October Crafts & Free Online Pattern

This month I placed an order with the "Fat Quarter Shop" and received some beautiful fat quarter bundles. I ordered the Aspen Wildwood Fat Quarter Bundle (bottom right) and another bundle (top left) that was clearanced and no longer offered. Fat Quarter Shop mailed out my order quickly and it was packaged really professionally. I will surely shop there again! Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to make with my purchases...
I'm also finishing up my sister's wedding gift. Scrapbooking takes so much time! But it's almost finished and should be ready for her wedding this weekend.
The top right is a preview of the stroller blanket I am writing up as a freebie. I still need to finish the seaming and sewing on the fabric backing. With so many other projects as a higher priority, I'm trying my hardest to get it finished. But I realized with this project that I HATE seaming garter stitch. Stockinette seaming is much, much easier and cleaner-looking.
The bottom middle picture is another Bobbled Bloomer by Kat Coyle in "Boho Baby Knits". I'm addicted to the pattern!! This time I made it in a cotton yarn so it's purely decorative and not functional as a diaper cover (how functional can bobbled bottoms be anyway?)
I did, however, make a pair of baby socks to match the bloomers with the leftover yarn. It's a free pattern available online by Valley Cafe called "North Country Cotton Baby Socks".

Projects I'm starting and finishing

Life has just kicked into high gear. I have a couple projects I'm interested in starting and several I need to finish. First thing I have to finish is a baptismal blanket I almost have finished for my church (hopefully I will cast off tomorrow afternoon!). I also have a cotton bathmat that I made out of leftover cotton yarn scraps that is begging to be finished (hopefully by Tuesday...) and then I want to get started on a Elisa Nest Tote so I'm prepared when the farmer's market opens for the spring. I even have some beautiful skeins of Rowan 4-ply cotton in a soft lemon waiting to be used! What else do I want to make? I do want to make a dog sweater for my aunt's puppy, Izzy. She's a dachshund-schnauzer-poodle mix (see the picture!) who will hopefully be finished growing soon (so she doesn't grow out of her sweater) - when I finish her sweater I will post the pattern. I also have a few people who follow the blog that need help making some sweaters to fit their pooches. I have it on my "to-do" list to get back with them and help them make the patterns I post work for their little ones. And then I also want to make some quick washcloths to send to my grandparents in Florida...
And after all of this knitting I have a craft room to get started on! I am so excited to finally have my own craft space! We have a second bedroom that we hardly use. I mostly use it as my changing room since I have the closet in that room filled with my clothes. I finally got the queen bed out of the room today and after fresh paint (a light sea blue), baseboard, crown molding, cupboards, shelving, etc. I will have my own space! I can't wait. Hopefully my hubbie will start stripping the room and painting it tomorrow. I set a tentative deadline of 2 weeks until the craft room is finished. No more sewing upstairs and ironing/cutting downstairs!!
But first thing's first - I need to finish the baby blanket. I need to cut down on unfinished projects (even though I'm probably pretty good at keeping projects to a minimum compared to people like my mother who has maybe a dozen or so projects in the works...)
I did quickly scrap another digital page from my Florida trip on my husband and dad's diving trip. I plan for it to be a hybrid scrap page so I will add additional things after I print it - but here's the basic page...

Florida Sun

Here's a page I just finished for my scrapbook on the Florida trip we just got back from. My husband and I went and visited my grandparents near Key Largo, Florida. We had a great time and enjoyed every minute of sun and sand!!

Ann Arborites

Sorry it's been a couple days since I've posted. I've been busy getting little projects done that have been begging for attention. I have quite a number of pictures that need to be scrapbooked and I also needed to knit some cotton dishclothes. I got a number of dishclothes knitted using Vogues Stitchionary for some stitch patterns - it was a fun way to try out some new stitch patterns on a small scale. They turned out really nice!
I also got my handmade Valentines made. I'm happy that I'm already done with the Valentines and it's still January! I just need to get a little more scrapbooking done. I've been doing some hybrid scrapping since it's quicker than making my pages totally by hand.
I just did a page on Ann Arbor called "Ann Arborites". It has a quick history of Ann Arbor and what we like about it. I used the "You and I" template that I downloaded for free from Fryske Digi Scraps. I also used "Sleep Tight Skyline" by Madame Mim's Designs that was available for free.

Handmade Boxes

I was wrapping all of my presents for Christmas and didn't have enough little boxes. What was I to do? Spend $3-4 on some plain, white boxes that I'll have to cover in wrapping paper? No way! I had some red flocked paper in my scrapbook stash that I couldn't use for scrapbooking since adhesive didn't seem to stick to it. The paper seemed like the perfect texture and size to fold using my 4th grade origami technique of making a box. I couldn't remember all of the steps but ran across a really nice tutorial using pictures that refreshed my memory. Take a look at their website here: Do-It-Yourself Gifts. The step-by-step instructions were helpful and I made some really cute boxes that were the perfect size with the 12"x12" scrapbook paper. Try it and have fun!

New Scrapbook Pages

I've been busy with Sam's sweater but I managed to fit in a little scrapbooking to catch up with our vacations, Leah's engagment, and other fall activities. Here is a page on the Talladay Corn Maze and Leah's engagement.

Digital Scrapbook Page

Since I started my photography class I have been trying to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop. I normally scrapbook the old fashion way but thought it would be fun to try to digitally scrapbook. This is my first attempt at a fully digital page. I apologize to those scrappers who are looking for the credits of the pieces I used, but since I'm new to digi scrapbooking, I don't have the info from where I got the stuff. Sorry!