a few things....

I have this amazing girlfriend, who happens to be the most generous and kind hearted person......so much so that she was willing to share some of her Wollmeise loot with me.

For those of you that don't know Wollmeise, it's like the FMF of the yarn world. I was so thrilled that I couldn't prevent myself from immediately winding it and starting a new project!

This beautiful yarn is a dream to knit with and I am so excited to be starting my first shawl. The pattern is called Trillian and can be found on Ravelry.

I also received an order in the mail of some new Madelinetosh......I have such a serious addiction to this yarn, I want it all!! It's all so YUMMY!

As for sewing, I did manage to make a few project bags for my girlfriend as a thank you.

I especially love the FMF bag and I actually used up a good amount of my small scraps.

Now, back to my needles....I have about a dozen projects in the works, I am definatly in a knitting frenzy.

Let me start this post with saying that I hope everyone had a awesome holiday season! 

I won't bore you all with the details of how busy the beginning of this year has been for me, or how I am stuck in one serious rut.....I will say that sometimes life gets a bit overwhelming and I am hoping to find my balance again soon. Until then, let me share with you a few pictures of some of my favorite knit projects I got done last week.

Izzy kept complaining that her little hands were cold, so I found this pattern on Ravelry and started knitting.  

She loves them and I can't get over how cute they look on her sweet hands! The pattern is called the Mini-Me Magic Loop Mitts and was fun and easy to do. 

Of course as soon as she had her mitts on she looked at me and said "Mama, I need a hat to match my puppets"....I know they aren't puppets, but I thought it was too cute to correct!

So I got busy and within the next day she had her matching set!!

Now her hands and head are snuggly warm...and even though our weekend included 75 degree spring like afternoons, she insisted on wearing them both. 

The hat was also made with a Ravelry pattern that you can find here by Paulina Chin. 

I have many other knit projects that are currently on needles and in progress, so you will be seeing more knitty things in the next few weeks. 

I am hoping to find sewing time soon, but as I said I haven't found my balance yet and sewing isn't really something that I have found the time for.....since I can't shove my Bernina in a bag and take it with me where ever it is that my kids need to be! 

Just incase anyone is curious, these are made with Madelinetosh tosh dk yarn and the color is back currant. An awesome yarn that I am currently obsessed with.

a christmas swap

Last night at our monthly LAMQG meeting we enjoyed an awesome holiday swap.

My partner was Kelly, who asked for something that was Christmas themed. Now, I have to tell you this kinda stumped me at first, outside of stockings and advent calendars, I haven't sewn something holidayish. So after a bit of hum bugging I finally got to work. Kelly had mentioned that she kept two 20 inch throw pillows on her coach and with all the pillow inspiration I have been getting from Angela's blog, I decided to go for it.

Now I have to admit, this little flea market fancy hexagon christmas tree was not easy to part with.

I mean really, look how cute they looked on my sofa!!

Kelly really seemed to love them as much as I did, so it made it easier to say goodbye to these two babies. Besides.....look what I scored

six amazing placemats made for me by Alissa!! 

I L-O-V-E them!!! 

I am in awe of how she was able to make something for me that truly is "me", they are a perfect reflection of my home and style. She rocks!! The only thing is, no child will ever eat over the babies, oh no, mama will be pulling them off the table before dinner is served. I know this may defeat the purpose, but beauty just can not be comprised by ketchup or spaghetti sauce!

Now....back to all that holiday sewing that I am way behind on.

tree shoppin....

what do your kids do when you are busy trying to find the perfect shaped christmas tree? for some reason, mine always end up doing this!

no pins.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We spent ours up in the Bay Area (right outside of San Francisco for all of you who are not familiar with California) with family. We only go up a few times a year and it is always a joy when we do! It was also where this quilt found it's new home.

I made this quilt as a gift for my sister in laws birthday, which was back in August....but better late than never, right?

Since we were going up for Thanksgiving, I decided to rush it's finish so that I could give it to her in person.

Now normally I don't like to rush the finishing of a quilt, but this time actually forced me to try something that I haven't had the nerve to do yet...

 

machine bind an entire quilt with no pins!! I can't even tell you how exciting this was for me, the whole time I kept looking at my husband going "I can't believe I am actually doing this". Amazingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and took a fraction of the time it does when pinning. I didn't get a picture of me sewing it to the front of the quilt, but that was done without pins also. 

Here is what it looked like when finished. 

I didn't have enough time to picture the finished quilt before leaving, so we did it while my sister in law was out shopping, before giving it to her. I really love the simplicity of this quilt and have a feeling it is a style I will play with more in the future. In the beginning, I was nervous about leaving solid squares, but it turned out to be one of my favorite features of the quilt.

Quilted with diaginal lines in both directions, but not in similar patterns. 

Which you could really see on the back of the quilt.

 Just in case anyone is curious this quilt was made with Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line and Kona cotton in Ash and Snow. I have been on an Ash kick for awhile now, I think it may be time for me to give another solid a try!!