Eddy's Birthday Crocodiles

I wrote earlier about Eddy's surprise birthday party this year. I didn't share too many pictures of the quilt at the time because I wanted to focus on Eddy's birthday I SOMEHOW COULDN'T FIND THEM NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I SEARCHED THROUGH OUR FLICKR SET.

But I found them now and this quilt pattern was just too cute to gloss over.

It calls for four crocodiles.

They each have little flying geese scales on top.

And can we just admit that this blue gray waves fabric that I found for the background is perfect?

Striped binding is my favorite.

For a final touch, I quilted Eddy's name into the borders.

Happy make believe birthday for my darling!

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The Reason I Started Weaving

Necessity is the mother of invention.  That sums up why I wanted to learn to weave.  There was a wall near our dining room that was just waiting for something pretty to hang above a piece of furniture and this phases of the moon bunting Eddy and I made together.

But it took me awhile to develop some weaving chops before I felt comfortable embarking on the ambitious weaving project I wanted for this space. I made this piece in the bathroom and also this one for our entryway. When I was ready to get started, I started with the fringe.

Next, I did some loops and some soumak stitch.

Then just more loops and fringes.

My favorite part is at the very top where I wove in some sequins.

You can never have enough sequins.

This is what it looked like before I removed it from the loom.

Then, of course, I had to bury all these pesky loose ends on the back of the weaving.

Here it is installed on some driftwood we picked up on the Oregon coast over our moon phases bunting.

And here's the view into the dining room!

Now that I've finished the weaving I set out to do, I guess I can weave whatever I please!

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Maneki Neko Fangirl Room

We are incredible lamebots.  As such, we spent New Year's Eve making and installing a shelf in my office.  It was a shelf for my maneki neko collection.

Don't worry. We drank champagne while doing so.

Rupert helped.

Once the shelf was in place, I saw this pillow and figured I could make a similar one for my new shrine to waving kitties.

Here's the pattern I came up with.

Just look at that cute little face!

Gotta write something in that banner.

Here's the finished pillow, all stuffed and ready for duty.

I really like the selvedge edge on the back. I don't know why I didn't think of it before because I use some fabrics with some lovely selvedges and also because I'm lazy about hemming.

Here's the kitty all nestled in his new home.

Now I'll just have to figure out some maneki neko artwork to hang over that chaise lounge.  Also, more waving cats.  Definitely more waving cats.

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Wood and Wool

Our friend Tuan, who we met when we lived in St. Louis, made this lovely artwork that we've been so excited to display in our new place.  It was the first piece of artwork we hung when we unpacked and I absolutely love it.  I wanted to share a picture of it right away, but our wall where we were displaying it just never seemed to do it justice.

First it was that our walls were tan.  Hideous, terrible tan as far as the eye could see.  Here's where we hung it.  In that teeny wall in the entryway.

These are just the staging pictures from the house listing.  Then we had the walls painted green and it looked so much better.

But it still looked a little lonely. I just wanted to make something special to go with it. Enter my new love of weaving. I tried out some variegated warp for this one.

Here it is almost finished, still on the loom. Also late at night because that's when I finished it.

And here it is in its new home!

My favorite thing about this grouping is that it looks like a little person! Anyway, thanks so much to Tuan for this special piece! We think of you and Leah and Pasha every single time we walk through the room.

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