Frannie Dresses for Friends

I do love alliteration! I recently made three "Frannie" dresses for some special people. We have really been lucky with generosity from a friend of mine from work and our friends, Rebecca and Phillip, in New Orleans with baby items. We have received two huge boxes of clothes, an extra carseat, two carseat things that fit in the car the carseat goes into (I can't think of what that is called!), a bouncer, playmat, and the list keeps going on. This is all in addition to numerous boxes of clothes and baby items we received from my brother and sister-in-law in the fall! Aren't we lucky to have such wonderful friends and family?

So, I made some dresses for them. My work friend has two little girls that are age 1 and 4 so I made two dresses for her girls; she has already received her dresses. I made another size four for our New Orlean's friends; they haven't received theirs (yet!) so this may be a surprise if they read my blog. I just couldn't wait to share them anymore.

I used the Frannie pattern from Children's Corner, and I think it runs small. My work friend told me that her girls are tall, so they don't work as dresses, but are really cute as tops. I was a little disappointed by this, but now I know that it does run small so I can choose a more appropriate size in the future. The other one is already made, so if it doesn't fit as a dress, maybe it will as a top! Anyway, I really like how they turned out, so I hope they like them, too.:)

Patchwork Scottie Dog

I made the Patchwork Scottie Dog this past week and finished it up while watching the Olympics Friday night. I love patchwork, and it goes together pretty quickly. I need to work on my stuffing skill, as it is a little lumpy but that is okay. It is fun to be able to use all those little pieces that you don't want to throw away. I do love scrap projects because I save all of my little pieces, which can quickly get out of hand.

Zerah seems to like it, too.;) It is a little big for her now though, isn't it? It is going into her easter basket this year. I love that I can take a picture of her with it now, and then give it to her later with her having no recollection of it. Later on, I will have to hide projects for her but not quite yet!

Look at what I did to my hand! It has been hurting for a month now, and I went to the doctor a week and a half ago where I got this lovely splint which only comes off when I am taking a bath or washing dishes. Nice, isn't it? It is helping, but it still really hurts and throbs at times. I have De Quervain's Tendinitis; it can be associated with pregnancy and as result, according to my doctor, seen in breastfeeding moms because your hormones are still different. It is also caused be repetitive movement-which I haven't been doing. I also read that it is common in mom's with new infants because of the different way you twist your wrist while holding an infant. I think this is what happened because it hurts when I am twisting Zerah to put her in her bed at night sometimes.

I originally thought I had injured myself by reading. Isn't that a strange way to hurt yourself? A couple of weeks ago, I was reading Pat Conroy's new novel, South of Broad, while nursing. I had it propped open in my left hand with my thumb holding the pages open. It is quite the lengthy novel at around 1,000 pages so I thought the weight might have placed a strain on my wrist. I guess it could have not helped! The book was really good though. So anyway, I now get to wear this for two weeks to see if it helps and then the next step is cortisone shots. I really hate shots!

sewconnected and sewconnected2

This past weekend I finished some more blocks for the two swaps that I am in. The top two blocks are for my sewconnected group, and they are the last two blocks I need to send out! My month was December, so I am now just waiting for all my alphabet blocks to come back to me.

These two blocks are for Meg of luckyduckyday. She is making a Kaffe Fasset inspired quilt with solids an log cabinish blocks. It is going to be so beautiful with all of the saturated colors she has selected.

This one is for maddieandme for my sewconnected2 group. Her fabrics are so beautiful! She asked for an assortment of blocks, and I decided to make one with lots of triangles. Triangles are hard, but this one turned out pretty well I think. It is neat to look back and see how much better I have become at piecing together triangles over the last year.

Bunnies!

For Christmas, I received Cute Dolls by Aranzi Aronzo which is full of cute softie patterns, so I had to give it a try! Meet two little bunnies.


It was a little too much fun setting them up around the house to make pictures of them together!

Who doesn't like to sit on the front porch and watch the world go by?

They are best friends who like to wear dresses. One is going to stay here will appear in Zerah's Easter basket in a few months. The other friend is going to travel to stay with another little girl. Maybe they will meet again in the future? They hope so!

He has several other doll books out. This was so easy that I might need to pick up some other ones! They are really fun to make. The mouths and eyes are felt sewn on jersy bodies.