Things I’ve Made for My Friend Ashley

 

While I’m waiting for yarn deliveries, I’ve been revisiting my first fiber art love: cross stitch. This one’s for my friend Ashley—she’s moving into her own apartment, and when I offered to make her some decor, she chose cross stitch. It’s something I only make for the people I love most because it’s so time-consuming, but I don’t mind—Ashley’s always been worth the time. 

I’ve actually made her quite a few things over the years—some of these I’ve mentioned before in my Things I’ve Made for Women I Love post, but here I wanted to focus on Ashley specifically. So, in chronological order:

Cow Print Pillow 

Leftovers of the fabric I used
(real pillow currently in storage during the move)

I think Ashley was kinda into cows at the time—or maybe it was just that we both have the Belana squishmallow cow—but either way, when I saw this super soft cow-print fleece, I thought of her and decided to hand-sew her a pillow for her birthday. This was before I ever had a sewing machine, so it took me a couple hours of hand stitching and I wasn’t sure how well it would hold up—but from what I’ve heard, she’s gotten a lot of use out of it.

OG Granny Square Tote

The original granny square tote was Ashley’s idea—she sent me an inspiration photo from some website, and I set out to recreate it for her. It took me a while, partly because I was still fairly new to crochet, and partly because I wanted to nail the same vibe with the color combos. I also made the strap a thick double layer so it wouldn’t stretch out too much over time.

Snoopy and Woodstock Amigurumi 

This was my very first amigurumi project, and probably the most popular thing I’ve ever made. So many people have asked me to make them their own Snoopy and Woodstock pair after seeing it. I would maybe make Snoopy again someday, but honestly, the shade of yellow I used for Woodstock makes me feel like a woman is trapped behind the wallpaper (if you know, you know).

Peanuts Shorts

I used this great black-and-white Peanuts comic strip fabric to make Ashley a pair of pajama shorts—pretty sure it was a Christmas gift and I was on a kick making shorts with my new sewing machine. Unfortunately, they didn’t end up fitting quite right, but it was still fun to try sewing clothes for her. Not every project is a winner, but it’s all part of learning.

Lemon Granny Square Tote

For her birthday, Ashley sent me a number of inspiration options, and I thought this lemon granny square tote looked the most fun to make. Even though I’d already made her a granny square tote before, this one had a slightly different construction, and I was able to churn out the squares faster, which made it a really fun project.

Peanuts Zipper Pouch

Can you tell we both love Peanuts yet? Since the shorts didn’t work out, I wanted to put the fabric to good use and made her a zipper pouch for the same birthday. Zipper pouches are such fun, small projects that always come together nicely.

Patchwork Quilted Weekender Tote

Ashley sent me the inspiration for this patchwork quilted tote mid-summer and asked me if I could recreate it for her for Christmas. I, having never quilted anything before, of course said yes. Between picking fabrics that go together while also fitting the vibe of the original inspiration, figuring out how to actually quilt something, and then sewing it all together, this project was quite the labor of love. I absolutely loved making it and seeing her reaction (forgetting that she even requested it), and from what I’ve heard, it’s one of her most used bags.

Matching Patchwork Quilted Pouch

I made this little pouch mostly because I had so much leftover fabric, and I figured a matching set would be really cute. Plus, in my opinion, a girl can never have too many zipper pouches.

Car Seatbelt Cover

And of course, there’s the car seatbelt cover I made her—full post here.

Cross stitch is probably the slowest fiber art I do, so in a way, this post was also a way to buy myself a little time while I work on this. Here’s a sneak peek of what I’ve completed so far, and if you’re interested, you can check out the pattern here.