December 2, 2013
Advent Calendar
Did the 1st of December sneak up on anyone else this year? Sunday found me scrambling a little to fill the pockets of our advent calendar. READ MORE
November 25, 2013
Good Fortune Hex Signs
I needed something inspiring, colorful, and reasonably quick to do this weekend, so I painted a few new Pennsylvania Dutch-inspired good fortune hex signs. If you’ve been reading this space for a while, you may remember I became pretty enamored with Pennsylvania Dutch Hex signs a while back (this one is living with my good friends in Portland). I still love them. These are small, only 4″ x 4″ canvases. (Just as a sidenote- somebody should really write a craft book on the millions of things you can do with those 4″ x 4″ canvases.)
I glued ribbons to the backs for hanging or attaching them to a holiday package.
We are looking forward to a fun Thanksgiving with good friends. Posting will be sparse here on the blog this week, but will be posting on Instagram. Happy Thanksgiving Day to everyone who is taking part.
November 8, 2013
Friday Favorites: Crocheted Granny Squares
I am inspired by so many things, I decided that every Friday, I will highlight a favorite person, thing, or idea. Maybe you will be inspired too! See all past Friday Favorites here.
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November 5, 2013
Laurel Dress by Colette Patterns
Hey! I made something I can wear!
But wait, let me back up a bit. You know that I make a lot of things, but sewing a garment has never been something I’ve excelled in. After begging for a remake on the garment sewing assignment in college, even though I chose a simple Calvin Klein straight skirt pattern and spent way too much precious college money on the cashmere wool fabric I had to have, I shamefully, yet thoroughly, erased garment making off my list.
This cautionary tale is being told to you by the same girl whose college major was Apparel Design (called Human Environmental Sciences at the time). The same girl who worked in the fashion industry for many years. I even wrote tech packs!
Yet I managed to avert any need to actually sew a garment.
But really, what is the mental block? Wouldn’t it be great to make clothes that really fit me? In fabric that I love? Wouldn’t it be great to add beautiful finishing details? After many thwarted attempts I realized that I should probably take a class.
When I saw that Drygoods Design was teaching a Laurel Dress class, I decided to sign up, and I’m so glad I did. Colette patterns are very well written, geared toward someone like me. During our first class, our lovely teacher Julia helped guide us to create a perfectly-fit Laurel muslin out of something wonderful and amazing called Swedish tracing paper, which we then used to create our actual garment. I learned how to make necessary tweaks here and there to create a proper fit, and how to take my fear out of adding a lining (the very part that screwed up my college skirt). I chose a beautiful black cotton lawn for my Laurel (always have to pick nice fabric!). I had the chance to put the finishing touches on it over the weekend, and guess what? It really does fit me! I cut mine to a tunic length, and although I didn’t add any of the customizeable variations it has, I’m thinking the bell sleeves on the next one.
See? I’m thinking about the next one.
Meanwhile I have an urge to arrange flowers and look out the window.
October 30, 2013
Feather Your Nest
A small group of holiday ornaments to “Feather Your Nest” for the holidays will be in my shop soon. I love these scrappy leaves, and added some hand stamped leather strips to them too. Nodding to my love of domesticity. These aren’t meant to be just for the holidays or to adorn a tree, but they can be used anywhere, anytime of year really.
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October 21, 2013
Make a Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt
Talking with Erin last week got me in the mood to some quilting, but I wasn’t sure where to start. Inspiration is always in my head, but too much and I’m frozen. So I decided to get back to basics. The disappearing nine patch block has been around for a while, but I wanted to document my process here. So many who claim to not have the skills to make a quilt could easily create this block, and its a very satisfying sew. I used a charm pack of Denyse Schmidt’s newest line, Florence, 1/2 yard or so of one of the prints in this range that reminded me of boxer shorts (actually, the whole range reminds me of boxer shorts!). I wanted dark centers in each of the nine patch blocks, so I used another Denyse Schmidt print (coincidence, but all her prints do work together well) in dark blue for each of the centers. Making the center of each block darker valued will create some continuity later on, but this is not a hard and fast rule. You could make every single square in your nine patch blocks a different fabric. Play with low and high volume prints. Experiment! That’s what this block is all about. Here’s how to do it.READ MORE