a good friend of mine has had work upset of late and i said that a distraction is what she needed and she should start watching her mailbox because i would make her something--this tarted up frenchie cat is that distraction. 
didn't know exactly what i had in mind when i started out, but i like the way the proportions came together and i LOVE the combination of yarn in texture and partciularly color:



hanging out with the giant owl before i mailed her off:

as always, every toy is an emergency meal, weighted with two cups of dried beans in the bottom! 

i have a smallish, extremely cluttered apartment...so you might think that making huge things out of yarn (or anything else!) would be a little out of the question, but i can't seem to help myself.  i make them, i love them, i trip over them--hassock, i'm looking at you!
this is the latest--a giant stuffed owl made out of all the crappy red heart super saver, random itchy wool and freakish fuzzy stuff that i never got around to using:

it's about three feet wide, little more than that tall and about a foot deep...stuffed with all the guts of a body pillow and another jumbo standard pillow, in a cover, so i could conceivably wash the outside if i needed to...though i can't imagine i'll wrestle it open and closed again unless there is an emergency!  you can see that napoleon is not so sure about sharing the chair with the beast--nap's about 20 pounds, so that gives you perspective on the size, too. 
crocheted in a spiral, about 6 strands held together and the big "speed hook"...a Q?  black buttons for eyes.

made this today out of a couple tshirts and a lot of red zig zag stitching...threw some buttons down at the bottom of the trunk, too, just for fun, and might put some more stuff on it if i think about it.  can't decide if it's ludicrous or awesome, but i like it. 

i made a hassock for my friends jim and mitch--this one is about two feet in diameter and made using between four and six yarns held together.

the flip side!
a better picture of some of the yarn--and napoleon, peeking around the corner as a bonus!

made for my friend ben's birthday--

made the line drawing from a photo, then made a gocco screen onto wool challis...sewn with red zig-zag on light canvas with a punched metal tag in real naugahyde brand black vinyl.


photo on card stock sewn to back to hide messiness of stitching...

this is about 30" in diameter and about a foot tall.  it is crocheted in just regular single crochet with about six strands of various yarns--only the fat yarn changes color, though, so i think it looks unified at the same time it's getting rid of some serious stash.

the flip side!
and here's the little mushroom toadstool/footstool:

this was a little more random than it should have been--i'm going to make another with a better base, as this has some fairly unever increases...not sure exactly what i thought i was doing, really!  it's about 20" tall, the base is stuffed with beanie baby innards and tshirt scraps, while the top is just fiberfill, so it sits solid at the base, but the top flops around a little--makes it a perfect footstool for my platform rocker!

made this bag for the wonderful mellyp--this is the canvas pocket on a heavy brown twilly sort of fabric--didn't really take a picture of the whole thing, but it's just a (somewhat poorly) lined tote with medium straps...
the flowers are covered buttons, a couple circles of fabric and polar fleece, stems of cotton fabric.  the edges are all open on everything, so i'm hoping it will fray out nicely over time and i sort of headed it in that direction by pulling some threads.  the front pocket is slightly bigger than standard 8.5x11" paper size, so it can hold a notebook or whatever.

i had just the branch appliqued on the front panel sitting around for a long time--took me a while to put it together and make it a bag, but i'm really happy with it now that it's done!  it's big enough to comfortably carry three library books and all my other crap without seeming like a tote bag instead of a purse...and, since i made it, the strap is long enough to go over my considerable boobs and still hand down low at my waist, where i like it, which is hard to get readymade if you're a big girl.

the lining is a vintage sheet that matches the bird...

i made this with a couple of my mother crafting ladies for one of our number who got knocked up--she and her husband like to dress up as pirates for fun, so we thought it would be a good theme and we worked on this together over the course of a month, maybe.  it's rare in my world that a group project is actually a group project, but all three of us definitely brought something to the table every time with this one.

this is the back, with the traditional X marking the spot--i forgot to take a picture after we finished the treasure chest off with ribbons (so it actually looks like a chest instead of a square), but here is the inside--

with the baby's name and birthdate embroidered.
design and group working dynamics made this take a while to put together, but actual work was fairly straight-forward.  if, for whatever reason, i should need to produce another pirate blanket, i feel equal to the task!  i've got more detail photos, if anyone wants to see closer...just didn't know if this was really quilty enough to go here and didn't want to clog up the works. 

i was up 'til the wee hours finishing off this guy...it was a canvas from a vintage kit i found in a thrift store with no floss, so i had to use my judgment on what "light brown" meant in relation to tan and medium brown and etc.  the directions were hilarious, too--i've never had a kit so mean!  it kept saying things like "if you don't do this JUST RIGHT you're going to screw up the whole thing and might as well not even try!"  apparently elsa williams was a strict taskmistress!

i'm not sure i did it "just right", but i was pleased that it came out as well as it did, lack of sleep and overabundance of carpal tunnel and all.  i can't believe how much longer it took me than i expected!

i backed it with some printed linen i had around that seemed like something my mom would like that would blend with her other stuff...