quilt projects with natural dyes #1

I'm working on a few quilts with natural dyed muslin. Here is one that I photographed recently on my lap which I am almost finished hand quilting.

new liberty skirt and silk/mohair socks in the shop

I've just added a new Liberty skirt to the shop in a size 3-4T. I had leftover material from the dress I made for Scarlet and decided this was the right use for it. I just love these colors together and it will be so cute for Spring and Summer which I am more then ready for. 1-5 degree mornings are just not working for me. I planted my sweet peas in the greenhouse while snow was falling on Saturday and I'm going to go visit there this afternoon and give them a sprinkle and warm myself up a bit.

Another recent addition - these newborn baby socks knit in a super soft silk/mohair blend.

7th birthday

We celebrated Scarlet's 7th birthday a week ago and had a 3 day celebration. The highlight was definitely the dolly tea and craft party. I spent a lot of time planning and prepping the crafts and details and I have to say the girls had a great time. S wanted her friends to bring their favorite dolls and they had their own tables with pretend tea and sweets. The girls made their dolls headbands and necklaces. I made sure each girl had the supplies individually at their seats to make everything ran smoothly. Scarlet made the name tags for each girl and taped to the back of the chair. Headband supplies were put into the paper teacups I made and the beads were in ice cream bowls next to the strings with one bead placed on to start. The girls made themselves necklaces, pinwheels and I assisted with making them pillbox hats. I greeted them at the door with one I had made for myself in red. The girls had pink ones and chose from pink, white, grey, fuchsia and black feathers and white or pink ribbons. To make this all I needed to do was glue clips on the inside of the hats beforehand, cut the ribbons and tie them into bows. I had them pick what they wanted and hot glued them on. They only took a few minutes to set and then they could wear them. I bought the supplies for the hats on Etsy and the rest of the craft supplies from Paper Source, Amazon and Michaels. I also got a confetti popper which holds a ton of confetti and the girls had a great time with this. Confetti never fails! We played Pin the Tail on Rainbow Dash and played around with confetti filled balloon. I served cucumber tea sandwiches, fruit, cookies and homemade cake. The cake is a basic yellow cake that I add sprinkles too. It was the first time I tried this and the trick is one gentle stir to mix in and not get streaks. I used organic beet powder to make the icing pink because it's so much nicer then food coloring.

These parties are quite a bit of work to put together but, I do love to plan, style everything and see it all go off smoothly.


Here is a closeup of Scarlet's hat:

robin's egg blue romper

I made my fourth vintage style romper/playsuit because they are so sweet and very cute on a baby. Almost makes me want another one. It can be worn in the summer or winter as an outer layer. I knit this in Madeline Tosh- Tosh Vintage in Robin's Egg which I had some extra yarn from this project. I've just listed it in my etsy store. I think it would look sweet on either gender and make a really pretty gift for a new baby.

bloomsbury kids

This absolutely gorgeous knit design stole my heart! I received a gift card to a yarn shop over the holidays and I wanted to move this project to the top of the list and spend it on yarn for this sweater. The pattern is Bloomsbury Kids and I chose this very happy coral pink shade. The lace panels along the yoke and into the sleeve also are incorporated into a panel in the center back. I used Csscade 220 in the the color, Shrimp and knit a size 6. This was a present for her 7th birthday.

When we takes these photos we have a lot of fun and here is a sample of some outtakes. Here we have 'the sad', 'the scared' and 'the puppy'