stealthin elfin'

Now that these projects have reached their destinations, I thought I'd show some of the projects that have kept Elf Leah busy over the past couple of months. Since she was so happy with the prototype wallet she made for me, she made a bunch of others, each with the fabric combinations chosen specifically for the recipient (except the two stripey ones for male teen cousins, as the seamstress decided we didn't have very many "boy fabrics" in our stash). More beaded snowflakes too, with bead colors to match the wallets.

One morning, she marched into my office and plunked down this completed needlepoint project. I had never seen it before, had no idea she was working on any such thing, and didn't know that she knew how to do needlepoint! She had been working on it, completely on the sly, for weeks. She only brought it to me when she needed help with blocking and framing. It's 6" square, a kit she bought at Joann's with a gift card a while back. It definitely shows signs of being her first needlepoint project, but for being stitched by a 9 y.o. with absolutely no help, wow -- she blew me away with that one!

Last is a project she started before Halloween, a shark hat for cousin Zach, similar to the one I made for Scott. We were smarter this time and blocked the hat before taking pics of it, so the coned yarn could bloom. We tried a different technique with the teeth this time, which made them more pointy, as planned, and also more crookedy/jaggedy, like scary shark teeth should be.

Zach put it on right away and enthusiastically came outside with me for photos with his snowboard later on xmas morning. When I explained to him that Leah and I were test knitters, helping the designer of this hat because she's planning to offer the pattern soon, and that I'd be putting this pic on my blog, he was visibly a little bothered by the idea. He moaned, "But then all my friends will have one!" But he perked right up again when I reminded him that they can't all be lucky enough to have a cousin who loves them enough to knit such a cool hat. :-)

precipice

That crafty gal o' mine, she's at the tippy top of a slippery slope and, boy, she's looking forward to the ride to come! I'm talking about fun with fabric -- quilting -- which has risen to a feverish pitch for Leah. She comes by it rightfully, given that Scott's mom is an exceptionally talented and skilled quilter, and I guess it's been coming on for a long time, with hemming, hand-sewn patchwork, machine stitching, applique, sewing clothes without a pattern and with, and making fabric wallets as gifts.

Most recently, I showed her an old packet of paper piecing patterns that was mixed in with my needlework patterns. She immediately dove (again) into the box of beautiful fabrics given by her Grammy for xmas 2006 and the next thing I knew, she had a bunch of little paper pieced projects to play with. (Nope, no plan for them yet, just enjoying the process itself.)

She couldn't get enough of this and I knew it was time. I took her to the local quilt shop, where we made a new friend, browsed the goods, bought the pattern for a bag project, and decided the block-a-month club sounded like good fun. We returned on Friday afternoon and Leah joined about 50 other folks for the first of a series of monthly meetings where she'll learn new techniques, be inspired by others, have a darn good time, and end up with a dozen quilt blocks, ready to be made into a quilt. Ooh, the excitement!

While her fabric was drying, we headed off to Old Sturbridge Village. There were multiple reasons for making the trek on Saturday, not the least of which was the opening of the newly renovated Fenno House, with exhibits focusing on textile production and fiber arts of the 1840s. There were spinning wheels, opportunities to hand card wool, weaving, and needlework exhibits. You can imagine the squeal when a certain someone caught her first glimpse of the room with a new focus on another textile art...