Afghan from Aunt Nancy

This is the last of the handmade wedding shower gifts--a hand-crocheted afghan by my Aunt Nancy.


As you can see, it covers our queen-sized bed, so it was definitely a labor of love. (The quilt underneath was made by my great-grandmother.)


It has already been cat-approved. (Luckily, it's also washable.)

If you look closely at this last picture, you can see the two cherubs and the interlaced hearts above them. We love this beautiful afghan! Thanks again to all of our generous friends and family who gave us wonderful gifts.

The heat of summer hasn't slowed down my crafting, but I have switched to embroidery and cross stitch for the moment, along with sewing at my sewing machine. Sewing can be a little tricky in the heat, as it usually involves ironing. I do have a couple of finished projects to share with you next time.

Catch Up

I have been trying to clean out my old projects and organize the ones I'd like to work on next. I have a box in my craft room that holds WIPs and materials for upcoming projects that I went through yesterday. I found a couple of items that were completely done, they just needed to be blogged.

First up is a little pouch made from a Japanese crochet and embroidery kit that I got from Kpixie for Christmas a couple of years ago:


I'm really happy with how it came out, although it's smaller than I expected (it could probably hold my lip balm and not much else). Oh well. I think it will be really cute hanging in my craft room, and it was good to learn how to hand-sew a circle to a round tube.



The top is crocheted, the felt pieces are embroidered, and the strap is sewn on with buttons at the end. Very cute. It was fun to try a Japanese kit--it wasn't as difficult as I expected.



This was a great stash-busting project from Kristin over at Craft Leftovers. It's the Springy Headwrap, which she generously offers as a free pattern:


It's really cute and it goes together in less than an hour. I made one for a friend last spring and I liked it so much I made one for me. I used some leftover Rowan Tapestry yarn and the recommended G hook. This would be a great Christmas present because it doesn't require much time or yarn.



I have a few more projects to finish up from the box. Sometimes i just get stuck with the finishing aspects, even if it's not anything difficult. I also frogged some projects that just weren't working but that I didn't have the heart to tackle before. There were a couple of socks that I unraveled, which was a little hard, but it feels freeing to have the yarn back again. I hope to do a little more cleaning out and finishing up of old projects this weekend. Hope you get a chance to do what you'd like this weekend, too!