THE BEE'S KNEES . . . .

. . .  or I guess I should say, "The baby's feet"!

Aren't these just the cutest.  My daughter Anna Maria, who is expecting, was here with her brother and sister for a visit the beginning of the week.  So I finally finished these cute little goodies to go with the sweater that I had made a few weeks ago.  They duo, along with the peach colored baby blanket is now safely tucked in the baby basket in Nashville awaiting the arrival of a sweet little girl to be dressed or bundled in

I've been doing lots more knitting.  One of this little gal's big brothers has a vest on the needles and as soon as some yarn arrives in my mail box, there will no doubt be another sweater for a big sister started shortly thereafter.

Needless to say, my needles are busy!

STASH IS AWESOME !

Wow, it's always so nice to find something in my stash that I can actually use!  I think that I had purchased this yarn for a slippers for a "magic loop" class.  I did something else in the class so I still had this yarn.  Easy peasy hat and scarf.

And this yarn was left over from granddaughter Eleni's sweater.  I think she will be more than thrilled that her new baby sister will have a blanket to match!  My caption was going to be: "Never too young for bling", but the photo doesn't really show the sparkly bling in the yarn.

I've started on an October birthday vest and have a couple quilt tops that are ready to be sandwiched and quilted.  Oh and I also whipped up  another plain white hat (acrylic cotton blend) for myself last night -- stash of course.

So as you can see, even though I've not shown you anything in a while doesn't mean that the needles haven't been busy!

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

. . . er, design "wall", I guess that would be.  Finally back to some sewing.  My machine was at the shop for a while; it got its needed maintenance, but I also learned that my foot pedal is "capoot".  I'm learning to use the start stop button on the machine that is right above the needle apparatus.  It's taking a bit of getting used to, but it beats the price of a new foot pedal.

So this will be my next Project Linus quilt.  Hopefully a teen girl will be happy with it.  It will be a "disappearing" 9 patch.  Once the 9 patches are sewn together, I'll cut them in half in both directions and then sew them back together.  I put  all the fabric that seems dated (at least to me) in a place where it will be cut in half.  And the plain fabrics in the centers so they will be cut in quarters.  

I'm spending more time knitting right now than sewing, so it might be a while before you see this finished project.  And my main knitting project is a baby blanket, so it's taking a bit of time too.

But I promise:  you'll see them when they are finished.

THANK YOU , LIZZIES !

You're the Bestest!

SO SWEET !

Oh my, I don't think it can get much sweeter than this!  This lovely little lavender sweater (left over yarn from another granddaughter's sweater a couple years ago) is about as sweet as it gets.  I'm having so much fun imagining the little girl (our 13th grandchild, due in June) who will wear it.  

I don't have enough more yarn to do a hat and I wasn't even sure about booties.  (I'd hate to get one bootie done, only to learn there's not enough yarn for the second.)  But I did find a pattern for "Mary Jane slippers" which I will have plenty of yarn for.  In fact, I might just be able to make them in two sizes.  

IS IT SPRING YET ?

For my friends considering the tulip block for a spring block exchange:

This is the quilt I made using that block.

A COUPLE MORE BIRTHDAY SWEATERS

Well, I have finally gotten around to showing you the birthday sweater that I gave our oldest granddaughter for Christmas.  (Well a little after Christmas; we saw her last Saturday.)  I decided to give it to her for Christmas instead of her birthday later this month as she will be back at college then.  I was holding off on showing it here 'cause I think she sometimes reads my blog.  Although it was the very one she chose from one of my Interweave magazines, I still wanted to "keep it under wraps".

     I've also got a couple new hats -- the one that I finished to go with the scarf I showed you last week and the other a gift from my daughter.    She was a little concerned that it would not fit.  The ribbing band was a little large, so I just cut a piece of fabric to fit my head, seamed it, and hand sewed it to the band.  I think that I might do the same thing with the hat that I made.  It's also just a tad too big and since it is wool, it will be more comfortable to wear with a nice cotton band against my skin.

And I've managed to get yet another birthday sweater finished!  This one went really fast since it's just stockinette stitch and a vest (so not the extra time involved with sleeves).  And I'm really ahead of myself; this little guy's 4th birthday isn't' until May.

AND I think there just might be enough yarn left to make a pair of booties for his new little sibling  who will arrive in June.  Since it's white, I can even start before I find out the gender!
Yep, that will be our 13th grandchild.  What a blessing!