Books, Quilt Blocks and a Present.

I recently won a blog contest for the book, The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes from Stephanie over at Half Baked. She generously sent me Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse along with my prize. I adore both of the books. The Gingerbread Architect Book requires you to be meticulous and patient because the houses do look like a lot of work. Luckily for me, that kind of thing is right up my alley. Though, executing one of these houses might prove to be difficult while taking care of a 15 month old. The 12 house designs are: Pueblo House, Second Empire House, Cape Cod, Adirondack Camp, Dawson City House, Urban Brownstone, Carpenter Gothic, Tudor Revival, Victorian Farmhouse, South Beach Art Deco House, Greek Revival Antebellum Plantation, and Modern House. And true to it's name of the book, it has blueprints of all the houses for you to enlarge on the photocopier. It reminds me of my drafting class in art school. The book contains all the recipes for the houses like the gingerbread dough, royal icing, and pastillage. Then it also has a list of resources for buying the candy pieces for the decorations.

I think it will be lots of fun to have Melody participate in decorating a Gingerbread House this year. It will have to be something simple because I don't think she is up for making a Victorian Farmhouse yet. :-)

Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse has delicious looking recipes. I have my eye on the Blueberry Crumb Cakes and Plum Kuchens right now. The pictures of the baked goods are very good, so it further entices you to make some. I find that people really like miniature cakes. Maybe it tricks you into thinking that you are having a smaller portion or maybe they are just too darn cute to resist. From my own experience, I know that my friends really love the fact that I now make my cheesecakes in individual portions. Shhhh...don't tell them, but it's actually a little easier.

I noticed that the book has some recipes that require you to have specialty mini-cake pans in different shapes, but not all of them require that. The front of the book has a section just for using muffin pans. Towards the back of the book are the decorative cakes that require a lot more decorating. I think this book ranges from Easy to Advanced, but they are all certainly doable.

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My friend, Jen, recently sent me Weekend Sewing and Material Obsession. Unless you have been living under a rock, I am sure you have seen Weekend Sewing. It's the new sewing book by Heather Ross that has taken over crafting blogs and Flickr. I seriously couldn't avoid seeing the book. Every blog I visited had pictures from the book or finished projects to show. I even had one person recommend it to me because of the cute children's clothes section. It's so true. I love that section. I have been wanting to sew garments and children's clothes would be a good baby step towards it. The Smocked Sundress and Flower Girl Dress would be adorable for Melody. I love the step by step illustrations (by the author) and the simple look of the projects. The hand drawn illustrations really adds a special touch to the book. You can tell how much love and care the author put into the making of the book. The projects, especially, the garments (adult and children) have simple clean lines. It really makes the garment projects look approachable, even for a newbie like me.

If you like making quilts, this one is a winner. Isn't the name, Material Obsession fantastic? Not only is it the name of the book, but it is the name of the authors store in Sydney, Australia. The two ladies really have an eye for color and fabrics. The way they combine prints and color really makes the quilts look so beautiful. Their most simple pattern, which is called Avalon, uses rich bold colors that are combined perfectly. Even though it is a pattern that uses only 12 squares of fabric, the fabric choices is what makes it unique.
I was very inspired by the book and decided to use one of the block patterns for Lynn's month of our virtual quilting bee, Common Threads. She sent an impressive selection of fabrics. I chose the 4 biggest pieces to make this block for her. The block is from the pattern, Cowboy Baby, in the book. I took one set of the block and blew it up. The block ended up being 14 inches, so she could trim it down if she wants to. The picture below is the picture of the quilt, Cowboy Baby, from the book.
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I haven't talked about the other blocks I made for the virtual quilting bee since the last update.
This 15 inch block is for Jacquie. The light blue is a linen and was a little tricky to work with because it frays very easily. The finished quilt is for her son, Jon. Jon asked for something minimal, modern and masculine.
These two are for Jenny. I had extra fabric, so I tried to make another one.The second one is smaller because I ran out of fabric. But I had fun experimenting with the striped fabric she sent.

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Last weekend, we Melody received a special package in the mail. This little guy came all the way from Chicago only to arrive on a yucky rainy day here in NYC. Sara had made this for Melody as a belated birthday present.
The next day, Easter Sunday, was bright and sunny, so we took Melody and the Koala to the park. She never let go of him and dragged him around the whole afternoon. DH took her on the slide and all 3 of them slid down together.
Here is Koala resting on the park bench. We decided to give him a break from the jungle gym and the (dirty) ground. He might need a bath now after all that playing.

Thank you, Sara. She really loves him. She loves holding him by his apron. I think that is my favorite part, too. So cute!

Mitten Swap

In March, I participated in a Quickie Mitten Swap hosted by Sit 'n' Knit New York City. We answered a very detailed questionnaire which included color likes and dislikes, patterns, Winter Coat colors, and the most important, our hand measurements. We had 5 weeks to knit a pair of mittens, not fingerless mitts or arm warmers or gloves. They had to be MITTENS.The person that I was knitting for, Lizzy, has very small hands. I have never met her, but the questionnaire has her Ravelry ID, Flickr ID and Blog address. It was fun to check out what she has knit and what patterns she would like. On the questionnaire, she wrote that she would like some color-work mittens and that her favorite color was purple. It was made very clear in the beginning that there is no pressure to knit what the person wants, but I do aim to please.These mittens were very fun to knit. The color work is actually slipped stitches so it's not hard at all. I shortened the cuff so that it's only 3 inches long. My hand measurements are pretty close to hers, with mine being slightly bigger, so it was pretty easy to use my own hands to test the size as I was knitting. Even though I had her measurements, I was still worried about the actual fit. It's nerve-wracking to knit for someone that you have never met before.To package up the mittens, I decided to sew her a knitting project bag. It's fully lined on the inside and I also personalized the front. It says "Lizzy's Knits". I hand drew the yarn balls next to her name, which I stamped. I used fabric pens and a ink pad. The bag is perfect for a small project like mittens or socks.

I was thrilled when I presented the mittens to her and they fit , well, like a glove! I didn't bring my camera to the Mitten Swap Party, but luckily there were people there taking photos for the group. Click here to see a picture of Lizzy wearing the mittens. There are pictures of all the other fabulous mittens. The mittens also coordinated with her scarf, which I had saw on her Ravelry page.

She mentioned to me at the party that the mittens were so soft and asked me what yarn I used. It was my first time knitting with Knit Picks Swish and it's very soft and squishy. The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino is silky and soft. I recommend both of them, but be aware that the DB Cashmerino bled when I soaked them.

Pattern: Aili's Mittens (Ravelry Link to Free Pattern)
Yarns: 66.0 yards of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in color: 300611 (Red). 72.6 yards of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Wisteria.
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm
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The mittens I received were made by Gail in my two favorite colors, Green and Purple. She crocheted the purple pieces to add to the mittens as decoration. The cuff can be rolled down or folded up. Unfortunately, the mittens are too big for my hands. I don't mind the loose fit over my hands, but the thumbs are at least 1 inch longer than my thumbs. Her hard work will not be wasted. My friend, Rebecca, from my knitting group tried them on and they fit her very well, so the mittens will have a new home.