had 15 comments to my post). The Random Number Generator chose:

Number 11.

The 11th comment was posted by:   GLOR!

Congratulations Glor, you are the winner! You asked for a Michael's gift card, so that is what your prize will be. Please send me an e-mail (azbelle3@yahoo.com) with your address info so I can get it sent off to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered ... and welcome new followers.  You never know when I'll have another giveaway, so keep reading.  :)

Happy Hump Day and Stuff

I can't believe it's Wednesday already ... where has this week gone?

I finally finished all the baby stuff and got it mailed off to my husband's niece in Tennessee. Here is the baby sweater I crocheted:

It came with plain white buttons but they were too boring for me, so I added these instead:

Hard to see, but it is a picture of a lamb and they say "little lamb" on them.  This is the first sweater I have ever crocheted; I usually avoid crocheting clothing items because the patterns always look too difficult for me, but this one was pretty easy.

Here is all the stuff I crocheted and sewed for her:

Sure hope she likes everything.

Don't forget that my Anniversary Giveaway closes tonight at midnight. I will be choosing the winner tomorrow.

Thank You!

Thanks to all of you for helping me figure out this pattern. Doris, you are a lifesaver! It was indeed the Aligned Shells pattern and I finally found my copy of it. Of course I didn't write what hook I used on the pattern, so I will do some test swatches to figure it out.

Thanks again everyone, you're awesome!

HELP!!!

I came across an afghan I had started crocheting awhile back, but stupid me did not put the hook or the pattern with the project. I have looked through my patterns and nothing looks like this project.

Do any of you recognize this pattern:

To me it pretty much looks like shells with maybe a double crochet in between, so I could probably figure it out. I would just love to have the pattern so that I know what size hook I was using and also how to finish it.

I sure hope someone out there recognizes it... thanks in advance for your help.

Anniversary Giveaway

I'm so sorry this is a day late... yesterday ended up being a hectic day with no time for blogging :(

To celebrate my One Year Blogging Anniversary, it's giveaway time .... woo hoo! I got some good comments about what some of you would like to win (thanks ladies) so I've decided that the prize will be ......... 

WINNERS CHOICE. Whoever wins gets to tell ME what they would like to win from the following choices:

• $25 gift card to a craft store (I have Jo-Ann, Michaels and Hancock Fabrics in my area)
• Something hand-made by me (either sewn, crocheted or crafted)
• Some yarn and pattern books from my stash (I have all kinds of stuff!)

Here are the easy-peasy rules:

• You must be a follower of my blog to win.
• Leave a comment on this post telling me what you would like to win. Only comments to this post will be accepted.

How easy is that???? Simple, right? Oh, and since this is a very special giveaway, I am opening it up to everyone. That means you are eligible to enter no matter where in the world you live!

The giveaway will close at midnight on Wednesday, February 9, 2011. I will draw the winner and announce it the following day.

So go on now, get those comments started and good luck!

What do YOU want to win?

I wouldn't be celebrating a blogging anniversary without you, my wonderful readers. So what would YOU like to see as the giveaway tomorrow?  (And no, a million dollars is NOT possible.. LOL!)

If you want to see projects I have sewn, you can check out my sewing blog, Sandy Sewz. I could also crochet something, but I warn you, it might take awhile to get it to you, as I can only crochet when the kittens are napping. :)

I could also do something like a gift card to a store or restaurant too.

I want to know YOUR thoughts, so please leave me a comment to this post and I will read over all of them before deciding what the giveaway prize will be.

Exciting News

I will be celebrating my 1 Year Blogging Anniversary this Friday, February 4. You know what that means don't you?????

A giveaway!!!

That's right, I will do a giveaway to celebrate. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but it is probably a safe bet that it will be something I make myself.

Be sure to check Friday's post for more details.