Pics as promised of the little bears.

On the left hand side is the collection of bears made so far from the tiniest at about two inches to the next size up about 3.5 inches to Purple who is about five inches standing. My fingers are so sore I can hardly type, but these little critters are addictive and you can create as your crochet and change as you will.

Happy New Year - Welcome 2009

With the busy Christmas season behind us it is time for us to move forward and take some time to reflect what really makes us happy and what we plan to do to make a difference in someones life this year.

I feel that each life we touch secretly will be a life that will feel the love that someone has taken the time to make them aware of.

I also believe that silent givers are the best givers and that I like to choose who I want to surprise and give my handwork to, with this in mind. I have decided to do at least one kind random act of kindness a month. I am not doing a drawing as I know personally, there are beautiful items I have received this past year when all I had to do was comment on their work and I was honestly only commenting because they were beautiful. When I won, it was the most wonderful feeling in the world.

I call the above thread bear " Spice " and he is one of two that is going out silently to a special friend who has gone above and beyond for years for all, not just for me. There is a wonderful group on line for thread ted's and they share their love of making these tiny creations, and all I was going to do was make one to put on a quilt, now I am finding that there are some special people who do not crochet who would like to have one and must admit that this work is an art form in itself and I am far from having achieved it. My bear is the first one I have crocheted and the second one is not much better, but with time they will get easier.

I have finished a lot of started projects and will share and this is the year that I get my own full sized crazy quilt all done by me. I purchased the calendar from Piecemakers and can hardly wait to start and do one in a similar style. I am also so enthralled by the handwork of Jo in Nz; and Allison Aller to mention a few that I want to practise my stitches.

Carole Samples and Victoria Adams Brown have made crazy quilting an art form that was not delegated to just stitches, and then take the artwork and stitches taught by Nancy Ehna and those on the crazy quilting international list and I will have my own little masterpiece.

" Give to the world the best that you have and it will give back to you. " Authour unknown to me.

Collars and cuffs

While waiting to catch dh's cold and flu I had started some collars and cuffs and would like to share my results with you. I have adapted various patterns I have seen on line. The tall neck version is available in a different stitch on http://www.lionbrand.com/ as well as the base pattern for some of the cuffs, others were just made up as I went along.

I have not decided if I will rewrite the patterns or not as I did not take any notes while I was crocheting and would have to start from scratch again, but as I now have his flu, I doubt this would be done before the end of the year.