I'm Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

Just like the retail outlets, I too need from the day after Christmas to prepare for February 14th. This year-- I am going to make Martha's bitchin fortune cookies out of felt, cards, and I also have a heart intarsia scarf to make and some slippers. Scratch Bakery will re-open for more homemade candies: carmellows (Marshmallow, caramel, dipped in chocolate), and espresso-chocolate caramels. It takes a long time to make these things! I need the 7 weeks!

Christmas ornaments/gifts

Meanwhile, here's some of the Christmas ornaments/gifts I made this year.

Black Belt Sushi-Maguro (Tuna) Nigiri

Black Belt Sushi-Maguro (Tuna) Nigiri, originally uploaded by chris.creatures.

Every sushi was kungfu fightin!

Mini Noodle Bowl and Miso Soup

Mini Noodle Bowl and Miso Soup, originally uploaded by chris.creatures.

Heart!

Owl

Owl, originally uploaded by wandernstarz.

Super cute owl! I am inspired to make my own!

Arturo the Owl

Arturo the Owl, originally uploaded by squirrel momma.

I am in love with this pin cushion!

Christmas Fir Trees

Christmas Fir Trees, originally uploaded by paper-and-string-on-flickr.

Super cute as well! paper and string is my new favorite etsy seller, besides anndmade-- she's obviously the super bestest!

Fabric Christmas Trees

Fabric Christmas Trees, originally uploaded by paper-and-string-on-flickr.

Simple, but super cute!

owl ornaments

owl ornaments, originally uploaded by paper-and-string-on-flickr.

FREAKING LOVE THESE!

Blue Owl

003, originally uploaded by rockabilachica.

This is by far my favorite Halloween ornament that I sent to Laura. I found a picture of a similar owl and then improvised the pattern.

Pumpkin Patch

004, originally uploaded by rockabilachica.

These are fairly easy to knit up-- make them for your friends for Halloween or Thanksgiving!

Purple Kitty

007, originally uploaded by rockabilachica.

I used an embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching to make this cat for Laura.

Batty

008, originally uploaded by rockabilachica.

I love bats! At least the kind you can make with googly eyes. This batty little dude was super easy to whip up. Now he lives in Austin with the other bats I like.

Frankenstein

011, originally uploaded by rockabilachica.

My friend Leslie said that this Frankenstein I made looked like an Emo Frankenstein. :)

Strong Man Stan

Strong Man Stan, originally uploaded by ILIKEITTOOTOO.

ADORABLE!

Halloween Tree ornaments

Halloween Tree ornaments, originally uploaded by 3 peas.

How freaking cute is this!

Peppermint garland

Peppermint garland
Originally uploaded by PatchworkPottery

What a yummy surprise this would be for a swap!

Ornaments

She loves the wool forest, originally uploaded by knitalatte11.

This little enchanted forest of trees would be a lovely holiday surprise!

patchwork star ornaments

patchwork star ornaments, originally uploaded by jrcraft.

Aren't these super cute? I am sure all the sewing goddess can improv a pattern for these little gems.

Ornament Ideas!

Gifts: fabric stacking tree ornaments, originally uploaded by sarahjane..

For those of you on Ravelry in the Holiday Ornament Swap Group, it is easier to put pictures of other people's ornaments here so that I respect their copyright privileges. These little fabric trees were used in someone else's ornament swap and I thought they were darling!

What I have been up to

School's out. I am bored. Crafting begins. I miss my sweat shop :(

This is my Holly Golightly doll that was a birthday gift for Laura.

Latest Pincushion Swap

I took this photo with my camera phone so it's a bit grainy. However, I made another pin cushion for my latest swap. I spelled her name with pins and made waves with pins too. She wanted to go on vacation to Maine to see lighthouses, so that's what I made her. I wasn't super happy with it, but it was a lot of work to get it looking reasonable enough to send off to Oklahoma.

Mr. Funky en route to Texas

Be on the lookout Laura and Katie!

More Yarn and Fabric around Boston

Winmill Fabrics near Chinatown/Downtown crossing came highly recommended on Tom's list (see previous post). In a word: Bleck. I can see if you wanted to buy men's suiting that this is the place to go. They had a lot of options all with reasonable prices. Even women's wool suiting looked okay. However, this place looked like it hadn't received any new fabric since 1982. The place was dingy. The staff didn't acknowledge me. There certainly weren't any hipster fabrics a la Amy Butler or anything I would want. Huge disappointment considering its proximity to my work.

In better news, we roadtripped it up to Lowell, MA, which is where the giant textile mills used to be. The buildings are still there and a few have been turned into national parks. We went to the New England Quilt Museum. Snooze. I have more quilts than this place had! Not as old but definitely as interesting. I was actually quite disappointed with the number of quilts. A leisurely paced tour of the exhibit lasted 15 minutes maximum. Hardly worth $5. I don't even think my mom (master quilter) enjoyed it too much.

We hit the Lowell LYS which are at this place called the Western Avenue Studios. This place was awesome! There is a yarn store (Classic Elite) which is an outlet of sorts. Reasonable selection of yarn, just poorly organized and difficult to figure out prices: one of my BIGGEST complaints about LYS up here. After tackling the yarn store we went down and looked at the artist studios. Basically these places are for rent for artists and they sell their wares out of their studios. None of the art was earth shattering, but it was awesome that this space is available and some of the work was really interesting and definitely worth checking out around Christmas time. We will definitely go back. If we lived closer, we'd be getting a studio!

Boston Fabric Stores

I found an excellent source of information on local fabric stores at http://www.tomfarrell.org/textiles/fabric.html. His review of Sew Fisticated Discount Fabrics was dead on. I went there today in hopes of finding some fabric to finish my pillow that I made a stockinette knitted side. I want the other side to be fabric. Sew Fisticated sucked. Their fabrics are definitely tacky and the store is tacky too. There are a lot of hand printed signs on the front doors: "No beverages or food" "No kids running around." They set the tone for the crappy selection of dated fabrics inside. Let there be no doubt that if you need some tacky crap for a costume or a party, this place will have it and their prices are reasonable. The crotchety old ladies that work there are as friendly as their welcoming signs. Boo.

I am going to check out the others on Tom's list soon.