This one’s for Julia, whose birthday party is today.  It seems the faster and more rushed I am with these, the better they turn out.  I chose the fabrics in about 30 seconds, grabbing things from my red cabinet and throwing them onto the floor for perspective.  I LOVE this combination, which reminds me of Julia herself.  Happy and beautiful.

I used the quilting bar on my Janome for the first time, and it was awesome.  So easy to make parallel lines across the quilt, which definitely appeals to my compulsive nature.  One of these days I’ll do some hand quilting, but not just yet….

(Click for bigger images.)

Olivia will soon be six, and on a recent playdate with Kate she asked if I would make her a tooth pillow.  Not being one to refuse the request of a small child, especially if it has anything to do with knitting or sewing, I told her I would.  She chose a stack of fabrics from the stash (strangely, all of the Denyse Schmidt fabrics–how could she have known?), and today while Kate and I were under the weather we stitched the pillow together.  I hope Olivia likes it, and I hope the tooth fairy is good to her, too.

I love Elizabeth Zimmerman and have long admired her amazing work.  While looking for something to knit with one of my new favorite yarns (Cascade’s Eco Wool!), I came across this Zimmerman favorite (named the “ganomy” hat because she was tickled by the way someone had mispronounced the word “gnome”).

I have to admit I started and ripped this one out several times.  Somehow I kept messing up the increases and decreases (which you can’t do without the hat looking like utter crap).  It is a very easy hat, despite what you might think, and once I got the hang of the matched sets of increases and decreases, it was fun and quick to make. Here’s a shot of the hat, in all its mitered glory…

This one’s for my husband and me to fight over this winter, as if we don’t have enough hats already.

My daughter Kate has been valiantly attempting to sleep in her own bed, diligently collecting stickers and placing them on the chart on our fridge.  Her goal?  A set of bunk beds for her dollies.  (We thought that was a reasonable request, given the fact that we’re being kicked in the head a little less now….)

While mama sewed the quilts, Kate helped make little patchwork pillows for her dollies, too.  Here are a couple quick shots of the beds as made….

Aren’t these lovely?  (And, truthfully, the little coin quilt may be my favorite ever.)  A huge “THANK YOU” to Rachel at Payne Street Doll Boutique for the beautiful beds!

About eight months ago, we did an incredibly impulsive thing–we adopted a dog, sight unseen, from Puerto Rico.  She arrived on a rainy evening a couple days before Thanksgiving on a Delta flight into Newark.  Although it could have gone horribly wrong, since we already have a large alpha dog and a small child, it turned out brilliantly (whew!), and Phedora is one of the sweetest and most grateful creatures I have ever encountered.  She appreciates everything–every meal, each treat and every little bit of attention directed her way.  She is a lady, a goofball, and a serious guard dog, protector of our home and especially our daughter. We are crazy in love with her and can’t imagine another choice.

I first saw Phedorita’s sweet little face on Petfinder.  Shortly thereafter I called Toni Bodon at Stray from the Heart to talk about whether Phedora would be the right dog for us.  Stray from the Heart is a local organization doing amazing work rescuing and rehabilitating stray dogs in New York City, and in Puerto Rico and Ecuador.  Honestly, it was easier having a baby than adopting a dog from Toni.  After many conversations and emails with Toni and Phedora’s beautiful foster mothers Myrna and Nitza in Puerto Rico, we decided to go through with the adoption.  It was incredible to see how deeply these women cared for this particular stray, and the care they took to be sure we were absolutely the right family for Phedora.

Myrna, Nitza and I email on a regular basis, sharing photos and stories of our doggies.  I am grateful there are people in this world like these strong women, who do so much to help animals in such desperate need of food, veterinary care and love.

I took a little trip to Downtown Yarns and fell in love with a pattern one of their staff had created and knit in Cascade’s Eco Wool.  Having washed and ruined my favorite cold-weather hat (knit by a friend in Portland, Oregon, on the fly, sans pattern), I have been longing for a replacement.  I am not a diminutive person, and I can wear a large hat.  Although this isn’t the same Russian princess shape as my last, it is intriguing on its own.  So much so that I had to make one in natural and one in dark brown.  It’s a very fun knit (unless you’re doing it in the dark with dark yarn; my mistake), and weirdly it’s the first thing I’ve ever knit with popcorns.  Loved it.  Will try to refrain from knitting more.

By the way, Eco Wool rocks my world.  One bodacious skein is 478 yards, and the colors are naturally beautiful.  Must knit mittens to match hats now….

Two Christmases ago I made a cashmere-lined ski hat for every guy in our family and many of our guy friends.  I began in January and knit like a crazy lady all year long until I had knit close to 30 hats.  Although I wish I had photographed them all together for posterity, I did come across this sampling of them in my iPhoto library…

The pattern is Whitney’s 70’s ski hat from Purl Soho.  Yarn is Cascade 220 (it’s good, it’s cheap, and I love the 70’s/80’s colors) and Jade Sapphire or Lobster Pot Yarns 2-ply cashmere for the partial lining (beautiful, but not so cheap).  I had so much fun choosing colorways for each person, and it’s a great way to make an affordable and still luxurious present since you can make the lining of two or three hats with the same ball of cashmere.

A long time ago I got a silly idea in my head to make my daughter a twin-size quilt (my first) with all kinds of small pieces and circles that had to be eased and sewed just right.  I am thrilled to report that after some prodding by a friend (the one who got me hooked on quilting as if it were crack), I  dragged it out of my Chinese cabinet and spent three hours finishing the top.  And here it is…

I promptly boxed it up with the batting and backing, and far too much dog fur (the doggies are shedding with a vengeance) and sent it off to Plain and Simple Quilts for hand quilting.  The plan is to have their least experienced quilter (at 7 stitches per inch) do the hand quilting.  It’s expensive, and we’ll have to wait months for its return, but how many times in my life will I actually make anything nearly this gorgeous?

Here’s a shot of my favorite girl holding up our very first square…

Note:  Quilt design by Denyse Schmidt, of course.

Yesterday Kate and I made clay dogs in the image of Jack and Phedora (Kate made Jack on left; I made Phedora on right).  In five minutes or less, we managed to capture their true doggie essences.

And these are the real doggies (in reverse order)…