"Noah Has Landed" Animals

I just finished making the animals for the first of the Noah's Ark play mats that I am making for twins.  These animals are going with the "Noah Has Landed" mat.  I have also finished appliqueing the things onto the mat, which shows the animals disembarking the ark onto dry land. I still have some hand stitching to do before I can assemble the front and back of the mat together.  I will give a peek preview of the animals for this set.

Tony Tiger looks terrific with his black stripes and green eyes.

Rita Rhinoceros styling her gorgeous horns.

Morris Moose sporting his handsome rack of antlers.

Hilda Hippo giving a little bow.

Oliver Owl looking a little wise.

Wanda Warthog sitting pretty. Yea, I know, she isn't that pretty.  But...what can I say?

Allie Alligator is having a bad day. She looks a little cross to me.

I always like to name my animals.  The people getting these animals will probably not keep these names, but it is what I have named them. I'm a little disappointed that the stuffing shows through on Wanda Warthog and Allie Alligator.  I'm not sure why it does because I used the same type of yarn and the same size of needles for the knitting.  For some reason, they just seemed to stretch more than the others.  My grand daughter, Lexi, thinks Wanda is an elephant instead of a warthog.  I guess she has never seen a warthog before.  She is only two.  Her name for elephant is a "Happy," so that is what she calls her.  Joey thought Allie Alligator looked too mean when he first saw it.  He didn't want to play with it until Lexi picked her up and gave her a big hug.  I got a kick out of the reaction I would get from Joey and Lexi each time I completed an animal.  They both liked them very much and kept playing with them.  I had to hide them so that they would not get them dirty.

I have already started making the first animal to be sewn onto the next play mat for the other twin. I'm calling this mat "The Storm Is Over, But Still At Sea." This mat is like the ones I have done before and everything is totally knitted: the animals sewn to the mat, the toy animals that look just like the ones on the mat, and the mat, itself.  I have also started to knit the mat.  I did that last week end while I was away in Boston. I have about a third of it finished.  I still need to do all seven of the toy animals that go with this set, as well as, the rest of the mat and all of the other animals that go on the mat.  It takes a while to do this set, but I am up and running already.

Zoo Play Mat All Set To Go

With a few difficulties and setbacks, I have finally successfully completed the first of the three play mat sets that I plan to make for friends who are having babies this year.  This is the zoo set.  I encountered some problems appliqueing the things onto the mat, mostly because I chose to use quite a bit of felt.  Felt is good to use for applique because it doesn't need to be zigzagged, but it does have some other issues.  The main one is that it is hard to heat bond the things into place, which I like to do for easier machine appliqueing.  It was hard to get the iron hot enough to bind the things into place without burning, flattening, and sometimes even stretching the felt.  It is finally all into place with only a few puckers, which may just add character to the mat overall.  I also had problems with the arches.  The piping that I use for the arches seemed to be a little stiffer than I have used in the past, and so they did not bend as easily.  I inserted ties for the animals along the material for covering the arches as I was sewing the seams, but then I had to take them off and hand sew them at a higher point on the arch so the animals would hang, rather than sit on the mat,  The hooks on top of the animals also needed to be shortened to make them hang even more off the mat. The hooks on the bottom of the mat that hold the arches into place were also sewn in incorrectly and did not make the arches actually arch.  They were almost flat, so I had to take them off and reattach them in a different angle to accommodate for that mistake. Finally, everything is finished.  The animals are a little crowded in the middle, but they will just have to be that way.  The poor baby will have to play off the mat and just bat the animals around as they hang from the mat, or maybe, not all of the animals need to be on at once.  That would allow the baby to lay on the mat and still have room for an animal or two.  Here are the results of my latest project, The Gifford Zoo play mat set.

This shows the animals from the side as they hang from the arches.

This shows the mat as it looks without the arches.

Molly Monkey eating a banana.

Ellie Elephant looks like she is eating a peanut, but not.

Zulu Zebra is the largest animal and really only fits well hanging from the middle of the arch.

Poor Lawrence Lion is certainly no King of the Jungle, or the zoo, for that matter.  His nose is a little too long and his mane a little too scraggly to be of much threat to anyone or anything.

I think Geraldine Giraffe is my favorite.  Check out that long face.  I love it.

Now, I will start making the animals for one of the ark sets.  I will be making some animals I have never made before, so that should be fun.

Scarf to Order

A lady from church ordered a scarf to be made for her.  She showed me a picture of it from her phone on Sunday.  I had to try to duplicate the look by making my own pattern.  This is the best I could do with what I remember the scarf looking like.  She was supposed to email a picture of it to me, but like usual, I get impatient and want to get going on a project right away.  I haven't received the picture, so I hope this is what she will want.  If she doesn't like it, then she doesn't have to buy it.  I like to guarantee my work for the customer to be fully satisfied with the product. It only took two days to complete, so if she isn't satisfied, I haven't lost much time.

This is the best I could do to get a picture of the scarf as it is supposed to look around the neck.

I have already started my new project today.  I am going to make three play mats for some friends who are having babies this year.  I am making a zoo mat for the first baby due in March, I believe.  The other two mats are for my friend's daughter who is having twins.  I am making Noah's Ark mats for them.  I will make one like the original mat that I have made before.  I am going to try to design the second mat a little differently.  I will use different animals for the new mat, and I will make the ark on dry land with the animals boarding the ark.  It should be fun to make a new one of my own design.

Sunbeam Puppets

I just finished making the puppets for my new Sunbeam class that will be starting this Sunday.  It is exciting this year because two of my students are my grandchildren, Joey and Dot.   It is hard to believe that they are already three, turning four this year.  I don't really mind making these puppets each year, but I'm always happy to get them finished.  I still have not really come up with a great way of doing the hair, especially for the boys.  I like working with yarn for a lot of things, but not necessarily for hair.

The boy with the red, white, and blue shirt is Joey and the girl with the green and yellow shirt is Dot.

The skin color isn't the same in the puppets because I ran out of the yarn that I started with and had to get a new yarn.  The new yarn is a better skin color anyway.  One girl has different colored skin color because she does have a darker skin than the others.

Christmas Has Been Delivered

Now that Christmas is over, I can show the few presents that I made that I was unable to show before.  I finished these presents long ago, even before I started the quilts, I believe. I know they were the first projects I started after last year's Christmas. I wasn't sure at the time what I would make for everyone, but I decided to make pot holders, oven mitts, and dish clothes for the ladies.  That is what I started making first.  Later, I decided to make the afghans for the men.  When everyone opened their gifts, the ladies right away realized that while I gave them things with which to work with, the men got something cozy to keep them warm and comfy. What can I say?  I didn't think of it that way, I just wanted to make something that they could all use, and what can you make for men that they can use to do work? I guess I better do a better job next year thinking it through about what to make for everyone. Anyway, here are the results of my labors of love for the ladies.

These are Cheryl's. Nothing really matches in any one's set because I just used different yarns that I had on hand.

Mindy's

Kim's

Ellen's

All the ladies ready to work.  Ezra thinks he will help Mama cook, too.

Here are all the men styling their afghans.

Now that Christmas is over, I am already on to doing some more projects.  I first have to finish the finger puppets for my new Sunbeam class that starts this Sunday.  I will be having seven little three year olds coming into my class, two of which are my own grandchildren, Joey and Dot.  I need to finish knitting four more puppets and put the hair and faces on them all. 

I still have to finish the afghan I started for Keeping America Warm.  When that is finished, I will begin working on some more baby play mat sets for some friends that are expecting babies this year.  One is for my friend's daughter who will be having twins.  This will be the second play mat set that is for twins.  I did a jungle mat for the first set of twins, and I will be making a Noah's Ark set for this set of twins.  I think I may make another forest mat for the other baby.

I wanted to show another picture of a project that I finished since Christmas. Unfortunately, I somehow deleted it from my camera before I got it downloaded to my computer.  When I went to Maine, my son told me that he could not longer use the sweater that I made for him about six years ago.  He has used that sweater constantly over those years, but because it is 100% wool, it has continued to shrink in length to being so short that he just couldn't use it anymore.  He has always used it as the outer layer of clothing because it worked so well to keep him dry.  Water just rolled off it and never sunk into his other clothing.  I took the sweater and added on to the bottom of it.  I had to add at least eight to ten inches to the thing to get it long enough.  It was always quite wide, and after I had added on the length and sewed the seam, I discovered that it bagged at his waist like a grain bag.  I was so upset, so I took the seam out and wedged the edges and then I sewed the seam back up. I was able to take in a good six inches at least and it ended up looking great.  I also had to add at least another six inches or so to the sleeves and bring the neck line in since it was always a little wide.  I had to use a different color of yarn because I couldn't get the same color from Ellen's wool yarn.  The sweater was a light gray and the extension is done in a darker gray color.  It looks very good that way, and even looks like it was planned.  I was so happy when he came down to celebrate our Christmas on New Year's day, that the sweater fit well and he is going to once again get some use out of his sweater.  You would think that after so many years of using the sweater that it would be worn out, but it actually seemed to get stronger.  After wool is washed so many times, it just becomes so felted that the yarn expands and gets thicker.  It is too bad that it shrinks so much, because it sure is a great type of yarn to use for keeping you warm and dry.