Morning Glory Walker Decor

A friend shared this pattern with me for morning glories on a vine.  

You make the vine as long as you wish,

adding as many leaves and flowers as pleases you.

I decided to add pipe cleaners under the vine as I wove in the loose ends.

I have not yet had a chance to take it to mom but will soon

and hope she enjoys the change.

I would have tried a variegated yarn on the blossoms

 if I had one in purples in my stash but I did not so made them as instructed.

Celebrating the 4th

I just could not resist doing these shirts for my youngest granddaughters.

I learn something with everything I make.

The girls liked the shirts when I delivered them this morning

and put them right on to wear.

The 4 year old proudly showed me the sign she and her sisters had made,

and wished me a happy 4th of July.

I hope everyone enjoys a safe holiday

and may we always remember how precious our freedom is

and how high the cost.

An early 4th

One of my dear granddaughter's turned 4 this past weekend.

For her party she chose a lady bug theme.

So I decided to have fun with my sewing/embroidery machine

and decorated a shirt for her to wear for the party.

She loves to play in her little kitchen so I also decorated 

an apron for her to wear in there.

To finish it off she got a little table and chairs

to go in that kitchen 

so I decided a tablecloth was also needed.

My hamper was about the right size to try it out.

I had fun learning how to rearrange the little leaf with ladybug

that was built into the machine

to spice things up a bit.

I am not sure if I had more fun making these 

than she will have wearing and using them

but maybe it will make good memories for both of us.

Birthday Embroidery

My little granddaughter has a birthday coming up this month

and chose Lady Bugs for her party theme.

This sparked my imagination 

and I decided to decorate a little apron

since she loves to play in her little kitchen.

I had fun playing around with the little lady bug on a leaf pattern

that was in my machine.

So many possibilities!

So I added them to a tea towel

to be used as a table cloth

on the little table and chair set she is getting.

It will be about the size of this hamper so I tried it out

and I think she will like this.

Maybe even as much as I have enjoyed making it!

Magic beans and flowers

As shown in Ready for Easter

Here are the flowers.

The story is that before Easter I will give the 3 year old granddaughter

some 'magic' beans (jelly beans) and plastic Easter cups

and we will plant them.

Then on Easter morning the girls will find these flowers

which are just crocheted with a dum dum center.

The idea was not mine though I chose a double flower for the fuller look.

Not sure they will grasp the meaning but the seed is there to come back to at a later date.

A Valentine for Mother

I got a little something for my mother for Valentine's Day.

And put it in a bag,

which seemed a little plain.

So instead of making a card to go with it,

I decided to just decorate the bag.

Think she will like it?

Better question might be will she remember

 what Valentine's Day is?

Doesn't really matter

as she loves the attention most of all.

Watch the M O N K E Y....

This silly little monkey with the wiggle eyes,

is for my daughter.

The 'body' is crocheted around a hair elastic

that fits over a camera lens.

Next month she is to take photos that include children

and I thought this might help keep their attention on the camera.

If it works at all I may have to adapt the pattern

with some brighter colors etc.

Chickens and the Walker

A friend shared this fun chicken pattern so...

a-roosting we will go.

July Walker Decoration

I just had to make red white and blue stars

for mom's walker this month.   

Not too fancy or creative

but I think she will like them.

She no longer remembers that she crocheted.

June walker decor is butterflies

This month for decoration on mom's walker

I decided to crochet butterflies.

Last month's corsage disappeared

rather quickly.

I guess someone must have really admired it.

With dementia residents that is quite common

so I take it as a compliment.

I do hope she gets to enjoy these

a bit longer than the last

as she keeps misplacing her walker

and this makes it easy to spot.

The Magic of Grandma's

I was making memories with one of my granddaughters last night.  She was awestruck by the solar powered dragonfly lights in my back yard and had to show her daddy when he came to pick her up.  She had forgotten all about being afraid of the sound of crickets she heard earlier.

And then there was dessert...

Conversation between grandma and 2 year old granddaughter:

Grandma: Do you like pizza?

Granddaughter: No.

Grandma: I think you'll like mine.  It has fruit.

Granddaughter: (silence)

Grandma:  Here try a bite...

Granddaughter: (picking off all the fruit and eating it) 

Grandma:  Did you know the crust is a cookie?

Granddaughter: !!!

Grandma:  Here try another piece.

Granddaughter:  Grandma Boats, you make the best pizza in the world!  And the (y)ummiest kool-aid!

I remember 'making memories' with my grandmother, but had no idea she was loving it as much if not more than I was!

Walker Corsage

Mother's Day

It is that one day out of the year when daughters and sons

make sure to let their mother's know

just how important and special they are,

and how very much they mean to us.

April Walker Decor

Easter is quite late this year.

So the April decor is of course

a bunny and carrot.

Birthday!

I am blessed to own a few old sewing machines.

So my family always keeps an eye out for 'notions'.

And for my birthday this year my son surprised me with this lovely tool kit.

Absolutely complete,

and such detailed craftsmanship.

What a marvelous find.

Including the book!!!

What a wonderful gift.

And then they took me out to dinner.

I am truly blessed!

Blankets for our Babies

Another Christmas gift finished.

This is two blankets.  One for my 2 year old granddaughter.

The other, smaller one, is for her baby doll.

She just brought a cradle over to keep at my house for her dolly

so I decided we needed some blankets.

Think I will get that sweater knitted in time?

Starting Early

Well kind of.

I bought this fleece last year but never had time to do anything with it in time for Christmas.

So I set it back in the closet.

I ran across it a couple of weeks ago along with directions

for an easy way to edge it.

So the first gift for Christmas 2013 is complete.

And counting...

Place Mats (or making a daughter smile)

Completed.

The last of the kitchen accessories requested by my daughter.

I told her I would make these quilted place mats

but would need to machine quilt them

with straight lines.

No fancy machine quilting here.

But when it came down to it

I could not put straight lines on these lovely swirls!

So I designed a quilting pattern

and made a template

And this is how it came out...

 

This backing is actually black but the flash washed it out.

And this is a close-up so only a corner.

I much prefer doing hand quilting on a hoop/frame

 but did not have anything to accommodate this size

 and had put enough time into this project.

Not to mention it is not easy with Carpal Tunnel.

Besides as you can see

the quilting really doesn't show on the front.

But she will be happy.

And that is what a mother wants most.

A Fan for August

My daughter is thinking of having some friends over one evening and we have been crafting for that.  One of the projects that I took on was fans.  Now the original pattern I could not get to work with the supplies I had so I came up with one of these old style fans.

It was easiest to make the front and back the same but in the middle of one I ran out of adhesive in the Xyron and since I did not have any paper to spare with that pattern I used another for the back of one.

It would be easy to add a sticker to personalize it for particular events.

In fact when my future daughter-in-law spotted these in progress

she made the same connection and went home and whipped up a box full,

to be used somehow for the wedding.

The wedding will be in March so they have to be for decoration not to keep cool. 

At any rate a quick and easy and fun little project.

Fidget Quilt

Recently I learned about Fidget Quilts.

Simple lap quilts with do dads added,

which are appealing to the fingers of dementia patients 

as well as victims of stroke and head injuries.

I was so excited I got out my stash and whipped up this top:

Then I added some texture with beads and fringe and crochet.

A little ribbon and bias tape.

And of course tied it using buttons.

I am going to give it to my mother. 

I hope it will occupy her fingers.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to forget how to crochet.

It isn't the best work I have ever done and I like to hand quilt but I had a deadline

and imagine she won't mind.

Plarn Day

Yesterday was the first Remembrance Run locally, hosted by the Coast Guard.

It was an incredible tribute to fallen Coasties

and a terrific fundraiser for those spouses and children.

My family and many friends were happy to join them  and look forward to next year!

One of my daughter's friends, who remembers my late husband, even flew in from Chicago for the weekend to join us in this event.

Knowing we like to craft she mentioned wanting to learn to crochet using plastic bags to make mats to donate to the homeless to go under their bedding.  

Makes great sense to form a moisture barrier and the materials are free.

Well, I had heard of this and even filed away some directions and patterns for bags so today before her flight left I went over to my daughter's house and taught her how to crochet.

Here are the plastic bags being cut into strips...

Here you can see where the strips, which of course are actually loops now

are knotted together to form plastic yarn or plarn.

The plarn has then been wound into a ball and the lesson began.

She is a very quick study!

Meg got a great start to her first mat and we sent her off to security assuring her they would allow a large ball of plarn and a plastic crochet hook!  

(I sure hope we were right)

What fun!

I got to 'hook' a new crocheter, try out a 'new' material, and who knows how many homeless will benefit all from one fun filled couple of hours!

So what did you do for Armed Forces Day/weekend?