Three Little Maids

All wearing little white caps (that I knitted).

Madelyn, Isabella, Eloise

 We couldn't keep them all happy here.  This is the second time that I tried to get them in these caps.  You just can't control babies.

Eloise, Madelyn, Isabella

There is now a fourth little maid, Norah.  She was just born, so I don't have a hat for her, but she is bigger than Eloise.

Madelyn, with her older sister and helper, Emma.

 

 Eloise

The Cable and Bobble Repeat

Daisy's modeling a sweater I just finished while on my short vacation.  It is a special order for a customer.  I put original sweater in our shop and the order came that same day.  It's always nice to sell one right away.  It was really nice that she wanted a larger size and so I could keep the original in my shop for a while also.

 

  This one is a size 2-3.  I like seeing how it looks on a toddler after having it on a baby.

 This sweater can also be seen on Ravelry for more details.

Thank you Daisy, for being such a good model.

A Little Vacation

We've spent the last few days at the ocean in Long Beach, WA.  We had a nice place which was warm, cozy and dry.  The weather outside was rain, rain, wind, rain, wind and more of that.  I love the sound of the wind.

Taking a drive on the beach

The boardwalk

Inside we played lots of games and I knitted and crocheted.

Naomi's doily

Then we came home and most of us soon ran over to see Eloise.

She's still beautiful and still growing.

Madelyn's New Coat

This coat is one of the cutest patterns I've ever done.  It's another Debbie Bliss, which I really like. Madelyn is going to be warm this winter in it.

 

It's made from the soft cotton yarn that I really like.  It feels so pliable and is such easy care.  I like the ribbing on the top part of the sweater.

I also made Madelyn a hat using a Hadley Fierlinger pattern adding the flower and the scallop on the edge.  Doesn't she look comfy?

It doesn't seem to take long for babies to go to sleep.

 She just turned 3 months and this is the 3-6 month size pattern, so you see she has some growing room.  It should last all winter.  She just won't need it the 2 weeks she's going to spend with Eloise on Maui.

  But it will be cold when she comes home.

The coat and cap can both be checked out on Ravelry.

Our New Addition

October 1 of last  year, we opened up our new shop of Bella Jean Boutique.  It has been a very exciting time and we've seen a lot happen and also seen more of what our direction is.  Most of our sales come from the custom seamstress work which my daughters do and the longarm quilting which I do.  My daughter's also have taken up since we started, giving sewing classes to about 30 young girls.  Therefore, we need more space.

Here is our plan.

You can see the new work table and a real ironing board (ours now is a small one that sits on our work table).  There is also going to be a dressing room under the stairs, which is sorely needed.  Around the walls will be storage shelves.

This wall behind the girls is the one we are going to break open.

Here's our new area now.  I'm using money that I've made from doing quilting for others.  It's nice to be able to pay for it with money I've made and not borrowed from my husband (although I still owe him a little from my longarm which he helped me to fund).

 This is our current plan for our new dressing room - under the stairs.  It's large enough to use for storage also.

 

This is my contracter, Isaac.  He is getting help from his older brother, the real contractor.  Isaac wants to eat, so days that he doesn't have a money job to help with the household, he can work for me.  Then he's allowed to open the refrigerator.

 

On another note, guess who's getting excited about going to Hawaii?  Eloise can't wait, so she's trying on some of her new clothes and thinking of sand and sun.  She's never known warm weather.  But in a couple of weeks she'll see what it's like.  But I will miss her.

More Sunbonnet Sue

The next 2 squares that I've done for Pam.

This first one isn't in the book but the quilt doesn't come out even unless you add another square, so she sent me a picture to make up like she  wanted.

Now here are my renditions.  This first one is the one I made up for my quilt.  I thought the quilt could use more winter scenes.

See  Eloise looking over her uncle's shoulder.  She's looking right at you.

Terri's Tablecloth

Lovely fabrics.  I always like sunflowers and the bright colors.

Aunt Naomi is reading to Eloise.  She loves hearing Bible stories because she knows that those stories  are her story.  And she loves her Aunt Naomi reading to her.

Some of the Woes of Being a Seamstress

I decided I'm giving up on sewing baby clothes.  They are too demanding.  At least some patterns are.

I made this cute little outfit.  We do need baby boy clothing in our shop and there are really some cute patterns out there.  My girls haven't had time and I decided to give it a try. I made those overalls with the smocking and gave myself a low grade on that one.
This outfit is cute and I'd give myself a much better grade on it, but it was time consuming. And the problems with lots of little seams. 
These pockets and sleeves have little tucks that took me a while to work out.  I redid the sleeves about three times to get the raw edge tucked under correctly.  I kept missing.

And the last thing I did was put the snaps on the legs.  I decided not to use snap tape because it only came in white.  So I did my own snaps and they went on quite easily, better than I thought they would.  Only I have the legs overlapping the wrong direction.  They should snap towards the back not the front.

At least they look neat. 

I think I will hire my girls to make outfits for the shop.  Then it can go on their list as if I'm another customer.  I just have to give them two weeks (normal turn-around time).

Shelley's Quilt

This is a beautiful quilt.  The colors and the fabrics go so well together.  She used a high loft washable wool batting.  I've never seen that before, but it was very nice to quilt with.

 She is a designer and knows how to pick her fabrics.  I did a large stipple that makes the puffiness of the batting stand out.

Quilt Guild Quilt

This  quilt isn't the prettiest of quilts, but quilting can make every quilt look nicer.  This is a charity quilt I quilted for my quilt guild.

So Where Are the New Baby Boys?

All that's been born around here are girls.  And they are cute girls also.  But when I knit something for a boy, that leaves me without a model.  So I used Eloise.  She was soundly sleeping and I disturbed her to dress her in boys clothes just for a few minutes.

 I'm not posting the one of her crying, but here's a good yawn.

 The sweater is a Sirdar pattern. They makes such nice patterns I just want to do them all.  In fact, that is what I am doing.  With the books that I have, at least.  I love the texture in this. This is a newborn size but all their sweater go from newborn to size 7, so that's a nice range.

 

She's ready to go back to sleep now.  This sweater is a soft wool that is machine washable.  Those yarns are nice to have.  Warm and easy care.

 Here's the hat.  I used a Hadley Fierlinger pattern for it and changed it so that it would have the textured pattern of the sweater.

Now for some more shots of Eloise.  She did go back soundly to sleep and looks so sweet with that cheetah in her arms.

Dreaming of Hawaii

Some of my latest finished projects.  They are nos. 2 and 3 of my Hawaiian wall hangings.  Again it's been a long time but I work on those old unfinished projects here and there and do get some done.

This first one is the star flower.

This one is Breadfruit.  This fruit was the main sustenance of the Hawaiians when they first lived on the islands, before ships and planes and probably cultivation.  Hence the name Breadfruit.  To the Hawaiians it means Life.

Sunbonnet Sue- Ice Cream and Butterflies

Here are the photos of the next 2 squares I did for Pam.

Then I look at the ones I did several years ago and wonder what I was thinking when putting fabrics together for the girls.  They are busy with busy and don't seem to go well at all.  At least as far as the overall effect, people seem to really like my quilt.

 Do you see what I mean?

At least this one is better.